Prologue continues .....

Buddha’s teachings had a universal appeal. Love and compassion were

central to them. He defined spiritual inquiry not in terms of an unchangeable, eternal being that permeates the universe, but as a process of experiencing a mental state where all false desires become extinct.

Buddha did not believe in an unchanging, static reality. He experienced the ‘eternal’ reality of change, which was the substance of life – like the water in the river which may appear to be the same on the surface but in fact is constantly changing. He did not claim to have revealed all dimensions of truth. He was humble enough to tell his disciples:

I have given you a handful of truths, but besides these, there are many thousands of other truths, more than can be numbered.”

(The Discovery of India)

Buddha gave India and the world a new perspective on spiritual and social

life, and asked man to follow the middle path, ‘between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification’. He made man experience the radiance of ‘nirvana’ – a state of bliss after freeing oneself totally from desires and inner turbulence. Nehru writes in The Discovery of India:

“Seated on the lotus flower, calm and impassive, above passion and desire, beyond the storm and strife of this world, so far away he seems, out of reach, unattainable. Yet again we look, and behind those still unmoving features there is passion and an emotion, strange and more powerful than the passions and emotions we have known. His eyes are closed, but some power of the spirit looks out of them and a vital energy fills the frame.

The ages roll by and Buddha seems not so far away after all; his voice whispers in our ears and tells us not to run away from the struggle, but calm-eyed, to face it, and to see in life ever greater opportunities for growth and advancement.”

To be continued....