1. The five Parivrajakas at once realised that this was really a new Dhamma. They were so struck by this new approach to the problems of life that they were unanimous in saying : “ Never in the history of the world has any founder of religion taught that the recognition of human suffering was the real basis of religion.
2. “ Never in the history of the world has any founder of religion taught that the removal of this misery is the real purpose of it !
3. “ Never in the history of the world had a scheme of salvation been put forth, so simple in its nature, so free from supernatural and superhuman agency, so independent of, even so antagonistic to, the belief in a soul, to the belief in God and to the belief in life after death!
4. “ Never in the history of the world had a scheme of religion been put forth which had nothing to do with revelation and whose commands are born of the examination of the social needs of man and which are not the orders of a God !
5. “Never in the history of the world has salvation been conceived as the blessing of happiness to be attained by man in this life and on this earth by righteousness born out of his own efforts ! “
6. These were the sentiments which the Pariv-rajakas uttered after they ad heard the Buddha’s Sermon on his new Dhamma.
7. They felt that in him they had found a reformer, full of the most earnest moral purpose and trained in all the intellectual culture of his time, who had the originality and the courage to put forth deliberately and with a knowledge of opposing views, the doctrine of a salvation to be found here, in this life, in inward change of heart to be brought about by the practice of self-culture and self-control.
8. Their reverence for him became so unbounded that they at once surrendered to him and requested him to accept them as his disciples.
9. The Buddha admitted them into his order by uttering the formula “ Ehi Bhikkave “ (come in Bhikkus). They were known as the Panchavargiya Bhikkus.
Source: The Buddha and His Dhamma | Author: Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
