The Advent of Buddha
It should be said in balance. Buddha was recognized as a godly reincarnate by many saintly Hindus who incorporated him as the 9th avatar of Vishnu in many Hindu holy books, as Vishnu come to restore Hindu Dharma on earth once again.
Most of the priestly class did try to counter this Hindu prince turned Monk, who struck enlightemment in the forests and was out moving from Village to Village drawing huge Hindu crowds from Pauper to Kings, telling them the deepest knowledge written down in the Upanishads, that most Brahmin priests had forgotten themselves. This knowledge could not be obtained memorizing from books but attained through deep meditation and contemplation, much as the Hindu seers and Rishis who wrote the very books the Brahmins held away from the masses.
Buddhists must remember Buddha never said he was forming a new religion. He just made Karma, Reincarnation and Dharma, which were already established Hindu percepts simple and open to all sections of society.
The brilliance of Buddha bursts forth
Buddha started to preach in Maghada or something close to Pali, a language of the masses and not restricted to a priviledged few to overcome the Sanskrit blanket ban. Suddenly the huge Hindu masses were hearing a God man speak their language, telling them that god was accessible to them as well, and you did not need money to perform costly rituals to be free from rebirth and to burn your sins.
Buddha turned the complete attempt to reach god completely inward with no need of outward focus on rituals and practices. It was all now in your mind and the way you controlled it. Exactly as per the Upanishad texts had stated and were hidden away.
Buddha perhaps realized that as long as you held a god outside of you, you were a prime candidate for exploitation. Sooner or later someone would land up on your front door claiming to be 'a holy man' able to interpret gods words or desire for you.
This was the principle and fundamental weakness of every religion that held a god outside of man. Who the man could turn to in troubled times and appeal to for clemency and favors. The 'holy men' would find an opportunity to intercede and plead on your behalf for some worldly considerations, in case you felt that god was not listening to you directly.
Buddha realized that by holding a merciful god outside of you, it was psychologically easier for you to abdicate responsibility for your actions at this given moment, and make up for it later by begging for mercy or by appealing to the priests, who were promising relief with some ceremonies (ahem ahem costing x amount of money, God could be made to look the other way for some minor sins because of their special relationship with God, which by the way, you don't have because you cant hear him).
Buddha realized that if he threw you into the turbulent rivers of samsara and he stood by the bank, you would abandon swimming and start screaming at him for help. Chances were if you realized there was no one on the bank of the river to save you, you would start swimming hard to save yourself, and maybe perhaps......... you may not need God after all! Much the same way you teach your children to become independent on tasks one by one, and finally to not depend on you. But you would be around anyways when you sensed they really needed you.
Buddha realized that every human has to be given the hope and responsilibity that only he/she has power for salvation of their own souls, in their OWN hands, and can't abdicate responsibility to someone else.
But Buddha was a great executor too. He put the onus on you, away from others hands, but also gave perhaps the most comprehensive set of step by step manuals for you to do it yourself, with minimal external help.
I have always wondered, even with that much logic, who would have the power to say such a powerful statement as, "There is no God". Then I realized perhaps ...........its God himself who would have the courage to say something like this.
Who else apart from God himself can say.............There is no God!.................that is why I say Buddha had a gentle but effective Humor.
Is this why so many realized Hindu seers proclaimed that Buddha was Vishnu himself come down to earthto save Dharma, by making people the owners of their own destiny, and removing the ultimate source of exploitation of a human by proclaiming�a god lives outside, and thereby inviting 'agents' to broker deals between god and him?
Put this way, it sounds so incredible that we humans believed for centuries that god cannot speak to us, and that we need an interpreter?!!?!!?
Predictably, the priestly class branded Buddha as a man starting a new religion and reclassified him and his followers. Poor pesants who toiled on temple lands for livelyhood Held on to the priest, after all Buddha was just passing through their village.The priest lived there.
The priest never said Buddha was reinterpreting the universal truth. Here was a man with a new religion. Keep away. Stick to the known devil. Have we not heard that saying before?
The question I keep asking myself is if Buddha was the 9th avatar of the Hindu God� Vishnu, why are not all Hindus Buddhists? if in reality such a term exists. In a very strange way, we announced our god and turned our back on him, after all, if we have a bit of money, we can go down to the local temple, and ask the priest to fix the problem. Its easier than suffering years and years in meditation right? As have thousands of hindu Seers and Buddha himself. We can always plead on God to forgive us in case he really was Buddha, God is merciful we have been told.So perhaps if we really cry loudly and beg hard, maybe we may just escape our Karmas after having had fun on this Karma Bhumi.
Shall end with an interesting story. I cannot verify its authenticity, but it has the brilliance of Buddha written all over it. The source is Osho books.
Buddha entered a village. A man asked him as he was entering the village, "Does God exist?" He said, "No, absolutely no."
In the afternoon another man came and he asked, "Does God exist?" And he said, "Yes, absolutely yes."
In the evening a third man came and he asked, "Does God exist?" Buddha closed his eyes and remained utterly silent. The man also closed his eyes. Something transpired in that silence. After a few minutes the man touched Buddha's feet, bowed down, paid his respects and said, "You are the first man who has answered my question."
Now, Buddha's attendant, Ananda, was very much puzzled: "In the morning he said no, in the afternoon he said yes, in the evening he did not answer at all. What is the matter? What is really the truth?"
So when Buddha was going to sleep, Ananda said, "First you answer me; otherwise I will not be able to sleep. You have to be a little more compassionate towards me too. I have been with you the whole day. Those three people don't know about the other answers, but I have heard all the three answers. What about me? I am troubled."
Buddha said, "I was not talking to you at all! You had not asked, I had not answered YOU. The first man who came was a theist, the second man who came was an atheist, the third man who came was an agnostic. My answer had nothing to do with God, my answer had something to do with the questioner. I was answering the questioner; it was absolutely unconcerned with God.
"The person who believes in God, I will say no to him because I want him to drop his idea of God, I want him to be free of his idea of God -- which is borrowed. He has not experienced. If he had experienced he would not have asked me; there would have been no need.
"The person who believed in God, he was trying to find confirmation for his belief from me. I was not going to say yes to him -- I am not going to confirm anybody's belief. I had to say no, I had to deny, just to destroy his belief, because all beliefs are barriers to knowing the truth.
"And the person with whom I remained silent was the right inquirer. He had no belief, hence there was no question of destroying anything. I kept silent. That was my message to him: Be silent and know. Don't ask, there is no need to ask. It is not a question which can be answered. It is not an inquiry but a quest, a thirst. Be silent and know.
I had answered him also; through my silence I gave him the message and he immediately followed it - he also became silent. I closed my eyes, he closed his eyes; I looked in, he looked in, and then something transpired. That's why he was so much overwhelmed, he felt so much gratitude, for the simple reason that I did not give him any intellectual answer. He had not come for any intellectual answer; intellectual answers are available very cheap. He needed something existential - he needed a taste. I gave him a taste."
My Hindu Guru once said, The master can never give you a direct answer. If he does he is no more a master. Once knowledge is given to you by someone your own realization about it is blocked. The knowledge you have now, is someone elses planted in your mind. The role of the guru is to guide you to it as fast as possible, avoiding all pitfalls where you could loop around for a long time wasting time. The perfect Guru brings you to the door fast without wasting time. But once you are at the door, it is you who has to open it and walk through. That final step has to be your own realization, a direct experience is the only experience where complete knowledge is attained.
About Author - In search of the ultimate truth beyond concepts and notions, in that silence, after 20 years in soulless corporate board rooms.
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