hi guys today on the show we're going to talk about the attempt to separate
Buddhism from Hinduism treat it as some sort of a new separate religion how that
is a new attempt and how that is completely false my name is Sham Sharma
welcome to The Sham Sharma show
hello hello and welcome welcome to another edition of The Sham Sharma
show thank you very much for joining me today thank you very much for watching I
appreciate so essentially before you know a very recent period there was not
really any talk about how Buddhism was like some separate completely different
entity what they never talked about that himself he was born into a Hindu family
he lived a Hindu life and he espoused principles that were deeply seeped in
Hindu philosophy his practices his meditations and the ceremonies that he
talked about had a very deep Hindu imprint on them but nevertheless there
is a very strong attempt by historians by the intelligentsia by the media to
create this narrative that Buddhism for some reason is this completely new
entity it is a very similar thing that historians and some vested interests
have done with Sikhism trying to create an narrative that Sikhism is this
completely separate thing this completely new thing completely divorced
from Hinduism which is again completely false I'm going to make a video on that
in the future as well but talk about Buddhism today because there's a very
similar narrative created around Buddhism as well essentially even if you
look at the Buddha's teachings his teachings are very similar to the
teachings that you find in the Upanishads one of the biggest myths that has
been propagated in India is that Buddhist teachings and Buddhist
philosophies somehow completely divorced and completely separate from the
teachings that you find in Hindu philosophy in fact Buddhist philosophy
relies heavily on some Indian Hindu concepts that it obviously takes for
granted those main concepts are the belief in transmigration and the belief
in the the concept of Karma the actual meditation practices that are
taught by the Buddha are also very similar to the meditation practices that
are taught in vedantic traditions the concept of Nirvana and the concept of
Moksha, are very similar as well in many countries especially in countries where
the Mahayana arm of Buddhism is stronger for example in Tibet in Japan a lot of
their ceremonies also borrow heavily from the Hindu Yagna ceremonies it is
important to remember that the Buddha had given up on material and social life
but he had not given up on the Hindu life he became a sanyasi which is again
important to remember that it is a very core aspect of the Varnashrama system
people before the Buddha have been part of the
system as well you have the examples of Shiva, Yagyavalk even since the Buddha, you have
people who have lived that lifestyle that are broadly considered to be part
of the hindu system for example ShankarAcharya. Aurobindo, Vivekananda a great
way to explain this is is to give you like a rock and roll sort of example so
I'm sure a lot of people who are watching this probably listen to Linkin
Park limp Bizkit when they were in school or
college or somewhere around that time now these bands were classified in this
sub-genre called nu metal or alternative rock and just because their
new metal or alternative rock doesn't mean that they're not still rock and
roll they are still a rock band it's just that they also have a
subcategory there are certain things that are unique to them there are
certain things that are new to them but there's still a rock band I feel like
that is a good way to explain where Buddhism stands with respect to Hinduism
it is still steeped in Hindu concepts and it just creates and provides a new
way to look at some of those concepts another way that we could look at the
way there's been an attempt to separate Buddhism from Hinduism is the choice of
symbols there was an attempt after independence by the government to remove
Hinduism from the Indian identity so then they chose symbols like the ashokan
Lions and they chose symbols like the chakra which are considered to be
Buddhist symbols and again this was an attempt to divorce Hinduism from the
Indian identity and to divorce Buddhism from Hinduism as well to prove that this
is a recent phenomena all you need to do is look at the Hindu Marriage Act of
1955 in the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 Jann's Sikhs Buddhists they're all
mentioned and they're all considered part of the Hindu fabric the major
development that came recently where people started to differentiate Buddhism
from Hinduism came after dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar became a Buddhist and then he
started talking about leaving Hinduism to become a Buddhist just because you
believe in something means that you leave all of your previous knowledge and
all of your previous heritage behind is not a Hindu concept this is a very
Abrahamic concept this is what Islam and Christianity require you to do in
Hinduism because you have a belief in something does not require you to let go
of all previous knowledge and let go of all traditions various different
concepts and various different teachings have flourished on
Hinduism this is how Hinduism thrives and survives just because you're a
shaivite just because you worship Shiva does not mean that you hate Krishna
that's a silly concept that's a silly concept that for some reason Indians
have started to believe in it is only in a Hindu country that somebody like
Gautam Buddha could have freely propagated and promulgated his beliefs
in any other country in a Muslim country for example he would probably have been
beheaded in a Christian country he would probably have been burned at the stake
which was very common in India on the other hand gurus and teachers like Mahaveer
like Buddha like Nanak can freely propagate and promulgate their
philosophies and their teachings and there are millions of Hindus that revere
them like teachers and gurus and like gods again there is no record of Gautam
Buddha renouncing Hinduism and creating Buddhism as a new separate thing his
work may have been critical of certain aspects of Hinduism but all of his
teachings are deeply rooted in Hindu philosophy in fact you can find this
phrase in the Dhammapada you can find this phrase by the Buddha which says a
"Eso Dhammo sanathano" which means this is sanatana dharma
so again there might be some differences between hinduism and buddhism in terms
of teachings in philosophy but there are no structural differences there gautam
buddha did not attempt to create something new he wanted to stay under
the hindu umbrella and so it is very important that we fight this narrative
and we put this narrative to bed in fact Buddhists today face the same
challenges as Hindus as well in terms of conversion in terms of threats that they
face from Islam so they face very similar challenges so
it is very important that we reclaim that common ground that we reclaim that
common heritage and we work together we unite and we work together as one
culture one civilization against the threats that are facing us today again
guys thank you very much for watching today's episode please let me know what
you think about this whole narrative that's been created if there's something
you agree with me on if there's something you disagree with me on please
let me know if you think that I miss something out as well please let me know
in the comment section down below also guys if you enjoy what we do here on the
shower on our show please make sure to leave us a like leave us a thumbs up it
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channel down below or right over here I will see you for the next episode of The
Sham Sharma show and until then stay happy stay healthy and I'll see you soon