By Dr. Sajid Khakwani
In a series of articles, (which is going to be a regular feature) under the feature titled “Interfaith Dialogue” the monthly Tourism Scenario is going to start from this month essays / articles on religions of the world. The idea behind this series is to break the taboos, the bias and the prejudices prevailing in preachers and believers of different faiths. It’s demand of the time that different faiths cease to treat each other as adversaries and seek fraternity for each other as human beings; no matter what their caste, creed, color or religion may be. As in a garden, flowers have different colors and shapes but all have an ambience of living together, blossoming together and bear fruits together, fruits which give strength to our life, health and happiness.
The path adopted by different faiths may be unique and individual yet the basic aim of every religion is humanity, and a purification of soul through good thoughts and good deeds. The enactments of these deeds may be different but the goal of all religions, all faiths is the same. In our current issue while glancing through the pages of history Dr. Sajid Khakwani tells us about an innocent, young and a charismatic prince revered even today as founder of a great faith, and how this charming prince left his throne, his riches and his beautiful young wife to achieve “Nirvana” the blessed art of attaining happiness, peace and solitude in life and here after. A handsome young prince once left his princely life in Gaya to seek “nirvana” a way of life, an ideology which guides a man to an atonement of soul and helps him lead life by way of which he helps others, serves others and benefits others. It was the same young and charming prince who founded one of the world’s great religions, the Buddhism, a religion that has a mass following in many countries especially in the SE Asia.
There are over 300 million Buddhists worldwide. Like world’s other religions, Buddhism too has many schools of thought. The Theravada or Hinayana is predominant in Sri Lanka and SE Asia, while the Mahayana is most popular in China, Mongolia, Korea and Japan. A third school, the Vajrayana, has a deep rooted tradition in Tibet and Japan. Though Buddhism has largely disappeared from its country of origin India, yet the presence of many refugees which settled in India after migrating from the Tibet autonomous region of China and a number of converts from lower castes still can be seen in the vast multitude of populace in India. The basic doctrines of early Buddhism, which remain common to all versions of Buddhism, include the four noble truths: · Existence is suffering (dukhka)· Suffering has a cause, namely craving and attachment (trishna)· There is a cessation of suffering, which is nirvana; and· There is a path to cessation of sufferings, the “eightfold path” of 1. right views2. right resolve3. right speech4. right action5. right livelihood6. right effort7. right mindfulness and8. right concentration. Buddhism characteristically describes reality in terms of process and relation rather than entity or substance. Experience is analyzed into five aggregates (skandhas). The first form (rupa) refers to material existence; the following four, sensations (vedana), perceptions (samjna), psychic constructs (samskara), and consciousness (vijnana), refer to psychological processes. The central Buddhist teaching of non-self (anatman) asserts that in the five aggregates no independently existent, immutable self, or soul, can be found. All phenomena arise in interrelation and in dependence on causes and conditions, and thus are subject to inevitable decay and cessation. The casual conditions are defined in a 12-membered chain called dependent origination (pratityasamutpada) whose links are: – – ignorance- Predisposition- Consciousness- name-form- the senses- contact- craving- grasping- becoming- birth- old age, and- death, whence again.
Ashoka (also sometimes transliterated as “Asoka”), the grandson of Chandragupta – the founder of the Mauryan dynasty – and the son of Bindusara, came to throne in circa 268 B.C. and died approximately 233 B.C. He is chiefly known from the series of rock and pillar inscriptions, which are found, scattered in various parts of India and provide important information about his reign and policies. After eight years of rule, he waged a fierce war against the kingdom of Kalinga (Orissa of today) and was so horrified at the carnage he had caused that he gave up violence and turned to Buddhism. In his efforts to propagate Buddhism, Ashoka built shrines and monasteries and inscribed cardinal principles of Buddhist teachings on rocks and pillars in many places. He sent missionaries to countries as remote as Greece and Egypt including his own son, a monk carried Buddhism to Sri Lanka, where it is still the major religion. Despite Ashoka’s vigorous exertions of faith, he was tolerant of other religions. The empire enjoyed remarkable prosperity during his reign, though some Indian historians think that his policy of peace led to the downfall of the Mauryan Empire. He was soon forgotten by Indian tradition and only remembered in Buddhist circles as a great patron of the faith. With the deciphering of his inscriptions during the 19th century, he tookhis rightful place in world history as one of the most benevolent rulers of ancient history. Buddhist monasteries (the vihâras were and still are centers of education in Buddhism; the first mention of a vihâra in Karnataka happens to be in Banavasi. An inscription in the Brahmi script dating back to the third century C.E. indicates that a Chutu princess called Shivaskanda Nagashree donated a vihâra in this location. Hiuen Tsang, the Chinese pilgrim who traveled in south India in about 640 C.E., writes “Buddhism flourished and that there were many monasteries of both Mahayana and Hinayana sects”. This indicates that there were Buddhist populations in all these places at one time or another. From existing historical evidence it may be concluded that Buddhism did remain an important belief for nearly fifteen centuries in India, and has left a permanent mark on the native system of education and deserves special study for this reason also.
