There has been some discussion about whether Buddha is an incarnation of the Lord. SrI ParASara BhaTTar interprets the nAma-s 787 to 810 in terms of the Buddha incarnation. According to this interpretation, the Buddha incarnation was a kapaTa avatAram that was meant to mislead those who do not deserve to reach Him in this birth because of their bad deeds, and it is a form of punishment metted out to these folks by the Lord, namely to mislead them from the path that will lead them to Him. SrI V. V. Ramanujan refers to the AzhvAr pASuram "kaLLa vEDattaik koNDu pOyp puram pukkavARum kalandu aSurarai uLLam bedam SeiddiTTu uyir uNDa upAya'ngaL". The Buddha incarnation is not one of the incarnations that we worship. The detailed write-up of SrI BhaTTar's interpretation for the nAma-s from SrI vishNu sahasra nAma for this segment can be found in the postings on SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam. It should be clearly understood that this incrnation is NOT for worship by us, but for the sole purpose of BhagavAn misleading those whom He does not wish to bless with the right path in this birth. A vague example to illustrate the concept of kapaTa avatAram is the Mohini avatAram that the Lord took for the sole purpose of deceiving the demons. There is a reference to Buddha and Buddha matham in SrImad rAmAyaNa, ayodhyA kANDa 109.35 - yathA hi coraH sa tathA hi buddhaH... (rAma addresses jAbAli and refers to buddha as a cheat and the buddha matham as a non-vedic religion). Thus, there is a reference to buddha and the buddhist religion even in rAmAyaNa, and so the reference to buddha in SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam may not be to the buddha that lived in our times. SrI v.n. vedAnta deSikan notes that there is a lot of difference in interpretation of nammAzhvAr's pASuram in this context, and he deems it fit to leave the discussion at a superficial level for AzhvAr's pASuram. The same approach seems relevant for the issue at hand, except to state that there was an incarnation of the Lord that taught the Buddhist religion for the purpose of misleading those with demonic qualities or Asuric tendencies. -dAsan kRshNamAcAryan Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SriRangaSri/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: SriRangaSri-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia |
srirangasri-subscribe@yahoogroups.com To subscribe to the list |