[Advaita-l] Buddha an avatar of Vishnu?

[Sujal Upadhyay]

praNAms Sri Kripa ji,

As I understand, Buddha was considered as an avatAra of viShNu i.e. amongst
24 avatAr-s. What you say is found in purANa-s, but this is probably an
interpolation. viShNu avatAra deluding asura-s and leading them to
non-vedic path was not alteast on this earth. It was a plan to end the
tripura, three planets of iron, silver and gold. Siva was given task to
destroy all three. They all needed to be destroyed in one hit. So all
deva-s helped them in achieving this task. Some became chariot, some
wheels, some bow and viShNu seated on the tip of arrow. Siv awaited for all
three planets aligning in straight line and then he destroyed them. Siva is
also called as tripurArI / tripurAntak. Since one cannot destroy when
anyone is on dhArmic path, but later they developed an ego and used to
attack deva-s. Hence, first step was to lead them astray from vedic life,
then attack them to establish justice.

In Thirumandiram, it is said - Who said Siva destroyed three cities. They
were 3 bodies, gross, subtle and casual i.e. annamaya, manomaya and
viGYAnamaya.

I do not know the authenticity of a Buddhist Text called Sutta NipaTa, but
there it is said that Buddha didnt completely disregarded varNa dharma and
vedic lifestyle. If a Brahmin is leading a pure life and is noy a
hypocryte, then one can give him alms, donations and such a person deserves
respect.

Further, the names of all ancient characters are karma based. their birth
names are not popular. For example, duryodhan is actually suyoddhA,
dushAshana was named sushAshana. So the name Buddha means bodha i.e. Atma
bodha i.e. GYAna. I really doubt that such interpolation is due to vested
interest.

Surely the Buddha, who is founder of Buddhisn, is not the same Buddha who
lead asura-s astray from vedic life.

I would like to wait for others opinion.



On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 12:56 PM, Kripa Shankar via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste
> ‎
>  I hope I am not spamming the forum. I have another doubt. ‎
>
> The next long standing doubt that I have is about Buddha branded as an
> avatar of Vishnu ! The justification given for it is that - he wanted to
> delude the bad people (daityas?asuras?humans?...depending on different
> versions).
>
> Why delude the deluded? Vishnu is also called Hari which means the one who
> uplifts * anyone* from samsara. Why would he want to delude? Creatures are
> already deluded by their own nature, be it Devas Asuras humans or any
> other.
> ‎
> There is a story in Puranas. The Asuras, fond of conflicts, were bothering
> the Devas frequently. Upon investigation, the Devas concluded that it's due
> to the Vedas that Asuras were able to achieve their goals. Hence the Devas
> decided to snatch away the Vedic knowledge from the Asuras. While
> Shukracharya was away to do his tapasya, the Devas sent their agent, who
> assuming the form of Asura guru Shukracharya claimed that he came back from
> the tapasya early. Gaining the confidence of  the Asuras, he began to teach
> them concepts like Ahimsa(different from the Vedic context)  so that Asuras
> would be discouraged from taking up further conflicts. He also taught them
> that Vedas are deploreable and instead taught them some mumbo jumbo. (on a
> side note, the British taught us the same Ahimsa for the exact same
> purpose. They also taught us to starve to death:).
> ‎
> To me it seems like this story was superimposed on the fanciful
> justification of why Buddha was an Avatar of Vishnu. ‎Further there is no
> evidence of Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu in any scriptures.
>
> On the other hand we have ample evidence that Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa,
> the son of illustrious Parashara was an avatar of Vishnu. Vyasa is the
> actual 9th avatar of Vishnu! How did this come to be? Or is there any
> evidence to suggest that Buddha was an avatar of Vishnu? ‎
> ‎
> Regards ‎
> Kripa ‎
>
> ‎---
> Vyasaya Vishnu roopaya Vyasa  roopaya Vishnave
> Namo vai Brahma nidhaye Vasishtaya namo namaha
>
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>