Most of us know Dr.B.R.Ambedkar as architect of Indian Constitution, or saviour of Dalits; I’m sure some of the readers also knew of his conversion to Buddhism as the last resort to relieve oneself from the oppression of casteist Hinduism. The conversion to Navayana Buddhism by 800,000 people, on 14 October 1956 at Deeksha Bhoomi, Nagpur, was historic because it was the largest voluntary religious conversion, the world has ever witnessed. Little do we know that, in the process of this conversion, Dr.B.R.Ambedkar prescribed 22 vows to his followers! These vows are very crucial as it answers two major questions: “How Hinduism plays the oppressor role on its followers?” and “How Buddhism is chosen as an alternative?”
First things first, let us look into the vows taken. It is reproduced in this article in the same order as it was prescribed by Babasaheb.
- I shall have no faith in Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh nor shall I worship them.
- I shall have no faith in Rama and Krishna who are believed to be incarnation of God nor shall I worship them.
- I shall have no faith in ‘Gauri’, Ganapati and other gods and goddesses of Hindus nor shall I worship them.
- I do not believe in the incarnation of God.
- I do not and shall not believe that Lord Buddha was the incarnation of Vishnu. I believe this to be sheer madness and false propaganda.
- I shall not perform ‘Shraddha’ nor shall I give ‘pind-dan’.
- I shall not act in a manner violating the principles and teachings of the Buddha.
- I shall not allow any ceremonies to be performed by Brahmins.
- I shall believe in the equality of man.
- I shall endeavour to establish equality.
- I shall follow the ‘noble eightfold path’ of the Buddha.
- I shall follow the ‘paramitas’ prescribed by the Buddha.
- I shall have compassion and loving kindness for all living beings and protect them.
- I shall not steal.
- I shall not tell lies.
- I shall not commit carnal sins.
- I shall not take intoxicants like liquor, drugs etc.
- I shall endeavour to follow the noble eightfold path and practise compassion and loving kindness in every day life.
- I renounce Hinduism which is harmful for humanity and impedes the advancement and development of humanity because it is based on inequality, and adopt Buddhism as my religion.
- I firmly believe the Dhamma of the Buddha is the only true religion.
- I believe that I am having a re-birth now.
- I solemnly declare and affirm that I shall hereafter lead my life according to the principles and teachings of the Buddha and his Dhamma.
What is Navayana
To understand the vows of Navayana, we should first take a look at this sect of Buddhism. Navayana simply means ‘new vehicle’, aptly so, for this is a contemporary interpretation of Buddhism by Dr.B.R.Ambedkar. Though in 1935, he made public his intent to convert to Buddhism, he could only actionise his intent 2 decades later in 1956. Like all social reformers, he too started out to reform the casteist Hindu society and at a point felt futile of such intent. Caste is the foundation on which Hinduism is built; for Annihilation of Caste and for social equality, either renunciation or destruction of Hinduism could be the only way forward. (I recommend reading Annihilation of Caste to understand these better)
His conception of Navayana, came through not only against the Hinduism, but also rejecting other popular sects of Buddhism – Theravada, Vajrayana and Mahayana. Buddhism started out as a anti-vedic, anti-superstitious religion, but in the later years various sects imbibed a lot of Hindu qualities within themselves, altering even some of the basic teachings of Buddha.
Navayana is radically interpreted in such a way that some of the basic aspects of traditional Buddhism is rejected and original Buddha’s teaching is revised to support Ambedkar’s view of social equality. The vows provided above substantiates this Buddhist vision of Ambedkar.
Hinduism – the oppressor
Let’s see the first 5 vows here; he rejects various Hindu Gods primarily the ones who have a lot of following in Northern India. The triads- Brahma, Vishnu and Shiv are mentioned along with Gauri and Ganapathi. Interestingly he refutes any incarnations of Vishnu, as he specifically calls out Rama and Krishna, the two Gods who have a lot of folklores attached to them even in rural and remotest of the Northern India.
Again, refuting reincarnation is very unique, since some of the contemporary Buddhist ideologies talk about another incarnation of Buddha – the Maitreya, that’s about to happen. Much like the idea of Kalki, and the christian belief of Jesus will be born again, this is only a misconstrued notion of the later monks who wanted to “retain” the believers. By rejecting this aspect, Navayana of Ambedkar becomes radical as it stands to the original logical thoughts as pronounced by Buddha.
It is really wily and scheming that the founder of a religion that believed in no incarnation, is in fact considered an incarnation of Vishnu, the supposed God of protection, a manipulative interpolation done by the Brahmins (5th Vow). This brings us to the most important part of the discussing the vows, where we should see how Brahminism and caste invades the Hindu faith.
Brahmins – the intellectual curse
No one could explain Brahmins, the upper echelons of the Hindu social pyramid, better than Dr.B.R.Ambedkar:
For no intellectual class has prostituted its intelligence to invent a philosophy to keep his uneducated countrymen in a perpetual state of ignorance and poverty as the Brahmins have done in India.
What Congress and Gandhi have done to Untouchables
Right from Manusmriti, to the Gita, all the ‘holy books’ hail brahmins as the people of knowledge and worthy to recite the Vedas. Unspeakable injustices have happened in the name of upholding this ultimate reservation of knowledge by the brahmins in the Indian Society. Till this day, the sphere of influence of Brahmin fold hasn’t dwindled and their ideas rule in the incumbent right wing government.
The act of the brahmins abandoning cow sacrifice, which they endorsed as a Godly deed in the Vedic times, is just a drop in a ocean of lies that they have forged. This vedic ritual of unscrupulous animal sacrifices was one of the provocating aspects that forced Buddha to preach against killing! Brahmins realised the mass appeal to this Buddhist idea and took up to vegetarianism, which can be called as the greatest sacrifice they ever did, only to become the centre of social structure.
Brahmins are considered the travel agents of Human souls to the after world, another way of extorting money and maintaining the superiority at the same time in the name of rituals. ‘Pind dan’ is a form of food-present given to the dear ones in the after world, of course facilitated by the ‘travel-agents’. Ambedkar particularly singles out brahmins in some of the vows abstaining the followers from reaching out to brahmins for the sake of any ceremonies.
Where Buddhism stands out
The damage done by an inequal social order created by Hinduism, the Buddha tries to balance them. Ambedkar finds interest in Buddha’s teaching because of this veracious fact- that Buddha is not a God; he is a mere human like you and me! Discussions with Sikhs, and christian monks of his era turned out to be unsatisfactory, while Buddha won Ambedkar’s heart. If you take a look at these 2 personalities, you couldn’t miss this underlying similarity: the idea of bringing equality and releasing the society from the clutches of Brahmins that both Buddha and Ambedkar believed in.
Teachings of Buddha are simple; they deal with the present and directly talk to each individual in his/her own language. Thoughts of Buddha are mainly targeted to make a person wiser, kinder and more mindful of the happenings. Buddha started out to realise the cause of suffering, which forms the core of his teachings called the Four Noble Truths. In his fourth noble truth Buddha says about the Noble Eightfold path (vow 11), the preamble of all Buddhist texts.
The following vows 12 and 13 talks about paramitas or perfections suggested to follow eightfold path, and be kind to all living beings. This is critical in achieving in equality in the society. Vows 14 to 18 covers the Panchasheela (not to confuse with the Nehruvian foreign policy) or five precepts of Buddhism. To put all these Buddhist text in order, Noble truths form the core, for which eightfold path comes as a guide; Five precepts are something that even lay people, in their everyday lives, can follow as ethical code.
19th vow summarises Hinduism as that which impedes the human development by vouching for a social inequality. In his various teachings Buddha has addressed this inequality directly. For the society of Buddha’s times, denouncing Vedas is radical; calling these holy scriptures useless to humankind is progressive enough.
Whatever Hinduism considers holy, Buddha tries to debunk: Buddhism’s Anatta principle directly disowns Hindu belief of having an Atman. This is crucial because Brahmins thrive only because of Atman. What will these ‘travel agents’ do, if there is no Atman to transport to heavens? Thus Buddhism is a Sramana faith, a religion or cult with roots on reproaching the Vedas.
Navayana Now
Having explained all these vows, it also becomes crucial to see how these vows have actually worked,i.e, to see the state of Navayana now. Its been more than 60 years, an ample time for 2 or 3 generations to come up. If you check the Buddhist demographics across India, apart from the North Eastern seven sisters and Ladakh, Maharashtra is the only place to host significant numbers.
But do these numbers mean the status quo of these Dalit communities have been improved? Not necessarily. This brings us to the next important question, will conversion to Buddhism free indians from the scat of caste? Is contemporary Buddhism free of caste? Did Dr.Ambedkar think about all these? Sinhalese Buddhist monks were the initial influencers of Ambedkar who made him pursue Buddhism; irony is Srilankan Buddhism is one of the reasons of upholding caste in their society. Was Dr.Ambedkar aware of this fact? These are some of the questions that needs answers and more reading.
Conclusion
Dr. Ambedkar is a revolutionary, who has worked very hard for the oppressed class, a feat shared by only a few in this country. Though his ideas of annihilation of caste went on changing through times, conversion to Buddhism came as a blow to the Savarnas. While he created a ‘New Path’, his 22 vows is a standard framework beyond any criticisms. One need not be in Navayana to follow these points, which hold good against a oppressive and inequal Hindu society even now. Regarding the lives of early convertors of Navayana, that’s the story for next article in this series.
Peregrinations 