Buddhist shrine keeps tryst with Hindu goddess

[Guest guest]

Buddhist shrine keeps tryst with Hindu goddess

Buddhist shrine keeps tryst with Hindu goddess

 

IANS

 

BODH GAYA (BIHAR): In the land of enlightenment, it's worship for the

goddess of learning. At Bodh Gaya, 113 km from Bihar capital Patna,

adjoining the massive pagoda shrine with its giant statue of the

praying Buddha, a tiny Hindu temple has emerged.

 

It's dedicated to the goddess Bagga, another name for Saraswati, the

goddess of learning.

 

The temple seems to be brooding and suitably dwarfed by the sprawling

Buddhist complex around the shrine and the century old tree, which

lies just behind it.

 

With celebrities like Richard Gere taking to Buddhism and flying down

to India several times a year, Bodh Gaya, the faith's holiest site is

fast becoming an international city complete with scores of air-

conditioned Internet cafes and luxury hotels that attract hordes of

foreigners throughout the year.

 

Tucked in a corner, with mud steps and a cave like entrance, the

temple seems gloomy and emits a scary power compared to the cheerful

spaciousness and serenity of the Buddhist shrine. Inside the oil lamp

lit temple, the idol is carved in the wall and half covered by blood

red cloth.

 

It has none of the brightly lit splendour of the Buddha shrine, with

its ancient pond with the beautifully painted floating Buddha statue,

but even then, the temple, which only came up in the 1600s, is

managing to carve out its niche identity.

 

That, the priests of the temple say, is because locals believe it was

only due to a vision from the goddess Bagga that Buddha was able to

attain nirvana.

 

"It is said that when Prince Siddhartha (Buddha before enlightenment)

was looking for the truth, he one day had a vision where he saw the

goddess telling him - 'go to that tree and under it you will find

your answers'," said temple priest Kamlesh Kumar, looking as brooding

as his idol, bare-chested and in a red dhoti, with a streak of

vermilion on his forehead.

 

"And he went to the tree and found his answers. This temple is to

celebrate the goddess who showed Lord Buddha his way."

 

But not everyone is happy with the temple, especially because its

local popularity is spurring the mushrooming of a host of other tiny

temples around the Buddhist shrine. "These little temples are a bit

annoying," said Ed Kinney, a Buddhist from Texas on a visit to Bodh

Gaya.

 

"Buddhists are very non-materialistic and very quiet. Look at the

monks. Most of them are on a vow of silence," reasons Kinney.

 

"But the priests try to fleece money from gullible visitors and are

very noisy. It's a bit polluting."

 

Nodded his partner from Thailand, Sirapan Kaewwanarat: "Buddhism is

about peace. These temples are breaking that peace."

 

But devotees at the temples do not agree. Said one of the priests,

Gokul Maharaj: "Our temples have as much right to function here as

the shrine. We respect them, they should and do respect us. There's

no conflict."

 

For some it's best of both the worlds. "We can worship the Buddha and

Hindu gods. After all, god is the same and so all his names and forms

are the same," said Shilesh Mishra, a visitor.

 

For Kumar, it's a sign of coexistence. "It shows us that all paths to

god are the same. Buddha is nothing without Bagga and vice-versa."