Srimad Bhagavadgita-Rahasya OR Karma-Yoga-Sastra -Bal Gangadhar Tilak
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CHAPTER XV
As there is no re-birth after this state has been reached, the word ' death ', which is applied' to the ordinary phenomenon of one body being destroyed and another body being acquired, cannot be applied to ' nirvana ', even according to Buddhism. ' nirvana 'is the ' death of death', or, as is stated in the Upanisads, it is ' the path of overcoming death ', and not merely ' death '. When any man has reached this state, he does not any more care for his body, just as the serpent does not care for the slough which it has thrown away. This illustration which has been given in the Brhadaranya- kopanisad [1] has been given in each stanza in the Uraga-sutta in the Sutta-nipata in describing the true Buddhist mendicant (bhiksu). And, as the Atman is always free from sin as also from merit [2], he the bhiksu does not suffer from such sins as matricide, patricide etc. This principle of the Vedic religion [3] has also been adopted just as it is in the Dhammapada [4] In short, although Buddha did not accept the existence of the Brahman and of the Atman, yet, as that very path which has been mentioned in the Upanisads as leading to Release, namely, the path of making the Mind peaceful, apathetic, and desireless, is also the path for the acquisition of Nirvana according to Buddhism, the descriptions of the Buddhist monk and of the Vedic Samnyasin are exactly similar to each other from the point of view of their mental condition. And, therefore, the doctrines regarding the responsibility for sinful or meritorious actions, or regarding the escape from the cycle of birth and death, are the same in the Vedic Paths of Renunciation as in Buddhism. But, as the Vedic religion was prior in point of time to Gautama Buddha, there is not the slightest doubt that these ideas were originally from the Vedic religion. I have so far pointed out the differences and the similarities "between the Vedic and the Buddhistic Paths of Renunciation. Let us now see what Buddha had to say regarding the state of a householder. Although Buddhism is based on four visible foundations, namely, the existence of unhappiness in worldly life, etc., and does not attach any importance to the Philosophy of the Atman and the Non-Atman, yet, it must be borne in mind that Buddhism was not fundamentally Energistic, like the purely Materialistic religion of modern philosophers like Comte, or even like the Gita-religion.
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