Prabhupada:Glad people interested in Buddha (The Hindu Buddha)

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In the context of that his Buddha theology Bhaktivedanta Swami's

amazing statement referring to the today's Buddhism becomes

clear: "We are glad that people are taking interest in the

nonviolent movement of Lord Buddha."[20]. It's very important to see

that he doesn't continue his statement with a call for conversion to

the pure Krishna consciousness, i.e. to his own religious community;

instead he continues his statement with a Buddhist inquiry to the

Buddhists: "But will they take the matter very seriously and close

the animal slaughterhouses altogether?"[21]He closes with a just as

Buddhist warning: "If not, there is no meaning to the ahimsa

cult."[22]

 

The Hindu Buddha

according to the Theology of the Bengali Vaishnava Acharya

Bhaktivedanta Swami

by Edmund Weber

In the broad Indian religious culture we find two basic concepts of

the inner structure of the Holy. The Advaita religion believes in

the 'not-two' will say absolute 'oneness' of the ultimate reality.

The Dvaita religion yet believes in 'two' will say the dual

structure of the whole. Nevertheless, the latter one is no radical

dualism because it recognises nothing to be outside the last

reality. It is a kind of 'dualist monism' and insofar fundamentally

different to West Asian and European moderate or radical dualism.

The Dvaita religion experiences the inner structure of the Holy as

everlasting dynamic relation of the whole and its parts. As a rule,

the representation of the whole is the personal God, mostly called

Bhagavan. The representation of the parts are the soul or jivas.

Mostly following the idea the whole being a personal God the Dvaita

religion is something like theism; yet, it is an Indian or Hindu

theism teaching that the Godhead comprises within herself souls and

matter, too. By the way, many of the jivas aren't conscious of their

role within the Holy. They erroneously take themselves for empty

monads and believe that they would get their realisation only by

implementing themselves with 'matter'. Experiencing in this concern

the uselessness of matter, the maya energy of the Godhead, they can

get the true consciousness of their role as divine co-players in the

inner divine play or lila.

 

The co-called Vaishnavas [1] constitute the majority within the fold

of the Dvaitas. They admire Vishnu (mostly under his name of

Krishna) as the only, universal and personal God. They realise

Vishnu-Krishna as the highest personality of Godhead and realise

themselves as 'smaller' personalities of the Divine. Vishnu is

understood as a saviour. When the world order, the dharma, has

become disturbed he leaves the heaven, vaikuntha, into the world as

welfare-bringing God incarnate. Such a descending saviour called by

the Indian 'avatar', has been according to the Vaishnavas Gautama

Buddha.

 

No wonder, quite standing in that tradition and initiated in its

guru line the world-well-known Gaudiya Vaishnava teacher and founder

of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness [iSKCON],

Bhaktivedanta Swami (1896-1977) [2], described the Buddha as God

incarnate, as a manifestation of the highest personality of Godhead.

 

Although being the highest personality himself, Krishna completed

[and completes until today?] as the Buddha a closely circumscribed

redeeming task. Bhaktivedanta Swami quotes in that connection a

Vaishnava poem, where that particular task is sung very

beautifully: "O Lord Krishna, You have assumed the form of Lord

Buddha, taking compassion on the poor animals."[3] God came thus as

Buddha into this world, to spread as lord and protector of the

animals ahimsa, non-violence.

 

In his comment on the Shrimad Bhagavatam, one of the most

authoritative holy writings of the Vaishnavas, Bhaktivedanta Swami

goes more in detail about the Buddha; the text regarding this issue

is translated by him with the following words: "Then, in the

beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son

of Anjana, in the province of Gaya, just for the purpose of deluding

those who are the faithful theist."[4] The commentator interprets

that passage as follows: "Buddha, a powerful incarnation of the

personality of Godhead, ..., preached his own conception of

nonviolence and deprecated even the sacrifices sanctioned in the

Vedas."[5]

 

During Buddha's time most humans were atheists and preferred animal

meat of every other food. Under the pretext of executing Vedic

sacrifices they had almost every place transformed into a slaughter

house, where the animal were killed without any restriction.[6]

Since those humans indulged in atheism, Krishna appeared as an

atheist so that he could easier convince the people. Therefore, by

reasons of missionary tactics and not at all by religious

enlightenment Buddha become an atheist. The (in reality) theistic

Buddha stated his (not real) disbelief of the Vedas assessing them

as extremely harmful for the souls.

 

However, he made these apparently anti-Vedic statements only to

divert the animal murdering atheists from the Vedas which were

wrongly interpreted by asuras or so-called scholars of Vedic

literature teaching the necessity of animal-killing. For avoiding

those killings "Lord Buddha superficially denied the authority of

the Vedas."[7]

 

Krishna incarnated as the atheistic Buddha rejecting the Vedas to

liberate the misled souls from the sin of animal-killing and to save

the animals to be killed. He is the saviour and protector of souls

which are reincarnated in the shape of human and animal

bodies: "This rejection of the Vedas by Lord Buddha was adopted in

order to save people from the vice of animal-killing as well as to

save the poor animals from the slaughtering of their big

brothers."[8]

 

Krishna-Buddha stopped that animal-killing particularly because it

is immediately connected with atheism, in disbelief in the real God.

Therefore, upbringing the people to ahimsa he prepared them for the

re-conversion to the theism: "Less intelligent men of age of Kali,

who had no faith in God, followed his principle, and for the time

being they were trained in moral discipline and nonviolence, the

preliminary steps for proceeding further on the path of God

realization."[9]

 

Krishna had to use the strategy of accommodation in order to bring

the humans of his atheistic time on the necessary preliminary stage

of God realisation. He did not only delude the people by acting as

an atheist agitator but also by offering himself as a real gurudeva.

Therefore, his atheist followers "kept their absolute faith in Lord

Buddha". The miracle of Buddha'######### is clear: "Thus the

faithless people were made to believe in God in the form of Lord

Buddha."[10]

 

The mission tactics based on deception rises from the loving-

kindness of Krishna to those humans, who cannot notice him in his

actual nature; in spite of their inability, he gives them

nevertheless the possibility of doing this in other way, through the

guru-religion: "That was the mercy of Lord Buddha: he made the

faithless faithful to him."[11]

 

The God of Baktivedanta Swami is thus a God, who regarding the faith

does not leave his creatures alone, but comes to meet them in a

shape appropriate to their mentality and situation.

 

Not only the gurudeva-religion of Buddha but also the mission of the

Adavaita philosopher Shankaracharya [12] lead to real God

realisation integrating in this way the traditional main adversaries

of the Vaishnavas into Krishna's order of salvation: "Lord Buddha

preached the preliminary principles of the Vedas in a manner

suitable for the time being (and also did Sankaracarya) to establish

the authority o the Vedas. Therefore both Lord Buddha and Acaraya

Sankara paved the path of theism."[13]

 

In the Adi Lila of the Shri Caitanya-caritamrita Bhaktivedanta Swami

says once more that the Advaita philosopher Shankaracharya tried to

convert the atheists of his time. In order to lead those atheists

back to the Dvaita theism: "Unfortunately, Shri Shankaracarya, by

the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, compromised between

atheism and theism in order to cheat the atheists and bring them to

theism."[14] To re-establish the authority of the Vedas, he did not

teach the Vedas in their original purely theistic understanding, but

in a sub-theistic Advaita interpretation. [15]

 

However, this concept of restoring theism conflicts with Shiva's

words to his wife Parvati quoted by Bhaktivedanta Swami: "Similarly,

in explaining Vedanta I describe the same Mayavada philosophy in

order to mislead the entire population toward atheism by denying the

personal form ogf God."[16]

 

While Shankaracharya deceived humans in the name of Shiva by the

wrong Vedanta interpretation of the Vedas, in order to entice to

atheism or to bind over the atheists fraudulently again to the Vedas

in the name of Krishna, the mission of the Buddha existed in an

action-oriented moral preparatory course for salvation.

 

In the Madhya-Lila of the Shri Caitanya-caritamrita Bhaktivedanta

Swami represents the salvation-bringing task of the Buddhism still

more clearly than in the Shrimad Bhagavatam: "Lord Buddha's

intention was to stop atheists from committing the sin of killing

animals. Atheists cannot understand God; therefore Lord Buddha

appeared and spread the philosophy of nonviolence to keep the

atheists from killing animals. Unless one is free from the sin of

animal killing, he cannot understand religion or God. Although Lord

Buddha was an incarnation of Krishna, he did not speak about God,

for the people were unable to understand. He simply wanted to stop

animal killing."[17]

 

While Shiva incarnated as the brahmin Shankaracarya falsified the

Vedas in the sense of Mayavada philosophy to entice the humans to

atheism [18], Buddha came down on earth as Krishna's avatar to lead

the atheists indirectly to the Krishna consciousness. Bhaktivedanta

Swami understands thus the Buddhism as redeeming ethics, the Hindu

Shivaism of Shankaracarya yet as havoc racking religion of the God

anger.

 

However, that judgement on Buddha has an important theological

consequence for the religious relationship of Vaishnavas and

Buddhists: the followers of both religions admire the same God. The

Buddhism smoothes by its preparatory ahimsa morals the way to the

realisation of Buddha's true nature which is nothing else than

Krishna consciousness. Yet, the pre-condition of this statement is

that God's realisation is only possible by a previous ahimsa

practice [19]. Therefore, bhakti without ahimsa is only a worthless

pseudo-piety.

 

In the context of that his Buddha theology Bhaktivedanta Swami's

amazing statement referring to the today's Buddhism becomes

clear: "We are glad that people are taking interest in the

nonviolent movement of Lord Buddha."[20]. It's very important to see

that he doesn't continue his statement with a call for conversion to

the pure Krishna consciousness, i.e. to his own religious community;

instead he continues his statement with a Buddhist inquiry to the

Buddhists: "But will they take the matter very seriously and close

the animal slaughterhouses altogether?"[21]He closes with a just as

Buddhist warning: "If not, there is no meaning to the ahimsa

cult."[22]

 

Even thus the radical Hindu theism does not question the fundamental

affiliation - as it means - atheist Buddhism to the own religion. He

commits himself in this regard rather theologically so much that the

acknowledgement of the Buddhists as devotees does not depend on

their position to the theists. Even the strict Vaishnavas are too

strong rooted in the common Dharma religion of India that they can't

judge the Buddha devotees as disbelieving ones. One could do nearly

think, that regarding salvation the Buddhism would be in the view of

the Vaishnavas closer to themselves than the Hindu Advaita religion

of Shankaracarya.

 

However, concerning his answer to our question about the

relationship of Hinduism and Buddhism Bhaktivedanta Swami never

doubts despite all criticism [23] that Buddha was a Hindu and

Buddhism, therefore, is part of Hinduism. When a journalist without

knowing any Indian sophistications once asked the Swami in the

jargon of Western religious terminology, whether the Krishna

consciousness was linked with any other religion or is due to

Hinduism or Buddhism, he although being by such a roughness of the

question a little bit disconcerted finally answered in a typical

Hindu manner and blowing up all sectarian isolation - with the

confession of his own Hinduism and his acknowledgement of the

Hinduism of Buddha: "Yes, you can call it Hinduism, but actually it

does not belong tons any 'ism'. It is a science of understanding

God. But it appears like Hindu religion. In that sense Buddha

religion is also Hindu religion, because Lord Buddha was a Hindu and

he started Buddha religion."[24]

 

Amongst the Hindus, in particular those adhering the Hindu

modernism, developed by Swami Vivekananda [25], there is consent

over the fact that Buddhists belong to the Hindu Dharma equally.

Bhaktivedanta Swami has been of the same opinion.

 

However, this is all the more considerable, as the Vaishnava theists

and Bhaktivedanta Swami too believe that the Buddhism is atheistic

and therefore reject that particular Hindu Dharma religion as

possible way for themselves.

 

 

 

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Notes

For technical reasons no diacritical indications haven been used.

1] Literally: The devotees of Vishnu, usually Krishnaites.

2] Born in Calcutta, Bengal. It was brought up in the Radha Krishna

religion of his hometown and received there from Scottish

missionaries his college training. See Peter Schmidt: A.C.

Bhaktivedanta Swami im interreligiösen Dialog [bhaktivedanta Swami

in the Inter-religious dialogue], THEION - Annual for Religious

Culture, vol. X, Frankfurt am Main etc. 1999.

3] Lectures on Bhagavadgita, 20. 7. 1966, New York. Bhaktivedanta

VedaBase, Featuring the Complete Teachings of His Divine Grace A.C.

Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, 1995 [CD-Rom], No. 326520.

4] Srimad Bhagavatam (=SB), Canto 1, c.3.24. Translation probably

better: " With the intention to mislead 'sura dvisam ', the God

envious people, i.e. the asuras, the Buddha, with name Añjana's son,

will appear in Gaya [? ]".

5] SB, ibid.

6] SB, ibid.

7] SB, ibid.

8] SB, ibid.

9] SB, ibid.

10] SB, ibid. Yet, in the Vishnu Purana c. 17 we read: "When the

mighty Vishnu heard their [sc. the Gods; the author] requests, he

emitted from his body an illusory form, which he gave to the gods,

and thus spoke: 'This deceptive vision shall wholly beguile the

Daityas [sc. the enemies of the gods; the author].

11] SB, ibid.

12] Hindu philosopher and monk from Kerala (8th century), promoting

of Hinduism and critisising Budhhism. Cf., Sylvia Mangold: Sri Adi

Sankaracarya, THEION - Annual of Religious Culture IV, Frankfurt am

Main etc. 1994.

13] SB, ibid.

14] Shri Caitanya-caritamrita (= SCC), Adi-lila, c. 7.110

15] SCC, ibid.

16] SCC, ibid.

17] SCC, Madhya-lila, c. 25.42

18] Bhaktivedanta Swami doesn't give any reason for Krishna's deeds

not deserving salvation.

19] Atheism is obviously caused by animal killing; cf., SCC Madhya-

lila, ibid.

20] SB, ibid.

21] SB, ibid.

22] SB, ibid.

23] SCC, Madhya-lila, c. 9.48-61. In this passage Bhaktivedanta

Swami presents the essential differences to the Buddhist religion.

24] Room Conversations with Journalist. May 19, 1975, Melbourne.

750519rc.mel. Bhaktivedanta VedaBase, Featuring the Complete

Teachings of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,

1995 [CD-Rom], No. 455204.

25] Cf., Edmund Weber: Swami Vivekananda and the Buddhism. Journal

of Religious Culture No.05b (1997)

 

This article is from the Journal of Religious Culture No. 15b (1997)

Journal für Religionskultur, edited by Edmund Weber

Institute for Irenics /Institut für wissenschaftliche Irenik

Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt/Main

ISSN 1434-5935 - © E.Weber