Both Buddhism and Vedanta emerging from the same soil and talking about the universal philosophy related to physical and metaphysical worlds differ apparently so far their philosophical outlook, religious angle and social structure is concerned. But in reality both are impressed from each other. Buddhism while developing its base borrowed a lot from Vedanta's philosophy to build up a separate religious mansion of its own. Evils produced by the practice of karmkandas and ritualism supported by Brahminism provided fertile ground for growth of Buddhism in India. The philosophical contribution of the Buddha has uniqueness not in its originality, but in the manner and way that he represented. What he talked about the universe, world, birth, rebirth, death, mind, consciousnesses etc., are not new. A lot has been said about that in Indian great ancient philosophical as well as religious epics. However, Buddhist attack upon Hinduism for blind practice of karmkandas and ritualism badly shook the root of Vedantism. This is another fact that Sankracharya and his followers, provided a stable ground to Vedantic philosophy and Hinduism to revitalize. Thereafter, Buddhism began to lose ground in India due to its inherent weaknesses, and esoteric practice of Vajrayana and Mantrayana maligning the image of Buddhism. The present book, namely, Buddhism and Vedanta (Contrast and Similarity), critically examining the aforesaid facts, thoroughly discusses rise and growth of Buddhism and its inclination towards Vedic philosophy. |
