Rishikesh

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:09:10 -0800 http://rishiscribe.blogspot.com/2007/03/ambedkar-and-buddha.html Tuesday, March 20, 2007 Ambedkar and Buddha Dr Ambedkar And The Evolution Of Religion: From Animism To Agnosticism By Rishikesh Bahadur Desai A student once asked his teacher, "Master, what is enlightenment?" The master replied, "When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep." This shows how simple ideas are confused for complex issues. We will keep coming back and forth to the title of this paper, 'Evolution of religion from Animism to Agnosticism'. Simply put, Animism is believing that anything and everything is God. Agnosticism is to stop worrying about God and carrying on with our work. Stages of evolution: 'Change of the concept of God to an idol to an idea' ANIMISM Primitive man feared natural phenomena like lightning, rain, and floods. He called them God as they seemed to control his life. Any weird performance that was believed to control these was magic. T...

Here is an interesting story about Bodhisatva and Charvaka. Buddha was reborn a monk. One day, he was wandering in the jungles surrounding the Anantha Pindaka Buddha Vihara. He saw that an ugly looking man was sitting under a tree, eating something. The man looked at Bodhisatva and asked him who he was. Bodhisatva introduced himself. Charvaka replied: ``Oh you are the famous monk who sits for hours in the Vihara doing nothing and begs for food!’’ I am Charvaka the famous agnostic. I am eating a chicken I stole from a farmer’s backyard. Here is the pot of ghee I stole from a shop’’. Charvaka invites Bodhisatva for lunch. And then, the two enjoy a lunch, chatting and joking. This is Bodhisatva legend and not all of them are true. But then, I was reminded of this story when US President Barak Obama wished he would dine with Mahatma Gandhi. I am sure Gandhiji would have accepted the invite if he were to be alive. He would have carried his favourite dishes; peanuts, goat milk and ground whe...