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A few days later I left Root Institute and again took up residence in a guest house near the Bhutanese monastery. This establishment, which was charging 200 ruples a night before the arrival of the Dalai Lama, is now charging 600, and is completely filled. Indeed, visitors to Bodhgaya seem to have doubled or tripled in the last eight days, According to press accounts the crowd now includes 12,000 Buddhist monks, 800 nuns (this surely an under-estimation), and over 50,000 pilgrims and tourists. Most are Tibetans who have settled in India, but there is also a sprinking of Tibetans from Tibet itself who have wrangled exit permits from the Chinese government, plus sizable contingents from Nepal, Bhutan, Japan, Korea, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Taiwan, Singapore, and other Buddhist countries of Asia. There also appears to be several thousand "Neo-Buddhists"-as the Times of India insists on calling them-from western countries and Australia. Still, if the press estimates are correct the number in pilgrims and tourists this year would be considerably less than the two-to-three hundred thousand who attended the Bodhgaya Kalachakra puja in 1985. Of course these are not exactly travel-conducive times we are are living in. The events of September 11, 2001 still cast a pall over world-wide travel; the Taliban has been defeated in Afghanistan but the victorious warlords, increasingly at each other's throats, threaten a new conflict which could spill over into Pakistan; and Pakistan and India, both armed with nuclear weapons, are loudly sounding the toscins of war over Kashmir. Then there was the vague but alarming threats of violence in Bodhgaya itself, as ready mentioned. Pilgrims might be excused if they preferred to stick closer to home under such conditions. Americans in particular are thin on the ground. With a few exceptions the ones I've met seem to spend most of their time in Nepal or India anyhow so really didn't have far to travel. It's an immense crowd, nonetheless, and one that has easily swamped the available accommodations in Bodhgaya. Every hotel and guest house is packed to the rafters (tales of outrageous price gouging is a recurrent theme among the foreign contingent), and many have people sacked out in their courtyards and on their roofs. A huge camp of hundreds, if not thousands, of tents has sprung up along the Neranjara River north of Bodhgaya, and other smaller tent camps dot fields and vacant lots to the west of town. One side-street, perhaps a thousand feet long, is lined on both sides with itinerant restaurants set up on tents and hundreds of fast food outlets, some consisting of nothing more than a kerosene stove, a wok, and a tea kettle, have materialized in any available nook. For those who tire of their devotions and wish to indulge in samsaric pleasures there are two carnivals complete with ferris wheels and other rides, and one of them even has a tent show featuring several Siamese twins. Although there are certainly Buddhists, especially those who are not followers of the type of Buddhism practised by Tibetans, who are here in Bodhgaya solely because it is the site of the Buddha's Enlightenment, and tourists who are here simply because Bodhgaya is part of their tour of India, it's safe to say that the by far the biggest part of this crowd has traveled here because of the presence of the Dalai Lama and the planned Kalachakra Initiation. So why is the Dalai Lama giving this initiation, and what does it mean to the people who are attending? First of all, it must be pointed out that according one system of classification found in Tibetan Buddhism there are three basic kinds of teachings: the outer teachings, also known as the Hinayana, or Small Vehicle; the inner teachings, also known as the Mahayana or Great Vehicle; and the secret teachings, also known as the Vajrayana, the Diamond Vehicle, or the Tantric Path. Generally speaking, the secret, tantric doctrines are considered the most advanced and offer the quickest route to Enlightenment, but because of their complex nature initiations into these teachings are usually given only in private to small groups of advanced students who have spent years thoroughly grounding themselves in preparatory practises found taught in the other Vehicles. The Kalachakra is classified as a secret teaching, and is thought by some be the most advanced of all tantrics teachings, but paradoxically Kalachakra intiations, alone along all the various tantric systems, are by tradition given in public to large groups of people, many of whom may have very little if any experience in the prerequisite practises. The current Dalai Lama himself, commenting on the Kalachakra Initiation, points out that "there is a tradition of giving it at large public gatherings, but adds, "Certainly, not everyone who attends will have a sufficient inner basis to receive the full benefit of the initiation, but it is believed that anyone attending with a positive attitude will establish and strengthen positive karmic instincts." Contemporary Tibetan scholar Geshe Lhundrup Sopa, who has written extensively on the Kalachakra, elaborates on this theme:
Shambhalist Glenn A. Mullin, who witnessed the first Kalachakra initiation in Bodhgaya and subsequently translated many Kalachakra-connected texts into English, also alludes to this:
B. Alan Wallace, who has translated several key Kalachakra texts from Tibetan into English, comments too on the Shambhala connection:
Jeffrey Hopkins, who has translated the Kalachakra Initiation into English, goes further:
Even the mass media weights in on the Shambhala theme. In a January 13, 2002 Times of India article entitled "All roads lead to Bodh Gaya for Kalchakra" reporter Sudeep Rawats informs us that the Kalachakra "rituals are considered an essential part of Vajrayana Buddhism, which is widely practiced in India. The rituals and meditation performed during the ceremony, it is believed, leads to salvation of the soul and ensures one a rebirth in the mystical land of Shambala."
©2003 Don Croner |
82 foot-high Budha carved from pink sandstone, located in the outskirts of Bodhgaya not far from the Root Institute |
