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The President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu, arrived in Bodh Gaya today. As I write, she makes her offerings for peace at the Mahabodhi temple, the holiest site in all of Buddhism.
Currently, in the courtyard, just at the foot of the sanctum of the tree, the Dzongsar Monlam is underway. Dzongsar Monlam is the biennial prayer festival of the Dzongsar Institute in which an offering, veritably an ocean of offerings, is made to all the buddhas who have come before - the 16 arhats (enlightened elders) - and aspirations made by thousands of monks and followers of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, venerated as one of the greatest living teachers of Vajrayana Buddhism in the Rimé tradition, a non-sectarian approach.
The bodhi tree itself is replanted from a sapling of the Sri Mahabodhi tree in Sri Lanka, which was said to be a sapling of the original tree. It is housed at a temple built by King Ashoka in approximately 250 BCE, and it stands to this day. Thousands of followers of the Buddha perambulate it ceaselessly from dawn to dusk. Most chants are for peace, loving kindness, compassion, goodwill, enlightenment, and the reign of dharma. The chants rise in Japanese, Mongolian, Bangladeshi, Nepali, Burmese, Thai, Cambodian, Indonesian, Chinese, English, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Sinhalese, Sikkimese and more.
Such is the goodwill and harmony of these teachings that the visiting monks and followers, many for whom this is a lifetime’s pilgrimage, bow to each other’s practice when they recognize the chants and the varying traditions, and offer each other flowers and food or other offerings.
Though the Buddha is claimed by many, in all his various interpretations, schools of Buddhism, and languages, as the multitude of temples and monasteries built in the varying traditions in this tiny pilgrim town will attest, the message of his teachings remains unaltered.
On the road, a Hare Krishna contingent dances as it makes its way to the Jagannath temple in the same complex, and somewhere, a loudspeaker blares invocations to Goddess Saraswati on this, her seventh day of Navratri.
Religion is often blamed as the source of much hatred in the world. It has the power to make its followers fanatical and judgemental, divisive, and angry, and yet, if half the world is tearing itself to bits over the tragedy of loss that is happening in Israel and Palestine, another half is fervently praying, by the use of the self-same religion, to keep the peace.
The Buddha said, in verse 6 of the Yamakavagga (translated from the Pali):
Pare ca na vija nanti mayamettha yama mase
Ye ca tattha vija nanti tato sammanti medhaga
People, other than the wise, do not realize,
'We in this world must all die,'
(and, not realizing it, continue quarrels).
The wise realize it and thereby their quarrels cease.
What will prayer and chants, offerings and salutations do, one may ask, when one is dropping bombs on the other and innocents die by the thousands, needlessly? For one, they remind you, and the followers of any religion, of what is important. Human life, compassion, kindness, grace, and mercy. No religion teaches otherwise.
The jargon of each religion may be different, but the principle is one, that we summon out of ourselves an extraordinary oneness in the midst of the fractured mess of the world. That those of us who have access to a higher truth, power, philosophy, no matter what ideological slant it may be, have an onus to not harm, but in fact further the goodwill around us, in our immediate environments. That if there are some who egg on war and hate, there are others who urge restraint, reflection, and contemplation of higher values.
It is a signification of great wisdom that at a conflicted time in the world, President Murmu, the 15th President of India, only the second woman President, and ethnically belonging to the Santali community of Odisha, who is in Bihar to attend the convocation ceremony of the Central University of South Bihar, is making it a priority to make an offering at the vajrasana under the Bodhi tree where the Buddha is said to have gained enlightenment. Hopefully, it will signal that India believes in the unity of multiple faiths, that centres of spiritual learning can be hubs of peace for the whole world, that followers can offer obeisance to many traditions at once, and places like India have an onus as a country, being a repository of so many cultures and divergent faiths, to the protect the peace and light of spiritual wisdom that it may spread far and wide.
5 teachings of the Buddha to help you through life
- All composite phenomena are subject to suffering.
- All states of being are impermanent.
- All suffering has an exit.
- The development of virtues such as charity, patience, kindness, ahimsa, offers exit.
- Equanimity, non-reactiveness and detachment, are a way of life.
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