Understanding the Way of Buddha
Yesterday I reminisced my memories of this day one year ago. I remember that in the May month last year, I had undertook a project to make a video explaining all philosophical ideas of India, that too, in gujarati and with best possible animations. Video's Link.
It was just my advent to 10th grade. In the vacations, all my friends must have already finished a couple of maths and science chapters while I was exploring Indian philosophical schools. I remember a great coincidence. On the very day of Buddha Purnima last year, I had started researching about Buddha and his philosophy. While I was writing the script on Buddhism that day, I was informed late in the night that tonight itself Siddharta Gautama had attained the state of a Buddha - an awakened one!
Vivekananda explains Buddha's life works in his following peculiar way, leaving the readers spell-bounded as usual -
"At the time Buddha was born, India was in need of a great spiritual leader, a prophet. There was already a most powerful body of priests.
You will understand the situation better if you remember the history of the Jews — how they had two types of religious leaders, priests and prophets, the priests keeping the people in ignorance and grinding superstitions into their minds. The methods of worship the priests prescribed were only a means by which they could dominate the people. All through the Old Testament, you find the prophets challenging the superstitions of the priests. The outcome of this fight was the triumph of the prophets and the defeat of the priests.
India was full of it in Buddha’s day. There were the masses of people, and they were debarred from all knowledge. If just a word of the Vedas entered the ears of a man, terrible punishment was visited upon him. The priests had made a secret of the Vedas — the Vedas that contained the spiritual truths discovered by the ancient Hindus!
At last one man could bear it no more. He had the brain, the power, and the heart — a heart as infinite as the broad sky. He felt how the masses were being led by the priests and how the priests were glorying in their power, and he wanted to do something about it. He did not want any power over any one, and he wanted to break the mental and spiritual bonds of men. His heart was large. The heart, many around us may have, and we also want to help others. But we do not have the brain; we do not know the ways and means by which help can be given. But this man had the brain to discover the means of breaking the bondages of souls. He learnt why men suffer, and he found the way out of suffering. He was a man of accomplishment, he worked everything out; he taught one and all without distinction and made them realise the peace of enlightenment. This was the man Buddha.
You know from Arnold’s poem, The Light of Asia, how Buddha was born a prince and how the misery of the world struck him deeply; how, although brought up and living in the lap of luxury, he could not find comfort in his personal happiness and security; how he renounced the world, leaving his princess and new – born son behind; how he wandered searching for truth from teacher to teacher; and how he at last attained to enlightenment. You know about his long mission, his disciples, his organisations. You all know these things.
Buddha preached the most tremendous truths. He taught the very gist of the philosophy of the Vedas to one and all without distinction, he taught it to the world at large, because one of his great messages was the equality of man. Men are all equal. No concession there to anybody! Buddha was the great preacher of equality. Every man and woman has the same right to attain spirituality — that was his teaching."
Talking about Buddha's teachings, its very essential philosophy is quite startling. Buddha never preached any God. He believed in no God. In fact, Buddha's spiritual journey started when he observed misery, suffering, death, disease and uncertainties of life. In the extremely unstable life of human beings, Buddha thought to find out a way to get eternal stability and peace. He renounced the world and went out in search of truth behind this poor human condition.
"His doctrine was this: Why is there misery in our life? Because we are selfish. We desire things for ourselves — that is why there is misery. What is the way out? The giving up of the self. The self does not exist; the phenomenal world, all this that we perceive, is all that exists."
"There is nothing called soul underlying the cycle of life and death. There is the stream of thought, one thought following another in succession, each thought coming into existence and becoming non – existent at the same moment, that is all; there is no thinker of the thought, no soul. The body is changing all the time; so is mind, consciousness. The self therefore is a delusion. All selfishness comes of holding on to the self, to this illusory self. If we know the truth that there is no self, then we will be happy and make others happy.
This was what Buddha taught."
" And he did not merely talk; he was ready to give up his own life for the world. He said, “If sacrificing an animal is good, sacrificing a man is better”, and he offered himself as a sacrifice. He said, “This animal sacrifice is another superstition. God and soul are the two big superstitions. God is only a superstition invented by the priests. If there is a God, as these Brahmins preach, why is there so much misery in the world? He is just like me, a slave to the law of causation. If he is not bound by the law of causation, then why does he create? Such a God is not at all satisfactory. There is the ruler in heaven that rules the universe according to his sweet will and leaves us all here to die in misery — he never has the goodness to look at us for a moment. Our whole life is continuous suffering; but this is not sufficient punishment — after death we must go to places where we have other punishments. Yet we continually perform all kinds of rites and ceremonies to please this creator of the world!”
And consider his death. When he found a disciple weeping, he reproved him, saying, “What is this? Is this the result of all my teaching? Let there be no false bondage, no dependence on me, no false glorification of this passing personality. The Buddha is not a person; he is a realisation. Work out your own salvation.”
Even when dying, he would not claim any distinction for himself. I worship him for that. What you call Buddhas and Christs are only the names of certain states of realisation. Of all the teachers of the world, he was the one who taught us most to be self – reliant, who freed us not only from the bondages of our false selves but from dependence on the invisible being or beings called God or gods. He invited every one to enter into that state of freedom which he called Nirvana. All must attain to it one day; and that attainment is the complete fulfilment of man.
We see that Swami Vivekananda was deeply influenced by Buddha. Buddha never bowed down to anything, neither Veda, nor caste, nor priest, nor custom. He fearlessly reasoned so far as reason could take him. Such a fearless search for truth and such love for every living thing the world has never seen. Swami Vivekananda too pointed out the same thing in his life , that is, to be perfectly sincere, perfectly pure and perfectly unselfish.
"Buddha said: ‘These ceremonials were all wrong. There is but one ideal in the world. Destroy all delusions; what is true will remain. As soon as the clouds are gone, the sun will shine.’ How to kill the self? Become perfectly unselfish, ready to give up your life even for an ant. work not for any superstition, not to please any God, not to get any reward, but because you are seeking your own release by killing your self. Worship and prayer and all that, these are all nonsense. You all say, ‘I thank God’— but where does He live? You do not know, and yet you are all going crazy about God."
Buddha's preachings are very remarkable. They relate to the human society even to this day. We also find Buddhism very similar to the Vedanta that Vivekananda had preached. We look forward to make a blog on that in depth some day. Till then, keep exploring the hidden Buddha within you!
Thanks,
Daksh Parekh.
Comments
Post a Comment