Buddhist Spectrum

Establishment of Maha Bodhi Society

Priyanka KURUGALA

Ven Dodangoda Rewatha Thera is currently the General Secretary of Mahabodhi Society, India, also holding the position of Chief Sanghanayaka of India. He is in the forefront re-breathing life into Anagarika Dharmapala’s mission of protecting Buddhism. Daily News Buddhist Spectrum spoke to him with the objective of tracing the roots of Maha Bodhi Society, India.

Pilgrims fond of visiting the Buddha’s land now have a number of facilities. They have proper accommodation too. A century ago, however, when Anagarika Dharmapala initiated his mission, things were in a dire situation. Pilgrims had quite a lot of difficulties to face.

From Calcutta he traveled to Varanasi by train. When he reached the destination, Anagarika Dharmapala could see a flock of bull carts carrying broken building materials. He inquired and knew the materials were the remains of Moolagandhakuti temple. The remains were being transported to be reused to build houses.

Anagarika Dharmapala was shocked! He sat down on the ground and wept, it is said.

He was determined to protect the sacred site from Buddhist infidels. The site was covered by thick forests. Dhammika Chithya was the only significant point of the area. It had no proper accommodation. Young Dharmapala could locate a big Nuga tree in close proximity to the Dhammika Chithya. He selected this place as his accommodation for the first night in India. Then Anagarika Dharmapala wrote a letter to his mother pleading her blessing to rescue the Bodh Gaya. He required family wealth to work on the rescue mission.

It was no piece of cake to reach Bodh Gaya at the time. The place was governed by Krishna Dayal Giri Mahantha, a Hindu priest. Dharmapala was not allowed entry. At last he was allowed when he accompanied two monks: Japanese and Sri Lankan. He was further shocked to see what had occurred in the temple. Mahantha had completely changed a Buddha statue. It had been remoulded into Hindu icons such as earrings. Next to the statue was a Shiva Lingam meant to invoke blessings on Hindus.

Dharmpala recited Sathipattana sutta in front of the Vajrasana of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi. He made a firm resolution that he would protect this sacred Buddhist site for the Buddhists all over the world.

Following Asoka’s empire, India did not have a Buddhist leader for 800 years. Every Buddhist temple was taken advantage of by Mongol empires and the situation led to massive Hindu domination. Upon hearing Colonel Henry Olcott’s speeches, young Dharmapala was keen to go to India and sight the remains of sacred cities.

Dharmapala had serious discussions with Ven Hikkaduwe Sumangala Thera. They established the Indian Mahabodi Society in 1891. He appointed members for each country to interpret as an agent of the Mahabodhi Society to rescue the Gaya for Buddhists. He failed, for the first time, and did not get sufficient support from other countries.

He cased a file in the court of Gaya, but the judgment was not in his favour. He appealed another time. The Hindus, led by Mahantha, were of the opinion that the Buddha a ghost of Vishnu, hence Gaya is property of Hinduism.

Meanwhile the first Indian President Rajendra Prasad appointed a committee with the participation of four Buddhists and four Hindus to solve this problem. The verdict was that the site belongs to Buddhists as well as Hindus. The committee is in charge of the society to date.

It was only Rabindranath Tagore who directly supported the Buddhist mission. In 2002 the UNESCO proclaimed this site as a world heritage. A Brahman family in Calcutta, called Mukardhi, offered great support to Dharmapala. That Dharmapala worked against the Hindus is an incorrect impression. He only wanted to rescue a sacred Buddhist site from harmful Hindu infiltrations.

Even after becoming a monk Ven Devamitta could not see the results of his efforts. He constantly fell prey to Hindu assaults. He was imprisoned too. Even Sri Lankan Buddhists attacked him. It took a long time to see the modern Bodh Gaya available with many facilities to Buddhist pilgrims.

But how many people have paid their attention and gratitude to Anagarika Dharmapala? At present, most of pilgrims have lost their religious targets and activities. Their aims lie on Business and shopping purposes. Buddhists hardly know they are Buddhists - or at least their Buddhist role. There may be ceremonial Buddhists in India, but there is hardly any Buddhist in Bodh Gaya. There are three kinds of Buddhists in India: traditional, Mahayana and Ambedkar Buddhists. Around 45 percent Indians are Buddhists. They need monks’ guidance, and accordingly they respect the monks too. They accept monks with grace and discuss their daily problems with them.

Maha Bodhi Society has attempted to fulfill this vacuum by encouraging Buddhist monks to visit India to continue the Dharmapala mission. But the crux of the issue is most monks are not equipped with thorough knowledge on the Buddha’s teachings nor do they have excellence of practice. Both are essential for dedication to the mission. To make things worse, they do not have a good language command too.

The Society has drawn up a plan to train a number of monks to work on the mission and carry on Dharmapala’s message to posterity.

Validity of wholesome and unwholesome kamma

Rajah Kuruppu

An important part of the Dhamma is the Law of Kamma, the Law of Action and Reaction. Broadly stated, under this Law, wholesome actions lead to pleasant experiences and unwholesome actions result in unpleasant and painful consequences. The Buddha emphasized the importance of cetana or intention as the foremost factor in this Law. The intention of any action, verbal, physical or mental, is important from the Buddhist perspective. For this reason, the Buddha declared as follows. “It is Cetana (intention) that I call Kamma, having willed one acts by word, deed or thought”. If any action is without intention, then Kammic consequences would not follow.

It should, however, be noted that Kamma is action and the consequent result is Vipaka. There is a general tendency to refer to both action and reaction as Kamma. Often, a Buddhist would say “this is my Kamma” when he is faced with a very unpleasant experience in life. But, it really is not Kamma, but Kamma Vipaka, the consequence of unwholesome action.

Kamma is closely related to the Buddhist doctrine of re-birth, for without re-birth, the validity of the Law of Kamma would be seriously challenged. For we know from experience that some people who lead unwholesome and selfish lives sometimes thrive in our society in this life itself. This is explained in the Dhamma as enjoying the results of good deeds of past lives, which could overshadow the consequences of present unwholesome actions.

An important characteristic of Kamma is that it is only the results of good or bad deeds one could take from this life to another. All our possessions and relationships cannot be taken to the next life since they are not valid currency in life beyond.

Dhammapada and Kamma:

The question is often raised whether the harmful effects of unwholesome Kamma could be overcome with wholesome Kamma. In fact, there are two stanzas in the Dhammapada, a collection of important sayings of the Buddha, which appear to contradict each other. The Servants of the Buddha Society meet every Saturday evening at Lauries Road, Bambalapitiya, to listen to a talk on the Dhamma, discuss the Dhamma and engage in a brief Buddhist meditation session. Recently, Dr Ranjan de Silva, a medical doctor who served with the World Health Organization in New Delhi, and a frequent participant in these Buddhist discussions, quoted these two relevant stanzas from the Dhammapada. The first stanza reads as follows:

“Na antalikkhe na samuddamajjhe
na pabbatanam vivaram pavissa
Na vijjati so jagatippadeso
yatthatthito munceyya papakamma”

“Not in the sky, nor in mid-ocean, nor in a mountain cave, is found that place on earth where abiding one may escape from (the consequences) of one’s evil deed.”

The second stanza reads thus -
“Yassa papam katam kammam
Kusalena pithiyati
So imam lokam pabhasseti
abbha mutto va candima”

“Whoever, by a good deed, covers the evil deed, such a one illumines this world like the moon freed from clouds”. To be continued

The Buddha, the sensible rationalist

Dr Prabhakar Kamath

He is arguably the greatest Indian ever, and one of the greatest thinkers in the history of the world. Most of what we know of him comes to us from various Buddhist literature, memorized, and orally transmitted from generation to generation, and finally written down nearly four hundred years after his death in 483 B. C. Even though he was certainly a historical figure, most supernatural events, and irrational beliefs attributed to him must certainly be due to embellishment by overenthusiastic later adherents of Buddhism. Most of the initial converts were Brahmins, who brought with them their Brahmanic baggage.

I am certain that the Buddha, a rationalist to boot, would have a hearty laugh at most mindless rituals practised by various Buddhist sects around the world. There is no dearth of hypocrites, impostors and opportunists in this world.

The Buddha was way ahead of his time. Siddhartha Gautama was perhaps over three thousand years ahead of his time. He was the product of the post-Vedic ‘Age of Disillusionment”. During the period of 1000-200 BC intellectuals of India were uniformly disgusted by the twin scourges of decadent Brahmanism: rampant animal sacrifices sponsored by kings and officiated by Brahmins; and inequities associated with Varna Dharma -the class system based on the theory of unequal distribution of the Gunas of Prakriti and Karma (comeuppance) from one’s previous lives. Upanishadism, Jainism, and a host of other heterodox sects across the board, which preceded Buddhism, considered the world as a miserable place to live, thanks to Brahmanism. They were all busy trying to discover a sensible method for the final exit from it. All these were like a bunch of cooks who were frantically looking for the nearest exit from a kitchen on fire.

Upanishadism and Buddhism

There is no evidence that the Buddha studied the anti-Brahmanic Upanishadic doctrines of Brahman/Atman and Yoga before arriving at his Four Noble Truths and Eight-fold Noble Path. The Buddha did not believe in Brahman/Atman concept. However, meditation proposed by him was nothing but secular form of Yoga, which later on found its way into the Upanishadic Gita as Buddhiyoga (2:48-53). Even though the Upanishadic doctrines were not available to the general public during this time (6th century BC) due to them being hidden by Brahmins as Shruthis, it is possible that intellectuals of north India had some idea as to what their theories were for the problem of Dukkha (sorrow) here on earth and Samsara (unending cycle of birth and death) hereafter.

We should remember here that the Upanishads considered decadent Brahmanism as the cause of three miseries: Shokam (grief), Dwandwam (restlessness and stress) and Karmaphalam (leading to Samsara).

Their goal was to dismantle the very foundation of Brahmanism, namely the Gunas of Prakriti and the Law of Karma; and to knock down its four pillars: The Vedas, Varna Dharma, Yajnas and supremacy of Brahmins. These were also the very goals of the Buddha, and he succeeded in doing so for a thousand years, thanks to Ashoka the Great (ruled 272-232 B. C.) who made Buddhism a World Religion. It will be of interest to us here that when Upanishadists took over Arjuna Vishada (the Original Gita), around 200 B. C. they incorporated many of Buddha’s teachings into it.

Buddha decries animal sacrifices

In accordance with his doctrine of infinite compassion for he suffering of all living creatures, the Buddha revolted against animal sacrifices, which had corrupted Yajnas due to greed of Brahmins:

Suttanipata: 2:7:23-26: But largesse (of the king) fired their (Brahmins’) passions more to get; their craving grew. Once more they sought Okkaka; with these verses newly framed: “As earth and water, gold and silver, so are cows a primal requisite of man. Great store, great wealth is thine; make (cow) sacrifice!

Then the king, the lord of chariots, persuaded by these Brahmins, killed hundreds of thousands of cows in sacrifice. Cows sweet as lamb, filling pails with milk, never hurting anyone with foot or horn -the king had them seized by the horns and slaughtered by the sword.”

The Buddha expresses his horror:

Suttanipata: 2:7:27-30: Then the gods, the Pitrus (ancestral spirits), Indra, the Asuras, the Rakshasas cried out as the weapon fell on the cows, “Lo! This is injustice!” Of old there were only three diseases -desire, want of food, and decay. Owing to the killing of the cattle, there sprang ninety-eight diseases. This old sin of injury to living beings has come down (to this day). Innocent cows are killed. Priests have fallen off their virtues.

“This is how,” The Buddha concluded, “Kshatriyas and self-styled Brahmins and others protected by rank destroyed the repute of their caste and fell prey to desires.”

The Buddha told Kshatriyas not to waste money on Yajnas. Kutadanta Sutta describes a parable told by the Buddha to a Brahmin who wanted to perform a big sacrifice. In this parable, a king by the name of Mahavijita decides to perform a great sacrifice, “that would be to my benefit and happiness for a long time.” Recognizing the fact that the additional taxation required for this ostentatious Yajna would ruin people and the country, his wise minister, a capitalist to boot, tells the king instead to invest that money to, “get rid of the thieves and robbers plaguing the country; distribute grain and fodder to peasants; give capital to businessmen; and pay government servants proper wages.” This quintessential minister concludes, “Then those people, being intent on their own occupations, will not harm the kingdom; your majesty’s revenues will be great; the land will be tranquil, and not beset by thieves; and the people, with joy in their hearts, playing with their children, will dwell in open houses.” Thus enlightened, the king followed his minister’s advice and consequently his kingdom prospered. This advice is valid for Indian government to this very day.

Ashoka the Great followed this example and acted selflessly for the welfare of all people in his kingdom. Whereas Brahmins used his negative image (of a fallen and renegade Kshatriya who abandoned Brahmanism and embraced Buddhism) to describe a pathetic Arjuna contemplating abandoning his Dharma in Arjuna Vishada, (the Original Gita, 1:28-47), Upanishadists used his positive image of an enlightened and energetic king who worked incessantly for the welfare of all people as their model of Karmayogi (3:20).

The Buddha opposed Varna Dharma. In defiance of Brahmanism, which considered Brahmins as gift of Brahman (BG: 17:23), the Buddha advocated equality of all people. Like Upanishadists before him, he said that a man’s character, and not his class of birth, should determine his status in life. Assallayana Sutta describes an incident in which Brahmins prompt a brilliant and erudite young Brahmin to debate the Buddha regarding Varna Dharma. The boy tells the Buddha to disprove the fact that Brahmins were superior to all other classes and true heirs to Brahman. The Buddha engages this boy in a thought-provoking debate, and in a stepwise manner debunks his claim and makes the boy come to the conclusion that, in the final analysis, it is one’s moral caliber and not class of birth that determines one’s status in life.

Those days thousands upon thousands of wandering sophists, known as Parivrajaka, roamed the country. May of them indulged in self-torture as the path to their salvation from sorrow and Samsara. Before he came up with his own solutions for the Dukkha (sorrow, misery) in the world, the Buddha tried, and then discarded severe self-denial and self-torture as the path of enlightenment. He disliked decadent Brahmanism on the one hand and rigorous self-torture on the other. So he developed the doctrine of the Middle Path -moderation in everything.

He declared that after 49 days of incessant contemplation under a tree at Bodhgaya, present day Bihar, he became enlightened, and thus became the Buddha -the Enlightened One. What he discovered was one hundred percent rational. All other nonsense we hear about Buddhism was grafted on to this teaching by various vested interests, which infiltrated his organization like a bunch of leeches in the course of several centuries. Any organization, however great its original goals might be, will be corrupted sooner or later by less noble-minded people.

To be continued
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Book Launch

Damayanthi Jayakody’s latest book Gauthama Buddha Charithaya was launched at Dayawansa Jayakody Company, New York, United States recently. Here the author hands over the first copy to New York Buddhist temple Viharadhipathi Ven Kurunegoda Piyathissa Nayake Thera, Ven Pitigala Gunarathana, Ven Heenbunne Kondanna, Ven Hungampola Sirirathana, Ven Okkampitiye Pragnarathana, publisher Dayawansa Jayakody and Uditha Jayakody participated in the launching ceremony.