He expressly forbade cruelty to animals. Sometimes the Buddha is said to be a social reformer. Among other things, He condemned the caste system, recognized the equality of people, spoke on the need to improve socio-economic conditions, recognized the importance of a more equitable distribution of wealth among the rich and the poor, raised the status of women, recommended the incorporation of humanism in government and administration, and taught that a society should not be run by greed but with consideration and compassion for the people. Despite all these, His contribution to mankind is much greater because He took off at a point which no other social reformer before or ever since had done, that is, by going to the deepest roots of human ill which are found in the human mind. It is only in the human mind that true reform can be effected.
Reforms imposed by force upon the external world have a very short life because they have no roots.
But those reforms which spring as a result of the transformation of man ' s inner consciousness remain rooted. So reforms come about when men ' s minds have prepared the way for them , and they live as long as men revitalize them out of their own love of truth, justice and their fellow men. The doctrine preached by the Buddha is not one based on 'Political Philosophy'. Nor is it a doctrine that encourages men to worldly pleasures. It sets out a way to attain Nibbana.