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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00065 Aug 2005

 
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Buddha was NOT an incarnation of the Lord.
He was an ordinary person, a prince belonging to the
Sakhya dynasty, who realized the cause of sorrow in
the world..i.e. in other words, he was Enlightened.

Hinduism in medieval India had managed to accumulate
enough evils, thanks to the priestly class who were
using their power, and knowledge of the religious
scriptures, to appropriately distort them, and
suppress people in the lower strata of the society.
These evils were Caste System, animal sacrifices,
Sati..to name a few. In other words...the correct term
to use for the religion would be 'Brahmanism' not
'Hinduism'.

This situation formed a fertile period for the rise of
religions like Buddhism and Jainism. These strove to
remove the strict and illogical rules binding the
society, remove sorrow, and lead people who were
'stuck' with the many meaningless Hindu rituals (which
they themselves didn't understand) on a correct,
practical path. Buddha preached in Pali, a language
the masses could understand. What is the use of
teaching in Sanksrit when the common man doesnt
understand it and when you restrict him from learning
Sanskrit?

The people in India were immediately attracted to this
new religion and it became popular. The Brahministic
Hinduism, immediately seeing a threat to it's status
and dominance, reacted by proclaiming Buddha as an
avatar of Vishnu. 
Yes, the comman man was cheated, because in due
course, Brahminism managed to wipe out Buddhism from
it's land of birth.

As always, we Indians seem to take in the wrong
things..and that explains the reason for our eternal
backwardness. Countries like Japan, Korea immediately
imbibed the good qualities present in Buddha's
teachings...teachings of goodness to everyone, leading
a simple and practical life. 

After reading your article, I have lost whatever
respect I had for the ancient people who wrote the
treatises you mentioned.

vtel


--- champakam <champakam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 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  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


 

                                         









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