Why Buddha? Neo-Buddhist scholars reflect on the caste realities of Hindusim

There was once a tree under which Siddhartha gained enlightenment and became the Buddha Then there was the tree under which Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar spent the night after his landlord threw him out for being a DalitAfter years of trying to uplift the downtrodden castes Babasaheb Ambedkar realised that political economical and social opportunities would always be denied to them in a castedriven Hindu society The only way out was to get outThe architect of the Indian Constitution studied world religions for 20 years and narrowed down to two choices Christianity or Buddhism The latter aligned more with his values of equality and fraternity among all humankind and more importantly it rested the powers for evolution with the individual and not a person in the sky One of the 22 selfcrafted tenets of NeoBuddhism is I shall not allow any ceremonies to be performed by BrahminsAnd so he crafted NeoBuddhism or Navayana Buddhism converting six lakh followers along with himself on October 14 1956 What sets Navayana apart from Mahayana Theravada and Vajrayana sects of Buddhism is the slashing away of any umbilical cord connecting it to Hinduism and its airtight caste system that no one can escape even after several rebirths The other tenets say I shall have no faith in Brahma Vishnu and Maheswara nor shall I worship them I shall have no faith in Rama and Krishna who are believed to be incarnation of God nor shall I worship them I shall have no faith in Gauri Ganapati and other gods and goddesses of Hindus nor shall I worship them I do not believe in the incarnation of God I do not and shall not believe that Lord Buddha was the incarnation of Vishnu I believe this to be sheer madness and false propagandaThe most important tenet is I shall believe in the equality of manKarma JingpaUnlike the other mainstream forms of BuddhismmdashThe Nichiren Buddhism chanted by groups in the living rooms of Juhu Bandra and South Mumbai the exotic Tibetan Buddhism a mix of Mahayana and Vajrayana spreading through refugee pockets in the Himalayan states attracting movie stars and white working class heroes alike and the stark Zen Buddhism coopted into a design aestheticmdashNavayana Buddhism emits an odour of struggle and centuriesold injusticeNavayana was supposed to be a getaway car that took the Dalits towards dignity education egalitarian employment and injected them into mainstream society And yet Rajendra Pal Gautam Aam Aadmi Party leader and a minister in the Delhi state government was bullied by the ruling party to hand in his resignation after he attended a mass conversion earlier this monthFollowers of Ambedkar buy statues of Lord Buddha and Dr Ambedkar after paying their tribute on his death anniversary at Chaityabhoomi Shivaji Park DadarWith a focus on Ghar Wapasi reconversion to Hinduism the act of choosing a religion for dignity is treachery While the Right to Education and reservations have uplifted and created opportunities for NeoBuddhists in urban cities in villages they are still lynched for riding a horse on their wedding day or as in the case of a 15yearold from Uttar Pradesh thrashed by the teacher to the point of death for writing the wrong answerLast week 250 Dalits converted to neoBuddhism in Rajasthan They had a few weeks earlier renounced Hinduism by immersing idols of Hindu gods and goddesses in the river This mass protest came after two Dalit men were assaulted for planning an aarti of Goddess Durga during NavratriThe chanting of the Lotus Sutra central to Soka Gakkai takes places mostly in the cityrsquos drawing rooms Barely anyone joins resident monk of the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist temple in Worli Bhiksu Morita for the morning and evening ritual PicAshish RajeldquoThe Dalits are the secondmost discriminated group after Muslimsrdquo says NeoBuddhist scholar Dr Anil Yadavrao Gaikwad ldquoAfter the strong example set by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar most Dalit youth seek education They in fact rank second on the mainstream education scale after Brahminsmdash96 per cent of the neo Buddhist population in India is educated A Dalit will gain education through any means possiblemdashcorrespondence night school distance education However if the interviewer at a job consciously or unconsciously discriminates based on caste you are less likely to get the job In Maharashtra our last names give away our caste Kamble Gaikwad Even today in Gujarat you cannot rent an apartment in dominant caste society area if you are a Dalitrdquo In 2020 20 Dalit women engineers called out caste discrimination in the Silicon ValleyUnder the current political climate most neoBuddhist leaders fear that their constitutional reservation for education and jobs may be revoked at any time ldquoThe political mindset is still largely Brahmanic and implemented at the grassroot levelrdquo says the Mira Roadbased Finance consultant ldquoThe AAP should have stood up for Rajendra Pal Gautam saying his religion is his personal matter It is a constitutional rightrdquoAnil Gaikwad NeoBuddhist scholarAs a pious neoBuddhist the neoBuddhist scholar renews his pledge every morning to not kill a living being to not steal to abstain from sexual misconduct to abstain from speaking lies and to abstain from intoxication ldquoBuddhism and Jainism are the two atheist religionsrdquo he says ldquoThere is no concept of god The ultimate aim is evolution of the human soulrdquoThis is the core idea of all flavours of the 2500yearold belief system To evolve one must stop being slave to ones thoughts and emotions To break free from that yoke meditation is the answer High up in the monasteries in BirBilling Spiti LehLadakh and the valleys of Arunachal Pradesh are monastic orders dedicated to preserving Tibetan BuddhismldquoFor many centuriesrdquo says Karma Jingpa an ordained monk or bhiksu of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition ldquoTibet had closed it borders to other countries and cultures Due to this isolation their form of Tibetan Buddhism grew in a unique way after it spread from Indiardquo A mix of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism it lays great stress on the guidance of a guru ldquoA teacher is your refugerdquo says the Americanborn Jingpa who was ordained in 2010 and teaches in Bir Himachal Pradesh ldquoHe is the first one to give you a glimpse of your mind He will help you watch your thoughts in meditation like one would in a cricket match without taking sidesrdquoTibetan Buddhism has a Hindulike flavour with many realms and gods and goddesses such as the various Taras removers of obstacles While some understand these realms to be literal realities where one takes births in and works through their karma Jingpa says they can also be states of mind For instance the Animal realm is one of impulsivity while the Hungry Ghost realm is that of attachment and desires that cannot be quenchedThe vehicle to this lsquocricket matchrsquo is meditation ldquoBy learning to watch your thoughts and not stay in any realm the ego is not allowed to riserdquo says Jingpa ldquoYou see it for what it is a riskassessment tool and how it influences your decisions When you come out of the meditation you act actively to purify your karma You think before speaking you think about lsquohow can I not add to the karmarsquo You also pay attention to the moment and the person in front of you and ask What does she need of me It could be just a listening ear candour or advicerdquoThe other crucial trait to cultivate is nonattachment For example once you move on from the person who approached you you must not be attached to whether or not they took your advice ldquoYou dedicate the merits of a meditation to your gururdquo says Jingpa ldquoand once you are off the meditation pillow you donrsquot stay attached to the last session You may have experienced bliss in this one but all the causes and conditions that existed for that to happen may not occur the next time you sit down to meditaterdquo He likens kleshas negative karma to Jenga blocks stacked very high One moves through life looking at each situation as an opportunity to remove one block and instead of putting it on top of the stack it goes awayThis practice of pausing to think before one speaks or acts is also what the Soka Gakkai community practices only this strain of Buddhism lays import on togetherness Structured like a pyramid marketing scheme it has chapter heads and district heads who arrange group chanting sessions and visit those in need of a spiritual ritual boost at their homes They take requests for praying on behalf of others and at each meeting members give testimonials of how their worries are diminishing to encourage others to stay on the pathIts practitioners tend to be urban and the upper middleclass Actor Tusshar Kapoor and his sister Ekta Kapoor are known to attend the Juhu chapter Playwright and novelist Eve Ensler of the Vagina Monologues now known only as lsquoVrsquo credits this practise with helping her heal from years of sexual abuse by her father when she was a childThe kernel of this practise is the chanting of the Lotus SutramdashNam Myho Renge Kyomdashfor neutralising onersquos karma It is usually chanted by focusing on a Gohonzonmdasha scroll with the Lotus Sutra written on it With no other daily ritual than to chant this for a personally fixed amount of time this is the religion for the urbanite in a hurry And also for those tired of overbearing dogma and strict rules ldquoYou can chant Nam Myho Renge Kyo and still go worship Ganpati or offer namazrdquo says Amita Gandhi District Chief for the Juhu Chapter Unlike Tibetan Buddhism which takes the path of recognising the complex physical world for the impermanent illusion that it is or Navayana that strives to change the world and social circumstances of a believer Nichiren Buddhism encourages one to engage with the world and equips the believer with a toolbox It says Buddhahood is possible in this very lifetimeldquoOur Buddhism does not say that the Buddha was someone special and uniquerdquo says Gandhi ldquoIt tells us there is a Buddha within all of us and the aim of life is to strive to achieve that Buddha state characterised by compassion And the trials and challenges we face in life are situations to evoke this Buddhahood It teaches you to think of the other personrdquoA central belief to this system is that the outside world reflects onersquos inner world A shorttempered or rude person is suffering inside His or her reactivity is a manifestation of that lsquoillnessrsquo and she needs our compassion and not escalation ldquoWe learn to stop and think about the other person and see the Buddha in them toordquo says Gandhi ldquoWe then respond accordinglymdashwith calmness and compassion getting closer to our own BuddhahoodrdquoThe rituals of most forms of Buddhism are commonmdashmeditation as a path to selfawareness and steadfastness in the face of volatile emotions and circumstances and forgiveness first of ourselves and then of others ldquoYou even forgive yourself for not being able to forgiverdquo says Jingpa And the crux of the faith That redemption is possible And you can do it for yourself