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Sanskrit,
Tibetan and Chinese traditions concur in holding that Nagarjuna
flourished about four hundred years after the Nirvana. Nirvana according
to Tibetan tradition took place in 433 B.C. The generally accepted date
for the Nirvana is 486 B.C. Taranatha makes Nagarjuna a contemporary of
Kanishka whose date is also not firmly known (58 B.C., 78 A.C. or 120
A.C.). Most of the modern scholars hold that Nagarjuna flourished in the
second half of the second century of the Christian Era and that whether
he was contemporary of Kanishka or not he was a contemporary and friend
of the Satavahana King Gautamiputra Yajna Sri (166-196 A.C.). A recent
finding is that this Gautamiputra ruled between 62 and 86 A.C.
Nagarjuna
came of a wealthy Brahmin family of Vidarva. His father, according to Tibetan
tradition, found astrologically that the son's span of life was short and to
prolong his life made him a recluse. He was sent to Nalanda where he became
disciple to the great sage Rahulabhadra and underwent a thorough training in all
the faculties of studies open at Nalanda at the time. In Chinese tradition
Nagarjuna received his first education in Vidarbha in all branches of Brahmanic
learning but being not satisfied with that he went to Nalanda.
It is likely that after
his ordination Nagarjuna was for quite some time a monk of the Sarvastivada and
joined the Mahayana. He is known to have wandered as a pilgrim student from the
Himalayas to the seas and in the course of these sojourns he came across the
records of sermon on Transcendental Wisdom. For long he was the chief abbot of
Nalanda and was renowned as a staunch disciplinarian. As a seat of knowledge (jnana)
and a citadel of discipline (vinaya). Nalanda soon outshone Vajrasana.
Nagarjuna's second home
was the land of the two rivers: Godavari and Krishna and seem to have spent the
later year of his life there. While his chief residence was on the Sriparvata he
was the leading figure in the nearby seat of learning in the township of
Dhanyakataka. The archaeological remains of Amaravari and Nagarjunikonda contain
traces indicating Nagarjuna's administrative and organizing abilities as well as
his interest in architecture and sculpture. He harnessed the piety of the
Satavahana king for his religious and academic projects.
Nagarjuna's last days
are not clear in history. From the mass of legends preserved in Tibetan it
appears that he gave away his own life to save the life of a friend's son.
Stories of such dedications to save lives of others are not unknown in Asia.
Great as a scholar,
great as a teacher, great as an exponent, great as an organizer, Nagarjuna was
above all a sage who realized the illusion of mundane existence. It is not
strange that myths and legends should have cropped over his memory. A second
Nagarjuna, an alchemist and a Tantric saint, was in later days identified with
the great Madhyamika exponent. Works of this alchemist Nagarjuna as well as some
books on art and iconography came to be attributed to the great Nagarjuna.
Treaties and tracts
which authentic compositions of Nagarjuna may be enumerated thus: (1) Mula
Madhyamika Karika (2) Mahaprajnaparamita Sastra, (3) Dvadasa Nikaya
Sastra, (4) Dasabhumi Vibhasa Sastra, (5) Sunyata Saptati, (6)
Yukti Sastika,
(7) Vigraha Vyavartani, (8) Suhrillekha and (9) Ratnavali.
Items 1 and 7 are
available in original Sanskrit, items 2 and 3 are found only in Chinese
translation and all except 2 and 3 are available in Tibetan translations. Many
works attributed to Nagarjuna are considered doubtful but are perhaps authentic
with later amendments and interpolations. Akutobhaya and Prajnadanda belong to
this category. Works on medicine and chemistry are of the second Nagarjuna. Many
tracts and extracts in Jamgon and other collections are attributed to Nagarjuna.
Modern scholars have not yet investigated the Tibetan books outside Tanjur.
While the controversies
due to paucity archaeological and chronological data and plenitude of legends
and myths will perhaps never be solved to the satisfaction of all, Nagarjuna
will ever remain a landmark in the history of main's morals. Discovery of Prajna
Paramita and formulation of Sunyata had consequences flowing much beyond
Nagarjuna's life or India's history.
To use modern language,
we can say that Nagarjuna discovered the records of the Buddha's secret sermon
called Prajna Paramita [Transcendental Wisdom] among an obscure tribe with
serpent totem. The Prajna Paramita, as the name suggests, is not ordinary
wisdom. It undoubtedly goes beyond the original teaching, that is , the Four
truths and the law of causation., It, however, in no way; contradicts or rejects
the original teachings; the Second Turning of the Wheel of Law, as the
revelation of the Prajna Paramita is known, is a corollary to the First Turning
of the Wheel.
The Prajna Paramita
literature consisting of numerous treatises and tracts -elaborations and
abridgements- repeats and re-iterates one basic idea that in Absolute Reality,
there is no change or that there is no origination or cessation, no coming or
going out or that the real is neither atman nor anatman. In other words all
phenomena are unreal; that is, all dharmas or objects of thought or elements of
existence are endowed with only a conditional or relative existence. The vedana
[feeling], samjna [concept] and sanskara [conformation] are all illusions. The
truth is neither sasvata [eternal] nor asasvata [non-eternal] but pure sunya [voidness].
The Transcendental Wisdom is realization of the absolute cessation of all
appearance. The Perfect Bodhisattva, that is, the saint who is determined to
help an infinite numbers of beings to attain Nirvana, is aware that there are no
beings not even the being Bodhisattva and that there is no bondage or no
salvation.
All this is an antidote
to ego in any form and is designed to wean the believer from any attachment to
any sense of merit, spiritual attainment or final victory. Even if the end
[Nirvana] is unreal in the sense that it is incomprehensible, endeavor for the
end, that is, liberation from sorrow, is inevitable. The reward is not in the
goal but in the striving for it. The Prajna Paramita literature with all its
prolificity and repetition develops the concepts of Impermanence [anitya],
Sorrow [duhkha] and Non-self [anatman] that is, the concepts which the Buddha
enunciated at Sarnath.
Nagarjuna's task was to
expound the negativist doctrine of Prajna Paramita and to establish that it was
the efflorescence of original. He forged a dialectic which avoided the extremes
of affirmation and rejection and which thus came to be called Madhyamika [the
central position].
Nagarjuna denied the
scope for any categorical description in the pursuit of ultimate reality [paramartha
satya]. Existence and non-existence [asti-nasti], soul and non-soul [atma-anatma]
none of the opposites are unconditionally valid. Even the opposed notions of
actor [karaka] and acting [karma] are valid. If we accept the reality of actor [karaka:atma]
we cannot deny the reality of action [karma]: if we accept the reality of action
we cannot deny its author. So all our concepts are relative or conditional. This
is true of our scheme of values, good and evil, papa and punya or even sansara
and nirvana. The ultimate reality thus consists of sunyata [voidness] which
exists as space [akasa] exists. Are we then to reject the reality or validity of
the Four Truths or the Law of Causation Nagarjuna's answer is a categorical
"No".
If any object exists by
itself it is absurd to speak of its origin, end and all that; it is redundant to
describe that object as real or not. The open sky [akasa] is there and no body
disputes its existence. The same is true of Law of Causation. The
interdependence between the different points of the chain is beyond the dispute.
The points exist only with reference to one another, that is, they are
conditional or relative; yet the whole process is inexorable. That is why one
who realizes the Pratityasamutpada realizes the Four Truths. This realization is
attained in the second stage of sadhana [endeavour for liberation] where wisdom
[prajna] is the means. In the first stage the means are ethics and meditation,
that is the Eight Fold Way.
The stage of wisdom can
be reached only after the stage of ethics and meditation has been covered.
Nagarjuna's negativism was no all of Epicureanism. In practice as in theory
Nagarjuna firmly adhered to the validity of conduct. His renown as the chief
abbot at Nalanda was as much due to his leaned exposition as to his rigid
observance of discipline [vinaya]. Nagarjuna's Friendly Epistle [Suhrillekha]
intended to enlighten the Satavahana king that no doctrinal matter is confined
to the first stage of sadhana and even as that it is largely a moral exhortation
of non-denominational character. The stanzas culled below indicated Nagarjuna's
dharma [religion].
"Knowing the
riches to be unstable and void, give according to the moral precept to Bhikshus,
Brahmanas, the poor and friends for there are no better friends than charity.
"Exhibit morality
faultless and sublime, unmixed and spotless, for morality is the supporting
ground of all eminence, as the earth is of the moving and immovable".
"Exercise the
imponderable transcendental virtues of charity, morality, patience, energy,
meditation, and likewise wisdom, in order that, having reached the farther shore
of the existence, you may become a Jine prince".
"View as enemies:
avarice, deceit, duplicity, lust, indolence, pride, greed, hatred and pride
concerning family, figure, glory, youth, or power".
"Do not look after
another's wife; but if you see her, regard her, according to her age like your
mother, daughter, or sister; if you love her then purify your thought about
her".
The Sceptre of Wisdom [Prajnadanda],
attributed to Nagarjuna in Tibetan tradition, is a scepter of niti [morality]
for householders.
History has no parallel
to such amoral cultivation of morality. Morality in Sunyavada
[ideology of voidness] is a categorical imperative in the most imperative form.
Courtesy: rGyan-Drug mChog-gNyis
Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok, Sikkim 1972
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