Comparing Hinduism And Buddhism Essay

His daring attack on the priestly supremacy in religious and social life of the people made him a hero among his countrymen.

A common Indian man could at once worship all Gods together, Vishnu, Siva, and Surya and together with them, also Buddha.

The Indian intellectual could speculate and developed belief or disbelief towards any or all.

The newness, which was most prominent in the earlier form of Buddhism in religious practices, gradually weakened in later days.

The Mahayana form of Buddhism appeared nearer to Brahmanical system in several ways. Brahmanic Hinduism made Buddha an Avatar of Vishnu.

It is this change which brought Buddhism nearer to Hinduism as time passed.

A critical question relating to Buddhism and Brahmanical Hinduism has dominated the intellectual thought, namely, how could Hinduism “Push away organised Buddhism from India?The Brahmanical order did not object to the tenets of Buddha, because Hinduism was too liberal to accommodate all types of higher opinion within its all pervading fold.But, at the same time, the priestly class, which depended on rigid religious practices, could not like the Buddhist opposition to the existing social organisation and orthodox religious life of the people. Both in Buddha’s time and more so after his death, Buddhism was seen to break away from the old faith of the Hindu India.“The difference between him and other teachers lay chiefly in his deep earnestness and in his broad public spirit of philanthropy”.Buddha’s greatness was realized when he boldly raised the standard of revolt against conventional religious practices of time.In course of time, Tibet, China and Japan came under the Mahayana system.It was the Mahayana Buddhism in which Buddha was made into a God and the people were taught to offer their devotion to Buddha as the God.And to satisfy the need of the people, images of Buddha as a God appeared in India, in Gandhara and in every other Mahayana countries like Tibet, China and Japan.It was an irony of time that Buddha who did not pay any regard to the Fatherhood of God, became a God Himself and came to be worshipped as such.About the beginning of the Christian era, when the Mahayana form of Buddhism appeared, many changes took place in the older system.The Buddhist monarch Kanishka championed the cause of the Mahayana Buddhism which began to spread outside.