Acharaya Nagarjuna, unanimously regarded as the second Buddha to have ever existed in the mortal world of human beings was the most important Buddhist philosopher after the historical Buddha himself. His philosophies have influenced the Indian philosophical approach for many years after the death of Nagarjuna himself.
Besides being one of the greatest patriarchs of the Mayana School of thoughts in Buddhism, he was regarded as the founder of Madhyamika or the Middle way school in Buddhism. He was known well over the world as a philosopher, alchemist, and metallurgist. With his profound metallurgical ability to convert common metals like Iron into gold, it was once said that he was able to feed the monks of Nalanda during the time of great famine.
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Early Life of Acharya Nagarjuna
Nagarjuna was born in a Brahmin family of Hindu caste in the second century at Vidarbha, South India. For his unusual memory and intelligence, he was often regarded as a child prodigy. During this period of time, Buddhism was a predominant force in India practiced by most of the people and quite evidently, Nagarjuna at the age of seven joined the revered Nalanda university where he was officially ordained as a Buddhist monk.
Throughout his time at Nalanda university, he excelled so well in sutras and tantras by learning as well as practicing both simultaneously. Due to his amazing ability of excellence in obtaining great siddhis at such a young age, Nagarjuna at the age of twenty was regarded as one of the great scholars, teachers of Nalanda that eventually he was appointed as the abbot of the Nalanda monastic university at the same time.
Nagarjuna and the world of Nagas:
In time, the influence and the supremacy of Nagarjuna surged owing to his brilliance mastery in the field of Buddhism that another upsurge of Buddhism as a predominant religion in India since the sad demise of Lord Buddha set about. However, upon realizing the absence of the profound teachings of Lord Buddha-like “The hundred thousand verse Prajnaparamita Sutra” from the world of mankind, he decided thereabout to obtain the great teachings.
He knew, that a long time ago, Lord Buddha had entrusted the world of Nagas with the safekeeping of the precious text “The hundred thousand verses Prajnaparamita Sutra”. It was during one of the religious sermons by Nagarjuna at the present day Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh, a very fresh and unusually beautiful fragrance of sandalwood used to fill the whole space around the place where the religious sermon was taking place. Much amazed by the mysterious appearance and disappearance of the aromas, it was found that two youths, who were the emanations of the sons of the king of the Naga realm, came to receive the teachings of Nagarjuna.
On asking them about the origin of their beautiful aromas, they told Nagarjuna that they had their body enveloped with the strong essence of sandalwood in order for them to maintain their own sanctity and purity from the mortal world of humans. Upon realizing his own wishes to build the statues of Tara and Stupa endowed with sandalwood, Nagarjuna expressed his desire to have some sandalwoods from the Naga realm.
Although the king of Naga’s realm consented in giving the sandalwoods, only on the condition that Nagarjuna will come to their realm to give precious teachings to the world of Nagas. This was how Nagarjuna using his siddhis descended to the realm of Naga’s and gave teachings to the world of Naga. For benefit of the whole sentient beings, Nagarjuna requested the King of Naga in having a copy of the precious teaching of Lord Buddha “The hundred thousand verses Prajnaparamita Sutra”.
They agreed in giving the copy, but they maintained the last two chapters of the verses to ensure that Nagarjuna will again revisit the Naga realm and teach them further. Unfortunately, the last two chapters would still remain unknown in our human world.
Nagarjuna and the king Udayibhadra:
Nagarjuna in his later life visited the Deccan plateau where he came across the king Udayibhadra of the Satavahana dynasty. There, he developed a very close relationship with the king where very often he uses to practice the teaching from the Nagarjuna. Practicing various alchemies with each other, they have obtained the elixir of immortality in which their lifespan merged and it was said that one cannot die without another. They lived in peace for a long duration, but in between many heirs to the throne couldn’t rightfully assert their kingship due to the immortal life of king Udayibhadra. Hence many princes had to pass away without becoming a rightful king.
One day, another son of the king, Kumara who staunchly wishes to claim his rightful authority as a king was well aware that this will never happen as long as Nagarjuna is alive. Therefore, he requested Nagarjuna to die for him. Out of absolute compassion, Nagarjuna agreed. The prince adopted different methods from beheading to strangulation, but all attempts failed in killing Nagarjuna. To this Nagarjuna explained that he did not have any karmic causes to die in an ordinary way.
However, in his one previous life, he had accidentally killed an ant while cutting grass, and the tiny traces of this karma still remains. Hence Nagarjuna died when the blade of the grass sliced his throat which eventually led to the death of the king too. The blood coming out from the body turned into milk with the severed head of the body said
“Now I will go to the Sukhavati pure land, but one day I will enter this body again to teach”
Nagarjuna
Despite taking the head and the body miles away from each other, it was said that they are coming closer with each passing year. The moment they join again, Nagarjuna will once again appear and preach for mankind. This is the belief for now.
What is Nagarjuna Philosophy?
Lord Buddha, after his enlightenment never gave teaching for 49 days. He thought his philosophical principles of the middle way will be too hard for the people to understand who are still stuck in their merry world of ignorance. But, at the request of many gods, renowned kings of Magadha and Vaishali, Lord Buddha delivered his first sermon at Sarnath in which he emphasized the importance of adopting the middle way. A middle way in which one will not indulge in two extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification.
“Just as it is known
That an image of one’s face is seen
Depending on a mirror
But does not really exist as a face,
So the conception of “I” exists
Dependent on mind and body,
But like the image of a face
The “I” does not at all exist as its own reality.”
Nagarjuna
After the passing away of Lord Buddha, Nagarjuna carried on the legacies of the Buddha by stressing again the importance of the middle way. But he expanded the horizon of the middle way by not limiting itself to the two extremes propagated by the Lord Buddha by identifying a middle way between existence and non-existence.
Existence and Non existence:
It is being ignorant on our part to hold our belief in “Svabhava” a term that literally means “own being” which can also be explained as the intrinsic and the self-nature of the thing. It is wrong to agree that things exist independently, autonomously, and permanently. Believing in these factors is to succumb to the extreme of permanence which he strongly denounces. For example, a house was not made independently, autonomously, and permanently by itself. We cannot call a house by pointing to the window or the door or the wall. It is the amalgamation of all these factors which we according to our ignorance collectively call the house.
But the other extreme of nothing existing is equally mistaken. Because of our ignorance, we conceive a house as a structure with our naked eyes in which we live and thrive.
All things (dharma) exist: affirmation of being, the negation of non-being
All things (dharma) do not exist: affirmation of non-being, negation of being
All things (dharma) both exist and do not exist: both affirmation and negation
All things (dharma) neither exist nor do not exist: neither affirmation nor negation
Nagarjuna
Nagarjuna Doctrine on Emptiness:
sarvaṃ ca yujyate tasya śūnyatā yasya yujyate
Nagarjuna
sarvaṃ na yujyate tasya śūnyaṃ yasya na yujyate
All is possible when emptiness is possible.
Nothing is possible when emptiness is impossible.
In the Nagarjuna doctrine on emptiness, he argued that nothing can be determined by itself, hence there is no permanent true nature of the world. This was followed by dividing the reality into two truths: the ultimate truth (paramārtha Satya) and the conventional or superficial truth (saṃvṛtisatya). The conventional truth is the world as we see it whilst the ultimate truth is the truth that everything is empty of essence which includes the emptiness itself. Jay L Garfield rightly puts the Nagarjuna view of ultimate truth by quoting
“The ultimate truth is that there is no ultimate truth.”
J. l. Garfield
Nagarjuna’s “Fundamental Wisdom” By His Holiness Dalai Lama
The first day of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s two-day teaching on Nagarjuna’s “The Fundamental Wisdom Treatise of the Middle Way” organized by the Foundation for Universal Responsibility at the Taj Mahal Hotel in New Delhi, India on March 20, 2015. At the end of his teaching His Holiness answers questions from the audience
Nagarjuna Books
- The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika
- The Root Stanzas of the Middle Way: The Mulamadhyamakakarika
- Nagarjuna’s Philosophy: As Presented In The Maha-Prajnaparamita-Sastra
- Nagarjuna’s Seventy Stanzas: A Buddhist Psychology of Emptiness
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