Chapter Three: The Madhura Disposition in India's Inner (Esoteric) Religious Disciplines

A. The Buddhist Sahajiyas

The Chinese traveller Faxian came to this country during the reign of Maharaja Chandragupta II and copied Buddhist scriptures. His writings show that Buddhism had become exceedingly popular among the general population. Buddhist monasteries, where practitioners lived, abounded from place to place.

After Faxian, Xuanzang came to India during Maharaja Harshavardhana's reign, in the seventh century CE. He too described hundreds of monasteries inhabited by thousands upon thousands of Buddhist practitioners. Xuanzang held Shilabhadra in the highest reverence. Shilabhadra had been a disciple of Dharmapala, the teacher at Nalanda, and later occupied the office of principal at that university. Shilabhadra's disciple and nephew, Buddhabhadra, was also a celebrated scholar and teacher at Nalanda and a master of Buddhist Yogacara.

It is said that they received inspiration from Avalokiteshvara, Maitreya, and Manjushri. Buddhism has two principal branches—the Hinayana and the Vajrayana.¹ Hinayana is the conservative, unchanging branch organised upon the basis of the Tripitakas. It maintains an extremely strict discipline of conduct, thought, and restraint. It may be called the “orthodox school” of Buddhism. Its adherents call themselves Theravadins, or followers of the elders.

The other branch, called Mahayana, is the reforming school. Hinayana is “no change,” while Mahayana is “change.” Hinayana did not wish to move with the times; it clung to established conventions. Mahayana, by contrast, advanced with the necessary reforms and revisions, and with a spirit of liberality. It was natural that it should influence an ever greater number of people. As a result, the number of this branch's adherents increased enormously.