The Buddhists

When the Aryans settled down in India thyme occupies all land of India and divided amongst themselves into many kingdoms.

Somehow they created caste systems. These further divided into many smaller divisions.

The main caste systems is in the four divisions. They are: Brahmins (The Priests), Kshtriyas (The Warriors), the Vaishyas (The merxhants and Farmers) and Khsudra (The Servants or Untouchables),

In the beginning the caste systems were interchangeable. But at the time of the birth of the Buddha they become regimented and very rigid and a person born in one caste could not move to another caste.

The scholars believe that the castes were guilds according to the professions.

However because of the regimentation of the caste system, there were a lot of uncomfortable and agonizing situation. Worse was the lot of the untouchables.

The untouchables were exploited by all the castes and they remained so to date. The were kept poor and also allowed to live outside the city borders. Their arrival in the city was frowned upon and thought to be causing pollution.

Buddha was born as a prince in a Royal household. After his birth a wise man made a fore caste that Buddha would become either a great emperor or a Rishi i.e. a very wise man or religious leader.

His name was Sidharth which meant the one who had all wealth. After the forecast the king his father did not want him to go outside the place walls and stay in and learn to be a great warrior and how to be a king.

As Sidharth was growing up and wandering in the place garden along with his teachers he became curious of amy things. And being curious is part of the education as well.

One day he asked his teacher what was beyond the walls of the place as his teacher came from outside the place and he believed that he would know. For a many days the teacher did not answer the question, Eventually he had to. His answer was that outside place there are very painful things and not good for a growing up prince.

The teacher believed that the matter was closed. When Sidharth became sixteen years old he was married to a beautiful princess, For a year or two he indulged into pleasures of married life. His wife gave birth to a son and everybody thought that the Prince Sidharth was now settled in Royal life and was going to become agreat king.

One night he awoke and his curiosity about thelife beyond the walls became urgent within him.

He left his wife asleep and asked his charioteer to take him outside the palace wall.. His charioteer took him out. Outside he saw many things . But three things created great impact on him.

The first was he saw an old person. he asked his charioteer why a person becomes old and his charioteer answered that all living things eventually become old. The prince too will become old like the old man on the street.

Next he saw a person suffering with diseases. When asked the charioteer answered that one time or the other all people suffer from disease and they might die because of them as well.

Next he saw a [person dead and people were morning and carried that person to funeral pyre. His charioteer told him that all human beings and animals die. Some die early in their life other suffer of diseases and pains or in the wars etc and eventually everybody die after being very old.

All the tree incidents made big impact on him. When he returned his life was changed. He could not enjoy in the old luxuries or company of his wife or child or anything at all.

He wanted to find out the answers to the state of humane nd also about their lives.

Eventually one night when his wife and son were asleep he left the palace.

Next few years he saw many wise people. He read all the holy books and did all kinds of penance and even starved himself until he became just skin and bones. But he did not find any answers to his fundamental questions.

One day when he was sitting under a Peepal tree in the holy city of Gaya near the confluence of twp rivers Ganga and Yamuna and one hidden river called Saraswati which means knowledge, and was in the trance knowledge came to him about the conditions of human life.

Then onward he started giving lectures to all people who came to bathe and traveled all over India about his understanding of life.

His lectures were on the following simple things:

1) There is no life after death nor there is a paradise or anything like that.

2) All things change and change is main part of life.

3) People must try to lead simple life and moral life to avoid making complications within themselves.

4) People must not kill or harm animals because they are also like human beings.

5) We all eventually die and we must come to teems with this realization and lead our life with that thing in our mind to reduce all kinds of pains.

6) There are no such thing as born being of high caste or low caste. We are all equal.

7) All the knowledge is good and we must live in unison with nature and other people.

 

Buddha got many followers within his life time and he died at the age of eighty years. His followers took his message to all over India and most of the Indians at that time converted to his new philosophy. His message spread outside India as well.

After his death for three hundred years Buddhist people created huge body of knowledge and philosophy and strict ways of living. They elevated Buddha to the state of God and temples were created about him just like the temples of Hindu gods.

Today there are two main sects of Buddhist religion. One is called Helena and the other Mahayana. Both are slightly different form each other.

However after 1956 Dr Ambedkar a Constitutionalist of Independent India who himself was an untouchable and felt that he would not get equal treatment in staying with the Hindu people. So he and his followers became Buddhists. Now there are more Buddhists in India that Hindus.

In England among the immigrants from the sub-continent there are more followers of Dr Ambedkar than any other religious people. They all had converted to Buddhist religion.

The Buddhist religion in the world have their own countries flavor. So there are mainly following verities: Indian, Nepalese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, European and Californian.

Mostly Buddhists are vegetarian but Mongolian, Chinese, Indonesian and Japanese do eat meat and fish etc.

Mostly Buddhists people have ancient Buddhists texts as their holy books and often the individual country have evolved their own brand of life.

Medicine is mostly herbal and the Buddhists monks offer the treatments. Since the time of Buddha mental diseases are recognized and Buddhists have created elaborate system of cures for them. Apart from the herbal treatment, tantric and mantric formulas used to create normalcy in the mind. But the mental patients have to stay in the monastery until the person is cured or all his or her life.

 

That knowledge made him Buddha i.e. the one who acquired knowledge.