Professor Dr. Sukomal Barua :
Today is the Holy Buddha Purnima, the most sacred and most significant day for the human world. In this happy day the Buddha was born at the Lumbini Garden in 623 BC attained Enlightenment under the Bo-tree at Gaya in 588 BC. and passed into Mahaparnibbana at Kushinara in 544 BC. The trice-sacred events of Buddha Purnima is of great significance to the mankind of the world. It is observed all over the human world as the most blessed day with peace, happiness, universal love and purity.
The Buddha, whose family name was Siddhartha Goutama, lived in northern India in the 6th century B.C. His father, Suddhodhana, was the ruler of the kingdom of the Sakyas at present in modern Nepal. His mother was queen Mahamaya. According to the custom of the time, he was married quite young, at the age of sixteen, to a beautiful and devoted young princess named, Yasodhara. The young prince lived in this palace with every luxury at his command. But all of a sudden, confronted with the reality of life and the suffering of mankind, he decided to find the solution- the way out of this universal suffering. At the age of 29, soon after the birth of his only child, Rahula, he left his Kingdom and became an ascetic in search of the true solution of the suffering of mankind.
For six years the ascetic Goutama wandered about the valley of the Ganges, meeting famous religious teachers studying and following their systems and methods, and submitting him-self to rigorous ascetic practices. But they did not satisfy him. So he abandoned all traditional religious practice and their methods and went his own way.
It was thus that one evening, seated under a Bo-tree, on the bank of the river Neranjana at Gaya, at the age 35, Goutama attained Enlightenment, after which he was known as the Buddha “The Enlightened One.”
After his Enlightenment, Goutama, the Buddha delivered his first sermon to a group of five ascetics, his old colleagues, in the Deer Park at Isipatana near Benares. The sermon was ” Go ye O Bhikkhus, for the gain of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the good, for the gain, for the welfare of men.
Proclaim O Bhikkhus the doctrine glorious, preach ye a life of holiness perfection and purification”. From that day, for 45 years the Buddha taught all classes of men and women, kings and peasants, brahmins and out casts, bankers and beggars, holy men and robber without making the slightest distinction between them. He recognized no differences of caste of social groupings, and the way he preached was open to all men and women who were ready to understand and to his own master, and there is no higher being or power that sits in judgment over his destiny. At the age of 80, the Buddha passed away at Kushinara.
Buddhist teachings were very practical and derived illustration from life. It showed man’s practical and moral life without the prevailing practice of rituals and ceremonies. The emphasis was on the character of men, all of whom were according to Him, capable of attaining the Buddha hood only by their individual moral practices. No one can pave the way for the other. Accordingly, no priest or the like was necessary here similarly, God had no room in his Dhamma- the casual chain, the Conditioned Genesis and the Law of Dependent Origination.
This is a fundamental principal of his teachings: “When this arises that comes into being: When this ceases that does not come into man is in a state of becoming and there is a continuity of individuality.”
Buddha says man is motivated to act out of greed, which consists of the desire to gratify our senses and sex as well as the desire to gratify our egoistic impulses. He is also motivated to act out of hatred which consists of the desire to destroy or eliminate what we dislike and also out of erroneous beliefs.
The Four Noble Truths is the kernel of the Buddha’s teachings. He said himself “Blind to the Fourfold Aryan Truths of things, and blind to see things as they really are”.
Buddhism is indeed a pioneer of all sentient beings. Buddha’s teachings condemn not only killing but also hatred and violence, which lead to the destruction of life-human or of any other beings. “A feeling of infinite tenderness for all living beings one must cultivate in the consciousness and in the heart the feeling with which a mother defends with her life her son. All living being are my offspring and I am the child of all” Buddha uttered.
Buddhism promotes the practice of Five precepts (Pancasila) to make a good human personality and good society as well as a peaceful human world prescribed by the Buddha i,e., not to kill, not to steal, not to indulge unlawful sex, not to tell lies and not to take intoxicating substances. It also teaches the moral values taught by Buddha, which help is abstaining from torture, adultery, trafficking, raping and robbing women and children, falsehood, slaughtering and violence, while peace, happiness and harmony etc. can be established in the moribund society. Besides Buddha’s universal theory Brahmavihara, the Four components i.e, maitree (loving kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy) and upekkha (indifference) can drive away all the defilements, misunderstandings, fundamentalism and unwholesome activities from the society. If human society, above all can follow the virtues and qualities, then the world would be the kingdom of heaven for all beings.
As Buddhism “There is a path to peace. Hatred never ceases by hatred; overcome hatred by love and compassion. This is the way of universal peace. Those who love me should show it by loving all. Conquer the greed; thereby one becomes the unconquerable victor. Every man loves liberty and freedom. Don’t interfere with another’s freedom.”
Therefore, at this crucial hour of the history of mankind, we consider it necessary to remind all people about the concept of Panchashila and Brahmavihara which are very essential at this moment. It is so essential only for that hence we progress towards this ideal and not regress that we go forward together as brother and sisters for the sake of peace and well being in the universe, without being selfish and taking sides against one another. Let us we think and we follow the Buddha’s universal teachings for making a heavenly world. Sabbe Satta Sukhita Hontu- May all beings be happy.
(Professor Dr. Sukomal Barua, Former Chairman, Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies, University of Dhaka & President,World Buddhist Federation-Bangladesh Chapter, e-mail:[email protected])
