THE LIGHT OF ASIA by M. Monier Williams

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 31, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 34.

"THE LIGHT OF ASIA."

By M. Monier Williams

BUT, say the admirers of Buddhism, at least you will admit that the Buddha told men to get rid of sin, and to aim at sanctity of life? Nothing of the kind. The Buddha had no idea of sin as an offense against God, no idea of true holiness. What he said was, Get rid of the demerit of evil actions and store up merit by good actions. This storing up of merit—like capital at a bank—is one of those inveterate propensities of human nature which Christianity alone has delivered men from.

Only the other day I met an intelligent Sikh from the Punjab, and asked him about his religion. He replied, "I believe in one god, and I repeat my prayers, called Jap-jee, every morning and evening. These prayers occupy six pages of print, but I can get through them in little more than ten minutes." He seemed to pride himself on this rapid recitation as a work of increased merit. I said, "What else does your religion require of you?" He replied, "I have made one pilgrimage to a sacred well near Amritsar; eighty-five steps lead down to it. And I descended and bathed in the sacred pool. Then I ascended one step and repeated my Jap-jee in about ten minutes. Then I descended to the pool and bathed again, and ascended to the second step and repeated my prayers a second time. Then I descended a third time, and ascended to the third step, and repeated my Jap-jee a third time; and so on for the whole eighty-five steps. It took me exactly fourteen hours, from 5 P. M. one evening to 7 A. M. next morning." I asked, "What good did you expect to get by going through this task?" He replied, "I hope I have laid up a great store of merit, which will last me for a long time."

This, let me tell you, is a genuine Hindu idea. It is of the very essence of Brahminism and Hinduism. It is equally a Mohammedan idea. It is even more a Buddhist idea. Buddhism recognizes the terrible consequences of evil actions, but provides no remedy except the storing up of merit by good actions as a counterpoise. The Buddha never claimed to be a deliverer from sin. He never pretended to set anyone free from the bondage of sinful acts and sinful habits. He never professed to provide any remedy for the leprosy of sin, any medicine for a dying sinner. On the contrary, by his doctrine of Karma he bound a man hand and foot to the consequences of his own acts with chains of adamant. He said, in effect, to every one of his disciples, "You are in slavery to a tyrant of your own setting up. Your own deeds, words, and thoughts in the present and former states of being are your own avengers through a countless series of existences. If you have been a murderer, a thief, a liar, impure, a drunkard, you must pay the penalty in your next birth; either in one of the hells, or as an unclean animal, or as an evil spirit, or as a demon.

You cannot escape, and I am powerless to set you free." "Not in the heavens" (says the Dhamma-pada), "not in the midst of the sea, not if thou hidest thyself in the clefts of the mountains, wilt thou find a place where thou canst escape the force of thine own evil actions."

Contrast the first words of Christ, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." Yes, in Christ alone there is deliverance from the bondage of former transgressions, from the prison-house of former sins; a total canceling of the past, a complete blotting out of the handwriting that is against us.—M. Monier Williams.