Complementary religions

Beginning from the last century, India has taken a new interest in its old religious culture. Many leaders of Hindu cultural Renaissance ...

Beginning from the last century, India has taken a new interest in its old religious culture. Many leaders of Hindu cultural Renaissance like Ananda Coomara swamy wrote and spoke of Buddha with warmth and understanding. This attitude is even more true of non-academic and popular circles. When J. D. Birla built the Lakshminarayana temple in Delhi in the Thirties, he did not forget to build a Buddhist vihara alongside. The recent Buddha Mahotsava Oct-Nov 1998 at Bodh Gaya comes from this interest.

How and under what circumstances Buddhism left India is a sad story. At a certain stage, India came under great physical pressure. Its temples and religious institutions were under attack. Vincent Smith tells us how the great Nalanda University and other Buddhist institutions were destroyed by Muhammad bin Bakhtyar in AD 1197. Dr Ambedkar adds that the 8220;sword of Islam fell heavily upon the priestly class,8221; the life-line of Buddhism and its most visible part when 8220;its members perished or fled outside India,nobody remained to keep the flame of Buddhism burning.8221;

True but not exactly. Buddhist monks fled but there were not many places to flee to, for wherever they went their tormenters were already there. As Smith says, the monks 8220;who escaped slaughter8221; found sanctuary in India itself or its neighbourhood; they fled to 8220;Tibet, Nepal or South India.8221;

Nor did Buddhism disappear in India as it is often held. Its teachings, its ethics, its yogas and methods of sadhana, were an integral part of Hinduism and they remained alive in the hearts of the people.

There is a tendency to make too much of Buddhism8217;s sojourn abroad. It was an important part in its growth, but we should not lose our perspective. Firstly, even in going out, it was blazing no new trail. It went where Brahmanism, the other tradition of sanatana dharma was already known and honoured. Secondly, its more distant excursions belonged to another period: to the period when this sister-tradition itself was flourishing in India and when Buddhismtoo had a strong home base. When Brahmanism became weak in India, Buddhism became weak abroad.

Throughout its long career, Buddhism8217;s relations with Brahmanism were organic and intimate. Many Brahmins accepted Buddhism as their own and were its foremost exponents and teachers; kshatriyas protected it; rich chiefs and merchants, often not Buddhists, built its monasteries and stupas.Similarly, common people in India felt warmly about Buddhism abroad. When it began to be persecuted in Persia, Khurasan and Iraq, Buddhist exiles found sympathy and refuge in India in the same manner as the Buddhist Khampas fleeing from persecution in Bangladesh do now. India has always been the Buddhists8217; spiritual home and when in distress, their place of refuge.

All this had a reason. A deep bond united the two. They shared a common spiritual outlook. Even while sojourning in distant lands, Buddhism remained established in the psyche of its parental culture without losing its capacity to interact with local cultures. As itwas concerned with the truths of the spirit, it did not appear exotic or irrelevant anywhere, nor did it become stale in the country of its origin.

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In all its activities abroad, one thing stands out. Buddhism was never missionary in the sense in which prophetic ideologies have been. It had the temper and tone of its parental culture. It had no heavenly mandate to convert; there were no invasions, no armies, no overthrow of local gods and cultures and destruction of their temples. Buddhism remained peaceful and courteous; it made many friends; it interacted with many local cultures, fecundated them, and set an example of good manners and good behaviour.

And all through, while it was active abroad, it was doing well in India too and held in high esteem. Even during the Muslim period, when visible Buddhism had to go into abeyance, it continued to be honoured among the common people. This feeling of reverence is unabated. Recently Buddha8217;s idols were found in Kerala. They were taken out, consecrated andplaced in the local temples finding the highest place with the main deities.

No wonder that now that Buddhism is 8220;returning8221;, to put it in current terms, it is being received with open arms and finds an honoured place in the family. No questions are asked and none considered necessary. Buddha and Buddhism have formed an intimate part of Hindu consciousness.

But there is one new important factor. Buddhism left India under peculiar conditions. It is now returning also in peculiar times. It is coming back at a time when Hinduism8217;s own self-understanding has suffered a good deal. During the last many centuries, India has been under attack, initially physical but increasingly ideological. The missionaries and the colonial scholars have been active. Under their attack, we have learnt to look at ourselves through their eyes.

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The attack has been internalised and there is a lot of self-alienation. Today, the Marxists lead the attack. They have borrowed heavily from the book of our detractors and added theirown chapters to it. After the collapse of Communism, they have no first love, but they still have their first antipathy: India or, more specifically, Hinduism which gives the country its identity and continuity and its civilizational principle. Marxists have no love for Buddhism but they try to use it in the service of their fond antipathy. To do this they have to distort both.

Buddhism8217;s orientation has been highly religious but it is now being joined by a new stream which is frankly political. They call themselves neo-Buddhists, or Ambedkarites though they have little understanding of what Ambedkar stood for. Ambedkar was a product of his age. He was a rationalist who did not understand the religious phenomenon. His problem was how to oppose an iniquitous caste system without ceasing to be a part of the larger culture of the land. This, he found, he could easily do by embracing Buddh-ism. The step was well advised. Buddhism is a precious member of sanatan dharma; and, in fact, in the last century, manyEuropeans have used the Buddhist route to arrive at the Upanishadic tradition.

So there is no harm in Ambedkar8217;s followers embracing Buddhism. It would enrich them and their basic Hinduism. Let us remember that the so-called lower castes are more Hindu than most Hindus. So if they embrace Buddhism and care for its spiritual dimension, it would enrich them and in this way strengthen sanatan dharma itself.

Ram Swarup contributed this article a few days before he passed away on December 26.