Article :
W hen one of the greatest thinkers , a famous social and political reformer , of modern India makes a comparative study of two undoubtedly greatest ideologicalphilosophical guides of humanity of their respective times even though separated by nearly 2400 years , it draws attraction to the serious activists forcing them to reflect upon it . Here is one quick reflection from Marxist activist . Dr B . R . Ambedkar , a scholar extraordinaire , had at first put forward his understanding about the basic tenets of Buddha and Marx in brief . Then he went on to make a comparison between the two . But though at the outset he pointed out that the two Greats were separated by 2381 years , he failed to take into account that it was not just the number of years they were separated as individuals but also the long period mankind had travelled through different stages and phases of history as well as different forms of human society . This had an important bearing on his understanding of both Buddha and Marx and consequently on his conclusion . Without acknowledgement of these facts such comparison leads to ,
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No proposal is there in the budget to reduce the life crisis of majority . They deny to recognise the problems . The people should think “ First Develop India ” and should bear the burden . Further , they are cutting allocations to States and asking them to attract foreign investors and directing them to mortgage entire people ’ s wealth and land to corporates for 99 years lease .
All the people have equally struggled and sacrificed to protect Socialist System and to face First World War in the then Soviet Union . Contrarily , now in our country to
March - 2024 what they say , mixing up between chalk and cheese . Dr Ambedkar ’ s Confused Understanding on Buddha :
1 . Gautama Buddha lived in a period of great importance in the social history of India , especially in the part Buddha was born , lived , attained Bodhi , preached his dhamma and met his death . From 600 BC to 300 BC the area around Gangetic plains faced large scale deforestation to pave the way for settled agriculture and mining . The tribal society with its elected chief had to yield to the emerging ruthless centralized states . The start was in the early years of Buddha , when Bimbisara became the king . With the centralized state , society also had taken a structure for the enhancement of productive forces , Varna division arose replacing tribal equality . Buddha was born in 563 BC and lived for 80 years . Bimbisara started the Haryanka dynasty which developed Magadh empire in 544 BC . Buddha had seen the empire building process . He had seen ruthless state powers arising on the ruins of tribal societies . Buddha himself was born in a family of tribal chiefdom of Shakya tribe . During his
increase the wealth of wealthy , their super luxurious lives and for the domination of monopoly capital , all the people are asked to sacrifice . All this is to ensure profit guarantee to monopoly capital . Will the system survive and sustain with the economic realities of intensifying life crisis of majority ? No , it is impossible . The Annual Budgets are becoming tools to make strategies to deceive the people and to mislead their attention . Therefore , the people should agitate on the root causes of this plight . ( Thanks to Prof . Thota Jyothirani and Kannan ) �
Aloke Mukherjee
life time , Vidhudava , the Prince of Kosala , conquered and carried brutal massacre of the Shakyas . Probably this led to Buddha saying : “... the kings who rule kingdoms rich in treasures and wealth , turn their greed against one another , pandering insatiable to their desires . If these acts thus restlessly , swimming in the stream of impermanence , carried along by greed and carnal desires , who then can walk on earth in peace ?” [ Quoted by Debiprasad Chattopadhyay , Indian Philosophy , p128 ] W ithout taking this into account any attempt to discuss Buddha ’ s life and teachings will be superficial . In this discourse Dr Ambedkar made that mistake .
2 . Dr Ambedkar has enumerated the tenets of Buddha in a nutshell . Though said that he reached that idea ‘ from ’ his ‘ reading of the Tripitaka , his understanding was grossly misleading . To Buddha , Dhamma is different from European and other Religions , even Brahminical Dharma . To Buddha Dhamma is the way the life is to be spent with the objective of extinction of suffering ( dukkha ) and release from conditional existence ; whereas European religion is fundamentally surrender to a Supreme Being to achieve the same objective , the reason of which has been explained most aptly by Karl Marx . According to Buddha ‘ consciousness arises out of conditions ; there is no arising of consciousness without conditions ’ ( Magatanhsankhaya Sutta ). This is a materialist concept of the relationship between matter and consciousness . This philosophical approach took him to the understanding of Four Noble Truths : a ) there is suffering ( dukkha ) in life , b ) the cause of suffering is
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