Islam Rediscovered
24. A Case of Discovery*
~ 413 ~
Studying some of the German philosophers and
especially Arthur Schopenhauer, who was then the
philosophe a la mode
in the student circles of
Germany, I soon became a convert to Buddhism
which, in its earliest scriptures, inculcates a lofty
ethical code minus supernatural sanctions, and a
Religion of Humanity minus distinctions of caste,
creed and country; Halloa! I had after much
wandering found the very religion I was in need of
quite close to my own native land, since Buddha
had chiefly lived and worked at Gaya and Rajagriha
which were anciently included in Bengal and are
just now situated on the very borders of the same. I
got so exceedingly fascinated with the creed of Lord
Buddha that I not only read all the books on
Buddhism in English and German that I could lay
my hands on, but even learnt Pali to be able to
translate a portion of the
Milinda Prasana
in
vindication of the right meaning of the
Nirvana
as I
then conceived it to be. Professor Max Muller’s
interpretation, which amounted to the same things,
was subsequent to mine. Within a short time I was
asked by my German friend to deliver a few
lectures on Buddhism, which created quite a flutter
in all the clerical and orthodox circles of Germany,
