DEBATE ON BUDHISM
This refers to Brother Krishna’s article in DV March 1, p.7 wherein, besides accusing our Editor, he raises some questions. He considers the ongoing Debate on “Vipassana in Budhism” as a waste of time.
On the contrary the Debate has helped the Budhists to understand the revolutionary aspect of Budhism hitherto kept under cover by the brahminical interests. The Debate gave proper direction for deciding our priorities and work in a responsible manner in the present hour of crisis.
GOLWALKAR VS. GOENKA
Dalit Voice has made an attempt to present Budhism in a pure form, what Budha taught during his lifetime and as understood and interpreted by Dr. Ambedkar. It is intended to caution Ambedkarites against yet another fall into the trap of our enemy and prevent intrusion of brahminism in Budhism.
Brother Krishna says:
“Little knowledge is dangerous but ignorance is devastating”.
This very point applies to Krishna who considers Vipassana as the essence of Dhamma,
So far, we knew only one guru whose Bunch of Thoughts, the Bible of the Hindu nazi RSS, are still dreaded in India by supporters of human rights. But to beat him we now have another, Goenka guruji. He is going to prove more dangerous to Budhists than the Chitpavan Brahmin.
The reason is very clear. Golwalkar was at least honest. He did not hide his intentions. He expressed his hatred against all religions including Dr. Ambedkar and his followers. Hence he is our open enemy. But this Marwari Goenka, another M.K. Gandhi (also a Bania), is an expert at inflicting painless death to Budhists with a piece of hair by administering Vipassana, a slow poison.
Golwalkar in his book (Bunch of Thoughts, Jagarana Prakashana, Bangalore-560 019, 1980) says if religious minorities like Budhists, Christians, Sikhs, Muslims etc, are not ready to consider themselves Hindu, we will follow the same way as Hitler did to Jews. Golwalkar’s followers are working hard towards this goal. The Gujarat genocide of Muslims is the latest evidence. However, some Ambedkarites, followers of Goenka, are happily helping the tribe of Golwalkar by running Vipassana camps for the Budhists and producing toothless tigers.
DID GOENKA FIGHT BRAHMINISM?
Babasaheb said: “Intellectuals are those who can foresee the future and accordingly guide the people for right action in the present”. But are we doing our job as intellectuals? Have we developed that vision to foresee the danger ahead and prepare our people to thwart the plans of our enemies?
Our duty as Budhist intellectuals is to work as a walking Budha, preaching people the relevance of Budhism in the present context. We should tell them the urgency of understanding it for dismantling the edifice of Brahminism.
The Godhra and similar instances should be an eye-opener for all of us to prove how brutal or inhuman the Brahmins could be in implementing their agenda. Are the Vipassana supporters ready to forget the incidence of Dec.6, 1992, the day specifically chosen to destroy Babri Masjid to show their hatred toward Babasaheb and his followers? That means. after Muslims it will be the turn of Dalits.
BOHRA MUSLIMS
Vipassana followers should not be under the impression that they will be spared pretending to be peace-lovers. No, never. Did the Hindu nazis who killed Muslims in hundreds in Ahmedabad spare the “peace-loving” Bohra Muslims?
How will Vipassana rescue them? Neither the followers of Goenka nor Goenka himself have the answer to this. The mere issue of a statement on Sankarachari does not make Goenka great to the level of equating him with Dr. Ambedkar, glorifying him to be the greatest supporter of Budhism. How comparisons can be made between an intellectual giant like Dr. Ambedkar and a Bania bent upon pushing us back to the Manusmriti era with the connivance of Brahmins? As Brother Dr. Vasant Mhaske put it very correctly (DV March 16, p.21) he is bent upon popularising Vipassana as a cult of Budhism.
Babasaheb said “We are not for the religion but the religion is for us”. If we are really concerned with our enslaved people, our first duty is to save them from the deathly claws of Brahminism. If Vipassana helps in this endeavour then we can go ahead with his meditation course. Sorry, Vipassana is counter-revolutionary.
Vipassana or any other course may be accepted only after we are liberated from Brahminism. But without laying the foundation, we want to directly construct a building, Isn’t it absurd?
If at all Vipassana is needed today it is for our Hindu oppressors and not our people. They need radical change in their hate-mongering attitude and behaviour. Hence they should be persuaded to undergo Vipassana for mental peace and for change of heart. But what we need is a volcano type of Budhists.
ATTA DIPA BHAVA MISINTERPRETED
While defending Vipassana as a necessity for individual salvation, its protagonists, especially the followers of Goenka, quote Budha saying Atta Dipa Bhava (be life unto the self). Hence our primary concern is to first change ourselves. To be a better individual. We cannot change others. So, why bother about others? Is this view not suicidal for our people?
Once the Commander of Magadh forces, Simha Senapati, asked Budha:
“If somebody attacks our state, loots it, outrages the dignity of our women, then what we should do to these violent people? Should we keep queit?
Budha said:
“Senapati, you have mistaken my concept of ahimsa. If somebody attacks your people, you should fight them for our honour.
There is a difference between the tendency of violence and need for violence.
Babasaheb says we have no will to kill but if someone comes to kill us there will be a need to kill him. There is no scope for ahimsa under Budhism. Read the Buddha & His Dhamma.
RELIGION OF SLEEPING PEOPLE
If a person commits crime he himself is responsible for the punishment awarded to him and not the judge who gives the verdict.
This is enough to understand what Budha means by ahimsa. But Goenka deliberately excludes such instances in the recorded discourses as well as the literature. he distributes.
Is the situation today any different from Simha Senapati period? In fact, it is more serious since violence has become a daily affair now and the atrocities are committed even more ruthlessly than ever before.
I was stunned to hear the reply of a Vipassana teacher saying, why be concerned about others? It gave me enough indication that Goenka has really worked hard to bring Budhists under his complete grip. It has now become a difficult task to make them understand the reality and save them from his clutches. These vipassis have really closed their eyes to the problems of outer world, even of their own people, the suffering masses. They are busy reducing their own pain through Vipassana. So, in their opinion there is no need to worry about others since we cannot change others. Can’t we do something to change the situation created by Brahminism than concentrating on meditation?
They say Goenka is spreading the dhamma in other countries hence he is a true follower of Budha. On the contrary, he is resolutely working to disgrace Budhism by indirectly popularising it as the religion of sleeping people.
As regards Brother Krishna’s appeal to first undergo a 10-day Vipassana course before commenting on it, I don’t consider it necessary. Do we require to first taste alcohol, opium or brown sugar to know its after-effects? His suggestion comes out of his absolute faith in the efficacy of Vipassana. It also speaks of the extent of slavish mentality inflicted on our sincere Budhists like Krishna.
I have already undergone the Vipassana course of Goenka. I had heard a lot about it and I was eager to know more. Vipassana is being propagated as the essence of dhamma. Thus to quench my thirst as a Budhist, I attended it in Nov. 1996 in Delhi.
INDIVIDUAL SALVATION
I must admit that though initially I was cursing myself for having wasted my time but during the evening discourses (through recorded discourses), I was feeling better. After the 5th day the Vipassana vidya started working on me.
The point is when our enemy is not willing to allow you to be peaceful and constantly attacking you using all sorts of violent and other means, do we still need to sit in meditation to calm down our mind? Hence after the 10th day, I quit the course having realised that nothing can be gained concentrating our efforts on “individual salvation”. It is a sheer waste of time. However, at that time I myself didn’t have enough clarity as to what place Vipassana has in Budhism.
Much later (1998), after I came back to Nagpur, I started seriously studying Budhism as there were number of people gripped by Vipassana (the figure has lately increased manifold). The Buddha & His Dhamma answered most of my questions and further reading and discussion on this matter made me probe further. It did not take much time to realise that imparting Vipassana to a Budhist is intended “to make a gentleman. out of him. It appears to be a systematically planned programme in connivance with Brahmins to destroy Budhism. It is good for distancing Budhists from their own people and making them unfit for the social movement.
Once a person is hailed as gentleman, he naturally strives to maintain that status. He prefers to be harmless (even to his oppressors). Hence a gentleman in the eyes of our oppressor sooner or later ceases to be the friend of Dalit Bahujans.
Babasaheb never wanted to be a gentleman for the upper caste society. But he was the liberator of the millions of suffering masses. He had always been independent in thought and action and expected to us to be the same so that we are not swayed away.
SLOW POISON
The most serious allegation of Brother Krishna and for that matter all the followers of Goenka against the critics of Vipassana is that Dalits or Mahars need not unduly worry about Budhism. Their justification is: anyway it is already spreading very fast in other countries. What they mean is that there are 80 Vipassana centres all over the world for spreading the message of Dhamma irrespective of religion, caste and race etc. These 80 Vipassana centres world over should be a matter of worry for us and not satisfaction. This is one more example to show how much we have been drugged by the slow poison administered by a Bania in the disguise of a well-wisher.
But did the Budha teach this kind of Dhamma propagated by Goenka through Vipassana? Babasaheb had been very critical of this kind of Budhism being followed and propagated in other countries in the name of Budha.
BRAHMINISED BUDHISM
It is nothing less than perversion of the Budhist ideals, distorted by Brahmins and accepted as such by Japanese and others. Hence in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Japan and many other countries, we find the images of Hindu gods and goddesses in Budhist monasteries or viharas. In fact, when the Brahmins started the process of polluting Budhism, they introduced their gods and goddesses in it and assigned them the role of guardians and protectors of Budhism. The very same Hindu gods and goddesses travelled to Japan and other countries in various forms. Shingon or tantric Budhism was instrumental in popularizing these brahminical gods and goddesses in Japan. The three deities still widely known among the Japanese masses are Brahma, Indra and Saraswati under the names of Bonten, Taishaku and Bentensama (Choudhuri S.K. 1980 Impact of Budhism on Japan, p.60).
Out of reverence for Budha they took refuge in Budhism. However they did not know they were adopting its distorted version. It was not their fault since they did not have any other means to inquire about its genuineness. Hence, they had to adopt in whichever form it was available in India, especially the North-Eastern states. A similar kind of Budhism is still practiced there i.e. Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Nagland, Tripura etc. Do we want this kind of Budhism to be followed by our people? Tibetans follow tantric Budhism as well as Lamaism where Budha is deified. The Lama gurus are given prominent position and Budha is made subservient, less important than their gurus. The Koreans follow pure land Budhism, which is nothing but the brahminised Budhism. All these forms of Budhism are as good as Hinduism (brahminism), since it is opposite to the original teachings of the master.
Babasaheb never wanted this kind of unscientific things to be nurtured in the name of Budhism. Hence on conversion to Budhism when a journalist asked him, which yana in Budhism you are following? He replied, if you so wish you may call it a Navayana Budhism which consists of what Budha taught during his lifetime.
DANGER FROM BRAHMINISM
Babasaheb in The Budha & The Future of His Religion says in India Budhism was destroyed by the Brahmins and the Muslim invaders. He further warns:
The danger to Budhism from Islam no longer exists. But the danger from Brahminism. exists. It will be its toughest opponent.
A Brahmin will remain a Brahmin no matter what colour he assumes or what party he joins. That is why Brahmins want to maintain the system of graded social inequality. For it is this graded inequality which has raised the Brahmins above all and to be on top of everybody. Budhism believes in equality. Budhism strikes at the very root of their power and prestige. That is why Brahmins hate it. It is quite possible, they may use their power to sabotage or misdirect it. The precaution to exclude them at least in the early stages of our movement is therefore very necessary.
SULEKHA KUMBHARE DISTORTS BUDHISM
Sometimes, our own people cause more harm than the enemy. This is evident from the Dragon Palace Temple at Kamptee, 15 kms from Nagpur, where efforts to dilute the Budhist movement and create confusion among its followers have been initiated by a political lady, Ms. Sulekha Kumbhare. It shows how a politician wearing a mask can turn out to be an enemy in disguise. For petty gains, she quickly forgot all that she got, the power, prestige and position and the love of people. Born in a family of an Ambedkarite and the bidi workers union leader, Dadasaheb Kumbhare, she was loved by the people. However the innocent, ignorant people had not the remotest idea that she would back-stab her own people.
She dumped the Budhist ideals aside and permitted Lady Noriko Ogawa of Japan to propagate Tantric Budhism through the Dragon Palace Temple. Babasaheb had always opposed such distorted and concocted versions of Budhism. The chief architect of the temple is a Brahmin, Godse, and the architecture is Japanese.
In fact sensing the need for propagating or educating the masses in terms of their duty as a Budhist, Babasaheb would to say:
I want standing Budha with both his eyes open and not the one sitting in meditation.
It speaks lot about his intentions of presenting Budhism in a revolutionary form. In the Dragon Palace Temple initially there was no portrait of Dr. Ambedkar. However when it was resented to by Budhists, it was kept. In fact it would have been better had his portrait been excluded from that. It would atleast have implied that Babasaheb didn’t approve of such nonsense. Now that it has become very common to exploit Babasaheb, how these people too can remain untouched? The Budhist mass in Maharashtra just cannot think of Budhism without Babasaheb. But of what avail it is when his ideals are sacrificed and only the portrait is kept?
The rotten ethos of Brahminism which Babasaheb struggled to crush during his lifetime are once again being propagaed by his very followers from whom he had great hopes. Shame on such fake Ambedkarites who have forgotten their bygone days so fast and are bent on disowning Dr. Ambedkar and the ideology propagated by him which raised them to this level. Moreover, this is happening at the very place where Babasaheb had sown the seeds of religious revolution and gave the purified Dhamma to millions of Dalits. Our enemies have every reason to be happy on this development as their burden is shared by Babasaheb’s own followers, Alas, there was no voice raised by any Budhist or Ambedkarite organisations or Budhist scholars etc.
BHIKKUS WARNED
When the Brahmins seized power from Brihadrath Maurya, the very first thing they did was beheading of bhikkus. The salient feature of it was that they awarded 100 gold coins for each head. Now the bhikkus also are the lot of idlers or vipassis and they would be losing the faith of the laity.
That is the reason why Babasaheb expressed anguish about the present-day Bhikku Sangha. He said:
The large majority of Bhikkus are merely sadhus and sanyasis spending their time in meditation or idleness. The Sangha is a huge army of idlers. While differentiating Hindu sadhu and Buddhist monk, he says Hindu sadhu has nothing to do with the world. The purpose for creating a separate society of Bhikkus was to set up a society which would live up to the Budhist ideals embodied in the principles of Buddhism and serve as a model to the layman”. (Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, The Buddha & The Future of His Religion, Triratna Prakashan p.14).
WASTE OF TIME
These bhikkus are nothing but a copy of our Brahmin priests busy solemnizing marriage, naming ceremony, betrothal and the death ceremony etc. and wasting time in Vipassana. How unfortunate? They have forgotten their master’s message that when there is a danger to the ideals of Dhamma, they must fight for the rightful. cause.
“Our monks have become a sort of fire brigade extinguishing the burning fire inside the hearts of our people. What we need is monks who will create fire”, says our Editor, V.T. Rajshekar, in Brahminism Swallowing Ambedkarite Movement. (DSA 1999 p.12).
Bhikkus or for that matter the protagonists of Vipassana should not think that the days of Pushya Mitra Sunga are over. The Constitution itself is under constant brahminical attack. Who then is going to guarantee our safety? Is it not our responsibility to rise in revolt against them atleast in our own interest instead of wasting our precious time in the useless Vipassana?
MEDITATION IS FATAL
Babasaheb had given us the blue print of Budhism. He says:
In regard to the preparation of Buddha’s gospel care must be taken to emphasize the social and moral teachings of the Buddha. I have to emphasize this. What is emphasized is meditation, contemplation of Abhidhamma. This way of presenting Buddhism to Indians would be fatal to our cause. (Das B., Revival of Buddhism in India and the role of Dr. Ambedkar, p.81).
As a testimony of Babasaheb’s opposition to meditation or Vipassana what else do we need as a proof? Again some people who are very particular about the usage of the word Vipassana may ask: Did Babasaheb specifically use the word Vipassana? For them I suggest referring to page no. 225 of the Buddha & His Dhamma (Dr. Ambedkar, W&S Vol.11) wherein Dr. Ambedkar says:
“What are the teachings of the Buddha? This is a question on which no two followers of the Buddha or the students of Buddhism agree. To some Samadhi is his principal teaching. To some it is Vipassana (a kind of pranayam).
The above statement reveals that Babasaheb had a fair understanding of Vipassana. Hence Brother Krishna’s justification saying that Babasaheb was too busy to undergo Vipassana and it was not being taught at that time in India does not hold true.
Babasaheb adds this (p.225):
“divergence of views are those of men who have a fancy for certain things. Such are those, who regard that the essence of Budhism lies in samadhi or Vipassana or Esoterism.”
The word fancy speaks volumes about our attitude towards Budhism and love for Vipassana, Should we not give up this fancy for meditation (Vipassana) and look beyond in a broader perspective so that this revolutionary religion once again becomes a threat to Brahmins as it did in the past?
The ultimate question Babasaheb poses to all those supporting Vipassana is: Did the Budha give any social message and then Babasaheb himself answers the question on page 226:
“My answer is that, the Budha has a social message. He (Budha) answers all these questions. But they have been buried by modern authors.”
CONTENTMENT & ESCAPISM
The essence of Vipassana is contentment, to be happy, satisfied with the status quo. It is definitely a good proposition for our oppressors who are already in a better position. They continue to reap the benefits of the Brahminical Social Order by violating our rights. What about the have nots who are further pauperized by Brahminism? It would mean forcing them to the Manusmriti era.
Babasaheb says:
This spirit of contentment is not to be understood to mean meekness or surrender to circumstances. Because that would be quite contrary to the other teachings of the Buddha (p. 239).
REPLY TO RAJU KAMBLE
In this context Brother Raju Kamble’s suggestion (DV March 16, 2002 p.23) that instead of Goenka’s Vipassana the Budhist way of teaching Vipassana should be followed is equally harmful. By labelling some sort of Budhist Vipassana or like does not make any difference. It will be again the same “old wine in new bottle” which might prove more dangerous than the previous one as people would say they are following Budhist Vipassana.
The point is that it is not in accordance with the teachings of the Budha and Babasaheb’s interpretation.
The ultimate analysis is that Vipassana is not at all necessary for us in the present circumstances.
DEBATE MUST CONTINUE
The Vipassana has to be seen in the light of the present times. Budhism lays emphasis on eradicating the suffering in a rationalist way but what we are following is an escapist way of eradicating suffering.
I have made efforts to further clarify the questions raised by Brother Krishna and others. If we are honest enough we will realize our blunder. To repeat, we should be open minded and not prejudiced by any ideology.
If our brothers are still not satisfied with the facts and arguments, they are most welcome to attend a meeting proposed to be held at Nagpur on Budhism. Our Editor has agreed to attend it.
There is no point in describing this Debate a waste of time as it has brought out such churning ideas.
