Miss Buddha (117 page)

In India, however, by 1900
Islam had only succeeded in converting a quarter of the population,
if that. Although Hinduism had successfully incorporated all
previous invaders and political conquerors within the Hindu
religious system—from the Persians in 6
^th
century BCE to the Huns in
the 6
^th
century CE—its powers of assimilation failed in the face of
Islam—the closed Islam doctrine and practice was (and still is)
simply too diametrically opposed to the openness of Hinduism to
afford any meaningful measure of blending.

One Hindu response to the
ever-increasing presence of Islam was political, including the rise
of the Hindu Vijayanagar kingdom, which held power all through
southern India from about 1336 to 1565, and the Hindu Maratha state
that rose in western India during the 17
^th
and
18
^th
centuries.

The rise of Sikhism and the Sikh Empire
(1767-1846) in the Punjab should also be viewed as part of this
response. Willing to use violence in self-defense, Sikhs took a
militant stance toward the conquerors, and fought back—something
that the non-violent Hindu had been loath to do.

Overall, the Islamic presence (and attempted
forced conversions) evoked a paradoxical Hindu religious response
that blended hostile rejection and active emulation. Mainstream
Hinduism, by necessity, withdrew into a defensive position where it
took cover under a layer of increased orthodoxy, at least judging
by the number of Hindu religious codes produced during this
period.

During the same period, at
the theological level, Hinduism saw the rise and flowering of
the
bhakti
(devotion) movement.

Bhakti

This movement of devotion
to Vishnu or Shiva had gained a firm hold in the south of India by
the 9
^th
century, and managed to sweep across the rest of the country
by the 17
^th
century.

Devotion
to the divine (
bhakti
), rather than
knowledge
of the divine
(
jnana
), grew to
become the dominant form of Hinduism, more than likely as a
response to these historical circumstances.

Bhakti poetry expresses love for the divine,
often in the forms of Krishna and Rama.

Modern Hinduism

Following the decline of
the Mughal Empire during the late 17
^th
century, the British
gradually succeeded in establishing themselves as the paramount
power in India.

British victory over the Sikhs in 1846
sealed the effort. By this time the British had made two decisions
of far-reaching importance for the future of Hinduism: 1813 saw the
decision that Christian missionaries could operate within the
British dominions; and in 1835 the decision was made to introduce
English as the language of public instruction.

These two decisions forced Hinduism to
confront Christianity and Western modernity head-on; while at the
same time, the Western world was, for the first time, exposed to
Hindu scriptures translated into European languages.

Movements for Reform

One response to this enforced encounter with
Europe was reform.

In the early
19
^th
century, the Bengali scholar Ram Mohan Roy—by campaigning
against medieval or regional Hindu practices that were
objectionable in the modern world—set the tone for this
reform.

For one, he advocated allowing widows to
remarry and he campaigned for the abolition of the relatively rare
practice of sati—a wife’s self-immolation after her husband’s
death.

While Roy aimed at reconciliation with the
West, another movement kept India from moving too far toward
imitation.

This movement was named after Ramakrishna, a
Hindu spiritual leader who served as a priest at the Dakshineshwar
Temple in the city of Kolkata (Calcutta). His reputation as a
mystic drew many to him, including Swami Vivekananda, who founded
the Ramakrishna movement after Ramakrishna’s death in 1886.

Vivekananda

Vivekananda, who was a representative Hindu
product of India’s new English-language education system, became a
Ramakrishna devotee and renounced the world after the priest’s
death. His message was a return to the timeless wisdom of the
Vedas.

To the world’s surprise he, an unknown
swami, turned up uninvited at the Parliament of World Religions in
Chicago in 1893 to present Ramakrishna’s teachings.

For this he won instant celebrity and was
hailed as a hero back in India for his vigorous advocacy of
Hinduism. In 1895, he went on to found the Vedanta Society in New
York City to promote Hindu philosophy.

Using mostly English in his work,
Vivekananda stressed the inclusive aspects of Hindu spirituality
over ritual and rules, and thereby sparked Hindu interest in the
West and as well as a revival in his native India.

India’s Struggle for
Independence

The
20
^th
century saw the rise of Indian nationalism, which contributed
further to Hindu self-awakening.

Thus, in the works of Indian philosopher and
statesman Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the Hindu tradition found
intellectual expression; and in the work of Indian poet and
philosopher Rabindranath Tagore, Hinduism found humanist
expression.

And in the life of Indian leader Mahatma
Gandhi, Hinduism found political and social expression as well.

Another important figure in the development
of what came to be seen as Hindu nationalism was Sri Aurobindo
Ghose. Initially, Ghose promoted revolutionary activism, but he
later withdrew to an ashram, practiced yoga, and chose to influence
his followers through his writings instead of violence.

Gandhi

Gandhi’s creative use of
nonviolence and civil disobedience on a massive scale (involving
virtually all of the country) under the name of
satyagraha
elevated traditional Hindu
values to relevance in India’s political struggle against British
rule.

By linking the elevation of the untouchables
with the struggle, Gandhi added social justice to his campaign; and
by raising social awareness within the Hindu tradition and by
lifting that tradition to a new level of political awareness,
Gandhi provided modern Hinduism with its defining features:
features that took firm root in a century of reformist effort and
half a century of political struggle against the British.

Although Gandhi’s movement succeeded in
securing independence for India in 1947, it could not prevent the
partition of the Indian subcontinent on a religious basis; a
partition between a primarily Hindu India and a primarily Muslim
Pakistan.

Contemporary Challenges

The modern age, like every age, poses
challenges for humanity and for the various religions that engage
humanity, and the aim of Hinduism has always been to enlighten (or,
sometimes, assimilate) rather than to convert.

The Hindu world-view of pluralism and
respect for multiple paths holds up one beautiful model for
reconciliation of religious conflicts, without calling for
conversion to any one creed and with each religion maintaining its
unique identity and practices.

This aim pays homage to its long and varied
history, and tells of its deep and sacred roots.

:: Buddhism ::

Buddhism, our last of five major world
religions, saw the light of day in northeastern India about 2,500
years ago and is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama,
better known today as the Buddha, the Enlightened (or Awakened)
One.

Originating within the dominant Brahman
tradition of the day, Buddhism soon took its own path. The Buddha
not only rejected significant aspects of Hindu philosophy, but also
challenged the authority of the priesthood, denied the validity of
the Vedic scriptures, and—primarily—rejected the sacrificial cult
based on them.

Moreover, he opened his movement to members
of all castes, refuting that the matter of birth has anything to do
with a person’s spiritual worth.

Today, Buddhism is divided into two major
branches known to their respective followers as Theravada—the Way
of the Elders, and Mahayana, the Great Vehicle.

Followers of Mahayana sometimes refer to
Theravada using the derogatory term Hinayana, the Lesser Vehicle.
Theravadins, on the other hand, have no derogatory term for
Mahayana (which in my view speaks a volume or two).

Theravada is dominant in Sri Lanka,
Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), and Laos,
while Mahayana has had its greatest impact in China, Japan (as
Zen), Taiwan, Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia, Korea, and Vietnam, as well
as in India.

The number of Buddhists worldwide is
estimated at between 150 and 300 million. The reasons a more exact
number is hard to arrive at are twofold: Throughout much of Asia
religious affiliation tends to be nonexclusive; and it is
especially difficult to estimate the number of Buddhists in
Communist countries such as China.

Origins

As did most major faiths, Buddhism developed
over many years.

The Buddha’s Life

It was not until centuries after the
Buddha’s death that a biography of his life was even attempted, and
in sources earlier than that we find only fragmentary accounts of
his life. However, western scholars now generally agree on 563 BCE
as the year of his birth.

Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha-to-be, was
born in Lumbini, Nepal, near the present Nepal-India border, the
son of the ruler of a lesser kingdom.

According to legend, sages recognized in the
newborn boy the marks of a great man with the potential to become
either a sage or the ruler of an empire.

Since his father preferred that he become
the ruler of an empire, the young prince was raised in sheltered
luxury, until this plan backfired when at the age of 29 Siddhartha
Gautama realized how empty his life to this point had been.
Renouncing earthly attachments, he embarked on a quest for peace
and enlightenment, seeking release from samsara (the cycle of
births and rebirths). For the next few years he practiced Yoga and
adopted a life of radical asceticism.

He eventually abandoned the approach of
severe self-denial as fruitless and instead adopted a middle path
between his former life of indulgence and that of extreme
asceticism.

Sitting under a bo tree, he meditated,
rising through a series of higher levels of meditative absorptions
(states of consciousness) until he finally attained the
enlightenment for which he had been searching.

Having now seen the ultimate truth, and the
path to its achievement, he began to teach, wandering from place to
place, gathering a body of disciples, and organizing them into a
monastic community known as the sangha.

He spent the rest of his life as an
itinerant teacher of his message.

The Buddha’s Teachings

As an oral teacher, the Buddha left no
written body of thought. His beliefs were first passed on orally,
to eventually be put down in writing by later followers.

The Four Noble Truths

The core of the Buddha’s enlightenment is
the realization of the Four Noble Truths:

The First Noble Truth: There is suffering
(often misquoted as “Life is Suffering” which the Buddha never
claimed). Instead, what he pointed out is that there is
suffering.

True, there is more to that statement than a
mere recognition of the presence of suffering in existence, for
what he said was that human existence, by its very nature of
constant change and impermanence, is essentially unsatisfactory
from the moment of (normally) painful birth to the moment of
(normally) painful death.

And even death brings no relief, for the
Buddha acknowledge the Hindu truth of life as cyclical, with death
leading to further rebirth.

The Second Noble Truth: All
suffering is caused by ignorance of the nature of reality and
the
craving
,
attachment, and grasping that result from such
ignorance.

The Third Noble Truth: Suffering can be
ended by overcoming ignorance and attachment (craving and
clinging).

The Fourth Noble Truth: The path to the
ending of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of
right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right
livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right
concentration.

These eight groups are usually divided into
the three broader categories that form the cornerstone of Buddhist
faith: morality, wisdom, and samadhi, or concentration.

Anatman

Buddhism analyzes human existence as made up
of five aggregates or “bundles” (or skandhas):

—
The physical world and
the material body.

—
Feelings, which are
either positive, negative, or neutral.

—
Perceptions, which are
identifications of what is sensed through the physical
senses.

—
Mental formations, such
as thoughts, imaginings, etc.

—
Consciousness.

An individual, according to Buddhist
teaching, is only a temporary combination of these aggregates,
which are subject to continual change. Thus, no one remains truly
the same for any two consecutive moments.