Gaya and Bodh Gaya - The place for Salvation and Enlightment

We were blessed to visit Gaya and Bodh Gaya. These are not just two ordinary towns. But towns having huge influence on mankind, like Jerusalem or Mecca. Before that, allow me to tell you three stories.

First story, about powerful people in this world.There was once a survey, to decide who were the most powerful or impactful historical figures in the world? Total impact = Length of time of Impact × absolute number of people impacted. Surprisingly the hard power of emperors from Genghis Khan, Julius Ceaser, Emperor Chin to Queen Victoria was no match to the soft power of religious leaders. Gautama Buddha was in top 3, with number of years (2600 years) × number of followers (500 million plus people).

Second story, about Vishnupaad temple in Gaya.

Gaya, in Bihar state of India, is an ancient town, which predates the Buddha, is known for Vishnupad Temple , 'temple of Lord Vishnu's feet', it is one of the ancient and most famous Hindu temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu. The temple is located on the bank of the river Phalgu, is marked by a footprint of Lord Vishnu known as Dharmasila, incised into a block of basalt.

Once a demon known as Gayasura, did a heavy penance and sought a boon that whoever sees him should attain salvation (Moksham). Since salvation is achieved through being righteous in one's lifetime, people started obtaining it easily. To prevent immoral people from attaining salvation Lord Vishnu asked Gayasura to go beneath the earth and did so by placing his right foot on asura's head. After pushing Gayasura below the surface of earth, Lord Vishnu's foot print remained on the surface that we see even today. Lord Vishnu gave him a boon that every day, someone will offer him food. AND Whoever does so, their souls will reach heaven.

LORD RAMA, an Avataar of Vishnu himself, came along with Maa Sita and is supposed to have offered pind Daan, for his Father King Dasharath here. We were blessed as family to offer Pind Daan to all our ancestors and sought their blessings.

Third story, about Buddha in Bodh Gaya.

Buddha once said, "no one can escape death and unhappiness. If people expect only happiness in life, they will be dissapointed" I presume, he might have come to Gaya to seek an answer for suffering and death, since its an ancient place for salvation. Bodh Gaya, situated about 10kms near Gaya, in Indian state of Bihar is the place where Buddha attained enlightment around 600BC. For Buddhists, Bodh Gaya is one of the four most important places for any Buddhist pilgirim to see in their life time. Its a UNESCO World Heritage site. The other three are Lumbini in Nepal his place of birth, Sarnath in UP his place of first sermon and Kushinagar in UP his place of Parinirvana. Bodh Gaya is about 100kms from its capital Patna aka Pataliputra, which was once the capital of the powerful and rich Mauryan empire of Chandra Gupta Maurya and Ashoka. Emperor Ashoka spread Buddhism from here to rest of the world like Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Tibet to Myanmar. From there it went further on to Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, China and Japan.

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Bihar, India

Sadly, for all its past glory, Bihar is now one of the most under developed states of modern India in almost all parameters of Human development index like literacy, nutrition etc. No where else in India, I have seen such grinding hardship for the common man as in Bihar. What is commendable is despite the hardship, people are quite welcoming and courteous. They are happy to show you the way or guide you in case you are stuck somewhere. There is Farming still alive, you can see mustard, vegetable and rice fields all along. The hotels at bodh Gaya are really good, comfortable and world class due to the tourism industry. The food is just mouth watering be it Aloo paratha, sattu paratha, masala chai or pani poori.

Maha Bodhi temple

And most importantly, the sights are just marvelous. I was mesmerized to see the Maha Bodhi temple and the Bodhi tree, exactly the place where Buddha attained enlightment almost 2600 years back. Seeing it is ethereal and like time travel.

Emperor Ashoka has mentioned Buddha as Bhagawata, a term used for Vishnu, in one of his edicts. And that's why many Hindus consider Gautam Buddha as an incarnation or avatar of Lord Vishnu himself. The Buddhists however see him as founder of Buddhism, a religion distinct from Hinduism. Be that as it may, Buddhas teaching on moral values are quite universal and eternal.

Apart from Maha Bodhi temple built in ancient Indian style, I was also impressed by how the following governments have built thier own style temple and meditation halls - Japan, China, Taiwan, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Nepal in this area.

Do you know the original Maha Bodhi temple built by emperor Ashoka in 200BC was destroyed and razed to dust 1400 years later in 1200AD by Islamic Invader Bhaktiar Khilji. The present temple was reconstructed by Indians in British India in 1860, by digging the ruins and restoring the temple based on the mettalic coin discovered with pagoda and text of Chinese traveller Xuanzhang. We need to thank the Chinese for being a written civilization, unlike India which is largely a spoken civilisation. The Chinese had meticulously captured the Era and the building in thier writings. The big siting Buddha statue is built by the Japanese. Now imagine, 4 different sets of people, Indians, British, Chinese and Japanese collaborated to restore Bodh Gaya to former glory. Left to themselves, these countries and their governments are not the greatest friends of each other. But when it comes to Buddha they seem to work together for common good cutting across nationalities. That is perhaps the finest example of Buddha's teaching in action.

You just dont see a fig tree and temple at Bodh Gaya. You see History, Spirituality and universal brotherhood in action. That should make even Lord Buddha happy.

Enjoy the photos.

Nash Narasimhan Tupil

July 2022, Bodh Gaya