Buddha/Vishnu (Was Re: Re: Avatarhood)

[Malolan Cadambi]

Well, upon analysis from the verse of Srimad Bhagavatam, please consider
this:

tataH kalau sampravR^itte sammohaaya suradviShaam
buddho naamnaajanasutaH kiikaTeShu bhaviShyati || 1.3.24 ||

Here it mentions that Buddha, the son of *Anjana* will be born to
delude/confuse the wicked into righteous ways.The atheists were never
righteus, they had no value for Dharma. The purport of the Buddha Avatara of
Vishnu was the trick/delude/confuse the atheists into righteous ways withuou
necessary empahsis on the vedas. A Shri Vaishnava scholar informs me that
Buddha can be at best considered an auxillary avatara of Vishnu. Hence
Buddha is not revered in Shri Vaishnava Litterature/Scriptures. To give you
an example, Vedanta Desika does not include buddha in the Dasha-Avatara
Sloka, but includes only Bala-rAma instead.

Now, let us consider Siddharta Gautama who is popularly known as the Buddha.
Siddharta's mother was Maya not *Anjana* as the verse above points out. Over
the years, Siddharta Gautama was revered as the Buddha avatara of Vishnu.
This is mainly because of two reasons:

1.) In order to "curry" flavour with intellectuals contemporary to
Buddha(Siddharta Gautama), the disciples and well-wishers of Siddharta
Gautama started equating him with the Avatara of Vishnu.

2.) Naturally, the mis-informed people of that time were taught that
Siddharta Gautama is non-different from the Buddha Avatara of Vishnu. This
is simply not true. Siddharta Gautama is in no way the Buddha Avatara of
Vishnu. To this day, many people strongly feel that Siddharta Gautama is the
avatara of Vishnu. No where does even Adi Shankara or any of the
vedAnta-charyas (Ramanuja or Madhava) in any of their works say that
Siddharta Gautama was the avatara of Vishnu.

To equate Siddharta Gautama to vishnu is PLAINLY FALSE and represent VERY
VERY poor analysis of principle pramAnas.

3.) The So-Called "Religious Reformation of India" during the early
19th-20th Centuries, started equating King Rishaba(The First Thirthankara of
the Jains) to the Rishaba Avatara of Vishnu (which again is false).
Similarly, Buddhism was consider for all pratical purposes, by the
"religious revolutionaries" to be essentialy non-different from Hinduism.
Hence Siddharta Gautama was constatly equated to Buddha Avatara of Vishnu.

>   Also, considering buddha the ninth avatAra would make him
> the kali yuga avatAram. But, the purport of gItA and the
> bhAgavata purANa is to apply for kali yuga especially.
> How do we reconcile all of these inconsistencies?

The Buddha avatara of Vishnu does not take place in the Kali-Yuga, but takes
place before. This is evident in the Shanti Parva of Mahabharata where
Bhishma tells to Krishna:

Refer to the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata: 46.107. Bheeshma tells Krishna
that it is Krishna himself who misled the wicked into righeteous ways in his
incarnation as 'Buddha' (Not Siddharta Gautama)

To Sum up:
1.) Siddharta Gautama is not an avatara of Vishnu
2.) Vishnu took the Avatara of the Buddha before the Kail Yuga Commences
(3102 BCE) to delude atheists into righteous ways.

Regards,

Malolan Cadambi


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