On a more relaxed note, i had a glimpse, as people would call, of the Bihar state. The roads were narrow and tempos are run with as much dexterity as a trained warrior in the battle of Kurukshetra. One would not be surprised, after the trip, if told that Abhimanyu hailed from Gaya. :) The roads were dusty and one could see layers of dust settled on the sunshades, on the sitouts of houses and shop fronts. The cool thing is that no one is perturbed about this feature. It has been accepted as a part of their life.
Though it is all of above, the place has a charm of its own. Though it is dusty, it does not get in the way of your admiration of the place. The sewage does not overflow on to the roads
as is the case in most of the well planned cities ! The openness with which the locals accept you compensates for all. The place has lot of pot holes and it is a sight to see the tempo drivers maneuvering them with the utmost dexterity.
Having said all this, if i do not let you in on the contrast, i may be doing injustice to the holy place. About 13 kms. away is Bodh Gaya, place where Lord Buddha had attained Nirvana. The place is a centre of attraction for the international tourists and mostly it is the Buddhist monks that one would see all over the place. The roads are huge, well maintained and the road dividers have greenery apart from sporting footpaths of about 4-5 feet on either side. The main temple is the place where the Bodh tree is situated and what touched me was the openness with which the tourist is accepted into the cult.
The tourist is asked to deposit a sum of Rs.30/- per camera and 300/- per video camera and viola! he is free to take pictures/ videos of all the premises with no restraint whatsoever! In fact, one could go into the sanctum sanctorum and take photo with The Buddha!(R to L:Brother, father and myself)
Then we came back to Gaya and performed the rites. The pundits are so well-versed that they were able to conduct 3 - 4 ceremonies of various nature in a single go... Reciting mantras for one while making the others perform the rites. There is ostensibly the Foot print o
f Lord Vishnu (Vishnu padam) as he had pressed his demon devotee down while the yagna was on!The pundits give away cloth besmeared with sandal paste after acquiring an image of the sacred foot print to the devotees.(My father and brother in the inset)Friendly caution: Legend has it that the Lord had cursed all the Bramhins ther to live on alms like beggars and not be rich... believe me, the legend IS true. Better be prepared to give away totally about 1000 rupees to the pundits at every stage of the trip in Gaya.
1 comment:
Gaya vs BodhGaya looks like Hinduism vs. Buddhism. People often talk about the Protestant Work Ethic or of the Chinese Work Ethic. (Term not to be confused with Business Ethics). I often think Buddhism's impact on the Work Ethic of its followers is higher than Hinduism's on its own followers. Buddhism probably drew its core ideas on approach to work from Hinduism, but showcased it better in terms of focus. Moreover, since Hinduism is vast in scope and allows contrarian schools within itself, it is difficult to make people focus on one little section of its teachings, whereas Buddhism is cute with mostly well-defined injunctions just like Bodh Gaya has a well-defined town plan. While both religions are tolerant towards other religions, Hinduism accomplishes it by allowing more heterodoxy while Buddhism does it by advocating a generic stoicism and poise towards the different ways of the world. Hinduism might suffer more from the Sab Chaltha Hai approach, because it has to allow different layers to co-exist, while Buddhism doesn't have to do that, it's take or don't take. Which is probably one of the reasons for its smaller spread.
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