GAUTAM BUDDHA used to live in the eastern part of ancient India. He was a contemporary of Mahavira, the founder of Jainism in India. The Jains are believers of 'ahimsa' (non-violence) and it was considered a sin in their eyes to kill or cause harm to a living being. So, Jains are vegetarians and not meat-eaters. Buddha was interested in Jainism and incorporated it in his philosophy.
The caste system of ancient Hindus divides the Hindus into four categories: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and the Shudra. Buddha was a Kshatriya prince and Siddhartha was his real name. His father was King Shuddhodhana and mother was Queen Maya. The parents of Buddha brought him up in extreme luxury and tried to keep him away from all sufferings and miseries. But Buddha did saw poverty and sufferings around him that pained him immensely. So one day he left the luxury of life and walked quietly out of the palace at night in search of the answers to numerous questions that bothered him. After many years of rigorous contemplation under a peepal tree in Gaya, Buddha was enlightened and the peepal tree became, the "tree of enlightenment."
Buddha's teachings are a guide to good living. He used to condemn "the sacrifices of all manners to the gods and said, we must sacrifice instead our anger, hatred, envy and wrong-thinking."
What do we see in Myanmar now? Teachings of Buddhism are being violated brutally. It is time to stand up against Myanmar. Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate, rightly said, "Rohingya did not come to Burma (Myanmar), but Burma came to Rohingya."
Needless to say, had Buddha been alive now, surely he would have been extremely unhappy, to say the least.
Iftu Ahmed
Aurora, IL
USA
