"One should not think that the life of Gotama Buddha was spent in universal acknowledgment and quiet. On the contrary, there are indications of slander and all kinds of obstacles, through which the Teacher, as a true fighter, only strengthened himself, thus augmenting the significance of his achievement. Many incidents speak about the hostility which he encountered from ascetics and Brahmins, who hated him. The former for his reproval of their fanaticism, the latter for his refusal to admit their rights to social privileges and to the knowledge of truth by right of birth. To the first, he said: “If only through the renunciation of food and human conditions one could attain perfection and liberation from the bonds which tie man to Earth, then a horse or a cow would have reached it long ago.” To the second: “According to his deeds a man becomes a pariah; according to his deeds he becomes a Brahmin. The fire kindled by a Brahmin, and the fire kindled by a Shudra have an equal flame, brightness, and light. To what has your isolation brought you? In order to procure bread you go to the general market, and you value the coins from the purse of a Shudra. Your isolation may be termed merely plunder. And your sacred implements are merely instruments of deception."