Over the last few weeks, Twitter is abuzz with the debate – if Gautama Buddha was the Vishnu avatar Buddha or was there someone else that history does not know much about?
I saw many an experts provide their detailed points of view, analysis, research, logic etc. on why things should be considered either this way or that.
And often the so-called “traditional” (trad) schools of Hinduism, especially the trad dharma-rakshak digital warriors “ended” the discussion with a single sucker-punch: “The respected Puri Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati Maharaj had mentioned in one of his talks that Gautama was not the Buddha-avatar, but there was another”. That settled it, they claimed. Any Puranic references that say otherwise, as cited by the other side, were all “interpolations” done to the earlier texts in the medieval period by the motivated Buddhist scholars, serving their biased agenda.
I have only a simple point to make in this matter. But the reading is going to be slightly lengthy – do bear with me. And, please, do add your comments at the end of the thread.
To begin with, let’s first set some context to this. The context of the special 10 Vishnu avatars, who came down to earth – from time to time – to set the course of dharma is the correct direction, to remove the adharma from having a powerful say in the course of the history (“Sambhamami Yuge Yuge”) – the “Dashavatar”.
Most of the discussions in normal course revolve around Parashurama, Rama, Krishna. We discuss whether the avatar knew – during His lifetime – that He was a projection of Vishnu Himself or not. We get mixed answers. But I want to explore this a little more.
Matsya Avatar – We cannot be sure whether He knew Who He was when He appeared as a little fish to King Vaivasvata Manu, or whether He knew when He was growing in size. But at least we can be sure that He had complete consciousness of His Supreme-Self when He was steering the arc of Manu through the great deluge. What was His task? Wipe off the timed-out old, and rebuild the civilization on a dharmic foundation, and start of the manvantara that we are in now.
Kurma Avatar – This avatar appeared in full consciousness. He appeared for a task – got it done – and went back. What was His task? He supported the weight of the Mandar parvat during the Samudra Manthan – the great endeavour jointly done by the Devas and the Asuras that produced numerous gifts for the betterment of the cosmos… and one portion of Halahala was served for Neelkanth (but that’s another story)!
Varaha Avatar – Again, another avatar appeared in full consciousness. The job was an immediate need – to rescue Prithvi from Hiranyaksha – and it was done at earnest.
NaraSimha Avatar – Did He appear in full consciousness? Doubtful. At least we can agree on that it was an incarnation which had its “rage” out of control. To bring the stability back, prayers were needed. What was the task? To end the tyranny of Hiranyakashipu and to save maha-bhakta Prahlad (did not do much for the Devas, though, since Prahlada was still a formidable Asura king and fought against the Devas for years to come).
Vamana Avatar – Once again, whether He appeared with full consciousness or not can be debated. But definitely when He was carrying out His main task – to curb the dominance of King MahaBali, He was a realised being.
ParashuRama Avatar – He, for sure, was not operating – even during His main task – with full consciousness. He was an incarnation of the rage that was deserved by the time. He decimated the Kshatriyas 21 times from the face of earth. Every time some of the them escaped – grew in numbers – and He had to carry out the cleansing again… till He was asked to stop this carnage by other rishis. It is not clear whether He ever knew that He was a Vishnu avatar, since His reputation (and behaviour) as an angry rishi preceded any other aspect of His personality across the years, till even the time of Mahabharata.
Rama Avatar – Again, we can debate whether He knew Who He was during His lifetime. There are hints that He knew and acted accordingly, and then again there are behaviours that justified that He didn’t. However, let’s look at why He was on earth. To free the world from the tyranny of Ravana. To set the pinnacle of example of Kshatriya behaviour – to set up Rama-Rajya that was “perfect”.
Krishna Avatar – Some say that the eighth position should be of Balarama, as all the previous avatars – and Balarama – were “amsha”-avatars, and Krishna was a “purna”-avatar, and thus, should not be counted among the 10. However, leaving that track of argument aside, let’s just consider that the eighth position indeed belonged to Krishna (He was born as the eighth child as well!). There is no doubt that He was born with complete consciousness of Who He was. He lived His life accordingly. What was His task? Numerous, of course – but most evidently, to establish Dharma-Rajya at the end of Dwapar Yuga. Mahabharata happened, and He moved His hands in perfect oscilation, holding the orchestra baton.
Let’s skip the ninth, and move to tenth.
Kalki Avatar – He will come. When? We do not know, but some day in a distant future, all hope. But His job will be to end the Kali Yuga’s adharma, and set the right track for the new ChaturYuga cycle to start. That is indeed going to be a big job.
Rolling back to ninth – we are now faced with a simple question, Who was this “Buddha” avatar and what did He do?
The challenge in the traditional way of answering this is that not everything can be understood from quotations and screenshots from old or new books. Scriptural texts often tell us what happened, not why it happened. The “why” then becomes parts of the discussions between minds. Observers observe, interpreters and analysers explore the internal workings of the chains of events. In our Puranas, when someone asked a guru or a rishi why certain things happened in that certain way, we see the explanations. But unfortunately the lores of the old do not cover the timescale up to the Buddha avatar. Both Buddha and Kalki avatars were mentioned in future narratives. The “why” was missing.
But today I want to explore that a little.
The Buddha appeared at a juncture of time – when Dwapara had ended and Kali just begun. Things were not yet settled across this land. Kingdoms that were broken during the great war of Kurukshetra were still trying to get back to their feet. Some never did. Some new kingdoms emerged. The dharmic landscape was in a flux due to the lack of traditional support system (supported by the kings).
And most importantly, the change of Dwapar to Kali brought about a significant change – the mortal plain was now isolated from the divine plains, the umbilical cord was cut. When Krishna left the planet, truth, righteousness, constancy, fame and beauty left the earthly plain as well (Shrimad Bhagavatham 10.31.7). The world was now in a completely separate plane – and the old ways were no longer valid. But humans refused to accept that – and they still do. They are under the delusion that following the ancient rituals and processes to the T will give them the desired results in the same proportion as in earlier times. It will not.
The society in that flux stage at the onset of Kali needed a reset. They needed to be told what they needed to do then to stay in the path of dharma – but without the expectations of “divine interventions”, for none was forthcoming anymore like it happened in the earlier ages. And perhaps it was not possible to achieve that state of mind just by reciting verses from Bhagavad Geeta that one must do one’s duty without having expectations of the outcome. For, it was not possible to separate the message from the messenger – it was not possible to separate Geeta from Krishna Himself.
The reset that was needed had to place someone else in the centre – one simple human – instead of a Purnavatar. Someone upon whom one can try to ascribe divinity, but another will strip that label away. Someone like Goutama Buddha, who some will call an avatar of Vishnu, and some will call just a simple, mortal man, but a man who had a lot of good messages, and who inspired a choice of lifestyle without having to put a divine dimension in and around it. And people agreed. People followed the eightfold path.
So was He an avatar of Vishnu? Well, let me put the question in a different way – did He do something that befits an avatar? Something unthinkable – in this land of Bharat – that only an avatar can “pull off”?
Certainly He did.
Now comes the mystery of this another Buddha that Puri Shankaracharya Ji had mentioned. There are references from Bhagavad and Bhabishya Puranas that it would have been a brahmin, born in Keekat (in Bihar, under which region Gaya is located – where incidentally Goutama achieved His Bodhi), who would be the ninth Vishnu avatar – Buddha. Hence the argument is : we must find out who he was, rather than accepting a kshatriya, born in Nepal, as that avatar. Counter argument – just like kshatriya king Kaushik could become brahmin Brahmarshi Vishvamitra, similarly we can consider the event of Bodhi transforming a kshatriya prince into brahmin Buddha. We can consider the event of Bodhi-laabh as the event of “birth” of Buddha-avatar. After all, haven’t we been seeing that the texts of the shashtras – since time eternal – have always been subject to deeper interpretations and understandings?
And finally, my personal objection – had there really been another Buddha avatar – a Vishnu avatar of such significance who could comfortably claim that chair in the exalted and august company of the other 9 avatars described above – based on their enormous deeds – wouldn’t we simply know about that already? It could never be someone who had done some good here and some heroism there – so insignificant that history had comfortably forgotten all about him! And that too, when the place was such where we had continuous habitation over the last 3000 years!
Simply – does not make sense.
I am done here. Now you can re-read, think, and comment.
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