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13.7. The Bodhisattva
By about the second century BC, concurrently with the development of the philosophy
of the Bhagavad Gita, a Buddhist philosophy was arising in India which held that the Buddha
was ‘to be revered as a divine being’, and that, in fact, numerous Buddhas ‘assist the devotee in
his attempt to realise the Buddhahood latent within him’ (Zimmer, 1969, 508). This was an
important break from tradition, by which each individual must rely on his own endeavours to
imitate the world-renunciation of Gautama Buddha in order to achieve the crossing of the
stream to nirvana. This older Hinayana, or ‘Lesser Vehicle’, is a difficult and lonely doctrine
intended for those who had already reached a degree of self-revelation which enabled them to
become monks. The new view, called Mahayana, or ‘Great Vehicle’, made Buddhism
accessible to the masses who were not able to pursue the monk’s rigorous spiritual efforts, but
could gain the help of a bhakti, sort of a ‘personal saviour’, augmented by prayer-wheels,
incense, gongs, rosaries, mantras, and a whole pantheon of Buddhas, for the same end.
One of the essential figures of Mahayana Buddhism is the Bodhisattva—one who is on
the brink of awakening into enlightenment. These persons are very similar to the much older
tradition of Jainist Tirthankaras, the ‘Crossing-Makers’ or ‘Ford-Makers’, saviours who acted
to help those who were ready to escape the cycle of time, and cross ‘through the torrent of birth
and death to the yonder shore’ (Zimmer, 1969, 224). Gautama Buddha was a Bodhisattva
before achieving enlightenment under the Bo Tree. He then taught his doctrine of renunciation
for many years before his death, when he reached nirvana, and was freed from the birth-death
cycle. Another Bodhisattva, Avalokitesvara, personifies the highest ideal of the Mahayana
Buddhist tradition. As he achieved enlightenment and was about to enter nirvana, the sound of
a general thunder rose in all the worlds. Avalokitesvara knew this was the lament of all created
things at his departure from the realms of birth. In his compassion, he renounced the boon of
nirvana until all beings without exception should enter before him, in effect committing
himself to remain a Bodhisattva—and not enter nirvana—forever.
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