The story of 'Laughing Buddha'

Have your ever seen a picture or statue of Buddha laughing?

Where is he? why he is laughing? Here is the story of laughing Buddha. 

Lao Tzu's a contemporary of Buddha. When Buddhism was spreading in India, Taoism was spreading in China. But Buddha and Lao Tzu(Founder of Taoism) where opposite ends of a pole in sense of both physique and philosophy.

Laughing Buddha

 Buddha was a serious thinker, he laughs very rarely (Very very rarely!), whereas Lao Tzu was easy going and mischievous person and was always with laughing face and making pranks. People even doubted whether he was a philosopher at all because of his practical jokes. Buddha had athletic physique, and his face was like a brave army general in his statues. This is because those statues were carved after Alexander's invasion on India. People here loved Alexander which made them to carve statues having his impact. You can see this in his statues in India. Also he was against harming animals, so he hardly traveled in animals. But Lao Tzu had a beautiful 'pot belly' and a round face, and he always traveled in a buffalo. Hope you would have understood how opposite they were in there appearance and physique.

Not only in their appearance but also in their ideas they were different. Buddha in his deathbed said to his disciples, “Every living thing should pass, strive on diligently”, whereas Lao Tzu in his book Tao-Te-Ching wrote, “It is because you do not strive, that no one under heaven can strive with you”. What an irony?

When Buddhism started spreading outside India, its first stop on North-East was China. People there were not much happy with easy going philosophy of Taoism. When Buddhism entered there, Chinese found it extremely strict. So the two philosophical rivers, Buddhism and Taoism mingled and gave birth to a beautiful stream called Zen.

 Zen philosophy is neither strict like Buddhism nor easy going like Taoism. It is proportionate mix of the two and thus Zen dawned and so the famous 'Laughing Buddha' statues, in which you can see Buddha laughing heartily. They are mostly in China. They have mix of charm and mischievousness of Lao Tzu and luster of Buddha and they dint miss the beautiful ‘pot belly’ of Lao Tzu. They were designed in this way to denote the mix of Buddhism and Taoism. Thus Zen and Laughing Buddha were born.

P.S: To know more about Lao Tzu and his work-Tao-Te-Ching

The day when I bribed for the first time

It was a somber Friday morning when my mobile sprang up to life, my friend on the wire,”Hey da...gonna apply for No Objection certificate, you wanna join me?” As I too had need for those, we started with the necessary documents to taluk office.

            It was our first experience at taluk office. So we were quite bewildered without knowing proper procedures. On enquiring a person, he pointed another person who was sitting behind a pile of applications.

            With some hesitation, we asked him, “Sir, how to get No Objection certificate application?”. Without looking at us, he replied, “In Xerox shop opposite to railway station”. We got that quite easily. After that we had a really hard time filling up the application as they asked for too many details. The man behind the pile of applications was also not replying properly for our doubts.

 A neatly dressed man around 30s came near me and asked caringly, “Do you have trouble filling the application?” I was quite happy that there’s someone to help us. But it didn’t last long. I answered his question in affirmative and thought of seeking his help. But he just stopped me with that and asked me to follow him and led us outside the office. He then gave the application to a man dressed in filthily in rags, sitting in platform outside the office. The decent looking man said to me proudly, “He’s the only man who can fill applications in English”.

I was bit hesitant at first and my heart alarmed that he’s moving in for a bribe. After talking with him for a while, I found out that I cannot get my certificate by actual procedure. So I got little tensed, but later decided to go back home. Just before I was about to start, he struck a deal with me, that he can get the certificate I wished for by evening itself (which usually takes 15 days). Even though that certificate won’t be useful to me anymore, I accepted his offer, just because of curiosity. So he showed green signal to that filthy man who fills the applications for him and he started filling the application. The most shocking part which flushed out my face is that, he signed the part where revenue inspector (RI) has to sign (!). When I asked whether it won’t raise any problem, he said that they will be filing at least 50 applications a week in this manner.”

            With corruption so casual in the grass root level, I got ambiguous about the movements by Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev, and other so called “Anti-corruption crusaders” and the electronic media which made them over night heroes by giving extravagant importance to them. It finally occurred to my mind that a great “Social drama” on anti-corruption had been successfully staged to the whole nation.

I recently heard about a shocking incident from my friend who held an active role in “India against corruption” movement, and recently withdrew from it. He said to me that, he had attended the meeting of the IAC Chennai chapter, and that he directly saw the incidents of bribing in trading of the food items, badges, T-shirts, and water bottles too. The chief guests of the meeting were corrupt personalities. I felt his pain as he said that.

Recent remarks of Markandeya Katju on Anna Hazare which goes like, "This Anna Hazare movement, I have not spoken about it because I am attacked by the media as if justice Katju is some kind of demon. I regard Anna Hazare as an honest man; there is no dispute in that. But what are his scientific ideas? I don't think he has any scientific ideas".

It’s true. Paid media worked like a right hand servant to that movement. Some bigger corporate with vested interests have used Hazare as a tool and accomplished its need, by diverting entire nation with media hype. No common people would have known about the behind the screen activities.

If they wished to drive an anti-corruption movement successfully, it should have started from grass roots. They should have educated people about the lokpal bill. As Hindu’s ‘State of the nation poll’ clearly indicated that, “Only one third of the respondents have heard about lokpal bill and only one-fourth know what it actually is”. My friend I had mentioned earlier also said the same thing that three-fifths of the people who attended meeting didn’t know what lokpal bill is.

No politician or civil society group would be ready to educate people on this, as Lord Brougham’s words goes, “Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern; but difficult to enslave.”

At the whelm of our 65^th independence, I remembered Sir Winston Churchill’s statement on our independence, after the Gandhiji’s assassination, “When you cannot even protect a old man, whom we protected for 60 years, what are you going to do with your independence?”. The answer instantly flashed in my mind, “Sir. Winston Churchill, with our independence we can get birth certificate to a dead person, driving license to a physically challenged person and we have so much freedom that a common man in rags can sign on behalf of a government official and issue certificates to anybody.”

P.S:

1. The decent looking man handed me the certificate that evening itself.

2. I didn’t used the certificate for any purpose and it’s still with my documents.

3. My friend too got the certificate through another ex-decent looking man.

4. Anna Hazare is busy organizing his next fast.

            

Time for an 'Educational revolution'

Is school education all about securing a seat in premier institutions? At the present scenario, the obvious answer seems to be a “YES!!! What else?” In a famous novel, where the author mentions about getting into the premier institutes, he says, “If you can lock yourself in a room with book for two years and throw the key away, you can ‘probably’ make it there”. This line perfectly explains the situation in our country.

Making advantage from this situation and mentality of parents and students, the coaching institutes are perfectly making a fortune. The parents with the expectation and fear of providing their child a promising future, joins their child in coaching institutes. They are nothing but a locked room with books, not to leave aside the lucrative fee structure depending upon the lock up (!) period, and their proposed coaching method, which gives the parents an elevated confidence that their child will be a Newton, at the end of the course!

                It is after this stage, where the mental attitude of students towards education and learning changes from “joy” to “concepts and formulas”. They are cranked up again and again over years stuffing the formulas into their head, to crack their ultimate competitive exams.

                It’s similar to merely feeding large varieties of datum and algorithm into the memory of a robot, instructing it to perform a predefined set of tasks under respective conditions, which can be technically referred as ‘artificial intelligence’. And it is this sort of intelligence that is being imparted to children at coaching institutes and even at school. This ‘artificially stuffed knowledge’ will have no use except in clearing exams and scoring marks.

                What is the use of solving same conventional problems which has been over a number of times already by number of people? The schools also contribute an equal part in promoting such rotten educational practices. And over the time, the school itself took the role of coaching institutes also, by offering intensive class room programs for competitive exams along with the academic curriculum. Are they providing those programs for wellness of students???... NO, but purely for money. Thus those schools have forgotten their fundamental cause. The sad plight is that such schools are increasing in numbers.

                The middle school level (Grade VI-IX), is the age when students are exposed to fundamental building block concepts and wonders of science and universe. It is at this stage where they should be encouraged to question, experiment, analyze, and feel the science without fear and stress of exams. But unfortunately it is at this age, the children are forced or encouraged to join variety of coaching centers ranging from, IIT-JEE, SAT, to specialized coaching on Mathematics, Physics, and chemistry for their school exams too. At this situation, most of the students get diverted to exam oriented study and forget the real reason for which they should learn.

                It is the part of teacher to kindle the curiosity by asking questions, and not by giving the answers straight away. Teachers should make way for the students to find the answers, as a Chinese proverb goes, “It is better to teach a hungry man, how to fish, rather than feeding him a fish.

               

There is a question ‘How?’ and ‘Why?’ hiding behind everything we come across in our daily life from, ’Why birds fly?’ to ‘How ships float?’ Education is not about last night preparation or two month crash course. It is a continuous process like a rolling stone gathering mass. It begins from day we born and lasts until we die. “Not even a single day should pass without improvement”.

                The solution to all the above issues neither can be given simply in a series of bulletins, nor are the solutions simple to be identified by a single person. As it is a problem which had grown gradually over the years, as should be its eradication too. Like the recent change in CBSE curriculum, a complete evaluation of our education system and redesigning is the need of the hour, as time is racing towards ‘Vision India: 2020’. If this problem is overlooked, then it can pose a serious threat to our nation’s future knowledge resource. To sum it up, an “Educational revolution” Is the need of the hour.

History is 'History'?

01/03/2012-Thursday-20:00
Am a mechanical engineer, writing about history. I can already hear voices mumbling,"What does a mechanical engineer know about history to talk(or write) about?". An historian may not be a part of development in the engineering field, or a doctor may not be part of  development in world of art, and an artist may not be in the field of medicine and it goes on. But every one of us have a role in hisrtorical progression. May or may not be significant.

Centuries in 'historic time line' slip out like seconds. Just to get you a feeling, Blink your eyes, "Oh there!! harappan civilization just passed off, and hey there!!!..you can see budhha under that peepul tree over there". Its like that, nearly 4000-5000 years have passed since the inception of civilisation in India. But only few hundred people, including a bunch of kings, foreign invaders, some monks, British Viceroys, and some renowned freedom fighters managed to get their name printed in the history text books. And only a very few like, Budhha, Chandra Gupta Maurya, Ashoka,and Gandhi etched a place in the heart of people and managed to become milestones in the 'historic time line'.

 What made them to stand apart?. Eventhough they differ greatly in terms of time(what we call 'now generation gap'), as all three of them were not contemporaries, and even had an age gap of over 1000 years. They are like different rivers,which eventhough flows through different path, but finally flowing into one  great ocean. All three resorted to non-violence, at different point of life, by different ways, due to different reasons.
To hit the point in one word, "LOVE for all living things"(Not for human alone) is the essence of their life and the esscence of 4000 years of history. These were the last words of Buddha in his death bed, "All created things must pass. Strive on, Diligently".

ow..ow..there again, I can hear someone telling, "Hey man,its 21st century. Love, compassion, and truth are oldies. We are Gen-X." For all Gen-X's,"We should remember that Budhha was Gen-X for Harrapans, Ashoka was Gen-X for Budhha, Gandhi was Gen-X for Ashoka and like wise". As already said, we are just a wink in the history of time. Whatever we are proud of, like our technology, or the money we earned, or our knowledge, is actually nothing. We will just be a spec of dust in the sands of time. Our footprints lost among billions of similiar foot prints. Try to visualise, a history teacher of 31st century telling his students"....and the civilisation of 21st century was much developed that they had an International Space Station even at that time!". That is all we will be.  But Budhha and Gandhi will live in their hearts even then.

History has been misintrepreted over centuries. That is why, TV channels are interviewing film actresses and telecasting commercial movies during Independence day and republic day. History is much important than maths, science, and arts. If those three prepare us to look into our future, its history which....oops..am not getting words. More simply, eventhough we prepare more thoroughly for a  test, its the blessing of our parent and elders, and wishes from our beloved ones which gives us courage to face the test confidently. History is like that. History imparts us a moral insight and self-esteem to face the life.

To study history means to search for and discover the forces that are the causes of those results which appear before our eyes as historical events. The art of reading and studying consists in remembering the essentials and forgetting what is not essential."
And that is the way to learn history, more precisely history must be felt.


Science and maths churn us into professionals, but history churns us into human.