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Diva and The Buddha

"Dadda, take me to the balcony. It is too hot here". Little Diva got up from her sleep as the electricity went off and the fans stopped. She was sweating. I took her in my arms and headed to the balcony. She asked me to tell her a story so that she could sleep. 

Now, she has heard the stories of 'An Honest Woodcutter', 'The Cap Seller and The Monkeys', 'The Monkey and The Crocodile' and many other stories. As she is fascinated by Ramayana and Mahabharata, I chose the story of Prince Siddharth (Gautam Buddha) and his cousin Devdutta, and how Siddharth saves the swan. She was fascinated by the story and was mesmerized by her reaction. I have seen her praising the valour of Rama. She praises how Rama kills the demons and bad people. For her, Rama is the symbol of strength. But after listening to the story of Prince Siddharth, she has all praises for Siddhartha's non-violence, his love for animals. She told me that it is always great to save someone's life than to take it. 

Today, she opened my cupboard to search for some storybooks, and she found a big, bulky book written by A.H. Salunkhe named 'The Greatest Son of the Soil: Gotam Buddha'. There was a picture of Gautam Buddha on the cover page. She asked me whose picture it is, and I reminded her of the previous night's story of Prince Siddharth. She asked me to read that book. 

In the night, she asked her mother, "Buddha was a God, right?" Her mother replied by saying, "He was a human being and not a God." Diva didn't like that answer and said "No, he was a God''. We chose not to correct her but to let her draw her own conclusions based on her experiences in present as well as future. Even in Hindu scripts, the Buddha is presented as the incarnation (avatar) of Lord Vishnu. I have a different take on it. I don't want the Buddha to be Lord Vishnu's avatar. I don't want the Buddha to be a God. Not because he himself has said, "I am neither a God and nor the prophet or the messenger of God," but because when you make someone a God, you take his deeds and his actions as impossible for human beings. 

When we tag someone as God, we believe that he has supernatural powers to fight the adversity. We believe that he is special to do such great things, and comparatively, we feel that we humans are very inferior to these so-called gods. Honestly, the Buddha wasn't a God. He, just like all of us, had gone through a lot many problems. He had many questions about the 'sorrow' in the world, and he presented the world a simple philosophy, a universal truth. I don't want to see the Buddha as God because I know I too have the ability to be like him. I know with knowledge and wisdom, I too can be like him who would work for humanity. I think I too can find the answers to my own questions and would present the findings as the philosophy of life. 

Calling the Buddha a God would be an insult to the extraordinary work done by a human being for the world. We cannot make this human's contribution coming to ZERO by calling him a god with some supernatural abilities. 

I know, the Buddha is a human, and I know, soon Diva too would agree to the same. 

She likes to imitate me. 

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