A visit to Buddhagaya
by Dr. Narme Wickremesinghe
Mahabodhi Maha Viharaya
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IT was our National New Year's Day, 2005 and my wife Nirmali and I
set out early in the morning from Varanasi (Baranes Nuwara), the holy
city for the Hindus on an 8 hour 270 km road journey to Boddhgaya, the
holiest city for Buddhists - the place of the Buddha's Enlightenment in
528 BCE. We got a feeling of oneness with all religionists on this New
Year Day.
That evening we visited the Mahobodhi Maha Viharaya - the Most Sacred
and I am told the most beautiful temple in the Buddhist World. As we
entered the 8th century AD gateway, there to behold was the 52m high
magnificent temple with sculpture and statues on the outer walls, and on
a rectangular base - similar to Hindu temples in Sri Lanka.
As we descended to the base of the Maha Viharaya on the left were
Hindu shrines and indeed even inside and under the main Enlightenment
Shrine Room was also a Hindu shrine. Although this Buddhist Shrine has
existed here after the pass away of the Buddha in 488 BCE and King Asoka
is likely to have built a Stupa on his visit to Boddhgaya in 260 BCE,
the structure similar to the present one has been in existence only
since around 300 AD, but renovated and built on by devout kings and
monks. It was in a neglected and dilapidated state when the British came
to India, but with the support of the colonial government it was
restored by archaeologists, chiefly Gen. Sir Alexander Cunningham and
Dr. Rajendralal Mitra.
Soon after the entrance to the Maha Viharaya is enshrined a massive,
serene and compassionate looking Statue of the Buddha in the touch -
ground (Bumisparsha) position - calling upon the earth to witness His
Enlightenment victory.
This gold plated Statue was installed in AD 380 over the very place
that was traditionally held to be where the Buddha attained
Enlightenment and called the Vajrasana (or 'Victory throne'), and the
slab representing it is archaeologically dated to be even before Asoka
in the third century BCE.
A part of this polished sandstone slab has been removed to a place
outside the Maha Viharaya directly under the Mahabodhi Tree (Outer
Vajrasana).
Peepal Tree
In the quiet of the evening we found the area under the Peepal Tree
close to the Outer Vajrasana, a serene and spiritually uplifting place.
Musical chanting of the Three Refuges by the Tibetan Monks, at different
tone to the Sri Lanka Pansil and the scent of the incense offered, added
to the solemnity of the environment. This Bo-Tree (Ficus religiosa) is
an offshoot of the original which crashed in 1876 and replanted at the
same site from its scions by Gen. Cunningham.
But the oldest continuously documented trees from the Sapling of the
Original are the Sri Maha Bodhiya in Anuradhapura (brought by King
Asoka's daughter Sangamitta Theri) and the Ananda Bodhi in Sravasthi
(brought by the Buddha's disciple Ananda at the Buddha's command).
Anagarika Dharmapala brought saplings from the Sri Maha Bodhiya and
planted them in Saranath and Bodhgaya. On two evenings we sat under the
Mahabodhi tree in silence and contemplated the history of this Sacred
Place and the comparative narratives in our own religion. More of that
later.
Lines from Sir Edwin Arnold's poem 'Light of Asia' would make a
Buddhist's hair stand on edge:
'Then he arose, made strong by the pure meal
And bent His footsteps where a great tree grew,
The Bodhi Tree (thenceforward in all years)
Never to fade and ever to be kept
In homage of the world, beneath whose leaves
It was ordained the Truth should come to Buddha,
Which now the Master knew, whereafter He went
With measured pace, steadfast, majestical,
Unto the Tree of Wisdom. Oh, ye world's
Rejoice! Our Buddha wended unto the Tree!'
The reference in the first line is to the meal of sweetened milk rice
given by Sujatha to the Buddha whilst undergoing severe austerities in
search of the Truth, but which made Him undertake the middle way without
extremes - somewhat different to the 'Fast unto death', undertaken in
Sri Lanka to achieve one's desires!
The cave where He fasted can still be seen across the Neranjana River
(where the Buddha bathed in Bodhgaya) on the Dhungeswara (Pragbodhi)
Hills - again a very serene, silent atmosphere pervades there. The site
of Sujatha's abode in the valley is today an excavated mound of a Stupa.
Around the Mahabodhi Tree
The Buddha spent seven weeks in contemplation around the Mahabodhi
Tree after His Enlightenment, thinking of the joy of liberation. These
places are depicted by venerated structures today. The Vajrasana is the
slab under the Tree which depicts the place where He sat motionless
during the First Week of Enlightenment.
Former President R. Premadasa built a brass railing around it. Here
we saw Tibetan Monks paying extreme veneration to the Vajrasana and the
Bo-Tree in the form of physically exhausting dips.
In the second week, He chose a spot nearby to look at the Mahabodhi
Tree unblinkingly where a smaller Stupa similar to the Main Temple has
been constructed and called the Animesalocana (Unblinking) Chaitya.
In the third week, the Buddha spent His time walking up and down. His
feet are sculptured on a black stone decorated in the walking strip
beside the Main Temple and referred to as Buddhapada, and contains the
marks of greatness found at His birth.
The fourth week of contemplation is marked by the Ratnacankama
Ceitiya - the jewelled promenade shrine of knowledge, on the right side
of the Main Temple, where some archaeologically valuable statues are
found, and pillar in its is dated around 1000 BCE.
A tablet at the gateway of the Temple commemorates the Ajapala Tree
where the fifth week was spent. It was here that the Buddha told a proud
Brahamin that a Brahmin is a priceless, learned, composed and celebrate
one - not by birth, caste, race or religion, a principle that led to the
conversion of millions of Hindus to Buddhism in India in modern times.
Passing a broken King Asoka pillar there is a lake that has been
symbolically created to represent the sixth week when the Buddha
overcame the temptations of Mara (evil) and was protected by Nagaraja
Mucalinda. A statue under the protection of a Cobrahood is found on this
lake but the actual Mucalinda Lake is about 1 1/2 Km away.
The last and seventh week was spent under the Rajayatana Tree where
He gave some of His hair to two merchants, Tapassu and Bhalluka, who
accepted the Buddha and Dhamma and took the Relic to Burma. A tree from
Burma now stands here to represent that week.
There are several modern temples from different countries in Bodhgaya,
each with a characteristic indigenous national architecture, giving the
town an intonational flavour - from Tibet, Thailand, Bhutan, Burma,
Japan (several sects), China, Vietnam, Korea, Nepal, and India. the
oldest is the Sri Lanka Mahabodhi Rest Hoses set up in 1901 by Anagarika
Dharmapala, with a tablet on the wall built by the Malwatu Chapter.
Sinhalese is freely spoken by guides, urchins, vendors and even in saree
shops - making any Sri Lankan to feel at home in Buddhagaya. There is
also a huge 80 ft. tall Buddha Statue that was unveiled by the Dalai
Lama in 1989.
Christian thoughts
Contemplating under the Mahabodhi Tree many thoughts of comparative
religion entered my mind - of course many will disagree calling me an
apostate and missionary at the same time. The most significant was the
fact that both the Buddha and Christ taught the Truth and attained
Immortality. It was after hard austerities and temptations of Mara, the
personification of evil, that Siddhartha attained Enlightenment - and
showed the way of salvation to all living beings.
The Lord Jesus Christ too was tempted by Satan, suffered on the cross
at the hands of evil people, and achieved immortality at the
Resurrection but with a difference that He carried the burden of our
sins and gave salvation to all humankind. The Buddha and Jesus Christ
were in their thirties when they achieved their goals. The Buddha was
meditating in a cave in the Dungeswari Hills when He realised the Path
of the Middle Way and then achieved Buddhahood under a tree.
Christ prayed and was transfigured on a high mountain, went to a
garden mount of olive trees prior to the Crucifixion and Resurrection
from an empty tomb. Indeed the wood of the cross is called a tree in the
Christian scriptures.
I was amazed at the birth story of the Buddha. His mother Mahamaya
Devi had a dream of a star entering her womb and His father called on
the interpreters to give its meaning. It was also a star that led the
magi to the birthplace of the Lord Jesus, and King Herod called on the
wise people to interpret it, and Christ's conception too was by the
visit of an angel to His blessed mother, Mary. the names of both mothers
begin with the letter 'M' or the phonetic sound 'Ma'.
At Bodhgaya, there is a shrine that commemorates Buddha's decision to
preach the Dhamma for "the deathless to respond with faith," and soon
after in Saranath, he told the newly formed Sangha to "Go forth, monks
for the good of many..... Let no two go in the same direction. Teach the
Dhamma". Jesus Christ too sent the seventy to preach the good news but
two by two, and His final commission to Christians was "Go into all the
world and proclaim the good news to the whole world". Buddhism and
Christianity are missionary religions, where its founders came to fulfil
what was old and not destroy requiring its adherents not merely to be
born into a religion but to understand, to be inspired, and to teach
others. The anti-conversion Bills seem to be contrary to the religions
taught by both the Buddha and Christ.
Sri Lankan connection
Seeing President Premadasa's railing on this national New Year's Day
I thought of the Sri Lankan connection to Buddhagaya. Of course, the
primary connection is in the third century BCE one Bodhirakshita from
Sri Lanka donated a cross bar for the railing round the Mahabodhi Tree -
the first known pilgrim from overseas. In the fourth century AD King Sri
Meghavarna constructed a three-minaret monastery from where the monks
and all pilgrims could reside and maintain the holy site - a virtuous
task continuously done by Sri Lankans till around the 13th century AD. A
Sri Lankan Buddha Statue from the latter part of this period can still
be seen, and ruins of the monastery was excavated by Cunningham. Ven.
Mangalaswamin was the last of the Sri Lankans to administer the shrine.
In 588 AD, a monk named Mahanama built a shrine and donated a statue
- the inscription in Sanskrit is now in the Calcutta museum. Two other
Sri Lankan donors around this time are Dharmagupta and Dharmatrasena. A
hundred to two hundred years later a lay person called Udayasri set up a
statue and engravings. Around this time another pilgrim monk,
Prakayatakirthi of Sri Lankan royal lineage repaired the Mahabodhi
Temple had a perpetual lamp burning in the monastery and performed
poojas for world peace.
It is to Anagarika Dharmapala (and the archaeologist Cunningham and
writer Sir Edwin Arnold) that the world must be grateful for having
found the holy sites in India, made it known, founded the Mahabodhi
Society and for encouraging pilgrimages. He and his family (Hewavitharana)
in fact built a Stupa at Saranath and grew a Bo-Sapling from the Sri
Maha Bodhiya there. His tomb and statue is at Saranath.
Thanks to Bank of Ceylon Travels, a meaningful itinerary was arranged
for us to go on the Holy Trail: Bodhgaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Patna,
Vaisali, Kushinara, Lumbini, Kapilavasthu, Sravasthi, Varanasi and
Saranth. The Buddha spoke of four Sacred Places for pilgrimage: Lumbini
(birth), Bodhgaya (Enlightenment), Saranath (Preaching) and Kushinara (Mahaparinirvana).
Thanks to a gift by a former CMS Ladies College teacher, Ms. Sylvia
Goonetileke, we were able to read the Buddhist Publication Society book
'Middle Land, Middle Way' by Ven. S. Dhammika of Australia and
understand the significance of the places we visited. A tour on the holy
trail in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal and particularly to Bodhgaya is
an interesting and exhilarating experience. |