When I was a child, one of my friend’s uncles told me, “In the 6th century BCE the world’s first university called Nalanda was built. It rose to prominence in the 5th century CE as the greatest monastic-cum-educational institution for listening, contemplating and meditating on the Dharma in the whole Buddhist world. Nalanda’s curriculum included the ‘three baskets of teachings’(Tripitaka) which are the Sutrapitaka, Vinayapitaka and Abhidharmapitaka. More than ten thousand students used to study these pitakas there and put them into practice in their daily lives. Many of the most remarkable Buddhist scholars like Dharmapala, Nagarjuna, Chandrakirti, Shantideva, Dharmakirti, Shantarakshita and others came from this university, whose excellence used to attract the best students from different corners of the world. The fame of these scholars spread to distant countries and persisted through the ages. Vimalamitra—the topmost among the five hundred brightest scholars of his day—was also from there. All these great Nalanda scholars benefitted sentient beings until they got enlightened, by showing the paths that the Buddha taught. All the surrounding area around Nalanda was filled with the sounds of chanting prayers, dharma teachings and debating, which comprise the whole teaching of the Buddha.” These were the few things that I could catch in my small brain just as if I had fetched water in my palm from the deep ocean.
As I heard Nalanda’s great history, I was very inspired. It emboldened me to go and study Buddhism in a place like this. I wondered if there were a place like Nalanda even in the present day, so I could go and study under great masters. But it was like the fairytales that we use to listen to from our parents during our childhood.
Having been inspired after hearing this brief history of Nalanda, a willingness to explore Buddhism became my interest. I insisted that my parents send me to a place where I could study Buddhism and benefit beings by practising Dharma. They agreed to my request and decided to send me to study Buddhism. However, my parents hardly had any idea about where or which institute would serve me best for learning Buddhism. So they did a little research about this and even asked some khenpos, lopons and monks at nearby monasteries. They suggested to my parents that I be sent to Namdroling Monastery in south India, which was established in 1962 by His Holiness Drubwang Padma Norbu Rinpoche, the eleventh throneholder of the Palyul lineage. This was the perfect place for me to study and enhance my knowledge of Buddhism.
According to this information, my parents finally decided to send me to Namdroling. At the time, I was in seventh heaven with their decision. I came to Namdroling Monastery at the age of thirteen. There was nothing that could have made me happier than being a part of this institute and studying Buddhism under the guidance of the compassionate guru, Penor Rinpoche; my dreams had been fulfilled. I was happier than a kid in a candy store.
When I first went to meet His Holiness, he gave me the name Phuntsog Dorje, and instructed me to study hard and advised me to be a good monk. My spiritual journey started from that day and when I got here, the history my friend’s uncle told me resounded in my mind and I could see everything he described about Nalanda in Namdroling. Penor Rinpoche himself was no different than the Buddha, and the other learned teachers resembled the scholars of Nalanda. Both the outer and inner surroundings were all connected to religious meaning and one could find peace and serenity by seeing, thinking upon and listening to them. Likewise, every day the prayers, stupas, many temples, etc., all seemed to be a facsimile of Nalanda. I saw no difference between the successors from Nalanda and the teachers at Namdroling in the way they were benefitting sentient beings or leading them on the path to Enlightenment.
These are the things that made me feel like studying in Nalanda as described in its history, and also the way my wish to study in a Nalanda-like university was fulfilled from the year I enrolled in Ngagyur Nyingma Institute. As it is said, I’m having a whale of a time here!
By Phuntsog Dorje
4th Year, NNI
