Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/348

290 the scenes of his past life came thronging into his mind, until the doubts cleared away like mists in the morning and the daylight of truth flashed before his eyes. He had made no new discovery, he had acquired no new knowledge. Self-culture and universal love—this was his discovery, this is the essence of Buddhism, and his pious nature and benevolent heart told him that a holy life and an all-embracing love were the panacea to all evils.

Gautama's old teacher Alara was dead, and he therefore went to Benares to proclaim the truth to his five former disciples. In the cool of the evening he entered the Deer Park in the holiest city of India, and there found the followers who had deserted him. To them he explained his new tenets:—

"There are two extremes, O Bhikkhus, which the man who has given up the world ought not to follow: the habitual practice, on the one hand, of those things whose attraction depends upon the passions, and specially of sensuality, a low and pagan way, unworthy, unprofitable, and fit only for the worldly-minded; and the habitual practice, on the other hand, of asceticism, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable.

"There is a middle path, Bhikkhus, avoiding these two extremes, discovered by the Tathagata (Buddha), a path which opens the eyes and bestows understanding, which leads to peace of mind, to the higher wisdom, to full enlightenment, to Nirvana!"

And then he explained to them the four truths concerning suffering, the cause of suffering, the