Dr. Rahul Kumar Balley,
senior columnist, the Asian Independent, UK-
(Asian Independent)- On 26th May of this year, Buddhists all over the world celebrate Buddha Purnima by offering prayer in Buddhist temples, homes under the blessings of a learned Buddhist monk; offering food to the neediest people, helping the patients with love and compassion especially during the pandemic of Coronavirus & sending donations to the countries that needed it most. Buddha Purnima is celebrated on account of three important events of the Buddha`s life: his birth, his attaining enlightenment, and his death, Paranivana. This day is also known as Thrice Blessed Festival.
The revival of Buddhism in India was the most significant contribution of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Owen M. Lynch writes: “The Buddhist movement arisen at the point where traditional Hindu institutions and caste equality are tangent to modern secular institutions and democratic equality. At present, the Indian socio-political system is a mixed system containing elements of tradition and modernity, caste, and class. Buddhism functions to bridge the gap between these two systems and to soften the transition from one to the other. It is religious and it is Indian … it is also secular and egalitarian”.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar attended many world Buddhist conferences and met Buddhist monks from various countries. He also read vast literature on Buddhism and finally decided to embrace Buddhism on 14 October 1956 at a historic ceremony in Nagpur. In His book “ The Buddha & His Dhamma” Dr. B. R. Ambedkar observed, ‘Religion is personal… contrary to this, Dhamma is social’. Morality is the essence of Dhamma; without it, there is no Dhamma. He described Dhamma as righteousness, right relations between man and man in all spheres of life. one man. Society cannot do without Dhamma i.e. right relations”. Dhamma as a religion thus rejects belief in God, belief in a soul, worship of God, curing of the erring soul, propitiating god by prayers, ceremonies, sacrifices, etc. In sum, he regarded Buddha`s Dhamma as true religion, the purpose of which was to reconstruct the world by establishing right relations with human beings’. Brahmanism preached inequality, and Buddhism preached equality, he wrote. According to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Buddhism gives three principles in combination which no other religion does. Buddhism teaches prajna (understanding) as against superstition and supernaturalism, Karuna (love), and Samata(equality). For Ambedkar, Panchsheel was an essential part of the Buddhist religion.
The idea to convert to Buddhism by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was to remove untouchability. In his views, Buddha rightly accepted the following three points from Kapila’s theses, viz that reality must rest on proof and must be based on rationalism, that there was no logical or factual basis for the assumption that God existed and that he created the world; and that there was misery in the world. He rejected the whole system of Brahmanical religion i.e. the infallibility of the Vedas, transmigration, the efficacy of rites, the moksha after the cycle of births, and Isvara is the creator of universe. He rejected the whole Upanishadic thought as mere imagination. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar found a solution to the social and economic problems in Buddha`s Dhamma!
In contemporary times, the followers of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar has been making strenuous efforts to revive Buddhism by opening Buddhist Vihara, Bhikku training centres, producing literature on Buddhism etc. With a special reference to Punjab, stalwart Lahori Ram Balley, editor Bheem Patrika Publications, Prof. Surendra Ajnat and Prof. G.C. Kaul deserve a standing ovation who laboured hard to produce books, pamphlets in English, Punjabi, Hindi & Urdu to educate the people of Punjab about Buddhism. Without their hard work, the revival of Buddhism after the death of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar would have not been possible in Punjab. Balley always emphasized opening up training centres for the laity who can go from village to village to propagate Buddhism. It is urged upon all those who can afford comfortably must contribute to the publication of the literature on Buddhism in vernacular languages because it is one of the rock-solid ways to propagate Buddhism. Many international Buddhist organizations/ individuals are wonderfully contributing to revive Buddhism.
Albert Einstein, a Nobel Prize winner, said, “Buddhism rejects blind faith, dogma… Buddhist way scientific way! Human mind, his happiness and peace of mind is the core of Buddhism”. On this Buddha Purnima, it becomes our moral duty, irrespective of geographical locations, to take a pledge to pass on the religion of Buddhism to the coming generations because the future generation has only hope and solace in the refuge of Buddhism. Let us not rest until we make India a Buddhist country. Let us also make “The Buddha and His Dhamma” a mandatory book in every house. This will be a great tribute to Baba Saheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar- our beloved messiah, the world leader, the constitutionalist, the social reformer, the educationist.
