[Advaita-l] (no subject)

Sunil Bhattacharjya sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com
Sat Jan 24 06:37:26 CST 2009



Dear Dr. Bharadwaji,
 
There are lot disinformation on Lord Buddha. 
 
Lord Buddha was not against the brahmins. He told what a true brahmin should be like. An entire chapter of Dhammapada is devoted to brahmin. He also said that the next Buddha would be born in a brahmin family. He did not want the brahmins to think that Vedic ritualism is the only thing for the brahmins. He did not stop the Vedic yajna of Bimbisara. He only cited the Vedas to tell him that the Vedas do not sanction animal sacrifice.
 
People think that the Vedas comprise all the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas and the upanishads. However Lord Krishna told us in the Bhagavad Gita that he is the source of the Veda as well as of the Vedanta thus drawing a difference between the two. Sayanacharya included only the Samhita and the Brahman portion in the Vedas. In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna told Arjuna to go beyond the Traignyavisaya Vedas and to become Nistraigunya. Mundaka Upanishad also says that Vedic knowledge is Aparaa Vidya. One has to go to the Paraa Vidya. If Lord Buddha can be said to be against  the Vedas then Lord Krishna and the Mundaka Upanishad should also be said to be that much against the Vedas. Because of the prejudiced thinking about Lord Buddha people started thinking that Lord Buddha was anti-Vedic so he is anti-Hindu. The Vedic brahmins of his time had to admit to Lord Buddha that the Vedas did not say that one would  be able to cross the cycle of
 birth and death through these ritualistic practices. That is why he left his home to look for the answer. So much is the logic part.
 
To me Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha and Adi Sankaracharya are great teachers the world had seen and they do not essentially differ in their views. This is my personal view. Ramakrishna Paramhansa told that there is no doubt that Lord Buddha is an Avatara of God. Swami  Vivekananda told that Lord Buddha was one of the greatest teachers the world had seen. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan told that Lord Buddha was a reformer of Brahmanisn.
 
 
 
 


--- On Fri, 1/23/09, Dr D Bharadwaj <drdbharadwaj at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Dr D Bharadwaj <drdbharadwaj at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] (no subject)
To: sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com, "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 9:11 PM



Dear Sri Sunil Bhattacharjya
 
I am disappointed to see this 'giving up' 
on your part. It is a sad contrast to the
many other scholarly posts from you. 
 
The gentleman's source may be not so worthy,
but the central view expressed is not uncommon among
many  [ including those who are also well read in Sastras] about Buddha's role and contribution in the evolution of present day indifferent attitude towards vedic dharma. He did debunk the Vedas. He did set the unfortunate  precedent of questioning the 
Veda as the ultimate pramana. This one singe act had had a snowballing effect and created possibility for numerous outfits to sprout up with their own self defined sets of pramanas!!
 
What we are unfortunately
facing to day is actually, in its true nature,
a crisis of the pramana.
 

I saw your disgust for the gentleman's source, Wikipedia.
See we had come to the level of having to take such pramanas
as Wikipedia seriously!! The ball was set rolling for this to happen by the cleverest of them all.... Buddha, the destroyer of the dharma in the ultimate guise of an enlightened one !
 
 
Sir, my question is how can we approve of any 
line that had questioned, debunked and threw 
the Veda pramana to the winds?
If we buy into the persuasions of the modern peddlers of the 
Buddhism, and accept him, where do we stand? What is our basis? what is the pramana for us?    

Regards,
Dr. D. Bharadwaj
drdbharadwaj at gmail.com



On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 6:03 AM, Sunil Bhattacharjya <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear Shri Mallapalli,
 
Thanks that at last you have told about the source of your knowledge of Lord Buddha. I have no comments. If you think that Lord Buddha did all the wrong things and preached the wrong things who am I to try to change your convictions.
 
Good luck.
 
Regards,
 
Sunil K. Bhattacharjya

--- On Fri, 1/23/09, Bhadraiah Mallampalli <vaidix at hotmail.com> wrote:

From: Bhadraiah Mallampalli <vaidix at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Advaita-l] (no subject)
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 2:35 PM




Dear Shri Bhattacharya,

>Lord Buddha left his home, as a full-grown educated adult, at the age of
29 >years. He did study the Vedas like the Dvija scholars  did in those
days, ie >without understanding the inner meanings.  No brahmin scholar
including his >rajguru could explain the inner meanings to him. That is why
he had to seek >the inner meanings elsewhere and at the first instance he
approached the >different gurus. Then finally of course he discovered the
meanings himself.
Wikipedia says the contrary, that his father wanted to shield him from
religious study, so he may not have gotten the vedic study at all. It also
says he left home to overcome old age by living the life of an ascetic
(reminds me Yayati who wanted to be young but tried a different formula).
What stopped him from living a meditative life in the palace? Did he at
first think the source of knowledge is in some teacher? Alright that he
finally found nirvana, but did it not strike him that he had a missing karma
of not ruling his kingdom? How did he fulfil this karma? Did he attempt to
clear up this karma via meditation as well? When his father met him and
said seeking alms is not roayl lineage, he replies back saying he started his
own lineage, which doesn't sound fair compared to Hindu customs because
in Mahabharata Vyasa was still considered a rajarshi and offered the throne
by every one (except probably Dhritarashtra? not sure). So Buddha doesn't
cease to be a king but he created his own rules departing from established
history. Teaching his own father is another innovation, which is simply
needless in Vedic, because for a person who gets mukti, 7 generations
would anyway get mukti. (For others who didn't get mukti, as per
Asvalayana Shrauta Sutra. we don't have authority to offer homage to any
generation beyond grand father or one above him).

Just trying to find out the ultimate cause of why he pursued his interests
which would explain the final end result for society as well as for
Buddha's
path.

Regards
Bhadraiah
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