Sunday, May 26, 2002		Article

Buddha’s message of love bought solace to mankind
Thakur Paramjit

INDIA, the land of diverse religious faiths, has produced many saints, among them Buddha, whose teaching inspired the people to follow the path of Buddhism. Thailand has adopted Buddhism as its national religion. An estimated 94 per cent of the Thai population follows Buddhism. Young Thais enter monkhood at sometime or another to study the teachings of the Buddha.

A prince by birth, Buddha renounced the world and rose above all material desires to seek the ultimate truth. The sufferings and misery in the world disturbed him and he sought the root cause and remedy of all this. He did severe penance for years to attain the supreme knowledge.

It is said that the tranquility on Buddha’s face was such that people hurried to bow before him and seek his blessings. He radiated a feeling of calmness and peace.

Buddha delivered his first sermon at Sarnath. It is referred to as Dharmachakra Pravartana, the sermon that set in motion the wheel of law. He said ‘desire’ was the root cause of all sufferings. He preached the Eight-Fold Path through which desire could be brought under control. The middle path involves right speech, right work or action, right livelihood, right training, right awareness and right concentration. Neither extreme penance nor excessive self-indulgence is required to follow this path.

As more and more people understood and embraced Buddhism, his teachings spread far and wide. He asked his followers to travel and spread the faith. Buddha himself travelled to Urutiva, near Gaya, where he preached the famous Burning Fire sermon.

In this he explained that everything in the world was burning or being destroyed due to desire and lust. This caused misery and sorrow.

From Gaya the enlightened soul travelled to Magadh, where the king offered him and his followers shelter in a bamboo grove, which became their refuge in the rainy season. All through the year Buddha and his followers travel across the country spreading Buddhism and relieving the sufferings of the people. They used to return to this grove to relax during the monsoon.

Buddha’s travels also took him to Kapilvastu, his father’s kingdom. Hearing his sermon, his father and wife embraced Buddhism. His son Rahul joined the sangh and became a monk.

For the next 40 years, Buddha travelled all over the country, visiting places like Vaishali, Sravasti, Kushinagarh and Rajagriha. He deeply influenced his listeners wherever he went. The placidity on his face and strength in his words converted many to Buddhism.

The blessed one was now more than 80 years of age, and had become very weak.

He breathed his last at Kushinagarh. Buddha’s last rites were performed with honour befitting a monarch in the presence of the kings of states of the Gangetic plain. His ashes are said to have been divided into eight parts, one for each king, over which they constructed stupas in their respective kingdoms.

Buddha kindled the torch of wisdom and showed the path of salvation to his followers. His disciples undertook the task of spreading this knowledge for the benefit of mankind. With the passage of time, Buddhism engulfed far-flung areas, even beyond the borders of India. They built monasteries and monuments, which even today speak volumes of the sincerity and devotion of the Buddhists to their master. The stupas at Sanchi and Sarnath, and the sculptures in the caves at Ajanta, Udaygiri and Khandagiri, stand as testimony to their dedication and resolve to spread the faith for the purification of the human mind.

The adoption of Buddhism by King Ashoka was an extremely significant event and was instrumental in spreading this faith far and wide.

His son Mahendra and daughter Sanghamitra went to Sri Lanka and planted a sapling of the Bodhi tree. Working as missionaries, they spread the teachings of the Enlightened One.

During the rein of Ashoka, groups of learned monks were sent to different places to profess the faith. Thus, Buddhism spread to far-flung places — from Gandhara to Mysore, and from Maharashtra to the Far East, including Burma and Thailand.

Buddha was against idol worship, but today we find that the largest number of statues in the world are of this saint. Dedicated artisans belonging to Gandhara and Mathura schools of art exhibited their skill in sculptural art by producing statues of Buddha.

From a little-known place, Buddha began his journey to distant horizons to dispel darkness and brings solace to the mind.