Bharat Ek Khoj—The Discovery of India
A Production of Doordarshan, the Government of India’s Public Service Broadcaster
Episode 10: Acceptance and Negation of Life

With Om Puri as Angulimal, K.K. Raina as the Materialist, Ila Arun as Passion, Vijay Kashyap as Chenna, Savita Bajaj as Mother, Anang Desai as Vajashravsa, Anjan Srivastava as Yama, Dhruv Ghanekas as Nachiketa, Ashutosh Gowarikar as Buddha, Rekha Shah (Yuvak Biradari as Odissi, and Gopal Dubey and Trinetra as Chhau Dance.

Nehru finds in India two streams of thought and action: the acceptance of life and the abstention from it developing side by side with the emphasis on the one or the other varying in different periods. Yet the basic background of that culture was not one of other worldliness or worldworthlessness. Even when it discussed the world as Maya (illusion), it still took the world as it is and tried to live its life and enjoy its manifold beauty! In the Upanishad times, from around 800 BC, the ethics of ‘individual perfection’ grew, with the dictum: There is nothing higher than the person.

There is the famous story of Nachiketa who journeys to the land of death and pleases Yamaraja with his earnest quest for truth. In the promised boon, the youth seeks the ultimate verity of what happens after death. Enunciating the supreme philosophy of life, Yamaraja says that only the body dies, but not the soul, which persists to eternity.

Nehru refers to man’s restless mind, ever questioning: ‘Why, and in search of what, does the water run out and cannot stop its flow for a moment?’ and the superb human confidence: ‘O sun of refulgent glory, I am the same person as makes thee what thou art!’ From the strong current of materialism came the Lokayata Shastras (folkbased treatises), as revealed in Prabodha Chandrodaya, an extant work derived from the atheist sage Charvaka. The scene is that of nihilism, where the materialists denounce the Vedas, priest craft and traditional beliefs, inveighing against all forms of magic and superstitions. Then we see the Ajeevika Sampradaya (believers in destiny) who are dancing asserting that there is no other world, no heaven or hell, no soul separate from the body!

Nehru asserts that both Buddhism and Jainism were breakaways from the Vedic religion. Both lay emphasis on nonviolence, and built up organisations of Bhikshus (celibate monks). Nehru feels that there was a certain realism and rationalism in their approach.

Writing on the day of Vaishakhi Purnima, when the Buddha was both born and achieved Parinirvana (demise), Nehru visualises the prince Siddhartha noticing old age, disease and death for the fist time and then the lifeforsaking Sannyasin (ascetic). The colourful Odissi dancers in court cannot divert him and he leaves home at night in search of Truth. The Seraikela Chhau, creates vividly, the ambience of the departure, of rigours in meditation, of many hindrances and finally, of arriving at the Truth. In teaching, Nehru emphasised how the Buddha avoided extremes and adopted the doctrine of the Middle Way. Even the idea of Nirvana (enlightenment) was far from mere nothingness but a positive condition of lifeaffirmation.

Two graphic parables on the brigand Angulimala catch the inner significance of Buddhism. Nehru points out how the images of the Buddha radiate sublime serenity and complete faith in human redemption.

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