Known as the City of Kings, Nagarjuna lies in the state of Orissa on the Bay of Bengal coast. Called the Golden City of South India by UNESCO, Nagarjuna has withstood the wrath of time. With its impressive forts, temples and palaces, this place is a storehouse of Mughal and Hindu culture with its rich culture, rituals, fairs and festivals. Famous among locals and tourists alike, this city is steeped in tradition, culture and heritage and thus holds fascination for those who seek serenity and tranquility.
The city of Nagarjuna – Wikipedia is one of the most important centres of Buddhism in the world. One of the nine senior priests, Buddha had once turned to Nanda (the Lord) and requested him to teach him the doctrines of Buddhism. Nanda gave the young monk an oral teaching, which the scholar-saint would take to heart to make him a Buddhist monk. Nanda then went on to found the monastery of Nanda in Magadh with his wife Subhadra and thousands of his monks.
Over a period of time, Nanda and his monastic school of Buddhism spread across the length and breadth of India. As history reveals, Nanda’s teachings reached Kashmir and thereafter to China, Nepal and Sri Lanka. There he became the great shastra teacher and sage, Maha Nagarjuna. According to one of the most commonly accepted shastras, the renowned scholar-saint and author, Vatsyayana, Nagarjuna lived in compassion for all living beings and preached the doctrine of non-violence.
Non-vegetarianism is a philosophy that upholds non-killing or avoiding, non-violence and non-harmfulness as the path to happiness and bliss. This path, according to this school, is better than the one of self-gratification or materialistic pleasures. Vatsyayana says in his “Bhasma” that the true path to eternal life is non-violence to and with beings. Some followers of nagarjuna became vegetarians, while others did not.
There are several schools of vegetarianism. The best known are the Hindu vegetarianism, Jainism and Buddhism. The Jainic sect is said to have begun as Nanda’s teachings took shape. It combines the practices of Jainism with those of Buddhism and maintains a strong ethical code. While some scholars maintain that it should be regarded as a late arrival, others hold that the Jain concept of non-violence predates even Buddha.
One of the most controversial facets of Nanda’s vegetarianism was his apparent endorsement of meat eating. The followers of Nanda were repeatedly asked to abstain from eating meat. Nanda’s explanation was that a non-vegetarian was an animal. He further explained that the act of eating meat was necessary to survive, given that fruits and vegetables are only obtainable after butchering a non-vegetarian.
Nanda lived long and practiced yoga to the full. Although he had lost much of his physical strength, he was determined to make the most of what he had left. He studied with many other yogis and wrote extensively about his experiences. In the “Visuddha Sutras”, Nanda described a particular episode that illustrates the goodness of vegetarianism. It concerns a fisherman who has caught all the fish in the ocean, but because he has killed so many of them with his knife, his wife dissuades him from fishing anymore.
Nanda states that he can understand why his wife would discourage him. However, he states that in the next life he will have to fish in spite of his death. The fisherman states that Nanda is a great man and would go on to live many years to come. Nanda thus completes the third dhatu of the yoga sutras, which is to dwell upon the praised body, the Nanda.