Filed under Buddha, Buddhism, Dalit-Bahujans, Dr B R Ambedkar
Recently, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar has been ranked as “The Greatest Indian”. You can watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J48dmpKoyPo or you can read about it at http://www.outlookindia.com/content10894.asp
Filed under Dalit-Bahujans, Documentary, Dr B R Ambedkar
Mumbai’s Way: Buddhism in the Daravi slums (Visits to Daravi slums with Dr. Arun Kamble)
You can also watch the same video from this link https://vimeo.com/9441279
Filed under Buddha, Buddhism, Caste Discrimination, Dalit-Bahujans, Documentary, Dr B R Ambedkar
Abidhamma = Pertaining to Dhammas
Pariyatti = Study of the theoretical aspects of the Dhamma.
Sama-sam-buddha = One who rediscovers the teachings and teaches the masses as the historical Buddha did.
Vinaya Pitaka = The Vinaya Pitaka contains the rules for monks and nuns, monastic jurisprudence & the early history of the Sangha.
Tipitaka = “Path” or “Way of Dhamma”. This book consists of a collection of 423 verses grouped into 26 chapters.
Paccekabuddha = A silent Buddha.
Arahant = Fully enlightened person.
Dhamma = Teaching & doctrines of the Buddha, called as Dhamma because they explain & describe nature of things, the way things are, and the way they operate.
Bodhisatta = A person who is seeking to be a Buddha
Nibbana = A Bliss of No-Craving
4 Stages in the realization of Nibbana
Sotapanna – Stream-entrant
Sakadagami – Once returner
Anagami – Non returner
Arahant – The Holy One
Trisaran:
Buddha = Gyan/Vigyan/Tarq/Bodhi,
Dhamma = Gyan ka Marg/Astangik Marg/Madhyam Marg,
Sangha = Gyan ke Marg par chal rahe/chalchuke log
Filed under Buddha, Buddhism, Dalit-Bahujans, Dr B R Ambedkar
Filed under Buddhism, Dr B R Ambedkar
Few weeks ago, I lost my uncle (my father’s elder brother, profoundly called “taya ji”). He was the eldest member of my family and was in eighties. Last time, I’d met him in November, 2011 and he looked weak. My father told me about the unfortunate news over phone-call and it was like I lost someone who inspired me, who was strongest pillar of family, who knows a lot despite being illiterate, and I started crying for being helpless over phone-call. I felt lonely.
I can remember taya ji always speaking about the golden olden days of his life and his experiences. Taya ji migrated at the time of Independence from Sialkot (located in Pakistan in the north-east of Punjab province near the Chenab River) along with my grandparents. There wasn’t any official record of his birth year but as he remembered he was around 18 years old at the time India got Independence and he’d memories of it live with him. He never got a chance to go to school but he could read Hindi and Punjabi newspapers without any difficulty.
I had always asked taya ji what living was before independence. What was the life style of our people? Was it like today? Were we better off in Sialkot? Was our village in Sialkot same as it is now? Were we living in Hindu dominated or Muslim dominated village? Was there a mosque also? There were many things I asked taya ji. He always replied me with patience and I always got interesting answers from him. Interesting and strange answers.
“We didn’t even know we are under British rule.” He said once and continued, life for poor wasn’t any different as it is now and we were poor so it hardly mattered whether we were under British rulers or under Brahmins rulers of today. We were discriminated and caste system was as strong as it is today. Maybe today we can’t see open discrimination and upper caste people have devised new plans to discriminate but condition is same as it was before independence. We were offered dirty jobs; we worked in the fields as slaves and were offered nothing but few pieces of bread or rotis.
He told me once and my father confirmed me that our homes or any piece of land if any we had never used to registered under our names. We were not given lands under our names no matter even if we were capable of buying it. We had to register it under the name of higher caste people. We’d to convince upper caste landlords to let us use their name and get us register our land on their names. It wasn’t easy and enough, after registering our land on their names we had to keep them happy via working on their fields so that they don’t change their minds and grab our lands. All this continued till late 70s and I believe in many parts of India it would still be the case. Taya ji also told me that no matter how much money you had in cash at the time of separation, everything was looted from us. Partition of India was ill planned and unfortunate event. Only land was transferred and that also not in the proper way. So, it was another lesson for me and I learnt that also in early in life that is I’ll buy as much as land I can. Earlier we’re not given chance to buy a land and now if we have a right to buy a land then why to waste this opportunity?
Filed under Caste Discrimination, Dalit-Bahujans, Equal Rights
They fear you because you’re young, strong, learning self respect,
They fear you because you are educating yourselves – getting inspiration from Dr Ambedkar,
They fear you because of your rich history,
They fear you because you renounced religion of discrimination,
They fear you because you’re the future,
They fear you because they are losing power – gained through killing us,
They fear you because you are the generation that will be free,
Free from discrimination, freedom from all the miseries of life – a far-away dream,
They fear you because the potential you’ve to heal the past and be real,
How powerful you must be that they fear you so much,
They fear you so much that they kill you every-day, trying to curb few.
They fear you because of your resentment, retribution,
Let’s make their nights sleepless, Educate – Unite – Struggle
Let them hate you as long as they fear you,
We fear them but we don’t forget, we’re still children, we’re young,
Every day we grow older, every day we grow stronger,
And we don’t forget…
– A poem for young “Dalit” minds
Filed under Caste Discrimination, Dalit-Bahujans, Dr B R Ambedkar, Equal Rights
“On 26th January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics, we will have equality and in social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of democracy which this Constituent Assembly has so laboriously built up.”
“I feel that the constitution is workable, it is flexible and it is strong enough to hold the country together both in peacetime and in wartime. Indeed, if I may say so, if things go wrong under the new Constitution, the reason will not be that we had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say is that Man was vile.”
Watch also – What US President Barack Obama said on Dr B R Ambedkar?
“There is no nation of Indians in the real sense of the world, it is yet to be created. In believing we are a nation, we are cherishing a great delusion. How can people divided into thousand of castes be a nation? The sooner we realise that we are not yet a nation, in a social and psychological sense of the world, the better for us.”
“The third thing we must do is not be content with mere political democracy. We must note that our political democracy can not last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life.”
“Independence is no doubt a matter of joy. But let us not forget that this independence has thrown on us greater responsibilities. By independence, we have lost the excuse of blaming the British for anything going wrong. If hereafter things go wrong, we will have nobody to blame except ourselves. There is a greater danger of things going wrong. Times are fast changing.”
“Our object in framing the Constitution is rally two-fold:
(1) To lay down the form of political democracy, and
(2) To lay down that our ideal is economic democracy and also to prescribe that every Government whatever is in power shall strive to bring about economic democracy. The directive principles have a great value, for they lay down that our ideal is economic democracy.”
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Filed under Buddhism, Dalit-Bahujans, Dr B R Ambedkar
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Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's Caravan 