Gautama Buddha is viewed as an avatar of the god Vishnu in Vaishnava Hinduism.
Buddhist teachings do not rely on the Vedas, are atheist and deny the reality
of the self or Ātman; consequently, Hindu philosophers classified Buddhism
as nāstika or heterodoxy within the scheme of Hinduism.
In the Puranas The Buddha is described in important
Hindu scriptures, including almost all the major puranas. However, "not all of
them refer to the same person: some of them refer to other persons, and some
occurrences of 'buddha' simply mean 'a person possessing buddhi'; most of them,
however, refer specifically to the founder of Buddhism." They portray him
with two roles: preaching atheistic Vedic views in order to restore the
Dharma and criticizing animal sacrifice. A partial list of major Puranic
references of the Buddha is as follows: Harivamsa
Vishnu Purana Bhagavata Purana
Garuda Purana Agni Purana
Naradiya Purana Linga Purana
Padma Purana In the Puranic texts, he is mentioned as
one of the ten Avatars of Vishnu, usually as the ninth one. Another
important scriptures that mentions him as an avatar is Parashara's Brihat
Parashara Hora Shastra. Buddha is often described as a yogi or
yogācārya and as a sannyāsi. His father is usually called Śuddhodhana, which is
consistent with the Buddhist tradition, while in a few places the Buddha's
father is named Añjana or Jina. He is described as beautiful, of yellow skin,
and wearing brown-red or red robes. Only a few statements mention the
worship of Buddha, e.g. the Varahapurana states that one desirous of beauty
should worship him. In some of the puranas, he is described as having taken
birth to "mislead the demons": mohanārthaṃ dānavānāṃ bālarūpī
pathi-sthitaḥ । putraṃ taṃ kalpayām āsa mūḍha-buddhir jinaḥ svayam ॥ tataḥ
saṃmohayām āsa jinādyān asurāṃśakān । bhagavān vāgbhir ugrābhir
ahiṃsā-vācibhir hariḥ ॥ To delude the demons, he stood on the
path in the form of a child. The foolish Jina, imagined him to be his son. Thus
the lord Sri Hari expertly deluded Jina and other demons by his strong words of
non-violence. In the Bhagavata Purana, Buddha is said
to have taken birth to restore the devas to power:
tataḥ kalau sampravṛtte sammohāya sura-dviṣām ।
buddho nāmnāñjana-sutaḥ kīkaṭeṣu bhaviṣyati ॥
Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, for the purpose of confusing the enemies of
the devas, [he] will become the son of Anjana, Buddha by name, in the Kīkaṭas.
In many puranas, the Buddha is described as an incarnation of Vishnu who
incarnated in order to bring either demons or mankind close to the Vedic
dharma. The Bhavishya Purana contains the following:
At this time, reminded of the Kali Age, the god Vishnu became born as Gautama,
the Shakyamuni, and taught the Buddhist dharma for ten years. Then Shuddodana
ruled for twenty years, and Shakyasimha for twenty. At the first stage of the
Kali Age, the path of the Vedas was destroyed and all men became Buddhists.
Those who sought refuge with Vishnu were deluded.
In Hinduism = As an avatar of Vishnu=
In 8th-century royal circles, the Buddha started to be replaced by Hindu gods in
pujas: "[B]efore the eighth century, the Buddha
was accorded the position of universal deity and ceremonies by which a king
attained to imperial status were elaborate donative ceremonies entailing
gifts to Buddhist monks and the installation of a symbolic Buddha in a
stupa.... This pattern changed in the eighth century. The Buddha was replaced
as the supreme, imperial deity by one of the Hindu gods... Previously the Buddha
had been accorded imperial-style worship. Now as one of the Hindu gods
replaced the Buddha at the imperial centre and pinnacle of the
cosmo-political system, the image or symbol of the Hindu god comes to be
housed in a monumental temple and given increasingly elaborate imperial-style
puja worship." This also was the same period of time
the Buddha was made into an avatar of Vishnu. Some sources say that it was
Sugata Buddha also called Adi-Buddha who was the avatar of Vishnu.
In the Dasavatara stotra section of his Gita Govinda, the influential Vaishnava
poet Jayadeva includes the Buddha amongst the ten principal avatars of
Vishnu and writes a prayer regarding him as follows:
O Keshava! O Lord of the universe! O Lord Hari, who have assumed the form of
Buddha! All glories to You! O Buddha of compassionate heart, you decry the
slaughtering of poor animals performed according to the rules of Vedic
sacrifice. This viewpoint of the Buddha as the
avatar who primarily promoted ahimsa remains a popular belief amongst a
number of modern Vaishnava organisations, including the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
= As an inspirational figure= Other prominent modern proponents of
Hinduism, such as Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Swami Vivekananda,
consider the Buddha as an example of the same universal truth that underlies
religions: Vivekananda: May he who is the Brahman
of the Hindus, the Ahura Mazda of Zoroastrians, the Buddha of Buddhists,
the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in Heavens of Christians, give strength to
you to carry out your noble ideas! Radhakrishnan: If a Hindu chants the
Vedas on the banks of the Ganges... if the Japanese worship the image of
Buddha, if the European is convinced of Christ's mediatorship, if the Arab reads
the Koran in the mosque... It is their deepest apprehension of God and God's
fullest revelation to them. A number of revolutionary figures in
modern Hinduism, including Mahatma Gandhi, have been inspired by the life
and teachings of the Buddha and many of his attempted reforms.
Steven Collins sees such Hindu claims regarding Buddhism as part of an effort
- itself a reaction to Christian proselytizing efforts in India - to show
that "all religions are one", and that Hinduism is uniquely valuable because it
alone recognizes this fact. Interpretations
According to Wendy Doniger, the Buddha avatar which occurs in different
versions in various Puranas may represent an attempt by orthodox
Brahminism to slander the Buddhists by identifying them with the demons.
Helmuth von Glasenapp attributed these developments to a Hindu desire to absorb
Buddhism in a peaceful manner, both to win Buddhists to Vaishnavism and also to
account for the fact that such a significant heresy could exist in India.
The times ascribed to one "Buddha" figure are contradictory and some put
him in approximately 500 CE, with a lifetime of 64 years, describe him as
having killed some persons, as following the Vedic religion, and having a father
named Jina, which suggest that this particular figure might be a different
person from Siddhārta Gautama. Opinions and reactions
Kumārila Bhaṭṭa disregarded the connection of Buddha with Hinduism, he
regarded Buddha as the one who "transgressed dharma laid down for
ksatriyas and he took himself to the profession of a religious teacher, one
who 'deceives himself' and acts contrary to the Vedas".
B. R. Ambedkar, denied that Buddha was an incarnation of Vishnu. Among the 22
vows he gave to the Dalit Buddhist movement, the 5th vow is "I do not and
shall not believe that Lord Buddha was the incarnation of Vishnu. I believe
this to be sheer madness and false propaganda."
In 1999, at the Maha Bodhi Society in Sarnath, Jayendra Saraswathi of Kanchi
Kamakoti Peetham and S. N. Goenka, after having a mutual discussion, gave a joint
communiqué agreeing on the following three points.
Due to whatever reason some literature was written in India in the past in
which the Buddha was declared to be a re-incarnation of Vishnu and other
various things were written about him, this was very unpleasant to the
neighbouring countries. In order to foster friendlier ties between Hindus
and Buddhists we decide that whatever has happened in the past should be
forgotten and such belief should not be propagated.
A misconception has spread in the neighbouring countries that the Hindu
society of India is organising such conferences to prove its dominance over
the followers of the Buddha. To forever remove this misconception we declare
that both Vedic and Samana are ancient traditions of India. Any attempt by one
tradition to show it higher than the other will only generate hatred and ill
will between the two. Hence such a thing should not be done in future and both
traditions should be accorded equal respect and esteem.
Any body can attain high position in the society by doing good deeds. One becomes
a low person in society if one does evil deeds. Hence anybody by doing good deeds
and removing the defilement’s such as passion, anger, arrogance, ignorance,
greed, jealousy and ego can attain a high position in society and enjoy peace
and happiness. We agree on all the three things
mentioned above and wish that all the people of India from all the traditions
should have cordial relations and the neighbouring countries should also have
friendly relations with India. See also
Sanghyang Adi Buddha Avatar
Brahman Brahmavihara
Buddhism and Hinduism God in Buddhism
Indian religions Moksha
Yoga References
External links Buddhism, the Fulfilment of Hinduism, by
Swami Vivekananda