COVER STORY

Relevance of Buddhism

By: Prof. Swami Buddhanand

Today everyone wants long life and Happy life but at the same time does not want to know the riddle of life and does not know how to build their life within the social norms. A great thinker said, “ Unexplained life is not worth-living. Many want to live happily but with the ignorance of actual life. Another great thinker said “ it is better to be unborn rather than taught by ignorance”. Here comes the need of Buddhist Philosophy of life. It says that life begins with the sufferings out of ignorance of one’s own life. The Lord Buddha discovered the root cause of human sufferings and suggested the remedy to over come it. The remedy lies in the Buddhist technique of meditation with which one can purify one’s own mind. The Lord Buddha’s message has become increasingly important when the benefits accrued by the material civilization, by-passed the plight of the common man. The few are rich / consumers and many are poor-the characteristics of the so-called modern civilization in the Globalizes world. Buddhism in this contest, issues a clarion call to everyone not only to alleviate but also to eliminate the human sufferings by adopting the Eight-Fold-Path. The Buddhist concept of human suffering is a stumbling block for many on their first encounter with Buddhism, yet it is presented not as a piece of willful pessimism but as the finding of an advanced spiritual insight.

Buddhism is not strictly a religion in the sense in which it is commonly understood, for it is not a system of faith and worship owing allegiance to any supernatural things. It is not a system of dogma nor a ritual but a way of life for people who aspire to lead a good and meaningful life. Buddhism is all- pervasive but formless. It is difficult to grasp unless we detach our mind from endless desires and unless we discipline and control our mind. It was only the Lord Buddha who discovered that all our thoughts and deeds originate in the mind and cause sufferings or happiness and hence the need of transformation of human minds . Buddhism rebels against all kinds of mal-practices in the name of religion and all sorts of torture and exploitation of human beings and other beings on the Earth.

Buddhism may be approximate to a philosophy but it is very much more comprehensive. Philosophy usually deals with the knowledge/ wisdom and is not concerned with the practice whereas Buddhism lay special emphasis on practice and realization. That is why it is called a pragmatic Philosophy.

It has its relevance today when the present -day world is engulfed by the material civilization and spiritual values receded in the background, when the whole world is on the brink of collapse, Buddhism comes to rescue the humanity with its compassionate Philosophy and calls for a new civilization- a spiritual civilization.
In the world of rivalry and competition the fellowship feeling and the feeling of togetherness is lacking among the people because they fail to identify themselves with the others and they satisfy their ego by dividing and conquering others. Because of that, more conflicts are bound to come and there will be no peace in the world.
In the world of today because of the crumbling of the institutions and proliferation of many ideologies and various patterns, people fail to know where to find the support for their way of life, more often they find solace in the irrational beliefs. In our divided and trouble world, Buddhism stands out in glowing relief and provides us the true guiding principles on which we can build our way of life and lead a meaningful and peaceful life.
May all Beings live in peace and happiness!