Vajra Diaries, ‘Sarnath’

So who was Siddhartha? And what was Saranath, nested in the Gangetic plains of North India, like when the Buddha taught there circa 528 BCE? It was no doubt predominantly Vedic in religion, and the Brahmins were just beginning to cement their powers through the caste system. Tricycle Magazine for Beginners states, “Traditional narratives describe the future Buddha as the son of a king. Scholars say the clans were actually headed by chieftains who were chosen by consensus rather than by birth.” Further, it postulates, “This gave him [the Buddha] insight that the caste system of the brahmins–the highest, priestly caste–was not the only way for society to be organized.” If one appreciates Karl Jasper’s concept of an ’Axial Age,’ roughly from 800 to 300 BCE (or perhaps as early as Zarathustra, and as late as Nietzsche’s resurrection of him), then during that time, “the mind of this world’s peoples was figuratively turned on its axis, away from localized, trivial concerns, and became concerned with transcendent truths—the going beyond one’s current condition in body and mind—birthing new religious figures and their earth shaking ideas and beliefs. (Even today Tibetans will make claims of earthquakes arising out of the birth of a new Rinpoche—a reincarnated Buddha.) As Tricycle’s ‘training wheels’ summarizes, “Religion had been guided by ancient Sanskrit verses and hymns called the Vedas for many centuries. The oldest collection of these, the Rig Veda, dates to approximately the 15th – 9th century BCE. When the Buddha was born, new texts called the Upanishads were just gaining prominence. They were full of ideas that challenged old ways of thinking. Mendicant “holy men” called shramanas  (those of renunciation) wandered the plain seeking an end to the cycles of rebirth, and the suffering attendant upon it. The Buddha joined their ranks when he left home to seek the end of suffering. This time and place of change and upheaval proved to be a fertile time for religion and philosophy. Many new sects emerged in this period, in addition to Buddhism, including Jainism. It was a fortunate time for a great teacher to be born.” 

The on-site plaque at Sarnath further educates us on the Buddha’s revelations and revolutionary’ ‘wheel turnings’: 

Sarnath is one amongst four holy places [the others are Lumbini, where he was born, Bodhgaya, where he became enlightened, Kushinagar, where he entered parinirvana] associated with the life of Lord Buddha, after attaining Enlightenment at Bodhgaya, he preached his first sermon to his five erstwhile companions [and former ascetics]. This event in Buddhist literature is known as Dharma-Chakra-Pravartana or The Turning of the Wheel of Law. Foundation of the very first Buddhist Sangha was also laid over here by Lord Buddha himself. 

It goes on about the ancient names Sarnath is referred to in texts as, Rishipatan or Issipatsna, and, Mrigadava or Mrigadaya.

Though its modern name seems to be a contraction Saranganath (Lord of Deers), still borne by the Mahadeva enshrined in a temple nearby. The place is held equally holy by the Jainas, as being the venue of the austerities of Sreyansanatha, the Eleventh Thirtankara.

I didn’t have a strong feeling of transcendence while at Sarnath, like I had both times while visiting Bodhgaya and Vulture Peak. It could be because what was set in motion there was a change of view about existence itself, the causes of suffering and the means to its cessation. The whole notion of the cessation of samsaric suffering, the endless rounds of death and rebirth—mentioned above as a prime concern for Axial Age teachers in India—was in itself revolutionary. While this view also sees reality as illusory, when properly understood, it’s non-dualistic, empty of cause, result, and self nature, which radically distinguishes itself from other Hindu systems of liberation. Moreover, it promoted equality and a casteless society. As we’ll see later at Khajaraho (this one and that one are both originally writings from Vajra Diaries, vol.1.), the traditional notion of liberation, as spelled out by our local and quite knowledgeable guide, is based on respecting worldly law, and the position one is born into. It advocates cultivating desire for worldly attainment, the massing of material wealth and family, and liberation through the cultivation of sense pleasures by which one eventually arrives at ultimate liberation, in a state of glorious power and bliss. (This may not be the fairest evaluation of that exonym called ‘Hinduism.’ But it gets a fairer shake when we visit the tantric Shivaist stronghold further to the west, and peek between our fingers, as some of the carved figures do, at the famously erotic, excruciatingly beautiful tantric temples there.) Of course, Saranath, being ground zero for Buddha’s bombshell teachings, the most commonly evoked feeling, and appropriately so, is reverence, something the sutras recommends for all of the ‘big four’ Buddhist pilgrimage sites. I also had strong feelings of gratitude for the sheer existence of the Dharma’s great gift while in Sarnath. Especially while visiting its amazing museum, containing Ashokan edicts—extant Dharmas as Royal decrees, carved in stone. 

It’s been said the sagacious, clear-eyed instructions of the Buddhas words found in Dharma writings, aiding one to enter, stay, and progress along the path, make it the foremost gem of the three precious Buddhist jewels—the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. I’m reminded of my trip to Lhasa Tibet, in 1986, and of visiting Drepung Monastery, its richly textured interior, thick with aromas from the lighting of ancient butter lamps, indelibly printed on my senses. This was ‘early’ for casual visits from the West, and relatively speaking, not that long after the death and destruction perpetrated by the Gang of Four and their Cultural Revolution, during the sixties. I was there, in fact, just after and a little before two murderous reprisals for uprisings at Drepung against the increasing ‘Han presence’ in Lhasa, and Tibet in general. While inside Drepung’s gompa, breathing in its heady air of the densest Dharma, and proceeding to  circumambulate under the hundreds of oblong Dharma texts shelved along the walls and behind the main altar, I broke down and sobbed with unspeakable gratitude just for their very existence. This visit, now thirty-seven years ago, greatly increased my appetite and appreciation for Buddhist pilgrimage. Its ability to engender thanks for the preciousness and ephemerality of the Dharma’s surviving presence and the powerful inspiration of its relic in the midst of often tragic ruins.