Gorakhpur city: Gorakhnatha

January 27, 1984

Today Baba visited the Vindhyava’sini’ Park on the eastern outskirts of Gorakhpur city.

It contains a government nursery and several statues, including the statue of Lokeshvara Visnu.

This statue is made of black granite.

• On the headdress is a small figure of Buddha in Yogasana.
• Below the statue are 2 lotus flowers, one over the other.
• One of which has its petals facing upwards and the other downwards.

Beside the Visnu statue are small statues of Yaksa and Yaksini.

Baba

The statue of Lokeshvara Visnu symbolises a blending of Puranicism and Buddhism when the latter was in the last phase of influence in the region.

The lotus with:

• upward-facing petals symbolises Puranicism
• downward-facing petals represents Buddhism

Both combined together to depict the blending of Puranicism and Buddhism.

The small statue of Buddha carved on the head of Visnú indicates that the people while under the influence of Paora’nicism, accepted the worship of Visnu, but Buddha remained in their hearts as the controlling deity.

Because of the reverence for Buddha they carved the small statue of Huda over the head of Visnu’s statue. The status of Lokeshvara Vivnu can only be found in east India and the deltaic Gangetic Valley.

Above Visnu’s statue, on either side, Apsara’s have been carved. Many of the Jain statues consist of 5 hooded snake gods. The Tao deities are represented as deapons as in China.

The Mahayana Buddhism of Nepal is a blending of Taoism and Nathism.

• It was followed by tribes like the Sherpa, Bhotia, and Gurunga.

Statues of Buddhist deities were disfigured by non-Buddhist Kings in order to discourage the common people from following Buddhism.

Shashaunka, the king of Rarh, disfigured most of the Buddhist statues in the region around this time.

Buddhism spread to Bengal only after the death of Shashaunka.

In Buddhism, the plexus at the pineal gland is called Naeratma Devii.

Hum is the acoustic root of the coiled serpentine. Buddhists utter “Om Manipadme Hum”.

When the coiled serpentine rises and merges in the controling point of the pineal plexus, “Hum” gets transmuted into “Omn” in its final dormant form.

The rudimental durmant form of ‘Omn’ lies with the coiled serpentine.

With the merger of the coiled serpentine into the pineal plexus one realises the non-qualified state or Nirguna sthiti.

The title ‘Mani Tripathi’ was derived from ‘Mani padme Hum’.

Persons holding this title were Buddhist.

Brahmins with the title ‘Mani’ are found in eastern U.P.

Only later under the Influence of the Nath cult the titles ‘Nath’ and ‘Mani’ were taken up by Brahman.

The Joshi Brahmans of Nepal which then included the Garhwal and Kumayun region were the sister community of the Mani-Tripathis.

The ‘Nath’ and ‘Mani’ Brahmans have a close association with Gorakhantha.

During this period of Buddhism, Mani-Tripathis attained the pinnacle of their intellectual glory.

Adinatha is commonly believed to be its propounder.

Adinatha was not a historical personality.

The later Nath gurus like Cauranginatha, Matsyendranatha and Gorakhantha were historical people. Kabir was also a Na’tha-yogi.

Later, Vaeshnavism extended its sphere of influence.

The position of Buddhism waned, along with it the the influence of Nathism.

The followers of Nathism adopted weaving as their profession, regardless of whether they were Hindus or Muslims.

• They became Hindu weavers or Muslim Julahas (that is, weavers).

Gorakhnatha propagated his cult in Nepal.

In West Nepal, many people embraced his religion and were called Gorakha of Gorkha. Prthvii Narayan Shah was also a Gorakha.

He conquered the western, central and north portions of Nepal and established a Gorakha kingdom in 1773.

The Gorakha’s established their rule up to Pattana, Haragaon, Bhattagram and Kattagaon which later became known as Kathmandu.

The scriptural language of the Mahayanis was Laokik Sanskrit while the Theravadis or Hinnayanis continued using Magadhi Prakrit or Pali as their scriptural language.

Buddha used Pali as his medium of expression.

Bhojpuri is the grand daughter of Pali or Magadhi Prakrit.

It has its own script which was known as Kutila or the Shrii Harsa script of Kaushambil.

The mixture of Kutila and Nagri scripts was known as Kayathil, since the Kayasthas used this script.

Buddhism had an extensive religious-cultural impact on Indo-Aryan civilization.

Its influence spread to Tibet 400 years after Buddha when Padmasambhava, the prince of Udayana of Garhwal-Kumayun initiated Srangetsen-Gampo, the powerful King of Tibet, into Buddhist cult.

Sranget Sen Gampo married Trikuti, the daughter of Anshuvarmam, who was the king of Nepal, and Tenzing, a Chinese princess.

Buddhism spread throughout Nepal and China as a result of the influence of these princesses.

Ever since then Tibet has had a close relationship with China and Nepal and ipso facto, with India as well.

Before the influence of Buddhism, Tibet embraced Bonpasism.

Prior to the treaty of Sugaulii signed on November 28, 1815 Garhwal, Kumayun and the major portions of Gorakhpur, Basti and Deoria were part of the kingdom of Nepal.

The royal family of the Mallas, including the Shakyas and the Newars used particular type of Butidaraa cap, as found in the statues of Buddha.

Most of these ancient relics were later destroyed. Even today the Newars are highly educated people.

Other tribes like the Tharu, Gurung, Sherpa, Bhotia, Limpo, etc. still live in Nepal and speak their own Indo-Tibetan languages.

The Tharus are the original inhabitants and were Buddhist Tantriks.

Inside their home, they speak their own mother tongue, one of the Indo-Tibetan languages, while outside they speak Bhojpuri.

The Bhojpuri speaking people of Nepal and Kashii Raj have a close affinity, and their economico-cultural future is closely linked.

The study of history generates a consciousness amongst the common people when their history makes them aware of their glorious cultural heritage.

Kashira’jya had a glorious cultural heritage.

A cultural-archeological museum should be established at Gorakhpur or somewhere else within Kashira’jya so that the people of the region can acquire a greater understanding and appreciation of their rich heritage.

Manuscripts in Sanskrit and Pali can be found in the houses of some Newari and Brahman families of Nepal. Since the Maha’ya’nis used Sanskrit as their scriptural language, manus- cripts in Sanskrit can be more readily found than in Pali.

The original Sanskrit script was translated into Tibetan, Chinese and Ladakhi languages.

But this script is now missing in India.

Its translations are still available in Tibetian, Chinese and Ladakhi languages.

It was some Englishmen like Curzon and Cunningham who first uncovered the historical treasures of India. For this, the Indian people should be thankful.

This region has tremendous economic and agricultural potentiality as well as a rich history.

The Rapti river has immense capacity for hydro-electric energy. In addition the soil of the surrounding countryside is ideal for horticulture; viz.. mangoes can be grown very well here.