Bodhi Tree and Human Revolution

Lokesh Chandra

What the Bodhi Tree Symbolizes

DISTINGUISHED colleagues on the dais and in the audience.

In 1979, President Daisaku Ikeda came to Delhi at the invitation ofthe Government of India. He wanted a bodhi tree. The Minister of State
for External Affairs was puzzled as to what a bodhi tree is. When I
explained to him the bodhi tree, he asked how he would take a big,
peepul tree in the plane.
I gave him my own miniature bodhi tree, about a foot high, including
the pot in which it grew. It was a small lovely bodhi tree, fully branched.
President Ikeda carried it to Japan, but the customs were adamant andthe bodhi tree could not enter Japan. Now we have this colossal bodhi
garden in Delhi.
The bodhi tree is an important valorization of existence. Materiality
and spirituality in congruence. Both have to be harmonized. Harmonisation and inter-netting of the two is crucial.
Sanskrit has the tree called ashwattha—which means “the place
where horses stand.” In ancient times the Kshatriyas (warrior class) used
to tie their horses to a peepul tree. When the horse is not broken, it iswild. We have to see the wild horses in Mongolia, galloping in their natural instinct; a delight to see a horse running around wild. The Buddha
pondered under this ashwattha tree as to how our mind, our roving
mind, can find a value system. He sat down under this tree to control theuncontrollable horse which is the mind. The UNESCO Charter begins“war is born in the minds of men.” I would have worded it “peace isborn in the minds of men.” Enlightenment or Bodhi has to begin in theBodhi-citta or Bodai-shin.
Lord Buddha sat under the bodhi tree for 49 days, hungry, trying tocontrol the horse, the mind. A passage in the Nikayas, the oldest sectionof the Tripitaka, defines the meditation of Siddhartha in the words: “Helooked up at a pippala leaf imprinted against the blue sky, its tail blow48

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ing back and forth as if calling him. Looking deeply at the leaf he saw
clearly the presence of the sun and stars. Without the sun, without lightand warmth, the leaf could not exist. He also saw in the leaf the presence of clouds. Without clouds there could be no rain. And without rain
the leaf could not be. He saw the earth, time, space and mind.” I would
underline the word mind. “All were present in the leaf. In fact at thatvery moment the entire universe existed in that leaf. The reality of theleaf was a wondrous miracle.”
The idea of peace is ecological peace. Without ecology there would
be no human mind, no humanity, no life. Speaking of peace, we think ofsocial peace in the first instance. Transcending all is spiritual peace
which conditions social, political or global peace. In India, we say Shantih (peace) three times: Shantih, shantih, shantih! The first shantih represents ecological peace, our harmonization with nature. The second issocial peace, peace within society, within nations. The third is spiritual
peace that conditions all elements of peace.
Lord Buddha sat under the bodhi tree and the horse or mind was fully
trained. The horse of Alexander the Great has a stupa in Taxila, theDharmarajika Stupa. It had carried him on his long campaigns. When it
reached India, the heat and fatigue of thousands of miles, the horse
passed away and a stupa was erected at Taxila in his honor. It still stands
there, in ruins. What does this horse represent? It is not just the horse ofAlexander. It is the horse, the mind that has been tamed and conditioned
for a transcension into a higher spiritual existence.

What the Lotus Symbolizes
Why is it called the Lotus Sutra? In its Sanskrit text, there are four kindsof lotuses. The principle of physics is—VIBGYOR—violet, indigo,blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Four colors of lotuses are mentioned in the Lotus Sutra. When Kumarajiva was translating the Sutra,
he could not find the color of the kumuda though he was a great transcreator. The Lotus Sutra symbolizes the harmonization of colors, likethe seven colors of the rising sun in the morn. The seven colors are notseen as individual colors. They coexist in a harmony in the light of thesun. The light of the sun gives us the entire agricultural world. Agriculture has been vital to human life. Red, blue, yellow and white represent
different phases of human activity. The culminating color is white; thecolor of purity where the conscience becomes supremely pure. Why isthe lotus used as a symbol and not a horse? The lotus grows in the slushof the village. The dirtiest pond in the village has the most beautiful

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BODHI TREE AND HUMAN REVOLUTIONlotus. The coexistence of the slush and the wonderful flower of the lotus
has to be reflected in human consciousness. We can’t wish away thenegations of life, howsoever negative they be. We have to accept negations of life and make them positives. The positives have to be lived
with the negatives. The slush and the beauty of the lotus flower coexist.
Not only coexist, they have a symbiotic relationship. The symbiotic
relationship is reflected in the four different colors. Symbiosis of different elements of life, different languages, different ethnicities, is the symbolic white lotus where materiality will coexist with spirituality.
President Ikeda is deeply imbued with Buddhist thought and he is anarhat incarnate. The way he writes about life, feels life and adores life,
he symbolizes the expansion of human consciousness.
Once Dr Karan Singh asked me, “Why does Buddhism speak ofduhkha only, while Vedanta culminates in Ananda.” I requested him toread the conclusion of President Ikeda’s book on Buddhism. President
Ikeda says Buddha had his last dinner at the house of Amrapali, left
Vaishali, looked back and said “How beautiful is Vaishali!” The more
evocative sentence was “How beautiful is life!” In Sanskrit: “Manoramam Jivitam”. The beauty of life is enshrined in every poem thatPresident Ikeda writes. When I read his poems, I am reminded of thelast words of the Buddha. President Ikeda’s spirit, his conscience represents this culmination of Buddha’s valorization of life. To read ashort sentence of his: “Never belittle yourself, for you harbour thegreat universe within you.” It represents the thought of the Agamas(Agon in Japanese.) If we sublimate our mind, which embraces theuniverse, our life will shine brilliantly. This is what we call humanrevolution. But the shine of life and the slush of life both have tocoexist in harmony. Harmonization, the internetting of variations, ofdifferences, of contradictions is the core of life. Nothing can bewished away. It has to be accepted and sublimated.
I once again pay deep regards to President Ikeda who has given toIndia this beautiful Bodhi Tree Garden. Someone has to write a book onwhat the bodhi tree represents in Buddhism. How is it depicted in theAgamas, in the Chinese Sutras, in the Tibetan Canon, the Pali Canonand Sanskrit texts. In the early stages of Indian Buddhist art, the bodhi
tree represents Lord Buddha’s Bodhi. The erstwhile wild horses of themind became the illumination of Lord Buddha, and will be our renaissance.