Nishidati Fuji

There are individuals who have attained their life eternal, and they wandered about the world. They wore no special symbols, only their deeds were centred in the elevated being and were totally under their grip. They were lenient, considerate and courteous, to others. Those seers lived and suffered and rejoiced and died as other mortals, but had no doubts in their minds, no fear too. Hence let us assume, the road ahead the humanity might be long, tough and dangerous, but there would always be a promising breath of spring in the air.

As a matter of fact, their conscious were intensified and so their lives in the world were more vital. Nishidati Fuji, the founder and preceptor of the Japanese Buddhist order Nipponzan Myohoji was a glow among them, a power of the truth, which he struggled and attained, and helped for the development of others.

I was fortunate enough, along with couple of my friends, to visit one sanctorum of his experiments, a peace pagoda in Darjeeling. This little known Buddhist establishment is just outside the ever mystifying town of Darjeeling, the hillock jewel in the crown of British India. Darjeeling is a tourist’s paradise but this is a less frequented spot, we learnt from the local response to our query.

Nishidati Fuji was born in 1886 in Japan and became a monk at the age of 19.He travelled widely in Korea, China and Japan, and warned the problems of breeding militancy of Japan. He came to India and became an associate of Gandhiji. Throughout the Second World War he prayed and regularly fasted for its early finish. When it was over and when his country was recovering from the effects of atomic bombs he turned into peace Buddhism. In 1946 he started building Peace Pagodas as a symbol and accord of mankind, as Pagodas itself is an embodiment of Lord Buddha’s being, and it radiated the messages of truth and non-violence.

In 1969, as a part of Gandhi’s birth centenary celebrations Fuji Guruji built India’s first peace pagoda at Rajgir, Bihar. He built more than 70 peace pagodas all over the world. He started anti nuclear and disarmament movements in Japan, Europe and United States and former Soviet Union. This he did through organising peace marches, fasting, and prayer conferences in which his followers participated in millions inspired by him.

He travelled a lot, but chose Japan, his home land, and gazed at the beauty of universal brotherhood from his existence, kept his love and peace for countless ages, which had not been enough for him, that would melt any stone in the tenderness of it, if touched by the breeze from his magic mantle, to attain Nirvana at the age of 100 in 1985.