God Is Lord Buddha - The Compassionate Incarnation
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that Lord Buddha is an empowered incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He appeared at a crucial time in history with a specific, compassionate mission: to stop the rampant slaughter of animals and trick the atheistic population into worshiping the Supreme Lord.
The Compassionate Mission
The primary reason for Lord Buddha's descent was His boundless compassion for the suffering living entities. Śrīla Prabhupāda describes how the Lord was deeply afflicted by unnecessary animal slaughter and thus appeared to establish ahiṁsā, or nonviolence.
- God became very much compassionate. When people were too much addicted in killing animals unnecessarily, He appeared as Lord Buddha. Sadaya-hrdaya darsita-pasu-ghatam. Pasu-ghatam.
- 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.
- There is no justice when there is animal-killing. Lord Buddha wanted to stop it completely, and therefore his cult of ahimsa was propagated not only in India but also outside the country.
- Killing of animals before the advent of Lord Buddha was the most prominent feature of the society. People claimed that these were Vedic sacrifices.
Rejecting Vedic Authority
To successfully stop the animal slaughter, Lord Buddha had to take a radical step. Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that because unscrupulous men were using Vedic injunctions to justify their sinful killing, Lord Buddha tactically rejected the authority of the Vedas entirely.
- At a certain stage of human civilization when such material activities in the name of religion were too much rampant, the Lord incarnated Himself as Buddha and decried the authority of the Vedas in order to stop animal sacrifice in the name of religion.
- In the Vedas there are recommendations for animal sacrifice, and therefore to prevent the killing of animals, Lord Buddha rejected the Vedas. Such sacrifice is not possible in this age because there is no brahmana qualified to carry it out.
- He (Lord Buddha) rejected (Vedic philosophy) it outwardly because the sura-dvisa, or the demons who are always envious of the devotees of Godhead, try to support cow-killing or animal-killing from the pages of the Vedas.
- Caitanya Mahaprabhu says: veda na maniya bauddha haya ta 'nastika (CC Madhya 6.168). Lord Buddha defied Vedic authority, but His mission was to stop animal killing.
Tricking the Atheist Class
Because the population at the time was largely faithless, preaching directly about God would have been ineffective. Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasizes the transcendental brilliance of Lord Buddha: He preached atheism to gain their following, thereby successfully engaging atheists in the worship of God.
- Atheists do not want any God, and Lord Buddha therefore said that there is no God, but he adopted the means to instruct his followers for their benefit.
- Because the people became atheist, so Lord Buddha, just to take them under his control, he also collaborated and said, "Yes, there is no God, but you hear me." But he is incarnation of God.
- The faithless people were made to believe in God in the form of Lord Buddha. That was the mercy of Lord Buddha: he made the faithless faithful to him.
- Lord Buddha propagated, "Yes, there is no God. But what I say, you follow." "Yes, sir." But he is God. This is cheating. Yes. They do not believe in God, but they believe in Buddha, and Buddha is God.
The Authorized Incarnation
Despite outwardly preaching atheism and rejecting the Vedas, Lord Buddha's divine identity is perfectly established. Śrīla Prabhupāda confirms that pure Vaiṣṇavas reject Buddhist philosophy, but they respectfully worship Lord Buddha as an authorized incarnation foretold in the Vedic literatures.
- Srimad-Bhagavatam was composed just prior to the beginning of the age of Kali (about five thousand years ago), and Lord Buddha appeared about twenty-six hundred years ago. Therefore in the Srimad-Bhagavatam Lord Buddha is foretold.
- In the Srimad-Bhagavatam there is a great list of incarnations, and Buddha, Lord Buddha, is accepted as one of the incarnations who would appear.
- Lord Buddha is mentioned specifically in Srimad-Bhagavatam as incarnation of Godhead, and yet Vaisnavas do not accept his philosophy, which is classified as atheism.
- We reject Buddha as unbona fide, but we accept him as an incarnation of God.
Conclusion
To properly understand the appearance of Lord Buddha, one must appreciate the supreme compassion and flawless strategy of the Absolute Truth. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that Lord Buddha descended simply to halt the degradation of animal slaughter by instituting the philosophy of ahiṁsā. By tactically denying the existence of God and rejecting the Vedas, He mercifully saved the poor animals and tricked the faithless atheists into surrendering to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
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Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category God Is Lord Buddha. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.