Question
Why are Buddhism and Jainism considered as religious reform movements? Explain.
Solution
Buddhism and Jainism as Religious Reform Movements:
(i) Buddhism and Jainism are only a new reformed form of Brahmanism or Hinduism. They were not a new creed but an appeal for holier living in the bosom of the existing Hindu religion and society.
(ii) Both Mahavira and Gautama took their stand on the existing religious conditions. J.N. Sarkar is of the opinion “that the light folds path enjoined by Buddha for extinguishing the earthly miseries of soul caused by the cycle of rebirth and death is only a code of general ethics and not the special creed of newly revealed and distinctive faith”.
(iii) Mahavira stressed asceticism and self-torture or penance which can be found in Vedas, Aranyakas and Upanishads. Likewise, the basic principles of Buddhism too have their roots in the Hindu philosophy of Sankhya and the later Upanishads. Mahavira and Buddha urged their hearers to give up their vices and to practice that purity of conduct and sincerity of belief which is the essence of every true religion.
(iv) In the Jataka stories, Lord Buddha had explained the empty rites and rituals and told them that the true piet consists in leading a life of purity and simpilcity. It is believed that Gautama had taken his idea of ahimsa from the Hindu Vedic texts.
(v) Both these religious reform movements fostered the spirit of scientific inequity and intellectual discussion before accepting a belief blindly. Each of these ideas could not be new ones as we have references of debates and discussions during the Later Vedic period.
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