Ancient mankind during the Neolithic times worshipped Sun as their almighty. Slowly they started realizing worshipping their ancestors too would be appropriate considering their importance. Their graves in the form of Menhir and Dolman became the centre of worship. Slowly the practice of animal sacrifice liked by their elders evolved. The common animals sacrificed were goat, pig, and even cow.
The worship of dolman or menhirs slowly was given up as the wise men decided that this practice would prove costly for mankind. The site for burials would slowly outgrown the settlement for habitat. The practice of burial was replaced by burning the bodies with rituals. The priests took over to influence the minds of the people. They decided that inorder to propagate their philosophy some myths had to be created. Thus was born in the infant stage the worship of the Linga. Linga shaped stones were available in the river bed, they were bought and installed. These Linga’s formed the symbol or representation of Lord Shiva.
Buddhism : At the age of 29 Siddharta ( 563 – 483 BC ) left the palace to meet his subjects and was exposed to the pain of death, disease and old age. These events left a lasting impression on the young prince and he decided to seek answers to the mystery of life and birth along with religious practices. He observed many a drawbacks in the primitive Hindu religion. On attainment of enlightment Buddha decided to follow the middle path in personal life.
The followers of Hindu had divided the society vide caste system, which was a bane particularly when it came to Sudras, who by profession were scavengers, burial attendants, fishermen, hunters, labourers etc. They became untouchables. The Buddhist sangha which was formed to spread the religion far and wide started enrolling the masses with the teachings of Buddha ( Eight fold path of righteousness ). Right thought, Right Speech, Right Livelihood, Right concentration were the foremost basic principles which appealed the mass and class alike.
Ashoka the Great ( 304 BC – 232 BC ) adopted Buddhism after the Battle of Kalinga and spread the religion far and wide. Bihar, Orissa, MP, Maharastra, AP became the target of his missionary work. Karnataka was under the shadow of Jainism which was initiated by his grand father Chandra gupta Maurya ( 342 – 290 BC ) He relinquished his throne in 298 BC in favour of his son Bindusara and settled down at Shravanabelagola under his Guru.
The worship of Buddha as the guru in the form of a statue was the most important development in the rapid spread of religion far and wide. The earlier stupa worship like the Linga worship did not convey the right message to the masses. Once image worship was encouraged, the religion got firmly embedded. The Hindu priests were shocked and in retaliation they too started building statues of Shiva. Than the fable of Ramayana and Mahabharata were created to introduce more characters into the mind of the masses.
One of the greatest contribution of the Buddhism was elimination of animal sacrifices. This was used by the Kalabhairav segments of Hinduism to formulate propagation of Shiva’s extreme form of anger. This sect was formed as a counter ploy to the growing influence of Buddhist and Jain religion. Most of the Buddhist and Jains vacated their places due to the animal sacrifices. Thus the revival of Hinduism was ensured by the powerful followers of Shiva. The Linga was complemented with various forms of Shiva, including the rudra tandav style of Nataraja. Some forms were later adopted by Vaishnav followers to propagate Hindu religion. The brahmanical segment followed Shiva and others were initiated into Vaishnavism.
Buddhism in general seems to systematically laid the code of life in general, and all other religions started imbibing the good tenets modifying according to their territory. No wonder Christianity and Islam have been heavily influenced by Buddhism. Now the clincher is that Buddhism is essentially a part of Hinduism. So the root of all religion is essentially Hinduism, which may be radical conclusion, but if one probes deeply one is inclined to arrive at this conclusion without bias.
The missing years of Jesus Christ from the age of 12 to 30, does give a clue of his learning from Nalanda university and the Buddhist monasteries in Tibet. It is surmised that the moral teaching of the Buddha has four remarkable resemblances to the Sermon on the Mount.
Common thread :
Buddhism : Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.
Bahai : Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest not
Christianity : Do to no one what you yourself dislike
Confucianism : Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.
Hinduism : One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self. This, in brief, is the rule of dharma. Other behavior is due to selfish desires.
Islam : Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you.
Jainism : Nothing which breathes, which exists, which lives, or which has essence or potential of life, should be destroyed or ruled over, or subjugated, or harmed, or denied of its essence or potential.
Judaism : You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk. Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
Sikhism : The truly enlightened ones are those who neither incite fear in others nor fear anyone themselves.
Taoism : Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss
