BHAGAVAD-GITA

If Buddhists hold The Dhammapada in high regard, no less so the Hindus the Bhagavad Gita.

The Gita is an episode in the enormous epic, the Mahabharata, having been interpolated into the poem about the 1st Century A.D.  It is eighteen chapters in length.  In the form of a dialogue between Sri Krishna, the divine incarnation, and his friend Arjuna, the great warrior of the family of Pandavas, its significance lies in its endorsement of bhakti (devotion) as a true way of salvation and release.

The story has Arjuna hesitating at the point of leading his brothers and their allies into battle against the Kuru princes, sons of his uncle, the blind Dhritirashtra, and thus his close relatives.  Arjuna wishes to abandon the battle.  Krishna is his charioteer in the story who stands at his side poised for instant action.  As it happens, it is not Arjuna who goes on to act, but the Kuru leader, his uncle.  He is the one who now orders the conch-shell to be blown as the signal for battle.

Krishna states to Arjuna that his, Arjuna's, hesitation stems from his lack of an accurate understanding of the "nature of things."  His hesitation, Krishna goes on to say, is now an impediment to the proper balancing of the universal dharmic order.  Krishna warns that without action, the cosmos will fall out of order and truth will be obscured.

Krishna counsels Arjuna on the greater idea of dharma, or universal harmony and duty. He proceeds to tell Arjuna that the soul (Atman) is eternal and immortal, that any "death" on the battlefield would involve only the shedding of the body, whereas the soul is permanent. 

At the heart of the Gita is that the world is the play, as in drama, of Brahman, with Brahman playing all the parts.  And Brahman is doing so for its own purposes.  It is not for us to judge any aspect of it.  We are to keep Brahman ever in our minds, keep devoted, and understand that the world is going the way it is meant to go.  We must remain steadfast in our devotion to Brahman, and trust Brahman.

MAHABHARATA

The Mahabharata is perhaps the world's longest epic poem, consisting of over 100,000 couplets, including the Bhagavad-Gita.  Considered a treasure house of Indian lore, the poem is divided into books called parvas.  It was composed over a period of eight hundred years (400 B.C. to 400 A.D. approximately). 

Expanding upon and illustrating the truths of the Vedas, the Mahabharata tells the story of King Bharata's descendants, the cousins Pandavas and Kauravas.  The purpose of the poem, according to the reputed author of the epic, Vyasa, is to sing the glory of God, the dynastic war between the Pandavas and Kauravas merely providing the occasion.

BRAHMAN AS THE GROUND OF BEING

Brahman is referred to as the ground of being.  It may be thought of as the clay that a jar is made of.  Nothing of the jar is not clay.  The form of the jar is an effect of Brahman, what Brahman has manifested itself as.  Brahman is both the clay and the jar. 

AWAKENING SPIRITUALLY

When you are dreaming, you think that that state is real.  When you wake up from the dream, you see that the waking state is real.  When you wake up from the waking state, awaken spiritually, you see that that state is even more real.

FIVE SHEATHS

The Upanishads speak of the "cave" in which the Atman is hidden. This cave is the five koshas or sheaths surrounding it.  Beginning with the outermost sheath, they are the Annamaya-kosha, the Pranamaya-kosha, the Manomaya-kosha, the Vijnanamaya-kosha, and the Anandamaya-kosha.

The Annamaya-kosha is the gross physical body that is nourished by food. 

The Pranamaya-kosha is the subtle or vital sheath.  It vitalizes and holds together body and mind.  As long as the vital principle exists in the organism, life continues.  The gross manifestation of this sheath is breath.

The Manomaya-kosha is the sheath of the mind, which receives sense impressions.

The Vijnanamaya-kosha is the sheath of intellect. This is the faculty that discriminates, wills.

The Anandamaya-kosha is the sheath of bliss so called, because it is nearest to the blissful Atman.  The bliss sheath normally has its fullest play during deep sleep, when the mind and senses cease functioning.  In light dreaming and wakeful states, it has only a partial manifestation.  This sheath stands all the while between the finite world and the Atman. 

The Atman remains separate from the sheaths and unaffected by their properties.  According to Vedanta the wise man should discriminate between the true self that is the Atman and the koshas, which are non-self.  This discrimination is based upon the fact that the koshas are transient, ever changing.  The Atman is eternal and changeless.

UPANISHADS

The Upanishads are the philosophical portion of the Vedas.  The word upanishad means "sitting near a teacher," in the sense of "intimate sessions for the initiate."  In the form of dialogues, composed with memorization in mind, they teach the knowledge of God and record the spiritual experiences of the sages of ancient India. 

Of the 108 Upanishads that have been preserved (108 is a mystical number), the principal 10 are: Isha, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Chandogya, Brihadaranyaka, Aitareya, and Taittiriya.  Since Upanishads brought to a close each of the four Vedas, they became known as the Vedanta, "anta" meaning the end of the Vedas.

The Upanishads are, in general, agreed on one fundamental view, that the ground of all being, whether material or spiritual, whether in the form of  humans, animals, or gods, heaven, earth, or hell, is an all inclusive, unitary reality.  It is beyond apprehension by the senses, ultimate in substance, infinite in essence, and self-sufficient.  It is the only really existent entity.  It is called Brahman.

Some Hindu scholars claim that Gautama Buddha was profoundly influenced by the Upanishads, but when one considers the horror with which many brahmins hold him, this must be taken with a grain of salt.  On the other hand, the Upanishads do correspond broadly to certain doctrines later developed in Mahayana Buddhism.

VEDAS

The word veda means knowledge.  There are four Vedas, dating from the earliest period of known Indian scriptures.  They are the Rig Veda, a collection of praises in the form of hymns; the Sama Veda, also a collection of hymns; the Yajur Veda, a collection of sacrificial formulas; and the Atharva Veda, a collection of charms and magic formulas.  They are known together as Samhitas (Collections).

The Vedas consist of a ritual or "work" portion called Karmakanda, and a philosophical or "knowledge" portion called Jnanakanda. 

Each ritual portion is a collection of mantras or, again, hymns, most of which are addressed to deities such as Indra or Varuna.  The ritual portion known as Brahmanas is concerned with details of sacrificial rites and with specific duties and rules of conduct.  The ritual portion known as Aranyakas is forest treatises so called, which emphasize the spiritual interpretation of religious rites and ceremonies. 

Each knowledge portion comprises Upanishads, a term meaning to sit next to or under (a teacher), and also "secret teaching."

Practically all our knowledge of early Hinduism is drawn from the study of the Vedas.

KALI TEMPLE AT DAKSHINESWAR

The Kali Temple at Dakshineswar is a large building but the shrine which contains the image of the goddess is relatively small.  It affords room only for the officiating priest and just a few worshippers.  All others must crowd on the open terrace outside the shrine or on the marble steps leading down from it.

The reason for this apparent disproportion between the sizes of the temple and the shrine is that Hindus regard a temple as a symbol of the human body.  Within the body of the temple, the shrine symbolizes the heart, the seat of the Atman within a person.

The image of Kali at the temple is small, less than three feet in height.  She is seen standing upon the prostrate body of Shiva, who lies on a silver lotus of a thousand petals.  The figure of Shiva is made of white marble, that of Kali of black basalt.  Kali is dressed in red silk and decorated with ornaments studded with jewels.  She wears a girdle of severed arms and a necklace of skulls, all carved out of marble.

Kali is seen sticking out her tongue, explained by some as a gesture of coyness, by others as a licking up of blood.  She has four arms.  One of her left hands holds a decapitated head, the other a bloody sword.  One of her right hands confers blessings on her devotees, the other is raised in a gesture signifying "be without fear."  This gesture of "be without fear" is similar to one found on statues of the Buddha.

Since she is shown standing upon his prostrate body, it is sometimes incorrectly said that Kali has conquered and destroyed Shiva.  Ramakrishna explained the real meaning of their relationship this way.  Kali stands on Shiva's chest, Shiva lying under her feet like a corpse; Kali's eyes are fixed on Shiva.  This simply denotes the union of Brahman with its Power. 

Brahman does not act, therefore Shiva, representing Brahman, lies on the ground immobile.  Kali, the Power of Brahman, keeps her eyes fixed upon Shiva since she can only act because of Brahman's presence.  Only through Brahman can she create,  preserve and destroy, her role on earth.  Shiva sanctions everything that Kali does, according to Ramakrishna.

DAKSHINESWAR

Dakshineswar is a small village on the Ganges River about five miles north of Calcutta.  In the 1850's, a group of temples within a compound there was built.  The construction was arranged for by a wealthy woman of the sudra caste (laborers and servants) named Rani Rasmani. 

She had built a Kali temple, twelve small Shiva temples, and the Radhakanta (Sri Krishna) temple.  A Chosen Ideal is that aspect of the Godhead selected by a spiritual aspirant for devotion, and the Rani's Chosen Ideal was Kali. The Kali temple became the most famous of the temples. 

The Rani engaged Ramkumar (1805-1856), the oldest brother of Sri Ramakrishna, as priest of the Kali temple.  This followed the dedication of the temple in 1855.  In this way, she was instrumental in bringing Ramakrishna to Dakshineswar.  She wanted Ramakrishna to be her spiritual guide.

Just north of the northernmost Shiva temple is the room which Sri Ramakrishna occupied for much of his life. 

Regarding the Radhakanta temple, both Ramakrishna and his brother served as priests there at one point.  When on one occasion the image of the deity was damaged, Ramakrishna personally repaired it.

TANTRA

Tantra is a religious philosophy according to which Shakti is typically the main deity worshiped, and the universe is regarded as the divine play of Shakti and Shiva. Shakti is the mother aspect of the Godhead while Shiva is the father aspect.

The word Tantra applies as well to any of the scriptures commonly identified with the worship of Shakti. Tantra deals mainly with spiritual practices and ritual forms of worship, the goal of which is liberation from ignorance. The intended result is the direct knowledge that the individual soul and the Godhead (Shakti/Shiva) are one.

Besides the Shakti Tantras, there are also Buddhist and Vaishnava Tantras. In the Vaishnava sect, devotion is to God as Vishnu.

BHAIRAVI BRAHMANI

Bhairavi Brahmani, also known as Brahmani or the Bhairavi, was a wandering nun whose birth name was Yogeshvari.  "Bhairavi" means a nun of the Tantric sect.  "Brahmani" means a Brahmin woman; she was from a Brahmin family from the district of Jessore in Bengal.

It is not known if the Bhairavi was ever married, or under what circumstances she decided to renounce the life of the world and become a wanderer.

In 1861, she initiated Sri Ramakrishna into the disciplines of Tantra and was the first to proclaim him an avatar.  In this way, she played an important part in the initial spiritual development of Ramakrishna. 

RAMAKRISHNA ON GOD

When asked, "Does God  really exist?" Sri Ramakrishna replied, "You don't see the stars in the daytime, but that does not mean that the stars do not exist."

GIRISH CHANDRA GHOSH

Girish Chandra Ghosh (1844-1912) was a householder-disciple of Sri Ramakrishna.  Girish was a brilliant Bengali playwright, actor, director, and producer.  He wrote nearly 40 plays. In 1872, he co-founded the Great National Theatre, the first Bengali professional theatre company.

The story of his relationship with Ramakrishna and his eventual transformation into a renunciate is documented in the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, or, as it is known in English, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.  A good account is found as well in Ramakrishna and His Disciples by Christopher Isherwood.

Briefly, Girish, despite his talents and accomplishments, was a notorious libertine and atheist.  He had experienced many tragedies in his life, losing both his wives, two daughters, and his younger son whom he loved very dearly.  The son was only three years old.  It hardened his disbelief in God. 

Girish first met Sri Ramakrishna in the ancestral home of his neighbour Kalinath Bose.  Then on September 21, 1884 Sri Ramakrishna went to watch Girish's play "Chaitanya Lila" at the Star Theatre.  Chaitanya, who lived in the 15th century, was the founder of one of the Vaishnava sects of Hinuduism and was considered an avatar.  Girish said he wrote these kinds of plays just to make money, rather than out of any devotion to Hinduism.

Girish's first meeting with the Master there at the theatre was not very cordial. For instance, he saw Sri Ramakrishna in a moment of spiritual ecstasy and thought it some kind of a trick.  Sri Ramakrishna, though, went on to watch a number of Girish's plays in the months ahead, even blessing Binodini, one of the lead actresses.

As it happened, Girish secretly always wanted to find a guru, despite his refusing to believe that any human being could be so to another.  He came to believe, however, that Ramakrishna might be that guru he was looking for.  Over time, their relationship deepened and Ramakrishna did indeed become Girish's guru, even though the road was rocky at times.  The relationship required complete self-surrender to the religious life, difficult for a complicated man like Girish to accept.  But he did, to the extent that Ramakrishna referred to him as "second to none."

SWAMI ADVAITANANDA

Swami Advaitananda, born Gopal Chandra Ghosh (1823-1904), was the oldest monastic disciple of Sri Ramakrishna.  He was known as the elder Gopal, or Gopal Senior.  For some years he was a householder employed at a shop in Calcutta.

After his wife died, he began frequenting the temples where Ramakrishna lived in Dakshineswar, eventually becoming one of eleven disciples to whom Sri Ramakrishna gave the ocher cloth of renunciation.  This was in 1886.  After the passing of Ramakrishna in this same year Gopal took sannyasa vows and became Swami Advaitananda.

Swami Advaitananda visited Indian places of pilgrimage at different periods.  In 1901 he was made one of the trustees of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, later becoming the vice president.

Even in his old age he declined any personal assistance, believing that monks should be self-reliant. He chanted the Gita daily and accompanied the other monks on tabla when they sang.

Swami Advaitananda died on December 28, 1904 at the age of 81, chanting the name of Sri Ramakrishna.

ODDITY OF EXISTENCE

It seems odd, very odd indeed, that there is anything at all.  Especially astonishing is that there is what we call "life," things that are alive.  Still, the only thing seeing it as odd is the human mind.  Existence itself is not odd.  Existence just is.  And it is what it is.

CHAIN OF CAUSATION

Whatever is, is dependent upon something else, called Dependent Origination (paticca samuppada) or the Chain of Causation in Buddhism.  This theory applies to the central issue in Buddhism which is suffering, its cause and elimination. 

Dependent Origination states: (1) If this is, that comes to be; (2) From the arising of this, that arises; (3) If this is not, that does not come to be; (4) From the stopping of this, that stops.

From this, the Buddha formulated his Four Noble Truths:

Dukkha: There is suffering. Suffering is an intrinsic part of life prior to awakening.  Suffering is experienced also as dissatisfaction, discontent, unhappiness, impermanence.

Samudaya: There is a cause of suffering, which is attachment or desire (tanha).

Nirodha: There is a way out of suffering, which is to eliminate attachment and desire.

Magga: The path that leads out of suffering is called the Noble Eightfold Path.

It is worth noting that in Buddhism there is no First Cause, nothing that explains how all this arising and ceasing began, or even if it had a beginning. Instead, there is an emphasis on things as-they-are.  Speculating over what might have happened in the past, or, for that matter, over what might happen in the future, is a waste of time.  There is suffering now and doing something now to alleviate it is the point.

PART VS. WHOLE

Why do senseless things happen?   The spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle replied that such things are like chips of paint from a very large painting.  What may seem senseless, such as the death of an infant, will not seem senseless when viewed from the standpoint of the larger picture.

But what is this larger picture?  Christians say that it is God's master plan.  It is God's Will when there is tragedy, and God's Will when there is triumph.  We can accept our fates more readily this way, even as the first thing out of our mouths when some awful event occurs is, "How could God allow this?!"

When something tragic, or triumphant, happens, Buddhists see it as the "mutual arising of opposites."  It is the nature of existence, what they call Suchness, that where there is good there is also evil, where there is pleasure there is also misery, where there is life there is also death.

They also view events in terms of karma.  Karma is the impersonal law of cause and effect.  If this is, that is.  If a person causes pain to another in his previous life for example, he will experience pain from some person in his current life.  If he shows compassion toward another person in his prior life, someone in his current life will show him compassion.

This is to say, Buddhists do not make God, or a God, responsible for what happens to them, insisting that the individual is responsible for his fate.  And, again, it is the nature of existence for there to be opposites.

JIRIKI AND TARIKI

Jiriki and tariki are terms in Japanese Buddhism that classify how one becomes spiritually enlightend.  Jiriki means by one's own effort while tariki means by the power of another, what in Christianity would be called faith. 

The Japanese character "ji" means "self," and "riki" means "power."  "Ta" means "other, outiside."  Jiriki and tariki have been part of Japanese Buddhism since Buddhism first arrived in Japan in the sixth century.

An example of jiriki is Zen, where the emphasis is placed on individual initiative and the need for working out one's own salvation.  Note that the idea of the individual being responsible for his own salvation is more typically found in original Buddhism, i.e. in the Theravada school.  Zen is Mahayanist.

An example of tariki is Pure Land Buddhism.  Here, the individual does not save himself but relies instead upon the Amitaba Buddha.

THE DHAMMAPADA: SAMPLE VERSES

Here are a few sample verses from The Dhammapada, reflecting Theravada (original) Buddhism:

It is not what others do, or do not do, that is my concern; it is what I do, and what I do not do, that is my concern.

Sit alone, sleep alone, be active alone, in loneliness continue the conquest of the self, even in a forest continue the quest.

Call him wise whose mind is calm, whose senses are controlled, who is unaffected by good and evil, who is wakeful.

Iron breeds rust, and rust devours iron, so ill deeds devour their doer.

Clear thinking leads to Nirvana, a confused mind is a place of death.  Clear thinkers do not die, the confused ones have never lived.

Like the lotus softly fragrant and soul-delighting, rising clear from scraps of rubbish in a wayside pond, the disciple of the Enlightened Buddha shines in perfect wisdom, clear above the crowds of ordinary men who do not see the truth.

The fool who knows he is foolish is wise, while the fool who thinks he is wise is hugely foolish.

No suffering for him who is free from sorrow, free from the fetters of life, free in everything he does.  He has reached the end of the road.

One man on the battlefield conquers an army of a thousand men.  Another conquers himself, and he is greater.

All fear punishment, all fear death.  Therefore do not kill, or cause to kill.  Do as you would want done to you.

THE DHAMMAPADA

The Dhammapada is an important, self-contained book of The Tripitaka, the Buddhist canon.  It contains an anthology of essential teachings of the Buddha, with narrative passages.The Pali version, which is the most widely known, has 423 verses divided into 26 chapters. Slightly different are Tibetan and Chinese versions. 

The verses date probably from the period of the First Buddhist Council (B.C. 477), which set most of the canon.  While The Dhammapada may not contain the actual words of the Buddha, it does embody the spirit of his teachings as recalled by the first generation of disciples. 

The verses are a simple but profound statement of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.  The considerable popularity of The Dhammapada  places it on the same height for Buddhists as the Bhagavad Gita for Hindus. 

Since it is easily memorized, The Dhammapada is the one book most likely to be carried about by wandering monks, especially among Theravadins who feel that they alone possess the true doctrines and disciplines of Buddhism.

THE TRIPITAKA

The Tripitaka, or The Three Baskets, is the the Buddhist canon.  It consists of the basic documents of Buddhism collected, collated, and edited (and sometimes expanded) by the Buddha's disciples. 

Some scholars believe that the Tripitaka achieved near-final form within a century of the Buddha's death, while others are convinced that it represents a slow accumulation and editing.  There are, however, parts of the collection that are the actual words of the Buddha himself, albeit more or less changed.

The Tripitaka covers a wide range of material, with some of the texts being ancient, insofar as they are in an archaic form of Pali.  Other texts date from more recent  periods.  Not only do they report sermons and sayings of the Buddha and many incidents in his life, some obviously fanciful, but they also include numerous directives for living.  They also consist of  parables, fables, proverbs, aphorisms, songs, and stories, many of great literary, artistic, cultural, and sociological value. 

The baskets are:  Conduct (Vinaya), Discourses (Sutta), and Supplementary Doctrines (Abdhidhamma).  The Vinaya Pitaka is mostly codes of disciplines for the men and women who entered the Sangha, the Buddhist Brotherhood.  The Sutta Pitaka, by far the most interesting and significant, contains discourses, dialogues, many talks, conferences and sermons of the Buddha and his followers. The Abdhidhamma Pitaka is a highly complex later collection of seven works dealing with Buddhist metaphysics, psychology (one section lists and defines over three hundred different human types), answers to common questions raised by the faithful, and refutations of unorthodox teachings.

Much of what the Buddha said was taken down by his favorite disciple Ananda, this according to the text itself.  The style is plainly indicative of direct preaching to the public, and the material includes parables, allegories, stories, and poetic matter, with much repetition for emphasis.  In the Sutta Pitaka are also many works called Jatakas, which are accounts of the lives of other Buddhas.  Found here as well, the famous Dhammapada, a concise collection of the Buddha's sayings. The Dhammapada may not contain the actual words of the Buddha, but it does embody the spirit of his teachings as recalled by the first generation of disciples.