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Thursday, November 7, 2024

An Enthusiast’s Estimation of the Buddha

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Subash Singh Parajuli

What did the Buddha actually teach during his existence? Who is he: a theist or an atheist? How is Buddha consider as great, and how did he gain grandeur throughout the world? For those seeking an answer to these questions and to for those willing to haven an understand of the essence of the Buddha and Buddhism as an important part of the world’s nonviolent religious and cultural heritage and practices, The Buddha: Great and Grandeur written by Ghana Shyam Rajkarnikar, and published by Brosis Publishers and Distributors, India can be a perfect book.  It helps readers visualize Buddha’s anecdotes, discourses and morale guidance.

The author’s purpose is to state the philosophy of Buddha’s benevolence, essence of nonviolence, necessity of Four Fold Paths and his Preachings in the modern world and demonstrate how the Buddha discovered a new pathway for the betterment of human beings. These things are particularly focused in this book. The author  examines through layers of devout and theological speculations,  much with anecdotes and discourses he read in Buddha’s chronicles and articles, and most of them are solely observed and heard during his visits to many ashrams, dharmasalas, monasteries and Vipassana centers which are presented  clearly and concisely in the forms of essays. The real humanly significant roots and permanent values of many aspects of Buddha’s thoughts and perceptions, their essence  and realization are beautifully narrated through many short fables in this book. How compassion, love, friendliness and nonviolence became assets of Buddha’s preaching as righteous things for every the humankind to bound in peace and prosperity in this mundane world is also wisely discussed in some essays.

Ghana Shyam’s book, The Buddha: Great and Grandeur is built around key events in the Buddha’s life: abandonment of family life, life as an ascetic, miraculous childhood events, the growth of the his lifetime events, an ordinary prince’s attainment of enlightenment and the evolution of a normal man into Buddha and the role play in spreading wisdom have been vividly discussed. The author narrates how he was induced for Vipassana and how the same became a stepping stone in his life to overcome his difficulties in business, and free himself from obsession and anxiety in life. Such things really taught him to get control over his mind and body, by dint of meditation techniques he was taught during his stay in Vipassana centre for many times. Through these key events Ghana Shyam offers readers the basics knowledge of Buddhist philosophy. His  book is of great interest upon Buddha’s lifeline and his preaching but is not without flaws.

Ghana Shyam is not a scholar of religions. Yet,  he is thorough in his research, and explores religions systematically before striking his pen on the paper.  Nonetheless, he is not a religious scholar or a Buddhist, let alone a Buddhist scholar. He has mostly focused on chronicles, dates and events pertaining to the lifetime of the Buddha very significantly. The Buddha is easy to be read, and is sure to be read by many. For this reason, the strengths and weaknesses of Ghana Shyam book on the life of the Buddha, as he manifests in The Buddha: Great and Grandeur definitely draws special attention of all types of readers to gain knowledge about Buddha and Buddhism.

Sometimes the author wanders off the topic.  Early on, he provides information about world religions, but that is peripheral to the Buddha’s life. There also are and some parts irrelevant to Buddhist philosophy.  Sometimes his understanding of these diverse religious traditions appears minimal. The Buddha leads readers to believe that Buddhism is not in debt to earlier peoples and their beliefs or traditions but it remains as way of attending salvation. 

The author introduces readers with dukkha, dhammasamyak sambuddha, diksha, sangha, shaasta, bhante, Dalit, sadhaka, samadhi, tantriks and things like that using some Nepali and  Pali terms liberally.  For non-scholars, his use of Pali may lend credence to the common claim that he is a good religious scholar, but the plethora of such terms makes the reading somewhat tiresome and difficult for those unfamiliar with Buddhist terms. 

The more serious difficulties in Buddha are two-fold.  First, Ghana Shyam fails to commit to either a Mahayana or a Theravada point of view.  Consequently, the readers can experience Gautama Buddha both as a man who gained extremely important spiritual knowledge through persistence and diligence, and also as one of many god-like Buddhas. In some passages, the Buddha is portrayed as a mere man—though an exceptional one—on a spiritual quest, while in other passages the Buddha becomes a much more fantastic being, as when the author notes that the Buddha gained enlightenment on the very spot where all other gods  had positioned themselves as supreme. 

 The author has mostly annexed Buddha’s enlightenment and his preaching with ancient fables very randomly from an insider’s faith-perspective to a scholar’s skepticism and then to an outside observer’s reaction. He explains the miracle associated with the young girl Kisha Gautami, explaining how she becomes fortunate to have a rich husband and later suffers with the death of her son. With the dead body of her son, she rushes towards the Buddha to get him restored to life. Though enlightened, how could the Buddha restored the child to life? Such an event could not have occurred, therefore, that part is, even in the original myth ‘certainly fictional’.

This book informs readers of some of the basics of the Buddha’s life and teaching in a lively and readable style. It certainly evokes interest upon a great religious tradition in Buddha’s preaching that is widely practiced in South East Asia, Far East, and its vicinity and continues to hold considerable interest in the Western world too. For those who have very great faith and belief in Buddha’s life and Buddhism, this book will be a worthy selection for multiple reasons.

[Reviewer Parajuli is a Nepali poet and educator. He has published three anthologies of poems in English: Mystic Myth, Soil on Pyre and Sympathy of Life. He lives in Kathmandu.]

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