Gods and Godmen of India (8 page)
“What then do you accept as God?” I asked him. He paused a long time. I prodded him further: “Do you regard Him as compassionate?”
My question had to be translated into Tibetan before he replied. “You know the three pillars of our faith, the Buddha, the
Dhamma
(Dharma) and the Sangha (Community).”
I nodded.
“For us the Buddha is a higher being, one who has reached the highest stage (of evolvement). His mind has been completely purified of all dross. The Buddha was not there from the very beginning; he became one after he had purified his mind, rid it of negative thoughts and ignorance till they totally disappeared.”
He elucidated his views further. “He was very much like ourselves to start with. Like students in a class are equals when they start. As they learn, differences develop. Some acquire knowledge and become teachers. There is a lot of difference between a teacher and a student. We regard the Sakyamuni as a teacher not a Creator.”
My next question was based on the wrong assumption that the Dalai Lama would accept the existence of a Creator, all powerful and just God. He did not. Nevertheless, I put it to him: “Can you explain why there is so much injustice and cruelty in the world? Why do bad things happen to good people?”
The great stumbling block in the way of people who believe that God is both all-powerful as well as just is the prevalence of injustice and cruelty in the world. Why, for instance, have a God-fearing people like the Tibetans had to flee their country and 95,000 of them forced to live in exile in India? I put the dilemma to the Dalai Lama.
“We Buddhist believe in Karma", he replied. “Life is a continuous circle without a beginning or an end. Deeds done in one life, one’s Karmas, determine one’s fate in the next. Even in one’s lifetime bad deeds produce bad effect.”
I was not convinced. “Does your Holiness believe that the entire Tibetan people are being punished for deeds done in the previous lives?”
“Yes,” he responded without pause. “There is individual Karma and common Karma.” The present travails of the Tibetan people are due to both kinds of Karmas. Some for acts done by individuals at some time or place, now come together in common suffering.
I did not buy the explanation. “Your Holiness, I am a sceptic and an agnostic. I find no rational basis for accepting the theory of Karma and rebirths nor the system of rewards and punishments in heaven or hell. There is no scientific basis for accepting one or the other.”
The Dalai Lama laughed heartily. “Scientific proof is what you want?” he asked. “But certain things are beyond scientific proof. I have many thoughts going on in my mind, it is difficult to give scientific explanations for them. Every particle of the body and mind is changing all the time, but none of these changes can be measured by computers.”
I protested. “Since you cannot adduce rational, scientific explanations for certain phenomenon, wouldn’t it be more truthful to say ‘I don’t know’. As for me, I go further and say not only I do not know the answers, nobody else knows them either.”
The Dalai Lama stuck to his ground. “There are two kinds phenomena. One are provable by science; the second are beyond the realm of scientific proof. But that does not mean they do not exist. Only scientists do not as yet know about them.”
“Then why not say that till such time as the scientists have found out we withhold our judgement.”
“I agree. Buddhism is quite clear on the subject: investigate till you find out the right answers. Do not accept anything and take it for granted. The Buddha himself said, ‘Do not accept anything said by me out of respect for me.’ If it does not appeal to you, reject it.”
“Would you extend the scope of inquiry to basic Buddhist beliefs like Karma and life hereafter?” I asked him.
“Yes,” replied the Dalai Lama. “If scientists can prove that there is no next life, we Buddhists will accept it.”
“Why then persist in propagating unprovable theories till we can prove them?” I persisted.
The Dalai Lama pondered over the question for a while before replying. “If you don’t accept the past or the future, you are only left with this life. You can trace it back to your parents, grandparents back to millions of years back to the amoeba and further back to empty space. Then you either accept the Almighty Creator and land yourself in more contradictions and more questions. How did it happen? The Buddhist concept of a beginningless beginning, continuity of consciousness and Karma, coming and going from to time till the space article came into existence avoids these contradictions.”
We went on to other questions, like why wickedness so often triumphs over goodness, why innocent people suffer while evil people prosper. Instead of the half-hour allotted to me, the interview went on to one hour and-a-half. The tape ran out. As did his secretary’s patience. There were other visitors waiting to see the Dalai Lama.
We took our leave. I was exhilarated by being with him. He extended that aura of goodwill, cheerfulness and crystal-clear honesty that envelops you long after you have left his presence. The Nobel prize committee has done well in awarding him the peace prize because he is a man of peace. He has suffered many wrong but never uttered an angry word in protest. He has brought solace to millions of people who are troubled by the way the world is going today.
10/12/1989
A
s often happenst to me when I go out in quest of the spiritual, I stumble on the earthy and find myself fully absorbed in it. My mission to Dharamsala, was to seek an audience with the Dalai Lama, ask him questions on God, re-incarnations, purpose of life, suffering, death and life hereafter. But the first thing I did after unpacking at the Hotel Tibet was to visit the Tibetan Emporium next door. Apart from carpets, woollens and other artifacts, it also had books. “Poetry,” I asked the lady attendant, “preferably modern Tibetan poetry translated into English.”
“I have only one,” she replied in impeccable English (Tibetans seem to have the gift of tongues; Urdu, Hindi, Hindustani or English, they speak it without a trace of an accent). “It is the compilation of one by our Dalai Lama,” she said as she handed me a slim volume:
Songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama,
complied by K. Dhondup. I took it as there was nothing else available. I expected it would be about the Lord Buddha, his various manifestations, the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path to
Nirvana
– and that kind of thing. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was about love, fornication, and pleasures of the tavern flowing with
chhung,
rice wine. The institution of the wandering sanyasi adept in the art of seduction and performing great sexual feats also existed among those recognized as reincarnations of the great Sakyamuni who renounced sex and family life in early youth.
“Tsanyang Gyatso, the sixth Dalai Lama, remains a timeless enigma in the annals of the Dalai Lamas of Tibet", writes Gyatso Tsering, director of the Tibetan Archives at Dharamsala. The institutions of the Dalai Lamas began in the 15th century with the recognition of Gedun Drupa as the first earthly manifestation of the Bodhisatva – Avalokiteshwara. In the 17th century, Tibet produced a remarkable leader, the Desi (regent or
peshwa)
named Sanam Chaphel who succeeded in unifying Tibet under the fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Losang Gyatso. The Dalai Lama died in 1682. The Desi kept the news of his death secret for 15 long years till he discovered the reincarnation and successor in the person of the sixth Dalai Lama who was enthroned in 1697. He was a gifted child, scholarly and of a poetic bent of mind. But he also loved the great out of doors activities. He liked archery and designing buildings. He refused to be disciplined and be bound down by vows of celibacy. For him it was the monastery and prayer by day time; taverns, drink, songs of love and pretty Tibetan maidens at night:
Even if meditated upon,
The face of my lama comes not to me
But again and again comes to me
The smiling face of my beloved.
He admitted defeat in pursuit of the spiritual:
If I could meditate upon the
dhamma,
As intensely as I must on my beloved
I would certainly attain enlightenment
Surely, in this one life-time.
And again:
If the maiden will live forever
The wine will flow, evermore
The tavern is my haven
With wine, I am content.
Inevitably he fell out with the regent. The regent was captured and beheaded in 1706. The sixth Dalai Lama’s reign also came to an end the same year. He was forcibly taken away to China – and disappeared or was murdered. His last message was to a lama friend:
White Crane!
Lend me your wings
I will not fly far
From Lithang, I shall return.
In the last line Tibetans read the message that the seventh Dalai Lama would soon be discovered …
Tsanyang Gyatso was not moved about his sexual prowess:
Never have I slept without sweetheart
Nor have I spent a single drop of sperm.
The sex act, as in the case of Krishna, was a Tantric exercise in whom the
bindus’
latent powers were not to be wasted by being spent. If the body hoarded semen, the mind dwelt more intensely on the pleasure of sex.
I went to my teacher, with devout filled
To learn of the Lord Buddha
My teacher taught, but what he escaped;
For my mind was full of compassion,
Full of that Compassionate One who loves me,
She has stolen my mind.
He was adept in the art of arousing
Sweetheart awaiting me in my room
Yielding tenderly her sweet body
Has she come to cheat me
And disrobe me of my virtues
With fair damsels came wine:
If the maiden will live forever
The wine will flow, evermore
The tavern is my haven
With wine, I am content.
It is incredible that in a highly conservative and religion-oriented society like the Tibetan, it is the iconoclast-loving, sixth Dalai Lama who remains the great favourite.
7/8/88
In Search of a Home for their Knowledge
A
man unfairly maligned by Indian bigots and misinformed foreigners was Acharya Rajneesh (Osho). Despite being a teacher of comparative religions, he had a penchant for needling the narrow-minded, amongst them the patron saint of puritans, Morarji Desai. Osho exposed the humbug in Indian life and the double standards observed by its self-styled godmen and political leaders.
He was hounded out of India. He then sought asylum in the United States where he met the same fate. Egged on by church dignitaries, the US administration ordered his arrest and deportation.
There was a time when no country was willing to accept him. Ultimately, he returned to India and restarted his commune in Pune where he spent the last days of his life.
It took a long time for people to realize that Osho had much more to him than being a crusader against man-made conventional morality. He brought his vast knowledge of the world’s scriptures and lives of saintly men and women to convey his message. What made him different from other world teachers was that while they made religious subjects boring, Osho made them enjoyable.
The present generation has come to acknowledge Osho as one of the greatest minds produced by India. So it is befitting that the 50th year of our independence should have been celebrated with the publication of an anthology of articles on tributes Osho paid to the spiritual legacy of his country.
India My Love: Fragments of a Golden Past
was released by Dr Manmohan Singh, as saintly a politician as any Indian has seen since independence.
The common notion is that Osho preached free sex, which he did and did not. An excellent example of how he put across his point of view on the subject is available in this. First he relates a story of Mulla Nasiruddin: “When Nasiruddin was 100 years old and celebrated his centenary, press reporters asked him, If you had your life to live again, would you commit the same mistakes again?”
“Nasiruddin said, ‘I would definitely make those mistakes, but I would also make all the others that I was not able to make. That is the only change I would make. In this life, I began making mistakes very late in life. If I were to live my life all over again, I would get an earlier start.’
“Then the reporters asked him, ‘What is the secret of your long life?’ Nasiruddin said, ‘I did not drink until I was 10, I did not smoke and did not touch a girl until then. Except for this, I don’t see any other secret for my long life. But if I had another life, I would begin to make even those mistakes a little earlier.’”