buddhism

[Anand V. Hudli]

On Tue, 31 Aug 1999 04:14:19 -0400, Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at BRAINCELLS.COM>
wrote:

>On Mon, 30 Aug 1999, Devendra Vyas wrote:
>
>> on the one hand hinduism takes lord buddha to be an 'avtara' ,yet,
buddhism
>> is taken to be 'nastika',why?
>>
>
>The Buddha avatar was taken to trick the daityas into giving up dharma by
>teaching them false doctrines.  Not very complimentary.
>
>
>All the great acharyas, Kumarila Bhatta in Purvamimamsa, Udayanacharya in
>Nyaya, and Shankaracharya in Vedanta, have considered Buddhism to be the
>worst of heresies.  Even someone like Jayanta Bhatta the Kashmiri Nyayaika
>who was personal friends with Buddhist philosophers doesn't agree with
>their philosophies.  Why?  Because they denied the eternal nature of
>Brahman, the eternal nature of the jiva, and the validity of the Vedas.
>

 Well said. I have heard one theory why Buddhists were so much
 against all kinds of "absolutism." The Brahminical society of
 those times was filled with extreme "absolutisms" both in the
 day-to-day matters (social) and also religious beliefs. First,
 there was the rigid and absolute caste-system. Next, the Brahmanas
 wielded absolute power, receiving unconditional patronage from
 kings. Naturally, there was corruption due to such absolute power.
 In fact, there was absolutism everywhere and the Brahmanas just
 went overboard with this absolutism. Buddhism, then, was an attempt
  to rid the Vedic religion of all kinds of absolutism. In doing so,
 the Buddhists went overboard at the other extreme, denying such
 universal absolutes of the Vedas as Brahman. They accepted the
 mAyA aspect of the upanishhads easily as it was in tune with their
 movement against absolutism. They must have also been influenced
 by another non-vedic religion, that of the Jains. I am not aware
 of how much this influence of Jainism has been studied.

 Anand

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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