Islam Rediscovered
24. A Case of Discovery*
~ 414 ~
inasmuch as in comparing my ideal Buddhism with
a very orthodox form of Christianity then in vogue,
I had given an unquestionably higher place to
Buddhism. These two lectures on “Buddhism and
Christianity” were printed, read and criticized all
over the country and I had even the gratification of
seeing one of them (The Second
Karma
) translated
into English and published by the Free Thought
Society of London then under the high auspices of
Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant. When after
some 12 years I met Mrs. Besant in Hyderabad for
the first time, we were both Theosophists. But the
inherent pessimism of Buddhism did not appeal to
me at all and I soon grew tired of it. Every limb of
my body and every faculty of my soul was
quivering and aching, as it were, for work and
enjoyment, and here was a system of philosophy
enjoining on me to deny some and to entirely
suppress others of the most natural instincts and
emotions of my youth and adolescence. There must
be something morbid and radically wrong in a
system and a creed that goes against our Human
Nature.
