Article on BUDDHISM
- Sudheer Birodkar

 Posted via Deja News,
 
 
 

A great religion that originated in ancient India is Buddhism. Ironically
though Buddhism flourished overseas in Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, Kampuchea and
other countries of the far-east. It had also existed in Central Asia and West
Asia, but there is was displaced by Islam in the 7th century C.E. (Common
Era). However in India - the land of its birth it was ti11
recently non-existent. The history of Buddhism in India starts
with that of its founder Gautama Buddha who lived in the 6th century B.C.E.

Life Story of Buddha

Buddha was born in the Shakya clan that belonged to the warrior (Kshatriya)
caste. His father was Shudhodana and his mother Maya. Before Buddha
was born his mother had a dream in which a white elephant descended from
heaven and entered her womb. Buddha was said to have been born in a
grove named Lumbini near the ancient town of Kapilavastu. At birth the name
given to him was Gautama, probably after the more ancient Vedic seer to
whom some of the hymns in the Rigveda are ascribed. Buddha was also known as
Siddhartha which means 'he whose aim is accomplished' The latter
name seems to be a title given to him by his disciples} although varying
opinions are held on this issue.

The Prophecy of Buddha

At his birth, a sage is said to have told King Shudhodana that Gautama would
grow up to be a powerful king. But to become a king he should be kept
away from the sorrows of 1ife. And if perchance he happened to see any of the
sorrows of life he would become an universal teacher. Keen as King
Shudhodhana was to see Gautama to be a sucessful ruler, he built up special
palace for Gautama from where he could set his eyes on none of the world's
sufferings. Even when the prince Gautama went out for stroll or ride, all
unpleasant objects were removed so as to prevent Gautama's mind from being
disturbed.

The Young Gautama is kept away from Real Life

But the prophesy of Gautama becoming an universal teacher was destined to be
fulfilled. One day through some lapse, Gautama managed to s1ip out
unnoticed from the palace. Riding through the streets of the city he saw for
the first time in his life, a lame person, a sick person, a dead body and an
ascetic.

These sights made a deep impact on his tender teenaged mind and he set
thinking upon the cause of sufferings and sorrow. Consequently, Gautama
began neglecting the affairs of the State which his father had assigned to
him. Alarmed at his son's strange behaviour, King Shudhodana, to get his son
off this brroding decided to marry him to a princess Yashodhara. Some days
after marriage a son was born to them who was named Rahula.

But married life could not distract Gautama from his life's mission for long.
When his patience was at the end of its tether, Gautawna decided to forsake
family life and one day he slipped out of his palace alongwith his servant
Chandaka. After moving out of the city, Gautema cut off his hair removed his
royal ornaments and jewels, his rich garments and sandals and gave them to
Chandaka and bid him to return to the palace with the news of his
(Gautama's) departure.

Gautama becomes The Buddha - The Enlightened One

Thus Gautama set out on his quest for the cause of sufferings (Klesha). He
undertook severe austerities by fasting continuously. In this he was
accompanied by five disciples. But his frail and pampered body could not stand
up to this self-inflicted punishment and one day he fainted. Realizing that
this was not the way to arrive at the truth, he gave up the austerities.
Horrified at their Master's apostasy the five disciples left him. But
undaunted,
Gautama continued his quest for the cause of sufferings. He seated himself
under a fig tree (Mahabodhi tree) and decided not get up unless he found
answers to his questions. His enlightenment is said to have come suddenly and
was exceedingly simple - viz., that all pain is caused - by desire, and
therefore peace comes when one ceases to crave for anything. This thought was
new at that age and it struck him with blinding force, and not only
influenced his future life but left a lasting imprint on Buddhist philosophy.
Freedom from all desires was said to release a person from the cycle of
re-birth and lead to his salvation (Nirvana).

After this revealation Gautama started preaching to people and for this he
travelled from place to place. He is said to have delivered his first sermon
at
a deer park (Isipatana) setting in motion, the wheel of law (Dharma-chakra or
Dhammachakra in Pali).

As his teachings impressed people his followlng grew. Among his early converts
were Sariputta, Mogallana and Ananda. He even received the patronage
of rich traders like Anathapindika (i.e. feeder of poor) and powerful kinqs of
the age like Ajatashatru of Magadha. After the revelation (Bodhi),
Gautama came to be known as Buddha or Gautama Buddha . He was also known as
Shakyamuni (Sage of the Shakyas). The tree under which he
attained enlightenment is known as the Bodhi or Mahabodhi tree But though he
received an impressive following Buddha never claimed Divine status.
Very few miracles are attributed to him.

"Miracles" by the Buddha

On one occasion a grieving lady carried her dead child to Buddha and asked him
to revive it. This was a perfect setting for a miracle to be woven into
religious folklore, but Buddhist records state that Buddha calmed the lady and
told her that he would require three mustard seeds to revive her child. But
the mustard seeds should be from a family where so far no one has ever died.
To fulfill this seemingly simple request the lady went from house to house
only to be told that sometime or the other, someone had died in every family.
Gradually, the truth dawned upon the grieving lady and going to a
cemetery, she laid down her child's body and taking its little hand in hers,
she said "Beloved son, I thought that death has overtaken you alone. but no it
overtakes all of us". She went back to Buddha and became his disciple.

The Buddhist Sangha and Morality

Buddhism is unique among religions in a fundamental sense. It does not
advocate invocation of any God. Salvation can be attained by controlling one's
desire; as
desire is the cause of suffering. The original Buddhism had neither God nor
Devil. The emphasis was not on prayer but on controlling one's mind. In this
sense it was
more a worldly philosophy rather than a religion. But with the passage of time
it acquired the nature of a religion complete with dogmas and rituals. Buddh's
life-story is an eventful one. The most potent institution that Buddha
established during his lifetime was the Sangha (monastic order) into which men
were admitted
irrsespective of their caste. The members of the Sangha who were known as
Bhikkus (beggars)had to lead a rigorous life devoid of all desires. Their
daily needs
were limited to those necessary for physical survival. Their only possessions
were a begging bowl, yellow coloured loin cloth, a walking stick if necessary
and a pair
of sandals for the mow delicate. They were to sustain themselves by the alms
they received but were forbidden from expressly begging for alms. Alms were to
be
accepted if given willingly and if not the Bhikkus were to move on to the next
house. Thus came into being a clergy, but which unlike its Hindu counterpart
was not
based on caste and which was oriented towards missionary activities rather on
the performance and upholding of rituals.

The break of Buddhism from other forms of worship that constituted Hinduism
was almost complete in the lifetime of Buddha. This took the form of
non-recognition
of any personified Gods, spirits or the devil, and the near absence of
rituals, repudiation of the caste system and the intense missionary activity
of the monks which
included rendering social service with the aim of alleviation of human
suffering. Another significant aspect was that in the early stages all
followers of Buddha were
enrolled as members of the Sangha hence it was completely a missionary
religion. The distinction between the Bhikkus and other lay adherents of
Buddhism came
about later when the following of the religion increased manifold.

>From its inception Buddhism received royal patronage. In the lifetime of
Buddha Ajatashatru the king of north India's most powerful kingdom Magadha (in
present-day Bihar) patronised Buddhism during Buddha's lifetime, and a few
years after Buddha attained Nirvana {Salvation), the first religious council
of the
Buddhists was held at the town Rajagriha, which was the capital of Magadha
from where Ajatashatru ruled. Councils such as this one were occasions for
formulation and revision of the Buddhist religious code which was supposed to
be adhered to by all followers. Thus it kept a check on the emergence of
sub-sects-
a tendency which is a hallmark o# Hinduism.

The second such council was held at Vaishali also in Magadha, about a hundred
years after the first council i.e. in the 5th century B.C.E.

Relations Between Buddhism and Hinduism

Buddhism continued to grow steadily in the first few centuries after its
birth. The reasons were its universal appeal, humane outlook, emphasis on
missionary and
social work and finally its peaceable methods that limited confrontation with
the established local religions to a philosophical level. Thus even kings who
patronised
Hinduism did not feel it necessary to make a distinction between Hinduism and
Buddhism in policy matters. Buddhism normally returned the sympathy of the
ruling
power by giving it a moral legitimacy amongst the lay people. And although
Brahmin orthodoxy did grudge the inroads made into itself by the new faith
there hardly
ever was there active confrontation between the two faiths.

On the contrary there was a exchange of beliefs and attitudes between Hinduism
and Buddhism. The Hindu insistence of vegetarianism and non-violence (Ahimsa)
are borrowed from Buddhism (and Jainism). Hinduism in turn tried to absorb
Buddhism within itself by making Buddha one of the incarnations of Vishnu.

Major Royal Patrons - Samrat Ashok Maurya, Kanishka, Harsha Vardhana

The growth of Buddhism received a tremendous boost in the 3rd century B.C.
when Samrat Ashoka Maurya whose empire covered nearly the whole of India
(including present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan) was converted to Buddhism. He
elevated Buddhism to the level of a state religion and sent missionaries not
only to
all parts of India but also to Sri Lanka, West Asia, Central Asia and China.
In his days Buddhism is said to have spread in varying degrees upto Egypt and
South-western Russia. Since the days of emperor Ashoka, Buddhist missionaries
built majestic monasteries known as Viharas, Stupas and Chaityas.

The simple ascetic character of Buddhism had received its first dent under the
pampering effect of royal patronage. The religlon continued to grow
nevertheless.
During the reign of Ashoka the third Religious Council was held at Pataliputra
which was the capital of Ashoka's vast empire.

But that Ashoka was not inimical to Hindutsm is evident from one of the titles
that he took viz. Deva-naam-priya (Beloved of the Gods).

After the fall of the Maurya empire, Buddhism did not receive official
patronage on a comparable scale for a long time. During the period after the
Maurya empire,
India was beset with invasions from the Indo-Greeks, Kushanas, Parthians, etc.
But most of these invaders acculturized themselves in a few years after their
coming
and many of their kings embraced either Buddhism or Hinduism. Prominent among
them were, Menander (Milinda) who was an Indo-Greek and to whom is
ascribed the Buddhist treatise called Milinda-Panho (Questions of Menander) in
which thc king, posed certain questions to which answers were given by a
Buddhist
Sage called Nagasena. The next major royal patron of Buddhism was Kushana who
was a Mongol king who ruled north India, Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 1st
century B.C.E. In his reign) the fourth religious council was held at
Jalandhara (Modern Jullundar in Indian Punjab). Now Buddhism had spread far
and wide and
had received royal patronage in varying degrees almost continuously from one
king or another since Ashoka.

Split into Two Sects - Mahayana (Greater Vehicle) and Hinayana (Lesser
Vehicle)

By the time the fourth religious council was held, the religion had vertically
split up into two schools. One school had elevated Buddha to the status of a
God and
introduced worship of the Buddha's image (idol), it also evolved elaborate
rituals which were derived largely from Hinduism, and gave up the rigorous
ascetic life in
monasteries, discarded Pall and accepted Sanskrit as the literary medium.
These changes had far-reaching effects in narrowing the breach between
Buddhism and
Hinduism but at the cost of departing from the essence of the way of life that
Buddha established. This school was called the Mahayana {Greater Vehicle)
school or
the northern school of Buddhism. On the other hand the Hinayana (Lesser
Vehicle) school stuck to the original character of Buddhism with its emphasis
on rigorous
and simple livingt although idol worship gradually made its way into Hinanana
also. This school is also known as Theravada (from Staieryavada l. e.
principle of
stability) is mainly prevalent in Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand. Despite the
split, Buddhism continued to grow steadily upto the reign of the Guptas.

Since the reign of the Gupta kings (3rd and 4th centuries C.E.) the growth of
Buddhism came to a standstill and gradually the decline set in. The reasons
for this
decline could be many but the principal one was to be the absence of royal
patronage since the Gupta period, although there was no persecution either.

The last known royal patron of Buddhism was Harsh Vardhana who ruled over a
large part of northern India around the 7th century C.E. Harsha who was an
ardent worshipper of the Hindu deity - Shiva, did not embrace Buddhism, but he
extended many favours to the religion. During his reign the fifth religious
council
was held at Prayaga (Allahabad).

No signsficant event took place thereafter in the history of Buddhism. But it
is certain that upto the beginning of the Gupta period the religion was on its
ascendance
and its following in Indla was significant. From the Gupta period Hinduism
seems to have undergone a revival, partly under the patronage of the Gupta
kings.
Buddhism then onwards was definitely on the decline. The intellectual
onslaught of Brahminic philosophers 11ke Adi Shankaracharya seems to have had
its toll in
emasculating what was once a cohesive and vibrant way of life. Whatever the
reasons, it is certain that the following of Buddhism declined sharply during
and after
the Gupta perlod.

It survived nominally as an intellectual tradition kept alive by the select
monks who controlled the monastic universities like the one at Nalanda. These
universities
were highly respected as seats of learning and attracted students from abroad.
Fa Hien, Huien Tsiang and I-Tsing who came from China were said to have
studied
at Nalanda and other centres of Buddhist learning. But from the 5th century
Onwards, Buddhism declined as the religion of the masses. Its following seems
to have
been absorbed into Hinduism, although this could have also been the result not
of formal conversion but of a gradual relapse of the Buddhist laity into the
parent
religion. The potrayal of Buddha as an incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu,
and the absorption of many Hindu attitudes by Mahayana Buddhism, along with
the
absence of royal patronage to Buddhism (and the extension of this patronage to
Hinduism during Gupta times) must have contributed to this effect. Whatever
8uddhists that remained constituted an elite who inhabited the Monasteries and
rarely ventured out of them. Missionary activity was nearly absent.

Muslim Invasions give the Fatal Blow to Buddhism

The last fatal blow to this once virile religion came from a non-Indian
impetus - the Muslim invasion of north India in the 12th century. The defeat
of Prithviraj
Chauhan and Jaichandra Gahadawal (Rathore) in 1191 and 1192 respectively by
the Afghan raider, Mahmud Ghori opened up the Gangetic plains to the ruthless
invader where the Buddhist (and Hindu) centres of learning were located. The
destruction of monasteries and the slaughter of monks that followed the
headlong
rush, of the Muslim invaders, down the Ganges stilled the agony of this once
glorious order into the silence of death.

Thus passed out of existence in the land of its birth a religion that touched
the lives of millions of humans not only in India but in China, Japan, Korea
and other
countries of Central Asia and South-East Asia. Buddhism in India was to remain
a dead religion until the 20th century.

Buddhism Resurrected in India in the 20th Century

In the mid 20th Century, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who was one of the architects of
India's Constitution, gave Buddhism a fresh lease of life by embracing it a
few years
after India achieved independence. A significant number of members of those
castes who were denied equal rights in the Hindu caste hierarchy also embraced
Buddhism. Today an over-whelming proportion of Buddhists in India are these
recent converts who term themselves as Nava-Baudha or Neo-Buddhists. A
comparatively recent event of significance was the 6th religious council held
at Rangoon in 1954 which came 1300 years after the 5th council held at,
Prayaga in
643 C.E. in the reign of the last major pan-Indian emperor - Harsha Vardhana.
The Rangoon council was also the first one to be held outside India.

Buddhism and Hinduism - Umbilical Marks

In the course of its chequered history Buddhism which began as a departure
from the ritualism of the Hindu religion gradually adapted and absorbed many
Hindu
ideas and practices to the point that at times, the lines of distinction
between the two religions (the parent and the offspring) were blurred. The
objective of Nirvana
towards which every Buddhist is supposed to strive is undoubtedly an
adaptation of the Hindu concept of Moksha. The difference is that for the
attainment of
Moksha righteous behaviour and the conformation of duties as assigned by the
caste into which a person has been born is necessary, while for the attainment
of
Nirvana a person has to be free of all desires. But the essence of both
concepts is the release from the cycle of re-birth. The daily of life of the
Buddhist Bhikkus
(missionary ascetics) was evidently inspired by the concept and practice of
Sanyasa which was the last phase of life a Hindu during which he was supposed
to be
free of al1 desires and to roam from place to place in search of spiritual
enlightenment while spreading the qospel of rightousness among the people. The
yellow
coloured robes that the Buddhist Bhikkus donned were borrowed from the Saffron
robes of the Hindu ascetic. Although as for the Buddhists the yellow colour
was
chosen to represent an autumn leaf which was once green but has inevitably
turned yellow in conformation with the law that everything born has to decay
and pass
away.

Among the auxiliary Hindu practices which found their way into Buddhism, idol
worship and the use of Sanskrit as the liturgical and scriptural language. The
Buddhist conception of Buddha as a God and that in a later period after five
thousand years when righteousness suffer an eclipse the Buddha will reappear
on the
earth. This Buddha who will be known as Maiterya wi11 restore the rule of
dhamma (law and religion). This idea implies belief in incarnations and
re-incarnations
on lines parallel to the Hindu concept of Kalki who, we are told, is to be the
future incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

But all said and done though Buddhism precariously came close to Hinduism it
maintained its distinct entity unlike the Jaina religion whose proximity to
Hinduism
nearly made it a part of Hinduism. In its appeal Buddhism was not, like its
parent religion Hinduism, restricted to India and Indians but spread far and
wide.

Thus in Buddhism, India gave birth to a major international religion, while
the Hindus continued their way. Buddhism was the world's first
missionary religion and won its triumphs through missionary activity. The
ancient Buddhist monks who carried the Master's message of peace, love
and universal brotherhood were pioneers in such a mission in Human history.

Buddhism is the only trans-national religion which has never preached malice
against other faiths, nor have its followers ever indulged in a holy
war against those of another faith. Buddhism has won its way by persuation and
never by the sword, nor has it ever used its position or power to
compel conformity to its precepts.

And whatever its defects, it has unquestionably done much to benefit the human
race by introducing and perpetuating a higher standard of conduct
in life. One is inclined to bow before the Buddha, not in homage to a deity
but in recognition to a superior craftsman in the art of living.