Nehru finds in India two streams of thoughts and action: the acceptance of life and the abstention from it developing side by side with the emphasis on the one or the other varying in different period. Yet the basic background of that culture was not on of other -- worldliness or world-worthlessness. Even when it discus the world as Maya (illusion) , it will took the world as it is and tried to live its life and enjoy its manifold beauty, in the Upanishad times, from around 800bc the ethics of individual perfection grew, with the dictum. There is nothing hire then the person.
There is a famous story of Nachiketa who journey to the land of the death and pleases Yamraj with his earnest quest for truth. In the promises boon, the youth seeks the ultimate warty of what happens after death. Enunciating the supreme philosophy of life, Yamraj says that only body dies not the soul, which persists to eternity.
Nehru refers to men's restless life, ever questioning why, in search of what, dos the water run out and cannot stop its flow for a movement? And the super human confidence: O sun of refulgent glory. I am the same person as makes the what thou art from the strong current of materialism came the Lokayata shastra (folk- based treaties ) as reveled Prabdha Chandrodaya , an extant work derived from the atheist sage Charavaka. The seen is that of nihilism, where the materialists denounces the Vedas, priest craft and traditional beliefs, inveighing against all forms of magic and superstitions then we see the Ajeevika sampradaya (believers in destiny) who are dancing asserting that there is no other world, no heaven or heal , no soul separate from the body.
Nehru asserts that both Buddhism and Jainism were break-aways from the Vedic religion. Both lay emphasis on non violence and buildup organization of bhikshus (celibate monks). Nehru feels that there was a certain realism and rationalism in there approach.
Writing on the day of Baishakhi Purnima, when the Buddha was both
