The world saw the light of Asia in the 6th century B. C. known as Prince Siddartha, "The Lord Buddha, the knower, the enlightened, the embodiment of perfect knowledge" who is attributed with the deepest sense of reverence, honour and devotion as the tenth incarnation of God in the general assumption of the mythological belief of India. Prince Siddhartha was born with a fateful acquisition, heir to the kingdom of Sakya as the son of king Suddodhana by his second wife Mahamaya. One day at the sight of a diseased man, an old man, a dead man and a monk on the road of his capital Kapilvastu he was shocked and impressed with the purest emotion of misery, sorrow and suffering, of changing and transitory beings and things of the world.
Moved by the feelings of pain and pleasure and men's ills and filled with amazement and distress, at the age of twenty nine, he left not only the lofty material luxury of his kingdom but also his extremely beautiful beloved wife and newly born beloved son, as the connecting force of the tie of love between them, in short he kicked away gold, woman and fame, the three universal fetters for man. After great renunciation he entered upon a course of extreme self discipline. In order to discover immortality and to search the ways and means to end the ills of the world he adopted for six years rigorous religious austerities in the forest near Gaya but he came to know that the truth would not be sought and won by the way of extreme asceticism.
At last he followed an ordinary course of life, meditated upon steadfast and immovable mind seated under a bo-tree on a bed of grass near Gaya. Gautam Buddha, by that time, had attained the absolute and supreme wisdom and enlightenment with full knowledge of the causes of worldly sufferings as well as the means and ways for the cessation of sufferings; he embraced the enjoyment of NIRVAN beyond the reach of feelings of pain and pleasure, hatred and jealousy. In the course of time Lord Buddha after attainment of NIR-VANA, the perfect knowledge, preached the truth regarding the causes of sufferings and the ways and means for cessation of sufferings, in the forms of four noble (Arya) truth and eightfold noble path without any distinction of caste and creed or colour for the well being and welfare of the humanity. And thus the Buddhism spread like wild fire far and wide beyond his homeland and was embraced by the rich and the poor, the high and the low, and the intellectual and the dull alike.
It was accepted as the world religion and the great cultural force in Asia. Buddha himself admits that the Dharma which he has discovered by an effort of self-culture is the ancient way, the Aryan Path, the eternal dharma. The Buddha takes up some of the thoughts of the Upanishads and gives to them a new orientation. Buddha neither created a new dhanna nor formulated a new scheme of metaphysics and morals rather he was deeply interested in remaking of the supreme ideals of Upanishads. Avoiding the metaphysical disputes he kept silent on the nature of absolute reality i.e. God, the self and Nirvana. I would like to say here that his silence on the nature of God etc.
does not prove him to be a skeptic or an agnostic or an atheist rather by doing so he has followed and adopted the great tradition of the mysticism of the Upanishads where the nature of God is explained by a seer through observing the silence as it is said; "Gurur tnaunam vyalchyanam". In place of Upanishad idealism Buddha preached the ethical universalism of Upanishads which he has attained through the supreme enlightenment. Prince Siddhartha has gone but the Buddha remains even to-day. The ethical teachings and moral philosophy of the Lord Buddha has its practical bearing in day today life of an individual now a days.
The four noble truth and the noble eight fold path have great meaning for us in order to solve the riddle of the world for cessation of worldly sufferings and the attainment of Nirvana. The Philosophy and preaching of Lord Buddha suggests a guideline to adopt a moral and humanistic way of life with the sense of dignity of individual in humanitarian approach of life these days. Buddhism also suggests outline of a philosophy suited to the practical wants of present days and helpful in reconciling the conflict between faith and science for well being of humanity. Hence we must absorb Buddha. This book entitled "Absorbing Buddha" written by Prof Srikant 'Prasoon', an eminent writer, a thinker and a man of letters, presents a brilliant and lucid exposition of mulitidimensional aspects of life of the Lord Buddha taking into account his moral and ethical teachings and preaching in the present context of world per-spective. The critical and impartial view of the author regarding ancient and modern Buddhist thought depicts a scholarly and intellectual pursuit. No doubt Prof. Prasoon has made an attempt to vivify emphatically the Buddhistic approach for the attainment of the highest good of human life by means of eight fold path for cessation of worldly sufferings and miseries. This book also suggests that the Buddha and his ethical and philosophical teachings are more useful and relevant now than it was before. Undoubtedly this book deserves a lot of praise and appreciation for readers who will endeavour to go drought it. This outstanding book will be of great use to teachers, scholars and students of Philosophy and Literature in India as well as abroad. "Let noble thoughts come to us from all sides." Rg. Veda.
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