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, and on the head dress is a small figure of Buddha in Yoga’sana. Below the statue are two lotus flowers, one over the other, one of which has its petals facing upwards and the other downwards Besides Vis’n’u’s statue are small statues of Yaksa’ and Yaksini, Baba looked at the scenario and said:

The statue of Lokeshvara Vis’nu’ 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 Vis’nu’, 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 Vis’n’u’s statue. The status of Lokeshvara Vivnu can only be found in east India and the deltale langette Valley Above Vis’nu’s statue, on either side.

Apsara’s have been carved. Many of the Jain statues consist of five hunted snake gods, and the Tao deities are repre- sented 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 which existed in the region around this time. Buddhism spread to Hengal only after the death of Shashaunka.

In Buddhism, the plexus at the pineal gland is called Naera’tma Devil Hum’ is the acoustic root of the coiled serpentine. Tyddhists after Com Man’ipadme Hum'.

When the coiled serpentine is amt 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 colled serpentine. With the merger of the coiled serpentine into the pineal plexus one realises the non-qualified state or ‘Nirgun’a’

The title ‘Ma’a Tripathi was derived from ‘Ma’ni padme Permits holding this title were Buddhist. Brahmins with the title Maur are found in eastern U.P. Only later under the Influence of the Path cult the titles ‘Nath’ and ‘Mani’ were taken up by Brahman The Joshi Brahmans of Nepal which then in- cluded the Cathal and Kumay’un region were the sister com- munity of the Man Tripathis. The ‘Nath’ and ‘Mani’ Brahmans have a choss allan with Corakhna’tha.

During this period of Budium Man Tripathis attained the pinnacle of their intel-

Nathaism was a blending of thevism and Buddhism.

Adinatha is commonly believed to be its propounder Adinatha was rot a historical personality, but later Math gurus like Caurangina’tha, Matsyendrana’tha and Kabir was also a Na’tha-yogi.

As later Vacshnacim Eximbed the sphere of influence, the position of Buddhism wamed Fnsequently the influence of Na’thism also. The followers of Haihtum adopted weaving as their profession, regardless of whether they were Hindus or Muslims, and 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 Na’ra’yan 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 estab lished their rule upto Pattana.

Haragaon, Bhattagram and Katta’ gaon which later became known as Kathmandu.

The scriptural language of the Maha’yanis was Laokik Sanskrit, while the Theravadis or Hinnayanis continued using Ma’gadhi Pr’krta or Pa’li as their scriptural language.

Buddha used Pali as his medium of expression. Bhojpuri is the grand daughter of Pali or Magadhi Prakrta. 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 Biddhist 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 in fluence of Buddhism, Tibet embraced Bonpasism.

Prior to the treaty of Sugaulii signed on 28th November 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 ‘Butida’ra’a cap, as found in the statues of Buddha.

Moreover, most of these ancient relics were later des troyed. 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. Moreover its translations are still available in Tibetian, Chinese and Ladakhi languages. It was some Englishmen like Curzon and Cunningham who first made some endeavour to uncover the historical treasures of India and for this the Indian people should be thankful.

This region has tremendous economic and agricultural poten- tiality 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.