Video New Delhi residents find tranquillity in Buddhist chanting

(26 Apr 2016) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4032504


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Busy New Delhi residents are finding tranquillity in Buddhist chanting.

The rhythmic mantras are offering practitioners a chance to be mindful and present in the moment.


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They chant in unison.

A group of six people from across the Indian capital, office workers, homemakers, students, people who belong to different faiths, gather to repeatedly chant Buddhist mantras.

Devotees say it brings practitioners spiritual solace or just a break from the cacophony of New Delhi's crowded streets.

Buddhism has a history of drawing outsiders: Hollywood celebrities, agnostics, Christians and Jews who have lost touch with their own religions, attracted by Buddhism's easy rituals and lack of dogma.

Now, Buddhist chanting has come to the upper-middle class enclaves of some of the most crowded, noisy and stressful cities in the world, drawing in thousands of Indians - most of them Hindu - in search of something to soothe their troubles.

At a recent chanting session in a middle-class New Delhi neighbourhood, participants quietly sat down on thin mattresses on the floor in the carpeted basement of a residential building, with their legs folded under them and hands joined in prayer.

Facing an ornate wooden altar that contains the Gohonzon - a scroll with the chant "Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo" inscribed on it that is venerated - they begin chanting.

Latecomers seamlessly join in, blending their voices with the ongoing rhythm.

Soon the tempo picks up speed and builds to a crescendo before slowing as the chanters gather their breath.

The repetitive mantra is accompanied by the clicking of wooden beads and one of the chanters striking a gong at intervals.

" I was like, over forty years old when I started chanting and that's when I realized its never too late I found a way of life that I could achieve my dream,"

says Ruma Roka, aged 54, who runs an institute for young people with hearing disabilities.

She spends her work day teaching young deaf adults, training them to find mainstream jobs in banking and hospitality.

Roka's work is physically and emotionally draining and after a long day, she looks forward to her chanting session.

"They (the young deaf adults) have gone through so much rubbish and torture in their lives, kids are not getting employed, I wouldn't not be able to survive. I would run.. I would have a compassion deficit. When I go home and I chant I appreciate my life," Roka says.

The Buddhist phrase "Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo" means the law of cause and effect.

Repeatedly chanting the phrase was started by a 13th century Japanese priest named Nichiren Daishonin, who believed that it would enable chanters to realize the "inner Buddhahood" that lies dormant within every human being.

The chanting itself does not require much.

Practitioners sit facing a blank wall or in a place where they will not be distracted.

Ideally, they would face an altar containing the Gohonzon.

Some loop a string of beads over their hands that they put together in prayer.

Chanting is done with the eyes open, with the beads helping to focus on the sonorous sound of the invocation.

Hindus who chant on a regular basis say they see no conflict with their traditional religious beliefs because the basic tenets of all religions are the same.

Gaurav Saboo, 34, works as an executive in an international bank and puts in long hours at the office each day

He has been chanting for 15 years, and credits the practice for his success.

After he cleared his accountancy examinations at the young age of 21, his career has soared.

Seeing his positive attitude, Saboo says his wife has taken to chanting as well.

Practitioners chant individually but meet once a month to share experiences.




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