Europe received its religion from the Asiatic Jews. Peter was a Gallilean fisherman, and Paul was a tentmaker of Tarsus. The founder of the religion was Jesus, son of a Jewish Carpenter of Nazareth. Islam was founded by Mohammed, who was by profession a supervisor of a caravan in service under an Arabian lady of Mecca. The religion of Zendavesta was founded by Zoroaster, a Persian. The religion of Jehovah was founded by Moses, a Hebrew born in Egypt. Protestant Christianity was founded by Luther, a German. Vedic Brahmanism was the Joint product of Brahman Rishis. The secret religion of the Upanishads was founded by
the Rajarishis of ancient India. Even Yajnavalkya was trained under a Rajarshi. (See Vishnu Purana, 4 Adhyaya.) The Tirthaka religion of the Jains was founded by Mahavira of Vesali. The modern Vedantism was founded by Sankara, a Brahman of Malabar. Vasishta Advaita religion was founded by the Brahman Ramdnujachariya, the Dwaita religion was founded by the Brahman Madhvacharya. Vaishnava religion was founded by the Brahman Chaitanya. The religion of the Sikhs was founded by Guru Nanak. The religion of Tao was founded by the Chinese philosopher, Laotsze; Confucianism was founded by Confucius of China. The modern Brahma Samaj was founded by the Brahman, Raja Ram Mohan Rai. All these religions have one common basis, except the system of political ethics taught by Confucius.
Confucius did not wish to enter into the speculations of the hereafter. His was purely a moral and political system upholding the Conservative government of ancient China. The religion of Tao did not concern with the affairs of this world. The Chinese philosopher was wholly interested in the discovery of the divine principle of Tao, Vedanta, of the Advaita. Vedanta of the Vishistadvaita, and the Vedanta of the Dwaita, the religion of the Vaishnavas of Bengal founded by Chaitanya are of Indian origin, and are post Buddhistic. The religion of the Sikhs, the Visishtadvaitism, Dwaitism, Vaishnavism were founded after the invasion of India by the Moslems. The Brahma Samaj was founded after the British occupation of Bengal.
The one religion that stands by itself is the religion promulgated by the Prince of Kapilavastu, Sakya Muni, the Buddha Gotama. Historically it is the oldest religion in the world. Brahmanism underwent modifications after the invasion of India by the Moslems. The religion of Jesus after it was established in European soil was no more the religion of the poor. It became the religion of the diplomatic politician and the dogmatic ecclesiastic.
Islam was first the religion of the political refugees of Mecca, and after the acquisition of political power by Mahammad it became the religion of Fatalism, and as long as the power of the sword was in the hands of the Moslems it did not cease its conquest. Mahammad did not teach anything new to the people of Mecca, except that he isolated Allah destroying other gods worshipped by the Meccans. The story of Adam and several other stories from the Old Testament of the Bible he borrowed, and gave the creation account as it appeared in the Bible. changing the name of the Creator Jehovah into Allah.
The old customs of circumcision and the worship of the Kaaba, the black stone at Mecca, were adhered to. The ancient temple of Mecca, wherein the Kaaba was, belonged to the family of Mahammad. The very name Mahammad was older than his religion. He kept the old name, even after he became a Conqueror.
Judaism is a mixture of old Babylonian and Egyptian ethics. Judaism and Jehovah are interdependent, I am a holy God thou art a holy people unto me O Israel: that was the cry of the Jehovistic prophets. Judaism lost its place after the Jews returned from their exile in Babylon.
The Jews do not care to make converts. So are the Parsees of Bombay. Their religion is only for the Parsees. The Brahmins do not want converts from other castes and countries. Their religious books are in the Sanskrit language, and the non-Brahmans are prohibited from reading the Vedas. The non-Brahman Sudras are religiously under the domination of the Brahmans. No non-Brahman is initiated by the Brahmans, and there is no propaganda of Brahmanism in other lands.
Muhammad from the beginning of his career adopted the military method of the conqueror. The fighting soldier who dies in the battlefield was assured a heaven after death. The martial spirit could not be kept except by good food, and intoxicating drinks were prohibited since it interferes with the fighting spirit. This is an old doctrine.
The ancient Kshatriyas of India promised a heaven to the man who dies fighting in the battlefield. Sree Krishna in his Bhagavat Gita assured the fighting man that heaven is his reward. In the Jataka story called the Maha Bodhi Jataka this fact is mentioned. In the Gamini Samyutta of the Samyutta Nikaya, at the time of the Buddha this doctrine was prevalent, that the soldier who dies fighting is born in heaven. The soldiers were prevented from joining the Bhikkhu Order as their services were required in the battlefield by the King.
The religion of the Jews was a purely fighting religion with Jehovah as the commander-in Chief of the Judaic forces. All the wars were carried on by the people of Judah under the command of Jehovah. All the tactics of the military dictator were adopted by Jehovah. When he could not manage the Jews He went and joined the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, and betrayed the poor Jews to be taken captives to Babylon.
In the Old Testament the prophets were guided by Jehovah; in the Koran Mahammad advised Allah the course to follow. Whatever Mahammad desired to have was in this way obtained, inasmuch as Allah was always ready to comply with the wishes of Mahammad.
Jehovah failed in his policy, and he had to abandon the holy mount of Moriah at Jerusalem, although he had made every effort to guide the Jews to victory. The last book of the Old Testament is Malachi, and then there is a long interval without any history; of the activities of Jehovah. Again Jehovah appears with the appearance of the prophet of Nazareth. But in a different role. He is the Father of all. For nearly 300 years, the history of Jehovah was a blank, before the advent of Jesus.
Greece, Egypt, Syria, Babylon, Persia, and the country of Gandahar whose capital was Taxila in the time of Asoka came to know of the kingdom of the Gangetic Valley. Long before Alexander came to Gandahar, Taxila was known to the people of the Gangetic valley as a place of learning. From the time of Alexander to the time of the Muhammedan invasion of India there was an overland route from India to Egypt through the Mesopotamian countries. There was communication between China and Egypt through Turkestan. After the invasion of the countries to the west of India by the cohorts of Islam the overland route to India suffered, and gradually forgotten.
The religions of the world may be divided into two categories; Destructive and non-Destructive. Blood sacrificing religions are Vedic Brahmanism, Zorastrianism, Muhammedanism, Judaism, Christianity, Confucianism and Saiva Vedantism; the non-Destructive religions are Buddhagama, Jainism and Vaishnava religion of Chaitanya. Jainism adopted the doctrine of ahimsa, but narrowed its usefulness by extreme methods.
The religion of the Buddha was a purely psychological science which was taught only to those who were admitted into the Brahmachariya Order of Yellow robed Bhikkhus. The popular religion of gods, hells, pretas, Brahmas, of ancient India without the blood sacrifices, slightly modified was preached by the Buddha to the householders. The householders who followed the Buddha wore white robes. Tirthaka was the name given to the religion of the Jains.
In the Buddha’s time there were many schools of philosophy, each one showing a way to heaven. The actors, ascetics, soldiers &c. had their own heavens. The Brahmans taught that heaven can be obtained by bathing in the sacred waters of the Ganges and other rivers, and also by means of prayer that souls can be sent to heaven. The chief God of the manvantara whom the people of India accepted was Brahma. He was a God of Love and Compassion. The Buddha was requested by Brahma to save the world.
The Brahma qualities of love, compassion, joyousness, contentment were required to be practised to be born in the Brahmaloka. The God of Love paid homage to the Lord Buddha for the supremeness of the Wisdom that the Lord possessed. The Buddha after He had attained the anuttara sambodhi knowledge looked throughout the Universe to whom He should pay homage, and among living gods and Brahmas and Brahmans there was none fit to receive His worship or homage. It was at this moment that the Brahma appeared before the Lord and said that there is none worthy to receive the homage of a perfect Buddha, and that the Buddha may pay homage to supreme Truth (DHAMMA).
All religions posit a god under different names. He is called Brahma, Brahman, Isvara, Vishnu, Mahadeva, Siva, Jehovah, Allah, Tao, Elohim, I-am that-I-am, Jah, Baal, Osiris, Ahuramazda, Ra, Marduk, Kurumasaba, God, Gott, Bhog, Om, &c. The creators of these gods were human beings. Each nation had its own god. The god of Israel was fighting with the gods of Canaan, and he was jealous, and ordered the children of Israel to worship him and no other. Of course they did not listen to him, and he was very angry, because they “went whoring after other gods.” In the fight sometimes he is defeated by the god of Babylon, and once the Israelites being defeated by the Philistines, the former fled leaving the tabernacle of god on the field. The god was locked up in the tabernacle, and the Philistines set the tabernacle in a bullock cart, and sent it to the Israelites, and when it was brought to the field and left there, some of the Israelites looked into the tabernacle, with the result God got angry and destroyed several thousands.
Jehovah failed to kill the gods which gave him trouble. Mahammad destroyed all the gods of Mecca and kept only one, and isolated him. The Christians say that God created man about 6000 years ago from the earth of Mesapotamia. The God Allah created man about 7000 years ago. The Brahmans say that Brahma created the four castes, and that they came from his mouth.
The Kshatriyas declared that they came from the Sun, and that they are the kinsmen of the Sun. The Vaishyas and Sudras were not interested in philosophical matters, and they were not able to discover a god to represent them. The Kayastas created their own god and called him Chitragupta.
The craftsmen created their own god, and they called him Visvakarma. The Russians called their god Bhog. The ancient Romans had Jupiter as their god. The Greeks had Zeus. The ancient Brahmans created innumerable gods to suit the taste of the people. In all they have 330 millions gods, and the more the better, and each one had his own Ishtadevata, or his own god who is protecting him, something like the daemon of Socrates. Jesus called his god Our Father. The gods of exoteric religions did not know that the world was many millions years old.
Neither the prophets who proclaimed the gods had any idea of the modern sciences of geology, astronomy, paleontology &c. Before the discovery of the sciences of astronomy, geology, and of the element radium, the scientists had no evidence to demonstrate the age of the earth. The antiquities of Egypt, and Babylonia show that there existed civilized races in these countries eight thousand years ago.
The religion of Jews is a mixture of ancient Babylonian and Egyptian myths. Jesus appeared at a time when the Greeks, Romans, Syrians, Persians, Egyptians, Babylonians were still enjoying the fruits of their own civilizations. The ancient Romans did not destroy the ancient religions of Egypt and Assyria &c.
The first iconoclasts were the converts to Christianity after the conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine. Then commenced the destruction of the ancient religions, and their temples were all destroyed, and their philosophers burnt.
About five hundred years later Mahammad began to preach the religion of Islam, and the victorious Moslems carried fire and sword through countries where the Christians held sway, and Christianity was driven out from Asia Minor and Egpyt. When a nation gains victory in the battle field, the god of the Victorious party is elevated, the defeated god is driven out of the field. So do the gods appear and disappear. Jehovah disappeared and the God our Father came into existence. Ahuramazda was in Persia, but after Persia went under Islam, Ahuramazda was driven out, and Allah took his place.
In the Puranas are given discussions on different subjects, where in the gods and the Rishis took part. In these accounts the gods and Philosophers are engaged in mutual conversation and no jealousy is shown. Mahadeva, Isvara, Shiva, Vishnu, Sri Krishna, Brahma, together with the goddesses are found engaged in conversation with the Rishis. That the world is 7000 years old and that man was created by a god from clay, no philosophic thinker now believes. The creation stories are the myths of childhood of pagan peoples.
The charge of atheism is brought against the religion of the Lord Buddha. Buddha came to teach a path without the help of gods or devils. But the people who had their gods got angry because the Lord did not want their help. It is like the man who believed that light can only be got through the burning of oil and wick. He would not accept any other light except the oil light, and when the electrician came and said that he could give a brilliant light without having recourse to either oil or wick, the oil lamp man said, that can’t be, let me have the electric light with the oil and the wick put in, and I shall be satisfied. The muddle-headed who have no idea of the science of evolution or the science of electricity would not believe that a brilliant light could be got without the aid of oil and wick. Buddhism is a religion that teaches new things which the old god believers had no conception of.
The Lord taught that man can get his salvation without the help of angry, blood thirsty deities. The religion that the Lord gave to the civilized Aryans of ancient India was psychological. No god is needed to get rid of anger, jealousy, ill-will, pride, ignorance.
It is a religion of internal development, and the angry gods can’t help another to get rid of anger while they themselves were still dominated by jealousy and anger. Just as light is obtained by means of the electric dynamo without the help of oil, wick and match, so man by following the path of the Lord Buddha, which is the path of scientific wisdom, can attain the highest peace, bliss and freedom by individual effort and personal purity of heart.
The Buddhist can admit into the circle of gods Allah, Jehovah, God, Gott, or any other god who may come into existence in the twentieth century. No Buddhist can hate gods. They have to practise the mettabhavana, and give their love to all the gods. devils, and demons and all living beings. He admits all gods and he gives his love to all.
But gods who murder, and get angry, set fire to cities, kill innocent men, women and children, send tornadoes, typhoons, cyclones, earthquakes, thunderstorms, plagues, pestilences, and create the blind, deaf, dumb, the epileptic, the feeble-minded, and the crippled, the Buddhist rejects.
Some gods get angry daily, some gods want wine, bread and meat for their foods. Some gods without the blood of cows are not happy. Some gods get the worship of muddle-headed by giving them the liberty to kill animals and eat their flesh. They are satisfied with a little music and a few candles and a few psalms. Each man according to his intelligence makes his own god. The Buddhist loves them all. and they are given the merits of the good deeds that he does. No god need be angry with a Buddhist.
This is an extract from the Book:
The Arya Dharma of
Sakya Muni, Gautama Buddha.
OR
The Ethics of Self Discipline.
BY THE VENERABLE
THE ANAGARIKA DHARMAPALA.
BRAHMACHARI OF THE BODHISATVA PATH
& FOUNDER OF THE MAHA BODHI SOCIETY.
Read The Whole Book Here