Of course, as you would expect of a person who lived
many centuries back, accounts about him and his feats
area bit conflicting. But, the conflict is not about
whether his accomplishments can be accounted as great.
The conflict seems to be about the degree of greatness
that can be accorded to him! That in itself says quite
a lot about Bodhidharma.
One wonders why Bodhidharma’s legend was lost,
at least t South India. Practically everyone here
knows at least a little about the four great dynasties
of the South, their accomplishments and their great
kings. How, then, was this prince of the Pallava dynasty,
who went on to attain immortal status in China and
neighboring countries, forgotten in the land of his
birth? One is lead to speculate whether the sheer
unbelievable nature of his accomplishments pushed
his legend into the realm of the fable and then subsequently
into obscurity. Yes, there are things that are too
good to be true, and many of them might be snuffed
off as impossible for that same reason. Like Albert
Einstein once said about Mahatma Gandhi; ‘generations
to come will scarce believe that such a one as this
walked the earth in flesh and blood’; Bodhidharma
and his stature seems to have grown more into fairytale
rather than legend and then passed out of the knowledge
of generations.
Indeed, some of his feats require a certain suspension
of belief to digest. It is said, conflictingly though,
that he once meditated in cave continuously for 9
years, continuously staring at the wall opposite him,
creating a hole through the solid stone wall just
by his stare. Some sources don’t mention the
wall, but say that the meditation that he undertook
was powerful enough to make the wall of barren stone
reflect his image. Now, you might be able to understand
the amount of faith needed in the legends to accept
the stature of Bodhidharma.
Legend also has it that in order to prevent himself
from falling asleep during meditation, he cut off
his eyelids and threw them into the ground. It is
those eyelids that sprouted as the first ever tea
plants. It is also said that Buddhist monks from then
on used tea in a reverent manner to keep themselves
awake during long periods of meditation. Well, we
do not know any of these for fact. But, what we do
know is that tea is one of the world’s favorite
beverages and it is one of the best stimulants(non-addictive)
around. And, we have never heard of any legend about
the origin of tea. Of course, one can understand the
confusions that arise from the timeline inconsistencies
that will arise from studying the lifetime of Bodhidharma
as compared to the history of tea.
So also there are doubts that are raised about the
credibility of the claims that Bodhidharma was the
inventor of Shaolin kung fu and the author of the
two classical texts on the subject. But, the question
is, would the Shaolin monks be willing to attribute
such a magnificent development of their land to someone
undeserving, especially when he had arrived in their
land from afar. No, they wouldn’t attribute
the founding of Shaolin kung fu to someone without
reason!
And, to think of it! Shaolin kung fu has been one
of the most celebrated martial arts forms all over
the world. It has also been the basis for the flourishing
of an entire film industry. How many films have we
watched based entirely on the Shaolin school and life
within it. Little did we know about the man who founded
the art that was being taught within it.
The legend of Bodhidharma does not stop here. There
are feats that make us even more awed, like the legend
of him crossing the Yangze river on a reed. Or the
legend of him disappearing after 9 long years of meditation,
the only thing that remained in his place were the
two classical texts of kungfu. Now, you might understand
why perhaps the stories of Bodhidharma might have
turned into fables and got lost down the centuries.
It takes faith to accept such tales of superhuman
accomplishments.
And, there is faith, now in China and Japan, where
Bodhidharma is revered as a God; statues erected in
his honor, worshipped as the founder of many kung
fu techniques. History remembers him in many ways,
many of them are spiritual, some of them are accounts
of superhuman achievements, and there are also sources
that show him as an ill tempered monk, referred to
in places as the ‘Blue eyed barbarian’.
Whichever way, one thing is clear; he was a man who
ought not to have been forgotten in his place of birth.
Now, we get to see a bit of him through a reconstruction
of history. Though it will only be a small capsule,
as Murugadoss has stated, it will definitely be an
unprecedented effort in bringing out a pieceof history
that was forgotten. Most period films deal with personalities
and incidents that we have read or know about. Seldom
is an unknown slice of history brought up on celluloid.
7 Aum Arivu holds that unknown. While the movie might
not tell us the whole story, it will introduce us
to Bodhidharma. The prince who became a monk.
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