A SKETCH OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
PART III (concluded.)
Recognizing that he must be up and doing, Gotama first sought out the five co-students who had turned their backs upon him and though as they beheld him in the distance approaching them, they had resolved to ignore and treat him with silent contempt, yet felt so drawn and attracted towards him when he addressed them, that they fell down before Gotama and acknowledged themselves his disciples. He unfolded to them his doctrine and teachings and went with them to the holy city of Benares. At the end of five months, his followers amounted to sixteen in number, when considering them fully instructed in his doctrines he assembled and thus addressed them: "Go forth," said he, "and proclaim the true doctrines to all nations, whatever their color, whatever the religion they profess, teach and instruct them in the law. Let noble and peasant alike become imbued with it. Let the aged filled with regrets of the past be comforted, and the young and vigorous be taught to trust no longer in the illusions of the world. Let Brahman and pundit delighting in logical subtleties and learned controversy be initiated in simple truth. Let proud Rajah and stalwart warrior feel its subduing and softening influence and avaricious merchant and tradesman, let them renounce extortion and teach also sudras and pariahs, outcasts of society that Truth is no respecter of persons and is the common saviour alike of rich and poor, of high and low."
The fame of Gotama and his teachings began now to spread like wild fire throughout the length and breadth of India. All classes wherever he went, received him with open arms and after listening to his discourses, enrolled themselves as his disciples. Returning to his native city his aged father, with Gopa and his young son as also his favorite nephew Ananda, acknowledged him as their spiritual teacher and guide.
Inculcating the equality of all men and their equal rights as members of a common brotherhood, Gotama struck at the roots of caste and though priestly Brahmans rose up against him and brought all their occult powers to bear upon him in order to confound and nullify his great work, they eventually retired and gave up the contest, acknowledging his greatness and power as a Buddha and thus for a period of forty-three years, he traversed India, making known the true law of life, comforting the afflicted, consoling the wretched and sorrowing, and healing the sick and suffering. Yet though so truly great, was he not without his troubles and trials. He had to contend with the opposition of the envious and jealous of his fame and amongst his own immediate followers was found a Judas who plotted against his life. The traitor was, however, unmasked and Gotama's pardon and forgiveness were his punishment.
Thus Gotama lived and toiled till his eightieth year; when, feeling his end approaching, he spoke to his followers, who in tears conjured him not to leave them. A short time after, when on a journey to Benares, he was seized with a sudden illness accompanied with great pain which so exhausted him that he was compelled to recline himself under a tree by the roadside. "Bring me a little water," said he to Ananda, "I thirst." His faithful nephew went to a neighboring stream and returning said, "Master, a caravan has lately crossed the stream. The wheels of the vehicles and feet of the elephants have caused the water to be muddy and unfit to drink; but the Buddha in great pain renewed his request. Ananda on going the second time, found the stream clear and pellucid and filling the utensil gave it to Gotama, who became quite refreshed. At that moment, a rich merchant passing by and catching sight of the reclining form of the Buddha, charged his servants to bring two cloth-of-gold mantles. "Master," said the merchant, "refuse me not the favor of accepting these garments." "Give me one," replied Gotama, "and let the other be for Ananda." No sooner was he arrayed with it when Ananda exclaimed, "Master! such alight emanates from thee, that this gold has become dim." "A Buddha," responded Gotama, "is thus transfigured twice in his earth life, first when he attains to supreme knowledge, and second, when he is about to enter into eternal rest. This night, Ananda, at the third hour I go hence." And then and there the brethren surrounding him, he spoke to them for the last time. "When" said he, "I shall be no longer with you, some of you will perhaps think, 'the Buddha is silent now, we have no longer a Guide and Leader.' Think not so brethren. The doctrines I have enunciated, the precepts I have laid down, by which you may live pure and blameless lives, will remain when I am gone, for they are Truth and that is Eternal." Pausing a moment or two, again he spoke, "Brethren!" he cried, "behold in me the proof of what I have taught you, every thing that is born must perish and pass away; hasten then and lose no time, in acquiring freedom from Self." These were his last words and
Now his eyes grew bright and brighter still,
Too bright for theirs to gaze upon, suffused
With tears and closed without a cloud.
They set, as sets the morning star, which goes
Not down behind the darkened west, nor hides
Obscured among the tempests of the sky.
But melts away into the light of Heaven.
and Gotama the Buddha, as the sun dawned bright and resplendent above the horizon, entered into Nirvana.
PART IV.
In bringing to a close this sketch of Gotama's life and career, we would make it more complete and finished by briefly enunciating a few of the lessons which such a life is calculated to impress upon us. In it, we see depicted the great and silent conflict between the antagonistic principles of light and darkness which from the earliest ages has been and still is being waged on the plane of human nature. It teaches us that victory over self is to be acquired not by separating ourselves and living apart from our fellows, but through a manly discharge and performance of the common duties of life. The field of action is not far to seek, for it lies within us and in the sphere of social and domestic life and therein, to be faithful in few things, is to become ruler and victor over many things. Most of us have doubtless heard of the legend of the Sangreal or Holy Cup which at one time was thought to be hidden in some unknown place and the possession of which would impart eternal happiness to its finder. It is related that a knight once set forth from his home, its duties and delights, in quest of the Sangreal. After undergoing incredible dangers and hardships in a manner that stamped him as a hero of loftiest prowess, he returned home, without having been vouchsafed a glimpse of that, which alone he cared to behold. In his dejection at his failure, he dared not lift his eyes from the ground to meet the loving glances which were ever gazing for him from his castle windows. Reaching his gateway, he found crouching beneath it a group of starving wretches who, flying from the tyranny of a neighboring lord, had dragged themselves thither for shelter and succor. Seeing their misery, and hearing the dismal story of their wrongs, his compassion strove with his indignation for expression, and wearied as he was, and even before permitting himself to be attended on, he provided them with food and comforts and vowed a solemn vow to lose no time in redressing their wrongs and punishing the evil lord, and as he raised his arm aloft in noble enthusiasm, to swear his vow, his haggard face became transfigured with a glory, for he saw the heavens opened and the Sangreal, bright and throbbing with beams of rosy light, descending towards him. Then he knew that he had been urged on his far and venturous quest rather by the spirit of a selfish devoteeism than by that of a sympathetic humanity. And so he learned that his happiness and his blessing lay in his duty and that his duty was not so far to seek. "Hasten to acquire deliverance from Self." These words are as applicable to each one of us as they were to the immediate disciples of Gotama, and especially so at this moment, when we are beginning a new cycle in the history of humanity. Upon our own individual activity and efforts depends whether we be counted worthy to become enrolled in the band of those great and unselfish souls of all ages who have labored and toiled in the service of humanity. The future presents to us two avenues of activity, one by which the deliverance of humanity from those baneful and mortiferous influences to which it has so long been subjected may become more speedily accomplished; the other wherein, we can help to strengthen those powers and forces of evil and selfishness which have been the great obstacle and bane to Man's spiritual regeneration and advancement. The Conflict has been long and protracted through ages of weary effort and ceaseless endeavor, which have not altogether proved futile and in vain, seeing that it has been the necessary education whereby Humanity has been qualified and fitted for the reception and enjoyment of higher truths. In this great Contest we must all take a part. There can be for us no neutrality, in presence of issues pregnant and fraught with either weal or woe for our race; and only by comprehending and realizing in our inward daily lives Gotama's admonition, to acquire deliverance from self can we become endowed with that militant state of spiritual power and moral vigor which are the essentials, as they are the presages of that ultimate triumph which will secure for Humanity an entrance into a loftier and diviner existence.
In finishing this somewhat imperfect and fragmentary sketch of the spiritual life of Gotama, and after unfolding the several stages of inward development through which he passed, with their attendant mental struggles and conflicts between the opposing influences of duty and interest, of worldly ambition and self-renunciation in which is reflected, more or less, the history of each individual soul, and ere taking leave of a character which when stripped of the incrustations of wondrous and incredible legends, the growth and accretion of centuries, which raising him beyond the pale of ordinary mortals have transformed him into an object of divine worship and adoration, we behold him in his true proportions, as he stands revealed before us, wholly human, one of the greatest paragons of Humanity the world has ever beheld. We see in his life the same process which is now operating within every human heart. We observe that he was not exempt from those common afflictions and trials which are incident to all mankind; that he was troubled by the same doubts, perplexed by the same fears and misgivings; swayed by the same conflicting motives and emotions, and animated by the same hopes and aspirations after a higher life which we all experience in that intervening period which separates the cradle from the grave. Noting all these things and meditating on the lessons of a life like that of Gotama, we arrive at this great truth, which when clearly grasped and realized, makes our lives divine; that the same unalterable and all-pervading laws of spiritual evolution and progress, prevail now as in the remote ages in which he lived and which will result in the final redemption and regeneration of Humanity. Assured of this, human life becomes transfigured with a light and glory which has never been seen on land and sea, and learning that progress is the necessity of existence, the law of the Universe, the secret of human life and destiny, our immortality becomes revealed to us with all its infinite possibilities of thought and activity. An illimitable vista of a Diviner life stretches out before us, the goal of human perfection to be attained by us all through a series of births and rebirths, for from the Divine have we come forth and unto the Divine must we return at last. Slowly and surely, though with many an apparent retrogression, we recognize that each world family is becoming wiser and better, nobler and happier. Slowly and surely, though with many a grievous backsliding we perceive each individual soul manifesting its inherent divinity and growing up to virtue, until with mental and spiritual faculties expanded, our lower natures enfranchised from the thraldom of the senses and blended with our higher selves, purified through suffering, ennobled and glorified by the divine within us, we, like Gotama, calm and unperturbed and in the enjoyment of that inward peace and calm which mark the terminus of life's long and weary pilgrimage and the awakening out of its fitful, and troubled dream, shall attain Nirvana, the beginning and entering on to a higher, a more spiritual and diviner plane of existence.