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The 80-ft Buddha statue at Bodh Gaya |
Quest for peace
On behalf of Harmony, author and documentary filmmaker Manju Kak accepts an invitation to go on Indian Railways’ Mahaparinirvan Express, a new train to discover the land of Buddha
So is it about finding my own path, asks my travel partner Bharti on our first evening together on Mahaparinirvan Special, a week-long train journey along the Buddhist Circuit covering Bodh Gaya, Nalanda, Rajgir, Varanasi, Sarnath, Kushinagar, Lumbini, Saravasti and Agra. We are two of 35 passengers — Japanese, Singaporeans, Australians, Indians, some tour operators, academics, and travel writers. I have been invited by Harmony to go on this journey, launched in October 2007 by the Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation with its partner Lotus Travels. On 17 November, after a traditional marigold garland welcome at Safdarjung railway station in New Delhi we are ensconced in Cabin B of the First Class AC section. We have already checked out the pantry and toilets. The toilets could be better, but the pantry is shining steel. And a Japanese chef will join us, we are told.
As the train pulls out of Delhi at 4 pm, Bharti and I talk about life, love, and finding one’s path. In Lucknow, she says, if you weren’t married at 19 you were on the shelf and then came the yearning to break free — my town, same college, and same story. We settle down with recorded chants of Buddham Sharanam Gachami as the train speeds up, only to stop at Gaya in Bihar.
We reach Gaya at 5.30 am, our ‘wakeup call’. The schedule for the day is packed. Bodh Gaya is just 10 km away. You are struck by the lushness of the land. Here, 2,500 years ago, Licchhavi prince Gautama Siddharth tortured his body, did penance, meditated for six years on nearby Dongeshwari hill and became the ‘Buddha’. We have breakfast at the hotel in Bodh Gaya, where we return for lunch and dinner.
Disappointed with the ways of the world, he crossed the Nairanjana River where he rested under a banyan tree. Here a local chief’s daughter, the childless Sujata, sent the young ascetic some kheer, which he ate under the Praj Bodhi tree. His five bhikshu companions sneered, thinking he had forsaken the path. But “do not stretch the veena string till it breaks, nor leave it so loose that no sound comes”, is the voice Siddharth heard. He knew the path to happiness lay in the middle. The remnants of a stupa marks this spot, though at the entrance, inappropriately, lies a popular ‘English liquor shop’. Besides, the Maoists have called a bandh, lanes and sewers are choked; there is a literal stink in the land of Buddha.
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