Buddhahood in This Body

ABOUTAll ancient religions had a twofold orientation as far as their goal was concerned. In the earlier millennia, with man still in the barbaric state, survival itself was the goal of all his activities. In fact as man tried to find lasting solutions to his material needs he developed a plethora of customs, practices, knowledge of himself and the nature around him that he exploited for the fulfillment of his needs. These all put together developed into a conglomeration called ‘culture’ (which is now renamed as ‘civilization’). However, even when man was doing all this he was actually aware of his helplessness vis-a-vis the forces of nature which he constantly faced and which created awe in his mind by their sheer power. This feeling was the beginning of religion. With every occasion on which he was forced to acknowledge the tremendous power in natural forces, he wanted to propitiate this power to make it his own or work for his good. This power was all in all he could feel. This power was directly embodied by the sun around whom as the illuminator of the world veered early man’s life. So, the first source of power to early man was the sun, and naturally, he was the lord and master of this universe. This observation was further confirmed by the discovery of fire, agriculture, and so on. So, first came the discovery of the power and use of the sun. Then came the observation of order in the universe, which in a way centred on the sun. This was the second great discovery.

Even after being a civilized, cultured creature man’s difficulty were not over (not even are they to date). In fact they multiplied by the formation of various social institutions like family, settlement, smooth running of the settlement, the development of crafts and the distribution of their products, trade, etc. Who was there to help man? No one. So he with the simple logic turned to the all-powerful looking forces in nature, the sun, the plain land he tilled, the river which gave him water, the rain which cooled him, then after agriculture the sowing and harvesting etc. He pleaded with them to be merciful, to give him what he wanted, he gave them a share of what he had and so on. When these ideas and practices took firm roots, there were gods, the particular mode of pleasing them, giving them offerings in return, etc. This was the beginning of religion. The central goal of these practices was that these forces in nature should help man to live in comfort, though he could not avoid the toil; they should be pleased to allow his effort to bear the desired fruit. This is one type of religion or the first goal. This can be seen in composition like the Rgveda of the Hindus.