The Enlightened One

                                                                                                                                         Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

                                                                

Arnold J. Toynbee in one of his American speeches had asserted that two men were born in the world who had a perfect understanding of life and the human condition and both were born in India: Gautama the Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi. When Gautama came to the Indian world the Hindu poetry , philosophy and myths were on their declining phase because the entire idea of life was monopolized by the priests, saints and Ashramites who had spread over the country preaching appeasement  of gods, sacrifice –Yajnas- and rituals of  penance to overcome mortal suffering and attain something called salvation. The Vedic idea of a formless life principle, the Brahman was materially exploited by images and icons of imaginary proportions. Life was almost a retribution for past deeds. Gautama too saw the same situation of high - low birth, power equations and penance rituals. He saw man’s suffering-old age, sickness and death. As he was kept by his father in almost a pleasure garden of plenty, prosperity, youth, pleasure and bravery as well as a wantlesss atmosphere, the contrastive picture of human sickness, age and death definitely struck him as the ugliest truth of unaccomodated man. He left the life of youth luxury and royal indulgence to seek answers to the perennial suffering of man.

But why did he go into the forest to seek answers? A modern renouncer has no forest to escape in to search for the alternative truths to relieve the present day suffering of religious strife,  clash of civilizations, terrorism and the fears of cyber warfare. May be Gautama thought nature holds the secrets of life. Meditation on life in the midst of nature may lead to some light to dispel the darker truths of living. The hapless dwellers in the pathless woods may give him some clues; the green senate of trees, the wild beasts and seasonal changes in the environment may vest in him new powers to see through opaque realities of life. Sitting under the Bo tree he could realize that suffering is life. No knowledge can help man to transcend suffering; it has to be endured in different forms from time to time; the master sculptor, Time, moulds man. But he could know the cause of suffering: it is desire. The desire for self fulfilment. Desire for pleasure, power and glory. The inner turbulence of body and mind is caused only by man’s desire for the projected needs of the self. To conquer this self- consuming desire he found the eightfold path, which basically means non attachment. By keeping oneself in a controlled state one can ward off all attachments to pleasure, power and glory.

Gautama became the Buddha. He saw life as individually self conscious in a godless world. There is no Redeemer, no Saviour. Man must redeem himself by forsaking the self for the life of a soul. The soul virtues are non-attachment, compassion and individual orientation to his reality. Life is not general, it is individual. Each individual must live a life of austere selflessness with compassion for suffering in others. This was definitely a very modern view of life and its novelty positively attracted people to embrace Buddhism.

But when he started preaching, teaching and practising his enlightened awareness of life and reality what did he achieve? Was it not another level of  unreality where men and women sit tonsured, presenting their ugly face to each other, just to attain the truth of pain and to deny the evanescent pleasure of life- sex, wine , victory in war, riches and their ilk? If one is awake to suffering, the internalization of that suffering is no transcendence. Awakened souls must create a new order of life. A flower must expose its beauty but if there is no one to appreciate beauty why should the flower bloom? Rivers mountains and the variety of nature teach values of love and beauty. If compassion is the only projection of the soul and abstinence is tranquillity how is man different from the inanimate things with which the world is superfluous?

Love is the greatest value in life. Love only manifests itself in compassion, tranquillity. Love too is a non-attached soul value. A man and a woman can come together by love; love makes life divine. If there is no divinity in anything, if heroism, chivalry, conquest pardon and art music, philosophy and literature do not reveal man’s love of life why should the species survive at all. Even if man is the most insignificant he can make life existentially meaningful by making his self a soul by love:  love for all values, valour, honour, renunciation and compassion. Life is not withdrawal from reality; it is a value addition to creation despite suffering.