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Mate against Hate
THE AMBIENCE is perfect. The Corner Book Store is holding a pleasing evening of book reading of "The Buddha and the Terrorist" by its author Satish Kumar in Defence Colony. Addressing the issue of terrorism and looking into its causes, Kumar speaks, "The story of bandit Angulimala is found in the Buddhist scriptures. I learned it from Gunaratna, a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and then from a Tibetan Lama." Narrating the story,he continues, "In the classic Buddhist version, Angulimala was born in a Brahmin family, but as part of the oral culture of India, the story has many versions and I heard from my mother in my childhood, he is born as an untouchable."
Pointing out the terrorism prevailing in the country he retells the story, "Angulimala used violent means to seek power and gain control. He used to kill people, cut their finger and wear them in form of a necklace around his neck. That's why he was nicknamed Angulimala (wearer of a finger necklace). Then comes Buddha into the picture and a great dialogue between the two transforms the killer's life. The story brings to light to contrasting characters involving power, while one is trying to get power over other people and the other is exercising the power of resolving conflicts by non-violent means," he expresses.
He hopes that people would definitely see that terrorism is not an ordinary crime. It's a political problem because of injustice, unfairness, meted out to a section of society and unless something is done about it the situation will remain same. He emphasises, "The cause of terrorism has to be understood by the people and at least Buddha story will stimulate and inspire some."
As far as his future projects are concerned he says, "I will continue to work with Bija Vidya Peeth, a 20-acre bio diversity farm in Dehra Dun where students from all over the world come to make it a centre like Santiniketan.
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