Dear Rajendra Jadhao,
Thank you for such an informative and inspiring
response.
Firstly, I am a second genertion (my parents were born
in Malaysia) Sikh in Malaysia and I have heard of the
untouchables in India. I think that most Indians
living outside India for more than generation have
little knowledge of the way the untouchables (sudra)
are treated or maybe were treated in India but I did
come to understand some aspects of it through some
Indian nationals working here in Malaysia. Some of my
little knowledge also comes from reading some Sikh
History books because the Sikh Gurus went all out to
break the caste system mentality.
It is also from these history books that I read about
Dr.B.R. Ambedkar. The author gave the figure of 8
million followers of the good doctor wanting to defect
Hinduism and the choice was between Sikhism and Islam.
Out of some or other bias I suppose no mention was
made of Buddhism.
I was quite suprised to learn what you have just
written. Furthermore, the author did not go on to
explicity state what religion Dr. Ambedkar himself
embrace. I assumed that he became a Sikh.
Thank you
--- "R.O.Jadhao" <
jadhao@...> wrote:
>
> 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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> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> - -
> > > - - - - - -
>
=== message truncated ===
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