Buddha

Buddha by Deepak Chopra

Category: Historical Novel Grade: B+

Coming in to this book, I knew relatively little about Buddha or Buddhism. Once before, I tried Chopra's fiction and it wasn't bad. This book, a novelization of the life of Buddha, seemed like an interesting chance to take. It's short - only 250 pages - so it wasn't a big risk. It turned out, as you can tell from the grade, to be a worthwhile risk to take, although, as you'll see below it had an interested, an somewhat unexpected, impact.

The book is divided in to three sections, as was the life of the subject. In the first section, we see the birth and early life of Siddhartha. Born a prince in a far eastern kingdom, he ends up as the cause of much suffering when the king, after hearing a prophecy about his son's life, decides to raise him in an environment where no suffering is visible. To accomplish this, the king makes Siddhartha a prisoner in the palace and banishes anyone who is old, infirm or ugly from the court. In order to provide companionship to the boy, the king also invites (actually, summons) a cousin, Devadatta to live at court. Devadatta is destined to become the lifelong enemy of Siddhartha.

In the second section of the book and of the Buddha's life, Siddhartha, after wandering from the palace and discovering the nearby suffering population, abandons his life to become a wandering monk known as Gautama. He spends decades in wandering, struggling to become enlightened by learning the powers of meditation and deprivation. His near death leads him to a form of enlightenment and, as he is nursed back to health by a peasant girl, he enters the third phase of his life (and of the book) as the Buddha. In this phase, he returns to his father's kingdom for the inevitable confrontation with Devadatta to big enlightenment and peace ot the kingdom.

The book is well written and interesting. With the frequent appearance of the demon, Mara, and the tales of gurus who teach by remaining in motionless meditation for days at a time, the book takes on an edge of fantasy. Even though the story forms the basis for one of the world's major religions, it reminds me a lot of the fantasy novels of Tolkien or Pullman. Interestingly (and sorry if I offend), this leads inevitably to the fine line between religion and fantasy. The distinction seems to be a pretty basic one -- indoctrination. Raised with a belief in the reality of legend, a child comes to accept his or her religion as "gospel" (again, sorry for the pun). Viewed without the indoctrination, the legends are clearly recognizable as allegorical, sometimes beautiful, fantasy. The historical suffering caused by these conflicting fantasies, however, is very real. Makes you think, huh.