In Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Grey, which is the dark drama of a soul almost lost and at the last minute reprieved, there is a moment when a kind friend gives to the hero a copy of The Light of Asia, saying that it may save him, as it is the life of a good man.
Within the Theosophical tradition, The Light of Asia occupies a definite place. So great was H.P.B.'s appreciation and respect for this book—which is a long poem—that she mentioned in her will that if her students and friends wished to come together and remember her on her death anniversary, they should read from two books—The Bhagavad-Gita and The Light of Asia. Gandhiji said, "I read The Light of Asia with even greater interest than I did the Gita. Once I had begun it, I could not leave off." Oliver Wendell Holmes, the great American author, said, "It is a work of great beauty, it tells a story of intense interest which never flags for a moment. Its descriptions are drawn by the hand of the master with the eye of a poet. Its tone is so lofty that there is nothing with which to compare it but the New Testament. It is full of variety—now picturesque, now pathetic, now rising in the noblest realms of thought and aspiration." Such was the response to The Light of Asia, which was originally published in 1879. Edwin Arnold writes in the Preface:
I have sought, by the medium of an imaginary Buddhist votary, to depict the life and character and indicate the philosophy of that noble hero and reformer, Prince Gautama of India, the founder of Buddhism. (p. ix)
Thus, the poem is put in the mouth of an imaginary devotee of the Buddha, who tells the story of Buddha's life, expressing his reverence for him. It is this imaginary devotee, who says at the end of the narrative:
Here endeth what I write
Who love the Master for his love of us.
A little knowing, little have I told
Touching the Teacher and the Ways of Peace. (p. 238)
Thus, it is not a claim to the full statement of Buddha's teachings. Again, in the Preface, the poet humbly submits that he has depicted only what he has been able to absorb from the Buddhist traditions and that his purpose is to convey the lofty character of the Buddha and general purport of his doctrines. Thus:
As to these latter there has arisen prodigious controversy among the erudite, who will be aware that I have taken the imperfect Buddhistic citations much as they stand in Spence Hardy's work, and have also modified more than one passage in the received narratives....
In reverence to the illustrious Promulgator of this "Light of Asia," and in homage to the many eminent scholars who have devoted noble labours to his memory, for which both repose and ability are wanting to me, I beg that the shortcomings of my too-hurried study may be forgiven. It has been composed in the brief intervals of days without leisure, but is inspired by an abiding desire to aid in the better mutual knowledge of East and West. (pp. xiii-iv)
Edwin Arnold seems to suggest that it is impossible to appreciate the life and teachings of the Buddha, unless one enters the Oriental point of view—the Western point of view would prove inadequate and inappropriate. The Oriental point of view has been absorbed by him completely as is shown in the following:
A living sense in his mind that though we are talking about something that happened on earth, there are other lokas or worlds which coexist and intercommunicate with life on earth. Human beings are not alone. Hence the mention of Buddha's being born again for men. Why again? The answer is along strictly traditional lines:
The poet depicts nature as always something living—which responds to what happens at deeper levels of human life. There is the description of Queen Maya (Buddha's mother) who is about to have a baby, standing in the afternoon under a Palsa tree in the palace-grounds, and the tree bends down to make a shade for her. "The conscious tree bent down its bows to make a bower about Queen Maya's majesty." When a great spiritual event happens in human life, the whole of nature on the higher planes responds. Again there is similar description when Buddha arises from that meditation which produced the enlightenment. It is the description of joyous nature with birds and animals sharing in that joy.
Below the highest sphere four Regents sit
Who rule our world; and under them are zones
Nearer, but high, where saintliest spirits dead
Wait thrice ten thousand years, then live again;
And on Lord Buddha, waiting in that sky,
Came for our sakes the five sure signs of birth,
So that the Devas knew the signs, and said
"Buddha will go again to help the world." (pp. 21-22)
In other words, Buddha's story begins, not on earth, but in the realm where the Regents sit. It is comparable to Maharajahs and Lipikas, mentioned in The Secret Doctrine—the beings that are protectors of mankind and are the agents of Karma. Buddha's coming again to earth is in keeping with the spiritual tradition that suggests that great Beings on other planes have concern for human beings on earth and hence they incarnate on earth, from time to time.
When Buddha is sent to a teacher, he could recite far beyond what the teacher knew, but he is still respectful. Buddha's teacher, Sage Viswamitra, prostrates himself before the prince and says:
[Thou] art Teacher of thy teachers—thou, not I,
Art Guru. Oh, I worship thee, sweet Prince!
That comest to my shool only to show
Thou knowest all without the books, and know'st
Fair reverence besides. (p. 32)
The poet brings home the culture of the Orient, which teaches that the pupil should not be disrespectful to the teacher—even in thought.
The compassion of the Buddha for the dumb creatures comes through in the incident where his cousin Devadatta shoots down a flying swan with an arrow and claims that the bird must belong to the slayer. And Buddha argues:
Say no! the bird is mine,
The first of myriad things which shall be mine
By right of mercy and love's lordliness.
For now I know, by what within me stirs,
That I shall teach compassion unto men,
And be a speechless world's interpreter. (p. 35)
When the courtiers could not settle the issue of the hurt swan, a great ascetic appears and decides the issue in favour of the Buddha. When the King wants to make a present to him, he is nowhere to be seen. The poet writes:
And someone saw a hooded snake glide forth—
The gods come ofttimes thus! (p. 36)
There is an allusion to the symbology of the snake. A full initiate [a wise man] is called a "Naga," a "Serpent" and a "Dragon" in esoteric philosophy.
When the Buddha goes out of the palace for the first time, he sees a sick man, an old man, etc. Buddha asks his charioteer Channa:
But shall this come to others, or to all,
Or is it rare that one should be as he? (p. 76)
When he sadly speaks of it to Yasodhara, she becomes sad too, and says, "Hath not my Lord comfort in me?" And the reply that the Buddha makes, shows that his imagination has grasped the human situation as a whole. It suggests that it is not as if man does not sometimes have happy days, but that they are always under the shadow of an end. After seeing the pitiable sight of a dead man, the Buddha speaks:
The veil is rent
Which blinded me! I am as all these men
Who cry upon their gods and are not heard...
They cannot save! I would not let one cry
Whom I could save! How can it be that Brahm
Would make a world and keep it miserable.
Since, if, all-powerful, he leaves it so,
He is not good, and if not all powerful,
He is not God. (pp. 91-92)
In these few lines, the poet reveals Buddha's teachings, his character and the criticism of the personal god idea, which is a great hindrance to the spiritual life. If there is sorrow, there must also be a cure for it. The philosophy of the quest and the determination with which he left the comforts of the palace are expressed beautifully in a few lines by the poet.
In this long poem, Buddha, Dhamma and poetry are seen to fuse completely. During the quest, when he visits the court of King Bimbisara, he stops the animal-sacrifice, and teaches the philosophy of Karma in a few lines saying that each one has to answer for his wrong deeds. Thus:
Alone, each for himself, reckoning with that
The fixed arithmic of the universe,
Which meteth good for good and ill for ill,
Measure for measure, unto deeds, words, thoughts;
Watchful, aware, implacable, unmoved;
Making all future fruits of all the pasts. (p. 141)
"The fixed arthmic of the universe," is the poetic expression of the Law of Karma that cannot be caused to deviate by any form of propitiation.
When the Buddha was nearly fainting—after indulging in wrong ascetic practices—he asks a low-caste shepherd boy to give him milk. The boy gives it by making the goat stand near the fainting Buddha, milking it directly into his mouth. But they are only a few drops and Buddha asks him to give the milk in his own vessel, which the boy refuses to do, saying that he was a low-caste boy. And Buddha spoke, emphatically denying the validity of the caste system:
Pity and need
Make all flesh kin. There is no caste in blood.
Which runneth of one hue, nor caste in tears,
Which trickle salt with all; neither comes man
To birth with tilka-mark stamped on the brow,
Nor sacred thread on neck. Who doth right deed
Is twice-born, and who doeth ill deeds vile. (p. 152)
The description of Mara tempting Buddha at the final moment—coming to him in the shape of his wife Yasodhara, and Buddha's insight, during the middle watch of his meditation is again a terrific piece of poetry.
And when the Buddha returns home after his enlightenment, wearing a yellow robe and with a begging bowl in his hands, his father asks him why he, the prince, is dressed so. Buddha's reply shows that he belongs to the race of the Buddhas and that there have been Buddhas before him and there will be Buddhas after him. Thus:
"It is the custom of my race...
Not of a mortal line,
I spake, but of the descent invisible,
The Buddhas who have been and who shall be
Of these am I, and what they did I do." (p. 203)
It is in "Book the Eighth" that the Doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation, the Panchshila, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path have been expounded in detail.
