985 (Part 2) Musings on Gautama Buddha, on the occasion of his Birth Anniversary

This is in continuation of post No. 980, at this blog. Click here to go to http://problemsoftelugus.blogspot.com/search/label/980 . One humble observation made by ybrao-a-donkey in that blogpost No. 980 was, there does not appear to be a need to undertake a rigorous penance of six years for knowing things such as 'Desire is the root cause of misery'.

All the following are personal perceptions of ybrao-a-donkey, which are not intended to be imposed on others. There is no malice against Buddha or Buddhism.

The problem with ordinary human beings, is not lack of knowledge, but an unwillingness to mould oneself in tune with the awareness of desires being causes of miseries. Human nature is, it wants to hold on 'satiation of desires' like a dog holding in its mouth a rotten foul smelling bone devoid of any meat. The dog will continue to hold the sharp and hurting bone in its mouth, in spite of its piercing its tongue deeply and causing bleeds. Hence, if at all a person has to meditate, or perform penance, it will not be on knowing what causes misery, but on practising controlling and reigning of senses and the mind which are like uncontrollable horses tied to a cart.

Why do monks need huge pieces of land?

During the age of Gautama Buddha, approx. 600 BC, India had great swathes of lands everywhere, as population was sparse. There were forests everywhere, with scattered human settlements kilometers apart. Ordinarily, there should be no difficulty for any person to settle down in any part of the country, in any forest, near the banks of any river, by cutting down some trees. Most of the Kingdoms were City Kingdoms, with the king's authority ceasing after a few kilometers from the Capital City. That means, a person settling down in a forest amidst groves of trees, slightly away from the cart-paths, need not worry even about payment of taxes to kings.

Gautama Buddha was a Prince, of Kapilavastu City, on Indo-Nepal Border. He was married and he had a son by name Rahul. Yet, one night, he relinquished everything, and left in search of Truth-s. After six years of rigorous penance at Bodh Gaya (near Gaya City, Bihar), he had his hour of realisation. The chief essence of the realisation was 'Desire is the cause of misery'.

Thereafter, he went to Saranath, near Varanasi and started preaching his tenets, which have become popularly known as Buddhism. So far so good.

What has constantly-intermittantly agitated my mind during the last 20 years is: Why do monks need huge pieces of land? From the hagiographic stories woven around Gautama Buddha after his death, we have the story of 'AnathapinDika' (original name Sudatta) coming to the aid of Gautama Buddha. Related link: Click here to go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathapindika

As felt by me above, as forest and waste land was plenty everywhere, Buddha and his disciples could have settled down anywhere, near a lake or a rivulet, by cutting down some grass, bushes and shrubs, and trees. Instead, he and his disciples wanted to settle down at a garden like place called 'Jeta vana'. (Approx. Engl. equivalent: Garden of the Conquerer/Victor. The owner of the land, by name Jeta, wanted a price of the quantity of gold coins which will be sufficient for spreading on the field. As per the calculations, the piece of land needed 1.8 million gold pieces for spreading. When a price of this magnitude is demanded by a landlord to sell his land, ordinary mortals like us, would have cursed him within our minds, and gone to a corner of a forest and erected a one palmyra stem pillar round hut of 100 square feet and lived there unhindered. Instead, Buddha preferred to receive 1.8 million gold coins from the Merchant named 'anAtha pinDika' (One who lays ritualistic food balls to orphans who died. This act of Buddha does not befit an Enlightened Human, who relinquished everything in this world, including parents, wife, son.

21st Century monks of all Religions, in all parts of the World

21st Century monks of all Religions, in all parts of the World depend on monetary support from business tycoons, for their land needs to establish their Ashrams (dwellings-cum-hermitages). There are around 800 Districts in 29 States of India. Every district may have around 100 settled monks of all religions, called by various names such as Swamiji, Baba, etc. For their land needs they adopt the beg-borrow-steal approach. They establish relationships with bureaucrats and politicians, promise them to get some favors from God, and in return get some lands allotted for Ashrams. They establish relationships with business tycoons, to raise buildings, furniture, cars, gold idols, gold thrones, gold crowns, etc.

Can we say that Gautama Buddha was the pioneer and pathsetter for the Monks of 21st Century?

To come back and continue adding / deleting / modifying. सशेष. ఇంకా ఉంది.