Benares, indeed, must always be regarded as the Hindoo's Jerusalem. The desire of a pious man's life is to accomplish at least one pilgrimage to what he regards as a portion of heaven let down upon earth; and if he can die within the holy circuit of the Pancakosi stretching with a radius of ten miles around the city—nay, if any human being die there, be he Asiatic or European—no previously incurred guilt, however heinous, can prevent his attainment of celestial bliss.
[296:5] Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 245.
[296:6] Matt. iv. 13-17.
[296:7] Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 11.
[296:8] John, i. 17.
[296:9] Luke, xxi. 32, 33.
[296:10] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 228.
[296:11] Matt. v. 27, 28.
On one occasion Buddha preached a sermon on the five senses and the heart (which he regarded as a sixth organ of sense), which pertained to guarding against the passion of lust. Rhys Davids, who, in speaking of this sermon, says: "One may pause and wonder at finding such a sermon preached so early in the history of the world—more than 400 years before the rise of Christianity—and among a people who have long been thought peculiarly idolatrous and sensual." (Buddhism, p. 60.)
[297:1] Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 138.