The new age laughing Buddhists

Theatre actress Devika Punjabi’s main concern these days is her Buddhist practitioners, spread across the suburban network of Bandra, Khar and Santacruz where she’s in charge. As a Buddhist leader, Devika counsels dozens of practitioners on problems that range from job loss to ill health and unhappy relationships. The one solution that she offers and that seems to be working wonders in all of their lives is the contemporary practice of Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism.

Dr Ajay Dudani, who runs an ophthalmology practice in Mumbai’s suburbs, has named one of his clinics the Zen Eye Centre. Dudani, who was initiated into Buddhism 15 years ago in Japan, has undergone training in Zen meditation in a celebrated 13th century tradition. Zen, says the medical practitioner, is unmatched in helping a professional like him, always stuck in the realities of mundane life, reach a higher plane of existence.

There’s a new breed of Buddhist practitioners in the country that is finding answers to the realities of urban living, in 21st century versions of Buddhism. The Soka Gakkai which spreads Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism and to which Devika belongs, for example, has over 7,600 practitioners in Mumbai and approximately 55,000 members across India. So what’s attracting all of those people to this practice? Says Devika, “Before I came into this Buddhist practice, I was just drifting along. I knew I wanted a happier, more focused way to live.” Around this time Devika happened to watch the film What’s Love Got To Do With It, which depicted how the practice of chanting a particular Buddhist  mantra helped Tina

Turner get out of her abusive relationship with husband Ike. As it happened, fellow actor and Buddhist, Vinay Jain then connected her to the Bharat Soka Gakkai, the Indian branch of the Japanese Buddhism that Turner subscribed to. “My relationships have changed, which was a karmic issue with me,” says the actress.

Businesswoman Neelu Singh, 40, is also a practitioner of Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism as disseminated by the Soka Gakkai. “I’ve held Buddhist beliefs for the last 18 years and in the course of this I have transformed from a nasty person to someone in whose life love and compassion for others come from viewing them from a completely different perspective.” Neelu says Buddhism that has helped her deal with the travails of life, including the death of her father and brother-in-law, to emerge stronger.

One possible explanation for the dynamic growth of the Bharat Soka Gakkai over the last two decades could be that several of the issues being dealt with by leaders in the organisation are situations that secular society seems to have no solutions for.

From intricate family situations, to financial bankruptcy and cases of terminal illness, the Soka Gakkai enfolds in the tradition of Buddhism individuals who don’t always have sufficient options to turn to and helps them climb out of their personal mires.

One of the most familiar sights to Mumbai commuters across Worli is the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist temple, a white stone shrine that has existed since 1956. Run by Japanese priest Bhikshu Morita since 1976, 64-year-old Morita conducts a prayer service in the mornings and the evenings that is open to people from all faiths.

 “The aim of Buddhism is to become a good human being and to value human beings irrespective of their class or community,” says Morita, who has helped victims of the 1992 communal riots and has been a part of the late Sunil Dutt’s peace marches.

Preferring to speak in Hindi, Morita hands me a book that details his sect’s (Nipponzan Myohoji) participation in the freedom struggle of India, with sect founder Nichidatsu Fujii having being associated with India and Mahatma Gandhi since 1933. With centres and Buddhist pagodas in Rajgir, Kolkata, Bihar, Delhi and Darjeeling, another pagoda of this 95 year-old organisation is currently under construction near Tansa lake in Mumbai.