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<!--QuoteBegin-ramana+Sep 25 2007, 02:15 AM-->QUOTE(ramana @ Sep 25 2007, 02:15 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Hinduism and Buddhism in Greek Philosophy

Article written in 1954!
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->            Orphism and Hinduism have much in common. Just as
        the  Brahmins  kept  the  belief  of the  shamans  or
        medicine  men of the Vedas  that man could  become  a
        god, but  <b>attempted  to achieve  this  union  not  by
        drinking the intoxi-
        cating soma but by abstinence  and ascetic  practices
        so Orpheus purified  the old Dionysiac  religion  and
        substituted  asceticism  for drunkenness.</b>(32) The aim
        of Orphism seems to be the liberation of the soul from
        the chains of the body, and this is to be achieved by
        asceticism  but  man must  pass  through  many  lives
        before he achieves  final freedom.  This is very far,
        indeed,  from  genuine  Greek  religion  of  any
        period,(33) but almost exactly  the predominant  view
        of the Upani.sads. Even the metaphors  in which  this
        conception  is  clothed  are  the  stock  Hindu  and
        Buddhist metaphors-the wheel of life in the Upani.sads
        appears  as  the  "sorrowful  weary  wheel"  of
        Orpheus.(34) <b>It has been  remarked  that  the aim  of
        Orphism, the realization by man of his identity  with
        God,would have appeared  blasphemous  insolence  to a
        sixth-century Athenian.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->