His mother was a very pure, refined, pious and devout woman; never
indulged in any impure thoughts, words or actions. She was so much
esteemed for her virtues and for being the mother of a God, that an
escort of ladies attended her wherever she went. The trees bowed before
her as she passed through the forest, and flowers sprang up wherever her
foot pressed the ground. She was saluted as "the Holy Virgin, Queen of
Heaven."
It is said that when her divine child was born, he stood upright and
proclaimed, "I will put an end to the sufferings and sorrows of the
world." And immediately a light shone around about the young Messiah. He
spent much time in retirement, and like Christ in another respect, was
once tempted by a demon who offered him all the honors and wealth of the
world. But he rebuked the devil, saying, "Be gone; hinder me not."
He began, like Christ, to preach his gospel and heal the sick when about
twenty-eight years of age. And it is declared, "the blind saw, the deaf
heard, the dumb spoke, the lame danced and the crooked became straight."
Hence, the people declared, "He is no mortal child, but an incarnation
of the Deity." His religion was of a very superior character. He
proclaimed, "My law is a law of grace for all." His religion knew no
race, no sex, no caste, and no aristocratic priesthood.
"It taught," says Max Muller, "the equality of all men, and the
brotherhood of the human race." "All men, without regard to rank, birth
or nation," says Dunckar, "form, according to Budha's view, one great
suffering association in this earthly vale of tears; therefore,
the commandments of love, forbearance, patience, compassion, pity,
brotherliness of all men." Klaproth (a German professor of oriental
languages) says this religion is calculated to ennoble the human race.
"It is difficult to comprehend," says a French writer (M. Leboulay),
"how men, not assisted by revelation, could have soared so high, and
approached so near the truth."
Dunckar says this oriental God "taught self-denial, chastity,
temperance, the control of the passions, to bear injustice from others,
to suffer death quietly, and without hate of your persecutor, to
grieve not for one's own misfortunes, but for those of others." An
investigation of their history will show that that they lived up to
these moral injunctions. "Besides the five great commandments," says a
Wesleyan missionary (Spense Hardy) in his Dahmma Padam, "every shade
of vice, hypocrisy, anger, pride, suspicion, greediness, gossiping, and
cruelty to animals is guarded against by special precepts. Among the
virtues, recommended, we find not only reverence for parents, care for
children, submission to authority, gratitude, moderation in all things,
submission in time of trial, equanimity at all times, but virtues,
unknown in some systems of morality, such as the duty of forgiving
injuries, and not rewarding evil for evil." And we will add, both
charity and love are specially recommended.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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