Why Buddhism Declined?

Concluding remarks:

As noted in this series of articles, it was not the Islamic conquests which caused Buddhism to fade away in South Asia but a plethora of causes that made the difference. In the early medieval period when Buddhism lost the royal patronage, and Hinduism became a resurgent force in its battle with Buddhism, not only did the Buddhists face serious persecution and elimination, it also lost its intellectual battle against the Brahmans.  Thanks to the brilliant scheme concocted by the Brahman philosophers, Gautama Buddha was transformed into a reincarnation of Hindu Lord Vishnu, which virtually sealed the fate of Buddhism by putting the final nail in its coffin -- centuries before Islam became a dominant force in South Asia.

The prominent 8th-century CE Hindu philosopher Shankara described Buddha as an enemy of the people. Interestingly, he developed a monastic order on the Buddhist model, and also borrowed concepts from Buddhist philosophy. Anti-Buddhist propaganda was also reaching its peak during the 8th century when Shankara modeled his monastic order after the Buddhist Sangha. He has been hailed as the arch critic of Buddhism and the principal architect of its downfall in India. At the same time he has been described as a Buddhist in disguise. Both these opinions have been expressed by ancient as well as modern authors—scholars, philosophers and historians. While Shankara is given credit for the defeat of Buddhism in Hindu literature, he was in fact active after Buddhism had faded from prominence in some areas.

Buddhism was showing unmistakable signs of its decline long before Islam became established in the Gangetic plains, central India, and the northern end of present-day Andhra and Karnataka. It died a natural death. As noted by a Hindu scholar, "The old Buddhism, which denied the very being of God, offered no hope of human immortality and looked upon all life as misery, love of life as the greatest evil, and the end of man as the extinction of all desire, lost its power. Buddhism was choked by the mass of superstition, selfishness and sensuality which surrounded it... The Mahayana metaphysics and religion in fact was synonymous with the Advaita metaphysics and theism. Hinayana on the other hand, with its more ascetic character, came to be regarded as a sect of Shaivism. Buddhism found that it had nothing distinctive to teach. When the Brahminical faith inculcated universal devotion and love to God and proclaimed Buddha to be an avatar of Lord Vishnu, the death knell of Buddhism in India was sounded."

Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902 CE), one of the greatest minds of Hinduism who played an important role in revival of Hinduism, was highly critical of Buddhism. He remarked, “Thus, in spite of preaching mercy to animals, in spite of the sublime ethical religion, in spite of the discussions about the existence or non-existence of a permanent soul, the whole building of Buddhism tumbled down piece-meal and the ruin was simply hideous. The most hideous ceremonies, the most obscene books that human hands ever wrote or the human brain ever conceived, have all been the creation of the degraded Buddhism."

Bottom line: Rather than blaming other religions, Buddhism needs a serious introspection to find the root causes of its demise in India and most of south Asia. When it does, it will find that its demise was prompted by itself and not by some outside forces. It cannot go on blaming others for its monumental failures. It cannot go on justifying its unfathomable cruelties in our time based on events that happened centuries ago.

What the people of our time see are brutalities, savagery and crimes against humanity committed by Buddhist governments in which minority religious communities are targeted for extinction. There is no denying that Rohingya Muslims are the most persecuted people in our planet today. Can the Buddhist government in Myanmar and the local state government in the Rakhine (Arakan) state, the terrorist Buddhist monks and the Buddhist political leaders, the Buddhist mobs deny their overt and covert attempts that tried not only to delegitimize their ancestral roots to the state, but also the continual and almost incessant genocidal campaigns that they have launched and supported to uproot a majority of the Rohingya people to seek asylum elsewhere, let alone the fact that they are subjected to the worst forms of persecution that our world has seen in our time?

Where is the voice within Buddhism that cries foul to such acts of mass murder and criminality committed by its folks against a persecuted minority? Why is Suu Kyi silent? Why are the terrorist monks like Wirathu celebrated as national heroes and voices of reason like those of Maung Zarni and U Gambira considered improper?

Why are the non-Buddhists threatened in Buddhist-majority countries? Why are the Muslim minorities and their properties unsafe in places like Sri Lanka? Why are the Rohingya Muslims used as slaves in Thai boats and ships?

These are just a small sample of questions that the Buddhist community needs to reflect upon and answer, and change the course. It cannot expect the world community to close their eyes forever entertaining a fantasy for all time.

Buddhism is failing and it has become vicious and savage in the hands of new practitioners who are straying from Buddha’s teachings. If it wants to survive in the new century when our world is getting much more connected it better reform so that it is not viewed as a moribund philosophy that is inimical to human aspirations and genocidal against ‘other’ people. Let it practice tolerance. It needs to have less of Wirathu and more of Gambira to make that journey and transition.

If it wants to learn from others, esp. Muslims, it may like to look at Sufi Islam. Truly, as historian William Dalrymple rightly said, Sufism is clearly central to any discussion of medieval India. Let it look at Islam's rich 1000-year history of syncretism, intellectual heterodoxy and pluralism in India. The history of Indian Sufism in particular abounds with attempts by mystics to overcome the gap between the two great religions and to seek God not through sectarian rituals but through the wider gateway of the human heart. These attempts were championed by some of South Asia's most popular mystics, such as Bulleh Shah of Lahore:

Neither Hindu nor Muslim
I sit with all on a whim
Having no caste, sect or creed,
I am different indeed.
I am not a sinner or saint,
Knowing no sin nor restraint.
Bulleh tries hard to shirk
The exclusive embrace
of either Hindu or Turk.

 

Is the Buddhist world ready or more appropriately, will it ever be ready for that quantum leap?

-à Concluded.