[Advaita-l] Dashavataras as per Harivamsha

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Kripa,

Lord Buddha was Hindu and he died a Hindu. He never said that he was promulgating a new dharma. He said that he was from the Ikshaku vamsha and that is confirmed by the Pauranic chronology.  In the Jataka stories (giving his previous births)  he said that he was Lord Rama in one of his earlier births. Pauranic chronology shows that Lord Rama was also from the Ikshaku vamsha. Hindus do believe that the ancestors do take rebirth in their lineage. 

Lord Buddha was never against the Veda.  When he saw that a very large number of animals being taken for yajna, he advised the king Bimbisara  to continue his yajna, but without animal sacrifice, and did not ask the king not to perform the yajna. Nowhere in Veda it is said that a large number of animals have to be sacrificed. That may be the reason why Bhishma said in the Mahabharata that animal sacrifice was promoted by the hypocrites (in order to satiate their great desire for eating meat).

Lord Buddha asked the brahmins of his time, as to what the Vedas say regarding the way to cross the cycle of birth and death, but they said that Vedas have not said any such thing. Obviously the Vedic scholars ignored the Upanishadic teachings ( which are the essence of the Veda). Lord Buddha asked the brahmins to concentrate on the essence of the Vedas. 

The colonial historians wanted to prove the pauranic chronology to be fake and they tried to show that Lord Mahavira was born before Lord Buddha, by reducing the antiquity of Lord Buddha.  The colonial historians were wrong as Lord Buddha  was born thirteen hundred (1300) years before Lord Mahavira.  Lord Mahavira too learned the Sankhya and Yoga, but he did not go to the advayavada like Lord Buddha did. 

Buddha means Jnani and Buddhists believe that there were many jnanis before Lord Buddha. 

Sometime ago, I read one verse (quoted from a Dashavatara stora) in a book on the date of AdiShankara and it was written by one Kulkarni. That verse says that Lord Buddha was an avatara of Lord Vishnu. Some puranas (called as the fifth veda by two of the major upanishads) too say that Lord Buddha was an avatara of Lord Vshnu. Late President Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan said that Lord Buddha was a great reformer of Hinduism, I agree with Dr. Radhakrishnanand and I shall also say that  Adi Shankara too was a great reformer of Hinduism. 

Regards,
Sunil KB 



--------------------------------------------
On Sat, 1/7/17, Kripa Shankar <kripa.shankar.0294 at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Dashavataras as per Harivamsha
 To: "Sunil Bhattacharjya" <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com>, "V Subrahmanian" <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>, "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>, "Sunil Bhattacharjya" <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com>
 Date: Saturday, January 7, 2017, 4:15 AM
 
 Namaste Sunil, 
 
 Like I mentioned before, there
 are a lot of historical lies in the Buddhists history and
 the same was exploited by the indologists. For eg, Ashoka
 persecutes all the jain monks in his kingdom just because
 someone painted a picture depicting Buddha falling at the
 feet of a shramana. But we regard him as the great king. As
 a matter of fact, Mahavira is a more illustrious character
 and preached the same non-violence much before Buddha 0.1
 was even born. So why is he not a Vishnu  avatar? Are we so
 gullible to think that Buddha preached something new that we
 didn't already know. 
 
 If Buddha 0.1 was a well wisher of people and
 hence out of compassion, corrected the wrong views held by
 the Vaidiks, he should have first accepted the validity of
 Vedas. But there is no such evidence either in truth or
 fiction. 
 
 Whether there
 were 2 or 20 Buddhas, whether he preached the same
 philosophy or not, the fundamental question is, did he
 accept the validity of the Vedas? Can you come up with
 something to prove that? I guess not. Hence it is a nAstika
 school. This is the difference between Shankara and Buddha,
 like day and night. ‎So calling adi Shankara a prachanna
 baudha is limited to a cult like Vaishnavas. 
 
 If we contrast with the truth,
 according to which Veda Vyasa is the actual avatar of
 Vishnu, think of everything that he accomplished. The
 progenitor of both kauravas and pandavas, the author of
 sharirika sutras, the compiler of Vedas, the author of all
 Puranas, the Brahmarshi of incomparable intelligence. 
 
 No one ever has heard of
 dashavatara stotra composed by Adi Shankaracharya. So
 sparing kindergarten children,  no one else  will buy this
 mere statement.  
 
 Regards 
 Kripa 
 
 Vyasaya Vishnu roopaya Vyasa roopaya Vishnave 
 Namo vai Brahma nidhaye Vasishtaya namo namaha 
   Original Message  
 From:
 Sunil Bhattacharjya
 Sent: Saturday 7 January
 2017 6:40 AM
 To: V Subrahmanian; A
 discussion group for Advaita Vedanta; Kripa Shankar; Sunil
 Bhattacharjya
 Reply To: Sunil
 Bhattacharjya
 Subject: Re: [Advaita-l]
 Dashavataras as per Harivamsha
 
 Dear friends,
 
 Sorry, a part of the text got deleted by
 mistake. I am giving that below:
 
 Saying Adi Shankara to be Prachanna Buddha is
 not wrong, provided the speaker understands what Lord Buddha
 really taught. Adi Shankara taught us that the Jivanmukta
 leaves the body (including all the five koshas) and becomes
 Videhamukta, and that is the state of realizing oneness with
 the Brahman. Lord Buddha taught that the Bodhisattva
 Sariputra saw that the skandhas (koshas) were empty, i.e,,
 he left the five skandhas or koshas. Lord Buddha did not use
 the word “Brahman” here, but not that Lord Buddha did
 not know the word Brahman. Lord Buddha did use the word
 “Brahman” in Buddhist sutra. Buddha did not believe in
 the plurality of souls and he differed from his Sankhya guru
 on this. He did not believe in duality and he differed from
 his yoga guru also. Lord Budhha believed only in the
 Advayavada, which is the same as the advaitavada. 
 
 In Adi Shankara's time the
 Mahayana buddhists did not understand what Lord Buddha
 taught at the highest level, and that happened because of
 lapse of thirteen (13) centuries from the time of Lord
 Buddha to the time of Adi Shankara. Nagarjuna, who lived
 about eight (*) centuries before Adi Shankara told that
 Shunyata is not “non-existence”, but that also did not
 have any effect in Adi Shankara's time and the Mahayana
 buddhists were teaching nihilism in Adi Shankara's time.
 That is why Adi Shankara had not only to oppose the
 Sarvastivadins and the Vijnanavadins, he had also to oppose
 the Mahayana buddhists. 
 
 Adi Shankara is said to have composed the
 Dashavataara stotra, where he included Lord Buddha as the
 ninth avatara of Lord Vishnu. If any member has tseen hat
 stotra, may I request him to share that infornation with us.
 
 
 Regards
 Sunil K. Bhaattacharjya
 
 
 --------------------------------------------
 On Fri, 1/6/17, Sunil Bhattacharjya <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com>
 wrote:
 
 Subject: Re:
 [Advaita-l] Dashavataras as per Harivamsha
 To: "V Subrahmanian" <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>,
 "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>,
 "Kripa Shankar" <kripa.shankar.0294 at gmail.com>
 Date: Friday, January 6, 2017, 4:29 PM
 
 ∞ {\displaystyle \infty } 
 
 Mathematicians are familiar with ∞, the
 symbol of
 infinity. Thus mathematically
 speaking 
 1/∞ (infinity) = 0 (Zero or
 Shunya)
 
 Regards,
 Sunil K.Bhattacharjya
 
 
 
 
 --------------------------------------------
 On Fri, 1/6/17, Kripa Shankar via Advaita-l
 <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 wrote:
 
 Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Dashavataras as per
 Harivamsha
 To: "V Subrahmanian"
 <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>,
 "A discussion group for Advaita
 Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 Date: Friday, January 6, 2017, 1:10 PM
 
 As you can observe he
 relies heavily on some obscure Vaishnava
 authors /books
 and
 Buddhist
 works which are sheer fantasies. If we are to
 take
 this guy seriously, we
 will have to accept Shankara as
 prachanna
 baudha which is again a monumental lie. 
 
 Regards ‎
 Kripa ‎
 
 Vyasaya Vishnu roopaya Vyasa roopaya Vishnave 
 Namo vai Brahma nidhaye Vasishtaya namo namaha 
   Original Message  
 From:
 Kripa Shankar
 Sent: Saturday 7
 January 2017
 2:12 AM
 To: V
 Subrahmanian; A discussion
 group for Advaita
 Vedanta
 Subject: Re:
 [Advaita-l] Dashavataras as per Harivamsha
 
 That does not make any
 difference at all. It is clearly established in
 the
 shastras
 / Puranas that
 animals sacrificed in yajnas attain higher
 worlds. There is an instance in Matsya Purana
 about this
 topic. I can give reference if
 needed. This Ahimsa as
 meant
 by this pundit and by Buddha, whether I or I I,
 is
 completely against the vedic view as
 mentioned previously.
 So apparently Vishnu
 has got the fundamentals wrong.
  Further,
 animals were being sacrificed from times
 immemorial. How did it suddenly become hinsa?
 The same
 yajnas involving animal sacrifices
 were practised by the
 Pandavas as advised by
 none other than Krishna, another
 avatara. 
 ‎
 ‎Secondly
 the Madhvas do not
 have credibility as they have
 perpetuated
 a series of lies. A guru/shiva nindaka is
 considered a
 great
 saint by
 them, so should we have comparisons with them. So
 it's immaterial what they believe when we
 have first
 hand evidence from Vyasa! 
 
 You will have to inevitably
 view it from a more
 socio-political angle.
 It is similar to some reformer
 banning an
 already dead practise such as Sati. More over,
 we
 do not know much about this
 pundit nor the sources from
 which he is
 quoting. Above all, none of it makes any
 difference as we have clear evidence to the
 contrary. 
 
 Regards 
 Kripa ‎
 ‎
 Vyasaya Vishnu roopaya Vyasa roopaya Vishnave 
 Namo vai Brahma nidhaye Vasishtaya namo namaha 
   Original Message  
 From:
 V
 Subrahmanian
 Sent:
 Saturday 7 January 2017
 1:35 AM
 To: Kripa Shankar; A discussion
 group for Advaita Vedanta
 Subject: Re:
 [Advaita-l]
 Dashavataras as per Harivamsha
 
 
 On Jan 7,
 2017
 1:18 AM, "Kripa Shankar" <kripa.shankar.0294 at gmail.com>
 wrote:
 >
 > Namaste
 Subramanian, 
 >
 > To
 my
 knowledge, there is no mention of Buddha at all in the
 Mahabharata. 
 >
 >
 Almost in every chapter of
 the Mahabharata, the Vedic
 yajnas
 are given utmost importance as can be seen in
 the Gita as
 well. Further, the definition of
 Ahimsa is starkly
 different
 in the Vedas /MB. For eg, harsh speech is also
 considered
 as
 himsa as per
 Shastras. So Vishnu getting up from yoga
 nidra
 and donning an avatara to
 oppose everything that is held
 sacred in the
 Vedas is just not sane. 
 >
 
 Here
 there is
 a proposal for two Buddhas:
 
 http://www.stephen-knapp.com/were_there_two_buddhas.htm
 
 Madhvas believe in Buddha
 avatars.
 
 Regards
 vs
 
 > 
 > t
 
 
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