Whenever we discuss great human beings who have left their mark in the human history, in the context of humanity, empathy and equality, Tathagata Gautam Buddha’s name is always mentioned at the very top. All Indians are justifiably proud of this fact. Anybody who is interested in spirituality, cannot help feeling enthralled, when (s)he comes to our country, a country where Tathagata Gautam Buddha was born. Philosophy and teachings of Tathagata Gautam Buddha have influenced the spiritual thoughts of this country so very deeply, that It appears as if the very elements of this country are steeped in Tathagata Gautam Buddha’s teachings.
Tathagata Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini on Vaisakha Poornima 563 BC. Gautam Buddha had such a staggering impact on Indian philosophy that Vaisakha Poornima began to be called Buddha Poornima in his honor.
King Shuddhodhan was Gautam Buddha’s father and queen Mahamaya was his mother. Since he was born after a long wait of 16 years after Shuddhodhan married Mahamaya, his birth was celebrated on a grand scale in Kapilvastu, then a capital city of Shuddhodhan’s kingdom. His mother, queen Mahamaya died within 7 days of his birth. He was brought up by his aunt MahaprajaptiGoutami. So even though he was named as Siddhartha, he started getting known as Goutam.
Later on, when Gautam attained enlightenment at the age of 36 at Gaya, he started getting known as Gautam Buddha, Gautam ‘the enlightened one’. Gautam Buddha passed away, on Buddha Poornima, 483 BC, at the age of 80. So not only the calendar day of his birth and passing away were same, but he also attained enlightenment also on the same day. Therefore, Buddha Poornima assumes special significance for all of us.
BharatratnaDr. Babasaheb Ambedkar believed that Buddhism is the best religion in the world. He explained why he believed so. Buddhism has three basic tenets: intellect, empathy and equality. Because of this, only Buddhism can lead us to end exploitation and inequality. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar further said, the day is not far when not only all Indians, but the world also would accept Buddhism.
It is worth mentioning here that philosophy of Buddhism emphasizes humanity, amity, empathy, and good behavior towards each other. Gautam Buddha was perhaps the first human being who believed that all human beings are equal. He was perhaps the first person to understand that differences based on caste, creed, religion, country, language are all superficial. He believed that we all should work towards treating everybody as our equal despite these external differences. Passionate about his beliefs, he prayed for the human kind:
सब्बे सत्ता सुखी होन्तु सब्बे होन्युच खेमिनो ।
सब्बे भद्रानि पस्यन्तु मा कन्चि दुःखमागमा ।।
Let us all be contented and happy, let everybody’s life be satisfying, let everybody see his way towards virtuousness, let nobody be ever unhappy…
Gautam Buddha had a vision that has been guiding human beings for millennia, to work towards the common good of all. But before we look at some of the main aspects of Buddhist philosophy, let’s discover more about Gautam Buddha’s life.
Gautam Buddha’s childhood, education and enlightenment:
As a prince, Sidharth lived a life of material comfort and abundance in his childhood. He was extremely intelligent. Unlike most children, who are interested only in playing, he showed noticeable spiritual inclinations in his childhood. He used to meditate for hours. Seeing this, his father Shuddhodhan recalled the prophesy of sage Asit, who had predicted that Siddharth would either be a king of a huge empire, or he would be a great philosopher and an ascetic.
Even in his childhood Gautam Buddha had a contemplative or reflecting nature. He was soft hearted and hated exploitation in all forms. He disliked needless killings of animals. These were some of the early signs of how and why he was to become one of the greatest spiritual leaders, and one of the greatest original thinkers.
Siddharth’s teachers were, the best available in the kingdom at that time. Since Siddartha was a precocious student, he mastered linguistic skills, grammar, Vedas, Upanishads very quickly. He also learned to meditate. Since king Shuddhodhan wanted an all-round development of his son, Siddhartha was also taught martial arts like archery and use of contemporary weapons. Seeing the signs of his tendency to renounce material comforts, Siddharth was always encouraged by his father to spend time with beautiful girls. Eventually, Siddharth married a princess called Yashodhara. And then in due course the newlyweds gave birth to a son. When Siddartha heard the news of his son’s birth, he said with little chagrin, “It looks like my son has arrived in form of a Rahu (Rahu is one of the imaginary planets that brings undesirable outcomes in life by its position in the horoscope according to Indian school of astrology.) to thwart my plans to forsake this comfort and leave my home to engage in spiritual quest.”
King Shuddhodhan heard these words and he thought Siddhartha said Rahul (and not Rahu). So, Siddhartha and Yashodhara’s son was named Rahul. King Shuddhodhan started believing that with arrival of his grandson, Siddharth would be settled in his married life. The first part of sage Asit’s prophesy would come true and Siddartha would become an emperor.
But it was not to be. Siddhartha used to go around the capital city, Kapilvastu, to experience firsthand how common people lived. He saw human suffering in many forms. He saw old men clinging to life when they had no purpose left to live, many people suffering from incurable diseases. He witnessed deaths, he saw abject poverty. Pained by all this, he decided to leave his home, and find solution for this human misery.
Even though this is oft quoted reason for Siddhartha’s renunciation of domestic comforts and yearning for ascetism, there are quite a few scholars who believe that these reasons, commonly cited for Siddartha’s decision to leave his home are not really convincing. Even Bharatratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar believed that though this explanation is most likely true, it is not sufficient.
Bharatratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, as befitted his objective way of thinking, put forth an additional explanation of Siddhartha’s decision.
According to him, Kapilvastu’s kingdom, called ‘Shakyas’ shared water of Rohini river with the adjoining kingdom of Koulya. Every year there used to be fights between the two kingdoms on fair share of the river water. One year there was unusually fierce fight between the two kingdoms.
A war council was summoned in Kapilvastu. It was decided that war with Koulyas was the only solution. Even though Siddartha had taken oath to defend Shakyas at all costs when he joined the war council, he protested against war. Siddhartha was a loyal member of the war council, but he was steadfast in his protests. He said “War solves no problem. A war sows the seeds of another.”
In spite of his objections, the war council decided to go ahead with the proposed war by a majority, and decided to recruit warriors.
Siddartha said, “Even though my loyalties lie with Shakya kingdom unconditionally, I cannot bring myself to fight this war, that is against the self interest of Shakyas and it is not going to solve any problem.”
Since Siddartha refused to participate in the proposed war, he was given options by the war council. “Choose! Fight with us, or accept death penalty, or leave our kingdom, or accept ostracism of your family.”
Siddharth decided to leave the kingdom. He had sought consent from his wife, Yashodhara before taking this decision. Yashodhara had agreed reluctantly. However, since she had to look after young Rahul, she would not have been able to accompany Siddhartha, even though she had wanted to. She assured Siddhartha that till her last breath she will take care of his parents.
Thus, Siddartha gracefully accepted the punishment handed down by the Shakya war council and with permission of his wife and in presence of his near and dear ones decided to leave his home and family. The year was 534BC and Siddharth was only 29, according to Pabbajasutt in Suttnipat, a gatha in attdandsutt and Bodhirajkumarsutt in MajzimNikaya. This important incident is more extensively described in Ariypariyesansutt and Mahachchaksutt.
Later in his life, Gautam Buddha told his disciples about him leaving his home and family. “Disciples, saddened by the misery of the human life, I wanted to seek nirvana, which is unborn, which never gets old, which never dies, which is without any pain and which never gets enfeebled. But I was facing many questions in my mind. On one side I had a wife and a young son on the other my old parents. My parents refused to give me permission to leave our home. All of them were weeping, their faces wet with tears. Still I went ahead, shaved my head, wore cloths of a sannyasin, left my home forever.”
As thus explained by Bharatratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, it is clear that it is wrong to say that Siddartha left his home without informing his family. His renouncement was not because of his experiences, nor was it because of his depression. It was a well thought out and resolute decision to seek ways to free humankind from the pain and misery
After bidding goodbye to his family Siddhartha went to Chhanna and handed over his ornaments and clothes to him. His cousin Mahanaam handed Siddhartha sanyas clothes and an alms-bowl. When bidding good bye to Chhanna, who walked with him a long way, Gautam Buddha asked him, “How far are you going to accompany me? I am following my own path; you have to find yours too. So please let me go. I have nothing left to give you as a parting gift, so please take this horse and go home.” Thus, Chhanna became the first person to be guided by Siddhartha after renunciation.
Chhanna returned to Kapilvastu and narrated his account of his farewell to Siddhartha to Siddhartha’s family. Yashodhara broke down in tears. Shuddhodhan was nagged by worry. How his son, who had been brought up in princely comfort, would survive in the harsh path of renunciation? He lost his heart and passed away short time later.
Attainment of enlightenment
After Siddhartha chose the path of pravajja (sanyas or renunciation of worldly comforts and desires and focusing on self-knowledge.) he ate only once a day and walked everywhere as befitted a sanyasi. To understand practice of pravajja, he went to sage Bhrugu’s ashram. He practiced and studied the rites of pravajja along with other disciples of the sage. He understood the underlying thought process behind the rituals, but was puzzled about the purpose of them. Was it for self-purification? Was it for revelation of true nature of God? Was it for getting supernatural powers? Or was it for finding the way for the betterment of humanity? Sage Bhrugu had no answers to these questions bothering Siddhartha.
To seek answers to these fundamental questions he left sage Bhrugu’s ashram. He later studied ‘Sankhya’ philosophy, along with ways of meditation; under guidance of sage AlaarKalaam. He found that ‘Sankhya’ philosophy was insightful, in the context of depth and spread of human thought then. However even AlaarKalaam could not explain to him, how the abstract Sankhya philosophy related to our day-to-day life. When he completed three ways and seven steps of meditation under the guidance of AlaarKalaam, Siddhartha went to UdyalRamputta to learn the eighth step of meditation.
After completing the study of the eighth step of meditation with UdyalRamputta, Siddhartha resumed his quest again. In those days, many yogis, sanyasis lived in Magadh region practicing different ways of meditation, yoga and other spiritual practices. Many of the practices were painful and challenging. Siddhartha Gautam became familiar with all of them. But he had not yet completed the test of vairagya (becoming free of worldly desires…).
Siddhartha started this test in company of 5 other fellow travelers on this way. Vairagya means not only becoming free of worldly desires, but also getting control on senses and bodily organs, practicing many demanding austere rituals, testing resilience and also fasting. Because of his severe adherence to the tenets of Vairagya, Siddhartha became very weak and thin. Once on his way to river Niranjana, he fainted. Then he realized that this type of severe penance can not be the way to freedom for human soul. Subjecting one’s body and mind to such a harsh discipline is not going to lead to any good for human beings.
As it so happened, when all such thoughts were going around in his mind, a woman called Sujata approached him. She had come there to offer Kheer (a sweet porridge made from milk) to a deity for fulfilling her wishes. Looking at Siddhartha, she offered that Kheer to him, and Siddhartha ate the Kheer and ended his meaningless penance. However his mission was not over. He decided to go to Gaya, one of the oldest cities of India.
On his way to Gaya he saw a great peepal tree. Somehow, he felt that under that ancient tree he will find answer to the fundamental question at the top of his mind: how to free the human kind from misery. By that time, he had spent about 6 years in meditation, penance and rituals and his daily austere routines. He had become very weak. So, he sought just enough food to give him bare sustenance, and sat under the peepal tree to get into a serious quest to find an answer to the question that had been bothering him for years. He was in a state of deep contemplation for about 4 weeks. And he transitioned through four phases. The first phase was related to churning constructive and destructive thoughts in his mind, the second phase was related to single minded focus on those thoughts and examining them. The third state was that of a tranquil and balanced frame of mind, where the lesser thoughts perished and in the final state, he attained the bliss of certitude.
During these four weeks he was assailed by self-doubts, unnamed fears, emotional upheaval. But he was focused on his destination. At the end of this painful but rewarding period of 4 weeks he finally saw light at the end of tunnel. That was the moment of enlightenment. He could see his past life in perspective, he could see his future clearly. He also understood the virtuous or vicious cycle of cause and effect. After seeing the light, he got answers to the two questions bothering him, why is there misery in this world and what would be the way to end this misery. The darkness that had been haunting him ever since his childhood was left behind. He could see his path forward. He was 36 years old then. The day was Vaisakha Poornima.
After his enlightenment Gautam Buddha said “I have been entangled in solving the problem of birth and death. My body and mind suffered. I underwent agony and pain. I was in search of a creator of this holy temple of my body. Now I have seen the creator. The beads of the garland of illusion have scattered forever now. I cannot restring my old illusions now. I am at peace. Because my desire to know everything has subsided.”
Sage Kapil was the main proponent of Sankhya Philosophy. The philosophy is based on stark rationalism. Of all the philosophers that Gautam Buddha met, he was impressed with only Kapil. However, he did not accept Sankhya philosophy blindly. He accepted only three principles from Sankhya philosophy.
1) Only those things that can be supported by objective evidence can be accepted. Our every act should be based on reason.
2) There is no evidence that God exists or he created world.
3) There must be a reason why human beings experience unhappiness. In others words the misery is as logical as happiness.
Gautam Buddha found the reasons for this unhappiness. He felt that too comfortable or too harsh a life, both are not conducive to happiness. He thought that the middle way, with eight guiding principles (which is called Arya Eight-way Path) was the only way to happiness. Moreover instead of working towards wellbeing of only few classes of society, working towards the wellbeing of the society as a whole will make human kind happy.
Gautam Buddha, while talking about his enlightenment, said; “I saw a very peaceful place along the banks of river Niranjana. I instinctively felt that this place would be perfect for my meditations. I meditated and attained Nirvana. I freed myself from ignorance. I also realized that this is my first and last birth. There is misery in the world, but there is a reason behind it, also there is way to overcome it. That way is Arya eight-way path.
After enlightenment, Gautam Buddha went in search of those five bhikshus, who had considered him a hypocrite, because he had consumed kheer offered to him by Sujata. He found them at Sarnath, Banaras. To set their minds at rest, Gautam Buddha explained to them why he abandoned his penance. He told them “There are only two things that we should not indulge in. Excessive attachment with material comforts and excessive abstinence and punishing your body.” (Thus, he was telling them that the penance and fasting is as pointless as undue attachment to worldly comforts.)
Gautam Buddha further told them “I have discovered a path to happiness. That is a middle way. This way consists of eight guiding principles. Proper vision, proper goal, proper communication, proper behavior, proper living, proper efforts, proper memories and finally proper samadhi.”
Impressed by his wisdom and clarity of thought, the five bhikshus became Gautam Buddha’s first disciples. They decided to spend more time with Gautam Buddha and get full insight into his philosophy. They also wanted to take Gautam Buddha’s philosophy to a wider audience. Gautam Buddha told them that as a first step on this path, they should not discriminate on the basis of race, caste, creed, religion…. They should only focus on spreading the feeling of universal brotherhood and equality. Gautam Buddha also started going on pilgrimages himself to spend time with people and share his vision with them.
In his days, most of the learned people used Sanskrit for writing their thoughts and holding spiritual discourses. Common people spoke Prakrit-Pali. Therefore, Gautam Buddha used this folk language for sharing his thoughts. His efforts lead to creation of an idea of religion. Before Gautam Buddha there was no concept of religion or dharma. In Gautam Buddha’s thoughts, dharma meant the right way of living.
Gautam Buddha then formed ‘Bhikshu Sangh’ to share his philosophy with people across the regions and countries. This led to wide spread popularity of his dharma. It spread not only in India but also all over the world. Kings and commoners, rich and poor, untouchables and so-called higher castes, men and women became his disciples in hundreds of thousands.
Passing away of Gautam Buddha
Siddharth left his home at the age of 29. He spent next 6 years in meditation, penance and pilgrimages. At the age of 36 he got enlightenment. For next 45 years he voyaged everywhere, living on whatever food he got as alms. He talked to people about his philosophy. After this nonstop effort of 45 years, to help people find a better approach to their lives, one day Gautam Buddha realized that the time has come for leaving his body behind and pass ahead.
He spent last days of his life in spiritual discourses with his disciple Anand. In 483 BC, when he was in his eighties, Gautam Buddha passed away at Kusinara. He was an extraordinary and unique figure in the history of a humankind. Dr Radhakrishnan, the first President of India said that “6 centuries BC, there lived a great human being. Nobody has surpassed him in clarity and purity of thought, idealism, austerity and genuine love for the humankind.”
Main concepts of philosophy of Gautam Buddha.
1) Principle of unhappiness or misery: Suffering is part of human life. But there is no need to feel helpless. There are ways to be free from pain and sufferings.
2) Reason for unhappiness: The reason for unhappiness is worldly desires. These desires lead us through cycles of expectation, happiness/disappointments and suffering.
3) Freedom from misery: Relinquishing the desires and yearnings is the only way to be free of suffering and unhappiness. Nirvana is nothing but a stage when all desires have been shed.
4) Eight-way path to be free from unhappiness:
a. Proper Vision
b. Proper goal
c. Proper communication
d. Proper behavior
e. Proper way of living
f. Proper exercise
g. Proper memory
h. Proper samadhi.
5) Cause and effect: This principle explains the relationship between yearnings and pain, it also addresses the existence and transience of world. According to this principle only causes and effects run our world. There is no external agency running this world. The chain of cause and effect as far as human life is concerned is as follows
Ignorance -> Upbringing and Education -> Knowledge -> Identity -> Assumption of six emotions [Lust: काम, Greed: लोभ, Anger: क्रोध, Pride: मद, Attachment: मोह, Covetousness: मत्सर] -> Sensitivity to external world -> Pain -> Desires -> Acceptance of fate-> Existence -> Alienation from society -> Old Age and death. This is the chain of cause and effect that lies behind the unhappiness. This chain is called Dwadash-Nidan, that is the 12-step diagnosis.
6) Principle of no-soul: There is no such thing as Atman, which is considered to be permanent, unchanging, everlasting in some other philosophies. This is one of the fundamental principles of Buddhist philosophy. As everything in this world is ever-changing and perishable, it is inconceivable and impossible to have something as an ever-lasting atman in our perishable bodies.
7) Principle of Karmvaad: There is a similar concept of Karmyoga in Geeta. But in Buddhist philosophy, there is no concept of accumulated benefits of good deeds done in the past, or carry over of those good deeds to the next life. In Buddhism the concept of Karmvaad extends only to this life and this life alone. Do good deeds and you will get the benefits of your good deeds in your current life. Do something that is harmful to the society, you will get the fruits in this life. In short, this principle teaches everybody to do what is good in the ultimate good of humankind. Everybody will get the benefits of the good karma in her/his life. But there is no carry-over of the benefits of good deeds to the next life as there is no next life.
8) Shoonyavaad(शून्यवाद): This principle is very close to nihilism. The world amounts to nothing. There is nothing in this world that is not subject to change. So, there is no true existence for anything in this world. In fact, Gautam Buddha said that attaining this awareness of nothingness is the true nirvana.
9) Anityavaad(अनित्यवाद): Loosely translated, this principle is about impermanence. Nothing in this world is permanent, unchanging or eternal. Everything had beginning and end.
10) Kshanikvaad(क्षणिकवाद): This principle is similar to Anityavaad. Everything changes, everything is momentary. Everything changes and becomes something entirely different by the cause and effect chain.
11) Vidnyanvaad(विज्ञानवाद): This principle is about rationalism. It states that truth has nothing to do with how anybody perceives it. Truth just is. It is up to us to find the truth. The truth can be discovered only by rational process of observation-hypothesis-evidence chain. There is no place for faith in this process. Buddha dharma is known as ‘Ehipassic’ which literally means ‘come and see’. Every truth should be proven by experimentation.
12) Bhoutikvaad(भौतिकवाद): This principle is about materialism. Whatever exists, exists here and here alone in our physical world. There is nothing beyond this physical world. No heaven no hell. However Buddhism is equidistant from theism and materialism. It shuns both blind worship of gods and hedonistic materialism. Gautam Buddha achieved a state where the common desires and selfish thoughts which make common people unhappy could not touch him. So, shunning selfish desires is the only way to be free from blind theism and material accomplishments and possessions.
13) Anishwarvaad(अनिश्वरवाद): Gautam Buddha taught us that there is no god. He also believed that there is no need for any divine agency for creation of this world. The world works on the cause and effect principles. He also did not believe that anything in the universe had any power to create anything outside itself. So according to Gautam Buddha, this universe has no place for creators like Brahma and other gods. Gautam Buddha accepted nature and its own cause and effects. In stead of assigning the ultimate power to any god for the worldly affairs, he chose to attribute it to nature. Gautam Buddha did not claim godhood; he does not even call himself a prophet. He liked to call himself a pathfinder. He never claimed any exclusive right on truth. On the contrary he invited everybody to come, see, examine, question and then accept what (s)he believed. That was his advice. No other religion gives their followers this kind of freedom. But Gautam Buddha did.
14) Nirvana: Gautam Buddha said, the root of the worldly struggle is the ego. Everyone should consciously eradicate her/his ego by using her/his intellect. Everybody should remember this root cause of all the pain. Ego leads to desires, desires lead to expectations, expectations lead to sense of self, sense of self leads to belief in the cycle of lives, belief in cycles of lives leads to regret about old age, death. When we refuse to get caught in this cycle, we start approaching true Nirvana. For those who achieve this nirvana stage, there are no elements, no consciousness, no nothingness, no heaven no earth, no birth, no death. Nirvana is actually forsaking our ego. Once we achieve that state then there is left nothing more to do.
After this brief introduction to philosophy of Buddhism, those who want to know more about this philosophy, Dhammapada is the next step. This book is considered to be a supreme in Buddhist philosophy. The contents of Dhammapada are based on Gautam Buddha’s own experiences. But Gautam Buddha himself has cautioned us all, not to believe anything just because something has been seen or heard, or because something is written in a holy book, or something that has been told by a guru or elders or people in position of authority, or has been taught as a part of tradition. Gautam Buddha advised us to only believe something that has been experienced, analyzed and underlying cause and effect behind the experience have been understood personally. And then, only then, if our thoughts after this process are in the interest of the larger good, we should cherish those beliefs. Gautam Buddha advised us not to blindly believe everything that is written even in Dhammapada. He cautioned, do not even blindly believe what I say, apply your reason to everything that you experience and believe only those things that pass the test of rationality and greater good of greatest numbers.
Thus, Buddhism is not based on belief on words, and texts and holy books, but is based on rationality and intellectual curiosity. Therefore, for the people who want to adopt unity, equality and amity as their guiding principles for living their lives, Dhammapada is a beacon.
In the world of unity, equality and amity envisioned by Gautam Buddha, there are no barriers of caste, creed, race religion, gender, financial status. Nothing but humanity and love for fellow human-beings matter. Bhadant Anand Koushalyan says, “if you are permitted to have only one book for your life, then there is no better book than Dhammapada. I believe that everybody who believes in equality, unity and amity, must read this book at least once”.
Following are some of the thoughts in Dhammapada
1) Mind alone matters: If somebody wants his/her family, neighborhood, society to be progressive, (s)he has to understand the collective mind of the social unit. Without this knowledge even best intentions are going to be unusable. When this principle is understood, way for the common good and even individual good becomes very clear. Because all human transactions originate from individual or collective minds. If somebody works at something or says something with selfish motives, the unhappiness and misery are bound to follow. If somebody works at something with the motive of greatest good of greatest number of his fellow human beings, the happiness is bound to follow. In short, only those thoughts which support collective good would be successful and bring happiness. Those that have selfish motives will always fail, however rational they may be.
2) Aggression never kills aggression: Even though there is inequality in every social unit, this inequality needs to be eradicated by amity and friendship. Hate can never be conquered by counter hate, but can be won by only love. So those who want to build a society based on equality and amity, can only adopt ways of friendship, empathy and love.
3) Intelligence always succeeds: Gautam Buddha said that just as a powerful horse always leaves a weak horse behind in a race, the intelligent people will always go ahead in life. Intelligent people are self-aware, and are wide awake while the ignorant are in stupor. The intelligent and hardworking people always are in the forefront of any social unit.
4) Be ethical: If you engage in your life on the principles of ethics, you will be able to influence people to join you on your path of greater good of your social unit. There are many fragrant flowers, but their fragrance can only be experienced downwind. But an ethical and moral person spreads the fragrance of his ethical and moral values everywhere.
5) It is essential to get wisdom and independent thinking: Anybody who wants to work for the betterment of society, must study what is necessary for understanding the problem that (s)he is attempting to solve. Without this knowledge all her efforts would be of no use. Its true that a lotus blooms out of murky water, but every murky pond does not breed a lotus flower. So, a person endowed with the deep understanding of the social scenario can only guide people to come out of the quagmire that they are sinking in. So, study and reflection is essential for any person who wants to better the lot of her/his social unit.
6) Without empathy anything is nothing: To get people to go on the path of unity and amity, sympathy alone is not sufficient. Empathy is a prerequisite. For the people inspired to do social service, empathy and love are primary requirements. Other things can be acquired but love and empathy can not be. One who becomes immune to external blows of destiny, and who has no desire to harm others, whether animals or human beings; is the true Brahmin in my opinion thus spoke Gautam Buddha. The one without any ill will, one who is disinterested in the human laws and human punishments, one who remains unattached by the desires, is the true Brahmin, Gautam Buddha further elucidated. (Of course, ‘Brahmin’ here refers to a person with purity of mind, clarity of thought and who exemplifies empathy and love. ‘Brahmin’ referred by Gautam Buddha here has nothing to do with the caste, granted automatically by birth.)
7) Equality should be a guiding principle of one’s life. A believer has to work with all the castes, creeds, races and genders. This will not be possible without a feeling of impartiality to all. And this feeling of unity and amity with all, should be visible in the behavior, not only in speech or writing. Only those are fit to be called a ‘Brahman’ or a ‘Bhikshu’, who irrespective of their personal circumstances, are at peace with themselves, who live according to their values, who are temperate in his behavior, who have no desire to ‘punish’ anybody. Everybody is born by his/her mother. So, nobody automatically becomes great by birth. Everybody becomes great by his/her efforts and achievements in life. Nobody becomes a brahmin just by growing hair and beard, or by gothram or by birth. One who cherishes truth and proper way to behave is a Brahmin.
Dhammapada is very inspiring for those who want to get into social service. Acharya Vinoba Bhave said, “There is not even a trace of aggression in Dhammapada. What pervades Dhammapada is pure equality and empathy. Gautam Buddha does not discriminate between Brahman (Hinduism), Bhikshu (Buddhist) and Arihant (Jain). In his view they are all same, if they cherish truth and purity of thought. Vinoba Bhave further said, one who has assimilated the thoughts expressed in Dhammapada, can never be narrow minded. Equality and empathy naturally become his/her second nature.”
So, we all must note what Vinoba Bhave said. Gautam Buddha was the greatest gift to the humankind from India. He truly represents Indian society and Indian way of thought. Even though there are many philosophical schools of thought, Gautam Buddha’s philosophy is one of the best and hence rightly adopted by India and the world.
(Author: Dr. Ishwar Nandapure)
(Original Article is in Marathi. Translated into English by: Sunil Dandekar)