[Advaita-l] buddha : according to purANas and other hindu-texts

[Siddhartha Krishna]

This goes back to the very basic question....which Purana's and how much in them should be accepted by a Hindu? As a student of the Vedas I have always felt a terrible confusion when I read the derogatory stories in the Puranas about various Gods/Goddesses of the Vedas and in some cases even the holiest of the Vedic Rishis? Why do we find so many derogatory remarks for Maharshi Vishvamitra, the seer of the Gayatri Mantra, the holiest mantra of the Vedas. Why do we find so many derogatory statements for Indra, the king of the Vedic Gods, Soma and even Vishnu, all of whom are worshipped extensively in the Vedic hymns. Is the Pushan mentioned in the Isha Upanishad the same as the one whose teeth were broken by Virabhadra in Bhagavatam? Is the Indra mentioned in Kena, Aitareya, Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka Upanishads the same as the one that is mentioned in the story of Ahilya in the Ramayana? The list is endless. Why we just don't dismiss all this with वेदबाह्याः स्मृतयः याश्च काश्च कुदृष्टयः। सर्वास्ताः निष्फलाः प्रेत्य तमोनिष्ठा हि ताः स्मृताः? If we do so, why we Sanatanis despise Swami Dayananda and his Arya Samaj so much? Or was Namadev true when he said 800 years ago that if the Muslims are one-eyed, the Hindus  are blind (as they have derogatory stories against their own Gods that they worship)? 
I'm a follower of the Vedas and Acarya Bhagavatpada (Adi Shankaracharya) from the depth of my heart, but I am throwing up these questions for the sake of discussion and would like to know what the learned scholars in the list in here think about these and similar issues. Is there a way to resolve these problems?
It is an important question, as the answer would decide how we will lead our great Vedic Dharma in to the 21st century.
Regarding the discussion on the Buddha, I wouldn't say much, but I would like to refer the learned scholars in here to passages such as Brahmana Vaggo in the Dhamma Pada etc. where one can see the amount of respect that Lord Buddha has for the Vedas. I just would like to state that we need to make a distinction between the Buddha himself and Buddhism in general as it developed after the Buddha. As Hindus, it is our duty to fully respect him, but of course we reject anything that is against the Vedas in his teachings...which is very little, the rest of the teachings are extremely beautiful and helpful in our spiritual Sadhana. Concepts like "anatta" (anAtmya) or "SUnya" (void) are even mentioned by the Upanishads and the Bhashya of Acarya, yet it is just that we understand them differently than the Buddhists. Furthermore, a "healthy" rejection of the Vedas is to be found freely in the Upanishads and the Gita as well, which of course refers to a state of highest enlightenment, so why do we blame only Buddha of that? 
With all my respect to the Vedas, the Buddha and Acarya Bhagavatpada Adi Shankara...
Siddhartha 

-----Original Message-----
From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org [mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org] On Behalf Of Satish Arigela
Sent: 21 May 2011 PM 12:28
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] buddha : according to purANas and other hindu-texts

I might reply to this, if you can tell me what the purANa tells about Adi 
Shankara?

I am specifically interested in what the padma purANa says about Adi Shankara.

One more related question: Since it is a purANa(padma purANa in this case) which 
speaks about Adi Shankara misleading people with mAyAvAda.. do you believe 
everything the padma purANa says about Adi Shankara. If yes no question. If no, 
i am interested in knowing why.

 


________________________________
From: श्रीमल्ललितालालितः <lalitaalaalitah at gmail.com>
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Sat, May 21, 2011 1:52:41 AM
Subject: [Advaita-l] buddha : according to purANas and other hindu-texts

What do purANas say about buddha ?
Someone told in a thread @ advaita-l group that buddha incarnated at time of
tripuradAha to deviate asuras from worship of shrI-shiva. If this is
according to purANa, then buddha told there is not this popular buddha for
sure.

So, a natural question arises :
Do purANas tell about same buddha who was born about 2500 years ago and
whose followers are seen today ?

Please, reply according to the views of purANa and hindu-texts only. I'm not
interested in any other version.

-- 
*श्रीमल्ललितालालितः <http://www.lalitaalaalitah.com>
lalitAlAlitaH <http://about.me/lalitaalaalitah/bio>*
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