Buddha’s philosophy all the more relevant today: Sodhi

Minna Zutshi

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 28

At a time when strife and tension threaten to tear apart the tenuous social fabric, the five precepts expounded by Gautam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, become all the more relevant.

These precepts — commitment to abstain from killing living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication — may not be easy to follow in entirety, but the septuagenarian educationist, Prof KBS Sodhi, feels this is ‘just the right time’ to revisit Buddha’s philosophy.

Prof Sodhi’s latest literary work is the translation of Edwin Arnold’s book, ‘Light of Asia’ into Punjabi.

The ‘Light of Asia’ was originally published in 1879. This poetic work by Edwin Arnold, an English poet and journalist, describes Buddha’s life through the Buddhist perspective.

Prof Sodhi, who has taught English literature to generations of students, has to his credit more than eight books, including the Punjabi translation of John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’.

The ‘Light of Asia’, richly layered, is one of the books that he found hard to translate.

Dr Mohan Singh had translated this book (into Punjabi) in 1935, but times have changed since then.

“Punjab has seen Partition, communal riots and turbulent times when peace was badly hit. I realised that the message of Buddha should come to Punjabis in their own language. It is not a literal translation. It focuses on the essence of the book.”

The eightfold path propounded by Buddha — right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditative absorption — is as relevant today as it was 2,600 years ago in the times of Buddha, according to the author.

Prof Sodhi’s forthcoming work will be on the travels and voyages of Guru Nanak Dev.