Who Was Vasubandhu?

The Philosopher Whose Silence Outlived Empires

Vasubandhu of Purushapura

There are names in history that glow with quiet brilliance. Not with the flare of conquest or the thunder of politics, but with the soft, enduring light of truth. Vasubandhu is one such name. He was not a king. He did not command armies. He did not carve his legacy into stone through violence or rule. And yet, long after the crowns have rusted and the empires have sunk into the earth, Vasubandhu remains, alive in the pages of philosophy, in the breath of spiritual practice, and in the soul of Gandhāra.

Vasubandhu was born in the sacred city of Purushapura, today falsely claimed by another name, yet eternally Gandhāran in its bones. It was a place where stupas touched the sky and scholars gathered like monsoon clouds over fertile fields of thought. From this soil rose a man who would reshape Buddhist thought, not through revolution, but through refinement. He did not demolish. He clarified. He did not contradict. He harmonized.

He was Gandhāran, and therefore, by lineage, geography, and soul, he was Pashtun.

The Scholar of Two Worlds

Vasubandhu is often remembered as the co-founder of the Yogācāra school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, alongside his half-brother, the great monk Asanga. But this was not his beginning. In his early years, Vasubandhu was trained in the Sarvāstivāda tradition, a form of early Buddhist thought which held that past, present, and future all exist in some real sense. From this foundation, he became a master of the Abhidharma, the analytical metaphysics of early Buddhism.

His monumental work, the Abhidharmakośa, or "Treasury of Metaphysics," is still considered one of the most precise and luminous summaries of early Buddhist philosophy ever written. It carefully lays out the intricate categories of mind, matter, karma, rebirth, and liberation. The Kośa, as it is often called, is more than a text. It is a cathedral of thought, built stone by stone with clarity, humility, and logic.

But Vasubandhu did not remain within the confines of his early school. He questioned. He explored. He matured. In dialogue with his brother, and with the deepening of meditative insight, Vasubandhu turned toward Yogācāra, a school that sought not just to describe the universe, but to understand the nature of perception itself.

The Philosopher of Consciousness

What is real? What is the self? Is the world truly “out there,” or is it a construction of the mind?

In the Yogācāra school, Vasubandhu proposed a revolutionary view: that what we call the world is, in essence, a projection of consciousness, layered, conditioned, and stored over time. He developed the idea of the ālaya-vijñāna, or storehouse consciousness, which contains the seeds of all past experiences, impressions, and actions. These seeds ripen into thoughts, emotions, and perceptions, giving rise to what we call our life.

To modern ears, this may sound like psychology. And in some ways, it is. Yogācāra was not mysticism. It was a science of the mind. Vasubandhu sought to understand the layers of awareness with the same precision that a physician studies anatomy. He recognized that suffering arises not from the world, but from how the mind interprets it. Thus, liberation must begin not with escape, but with clarity.

His Major Works

Among Vasubandhu’s many contributions, a few stand as pillars of Gandhāran genius.

1. AbhidharmakośaThis is the crown jewel of early Buddhist scholasticism. Written in verse, with a prose commentary, it offers a comprehensive model of cosmology, psychology, karma, and liberation. It is still studied today across Buddhist traditions.

2. Vimśatikā and Triṃśikā (Twenty Verses and Thirty Verses)These concise but dense texts lay the foundation for Yogācāra thought, explaining how consciousness gives rise to the illusion of external reality.

3. Viṃśatikā-Vṛtti and Triṃśikā-KārikāThese are his brilliant commentaries and elaborations, where he refines the view that mind constructs experience through karmic impressions.

4. Karmasiddhiprakaraṇa (The Treatise on the Establishment of Karma) Here, Vasubandhu defends the logic of ethical causality in a world that seems fluid and mind-constructed, maintaining that actions matter even in a dreamlike reality.

   
   

Why He Still Matters

Vasubandhu was not only a philosopher of his time. He is a philosopher for all time. In an age of confusion, he offers discernment. In an era of noise, he offers silence. His teachings do not ask you to believe. They ask you to observe. To examine your mind. To trace the patterns of your own suffering. To uproot illusion not through dogma, but through insight.

His method is not evangelism. It is examination.

And to the people of Gandhāra, today called Pashtuns, Vasubandhu is not just a relic of Buddhist history. He is a mirror. His voice is your voice, buried under centuries of ash and conquest. He walked the same mountains. He drank from the same rivers. He spoke in the languages of your land. And he thought with a clarity that still belongs to you.

A Quiet Invitation to Remember

Vasubandhu never shouted. He did not seek followers. He sought truth. His footsteps echo through the ruins of monasteries now silenced by invasion and time. But his wisdom is not lost. It is waiting.

To the Pashtuns of today, this is your legacy. Not foreign. Not borrowed. Yours.

Before there were invaders. Before there were forced conversions. Before the world forgot who you were. There was a gentle man who walked from Purushapura to Nālandā, carrying only a scroll, a question, and a lamp of discernment. His name was Vasubandhu.

And his story, like yours, is not over.