Dear Sukhdev.
I was born to Buddhist parents. My parents and grand parents were converts
to Buddhism. I can be called a "second generation" book. But anyways, as I
read in a book by Simhalese author, a Buddhist is always someone who turns
to the tripple gem because he is convinced that there is no better refuge.
In Buddha's days, people used to listen to some discourse and they used to
become so convinced that they automatically used to say "Buddham saranam
gacchami, dhammam saranam gacchami, sangham saranam gacchami".
Anyways, the above description is still insufficient to give you an idea on
what "kind" of Buddhist I am. Let me provide some information on Buddhism in
India.
Buddhists in India are mainly found in four states : Maharashtra, Sikkim,
Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu-Kashmir. There are about 9 million Buddhists in
India as per 2001 census. And 90 percent of the Buddhists in India live in
Maharashtra.
But Buddhists form about 8 percent of the total population of Maharashtra
state. I am from this lot. Buddhists in Sikkim, J&K and Arunachal Pradesh
follow Vajrayana (Tibetan) kind of Buddhism and Buddhists in Maharashtra
follow Theravada.
Most Buddhists in Maharashtra are converted from the untouchable castes (I
hope you know what are untouchable castes). Our leader, Dr.B.R. Ambedkar
converted to Buddhism in a mass conversion ceremony held at Nagpur on 14
October 1954. My forefathers were amongst those who embraced Buddhism on
that occaision. Now slowly conversion to Buddhism is gaining momentum
amongst the untouchable castes inUP.
As regards to my exposure to pali language is concerned, it is common
practice in the Buddhists families in Maharashtra to recite the ti sarana
and panchasila everyday, which are in Pali. Also people hold ceremonies like
paritta, etc where pali suttas are chanted. The marriage rituals in our
community involve ti sarana, panchasila, triratna vandana, jai mangala
a.t.thagatha which are in pali. Besides that we have many pali books (with
translation to Marathi) available in our homes.
I have personal interest in learnig pali because I want to read the pali
suttas-- words spoken by the tathagata in their original without getting
distorted in the process of translation.
Regards
Rajendra Jadhao
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sukhdev Singh" <sukh2val@...>
To: <Pali@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 10:01 AM
Subject: Re: [Pali] Re:Introduce myself
> Dear Rajendra Jadhao ji
>
> Thank you for the invitation to communicate. I hope we
> can learn much from each other. Firstly, 'what type'
> of Buddhist are you, were you born into a Buddhist
> family or took on the Dhamma later. Please tell me a
> little bit of your own experience. Learning Pali is a
> big thing, how is it that you are motivated to do so.
> Also, which part of India are you from. Which Indian
> language or dialect do you speak.
>
> Sukhdev Singh
>
> --- "R.O.Jadhao" <jadhao@...> wrote:
>
> >
> > Dear Sukhdev,
> >
> > Congratulations on entering the true path of
> > liberation. I am a Buddhist
> > living in India. I am interested in hearing more
> > from you.
> >
> > Rajendra Jadhao
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Sukhdev Singh" <sukh2val@...>
> > To: <Pali@yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 1:55 AM
> > Subject: [Pali] Re:Introduce myself
> >
> >
> > > Respected members of this forum,
> > >
> > > My name is Sukhdev Singh, male aged 44, living in
> > > Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I learnt about this forum
> > > through the Theravada-my (yahoo group) forum. I
> > am
> > > very intersted to learn Pali.
> > >
> > > I am new in the Dhamma, about just over three
> > months.
> > > No one introduced it to me. I just happened to
> > come
> > > across some Buddhist literature while trying to
> > seek
> > > some facts of life by studying my native religion,
> > > Sikhism, as well as some western philosophy.
> > >
> > > I think that it was the shockingly intelectual and
> > > empirical nature of the Buddha's methods and
> > > viewpoints that hooked me.
> > >
> > > Mentally, I have already rejected almost
> > everything
> > > about my native religion, Sikhism. It simply
> > doesn't
> > > answer all the questions. All it tells you to do
> > is
> > > to be more obedient and more devoted to the
> > "Guru".
> > > To do that, you have to stop asking questions and
> > put
> > > more effort into devotion, something I got
> > extrememly
> > > tired of doing.
> > >
> > > Just these three months of reading of the Buddha's
> > > methods and viewpoints has taught me more about
> > life
> > > than all the Sikhism (or even philosophy) I have
> > ever
> > > studied and all the devotional practices that I
> > have
> > > ever carried out.
> > >
> > > Praise be to The Enlightened One
> > > Praise be to The Path to Enlightenment
> > > Praise be to The Community of The Enlightened
> > >
> > > Thank you
> > >
> > > Sukhdev Singh
> > > Kuala Lumpur
> > > Malaysia
> > >
> > > __________________________________________________
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