The form of the Supreme Lord which is beyond the modes of material nature is not like the forms of this material world. His form is fully spiritual and cannot be compared with any material form. According to Vedic literatures, one who does not accept the spiritual form of the Supreme Lord is an atheist. Because Lord Buddha did not accept these Vedic principles, the Vedic teachers consider him to be an atheist. Although Māyāvādī philosophers pretend to accept the Vedic principles, they indirectly preach Buddhist philosophy, or atheistic philosophy, and do not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Māyāvādī philosophy is inferior to Buddhist philosophy, which directly denies Vedic authority. Because it is disguised as Vedānta philosophy, Māyāvādī philosophy is more dangerous than Buddhism or atheism.
Lord Buddha did not...
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 4
When the spiritual spark, which is described as one ten-thousandth part of the tip of a hair, is forced into material existence, that spark is covered by gross and subtle material elements. The material body is composed of five gross elements—earth, water, fire, air and ether—and three subtle elements—mind, intelligence and ego. When one attains liberation, he is freed from these material coverings. Indeed, success in yoga involves getting free from these material coverings and entering into spiritual existence. Lord Buddha's teachings of nirvāṇa are based on this principle. Lord Buddha instructed his followers to give up these material coverings by means of meditation and yoga. Lord Buddha did not give any information about the soul, but if one follows his instructions strictly, he will ultimately become free from the material coverings and attain nirvāṇa.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Madhya-lila
Although the Buddhists are directly opposed to Vaiṣṇava philosophy, it can easily be understood that the Śaṅkarites are more dangerous because they accept the authority of the Vedas yet act contrary to Vedic instruction. Vedāśraya nāstikya-vāda means "agnosticism under the shelter of Vedic culture" and refers to the monistic philosophy of the Māyāvādīs. Lord Buddha abandoned the authority of the Vedic literature and therefore rejected the ritualistic ceremonies and sacrifices recommended in the Vedas. His nirvāṇa philosophy means stopping all material activities. Lord Buddha did not recognize the presence of transcendental forms and spiritual activities beyond the material world. He simply described voidism beyond this material existence. The Māyāvādī philosophers offer lip service to Vedic authority but try to escape the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies. They concoct some idea of a transcendental position and call themselves Nārāyaṇa, or God. However, God's position is completely different from their concoction. Such Māyāvādī philosophers consider themselves above the influence of karma-kāṇḍa (fruitive activities and their reactions). For them, the spiritual world is equated with the Buddhist voidism. There is very little difference between impersonalism and voidism. Voidism can be directly understood, but the impersonalism enunciated by Māyāvādī philosophers is not very easily understandable. Of course, Māyāvādī philosophers accept a spiritual existence, but they do not know about the spiritual world and spiritual beings.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Teachings of Lord Caitanya
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Vinā paśughnāt (SB 10.1.4). Nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānāt. You'll find those who are animal killers, the so-called Christians and Mohammedans, they cannot understand. They (are) simply fanatics. Cannot understand what is soul, what is God. They have got some theories and they are thinking we are religionists. What is sin, what is pious activities, these things are not understood by them because they are animal killers. It is not possible. Therefore Lord Buddha propagated ahiṁsā. Ahiṁsā. Because he saw the whole human race is going to hell by this animal killing. "Let me stop them so that they may, in future, they may become sober." Sadaya-hṛdaya darśita: Two sides. First of all he was very much compassionate, that poor animals, they are being killed. And another side, he saw "The whole human race is going to hell. So let me do something." Therefore he had to deny the existence of the soul because their brain will not tolerate such things. Therefore he did not say anything about the soul or God. He said that "You stop animal killing." If I pinch you, you feel pain. So why should you give pain to others? Never mind he has no soul; that's all right. He did not talk anything about soul. So these people say the animals have no soul. But that's all right, but he's feeling pain when you are killing the animal. So you also feel pain. So why should you give pain to others? That is Lord Buddha's theory. Sadaya-hṛdaya darśita-paśu-ghātam. Nindasi yajña-vidher ahaha śruti-jātam. He denied that: "I don't accept Vedas." Because in the Vedas there is sometimes recommendation, not for killing, but for giving rejuvenation to an animal. But killing, in that sense, is there for sacrifice. But Lord Buddha did not accept even animal killing in sacrifice. Therefore, nindasi. Nindasi means he was criticizing. Nindasi yajña-vidher ahaha śruti-jātaṁ sadaya-hṛdaya darśita. Why? He was so kind and compassionate. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. God is very kind, very compassionate. He does not like. But when there is necessity, He can kill. But His killing and our killing is different. He's all good. Anyone killed by Kṛṣṇa, he immediately gets salvation. So these thing are there.
Lord Buddha's teachings is... That is also detachment from matter, nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa. But he does not speak anything about the spirit soul. Because the position in which he was speaking, that position, for the human, humanity, was not suitable for understanding what is the constitution of spirit, therefore he did not say anything about spirit. He simply preached nonviolence. So far our body is concerned, he stressed on the point that we should be nonviolent. We should not be killing animals anymore. That was his preaching. Similarly, Śaṅkara... A little more than Buddha. He said, "No, no. Matter is not all. The spirit is real thing. Matter is false." Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā. Now, he did not say about the activities of spiritual life. He simply gave hint that there, that matter is false. Matter is generated by spirit. Spirit is the real, principle thing. Just like Buddha did not say anything about spirit. He simply wanted that detachment of, from matter. But detachment from matter... Then where is my stand? Where is my stand? If I leave this room, I must have another room to stay. So that is the position of Buddha. He did not say about the spirit. But Śaṅkara, Śaṅkara said, "No, matter is our false position. Spirit is real position." But he did not say anything, what are the activities of the spiritual life. Then Śrī Rāmānujācārya came. He described the actual position of spiritual life. These are gradual development. Your, I mean to say, Lord Jesus, also, Lord Jesus Christ, he also gave hints of spiritual life, kingdom of God. So when we speak of kingdom of God, a kingdom, vacant, cannot be. Kingdom means there must be activities. Otherwise, what is the meaning of kingdom? So, of course, he did not give any detailed account of the kingdom of God, but he gave hint.
But Lord Buddha, although we accept him as the incarnation of God and he was born in India and he propagated his philosophy from India, but because he denied to accept the Vedic principle, therefore he is known as atheist, because he, Buddha, did not accept the Vedic principles. He denied. And there was reason why he did not. That is a secret thing. That secret—because his whole philosophy was to stop animal killing, animal killing. Now, in the Vedic scripture, you will find, animal sacrifice is recommended. So he wanted to preach, "Stop animal killing." Now, if there is evidence from the Vedas that animal can be killed under certain circumstances, then his whole preaching becomes topsy-turvied. So he was obliged to deny the authority of the Vedas. And because he did not accept the authority of the Vedas, the Vedantists and the followers of Vedas, they called the Buddhist philosophy as atheism. This is the explanation.
Now, this sacrifice of animals was protested by Lord Buddha. He deviated from the Hindu religion. Lord Buddha was born in Hindu family. He was kṣatriya. He was a king's son. But he wanted to preach nonviolence. He wanted to preach completely, to stop completely animal killing. But because in the Vedic... Of course, I have already explained that sacrifice of animals, as stated in the Vedas, they are not for killing. They are meant for giving a new life to the animal. By Vedic mantra... The Vedic mantra are so powerful that that was a test how a dead animal can get, regain new body. An old animal is sacrificed and it gets a new youthful life. That was the test. It was not meant for killing. Don't misunderstand that sacrifice. But that is mentioned in the Vedas. So people misused that sacrifice means... That sacrifice... They wanted to give evidence from Vedas, "So here is... Animal sacrifice is mentioned in the Vedas. Why we shall stop?" So Lord Buddha started his movement, completely stopping this animal sacrifice. But he knew that "These foolish men will come and give me evidence that 'Here in the Vedas animal sacrifice is recommended. Why you are preaching? Why you are preaching stoppage of animal killing?' " Therefore he completely rejected Vedas. He said that "I don't accept Vedas."
- That is stated in a very nice verse about Lord Buddha by a Vaiṣṇava poet.
- nindasi yajña-vidher ahaha śruti-jātaṁ
- sadaya-hṛdaya darśita-paśu-ghātam
- keśava dhṛta-buddha-śarīra jaya jagadīśa hare
It is very nicely composed. The idea is that the poet is praying Lord Buddha. And Lord Buddha is also mentioned in Bhāgavatam as incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. So he is praying Lord Buddha, "My dear Lord, you have assumed now the buddha-śarīra, body, just to, by taking compassion on the poor animals, and therefore you are also deprecating the animal sacrifices recommended in the Vedas."
So because Lord Buddha did not accept... He had to do that because his mission was to stop animal sacrifice and animal killing. "Now if these foolish persons, without knowing the Vedic purpose, if they present, 'Oh, here it is recommended in the Vedas,' then there will be disturbance." So he had to discard, he had to go out of the Vedic rules and regulation, and he preached his own philosophy.
Even Lord Buddha, He, because he did not accept the authority of Vedas, therefore in India he was rejected. Although Lord Buddha appeared in India, for some time many people became followers of Buddhist religion, but later on it disappeared from India. It went outside. What was the reason? Because Lord Buddha did not accept the authority of the Vedas. So although Lord Buddha is accepted as incarnation of God... We Vaiṣṇava, we worship Lord Buddha, keśava dhṛta-buddha-śarīra jaya jagadīśa hare. Nindasi yajña-vidher ahaha śruti-jātam.
Śruti-jātam. The statement in the Vedas, that is called śruti-jātam. Nindasi. Because his mission was to establish animal, to stop animal killing. Sadaya-hṛdaya darśita-paśu-ghātam. Therefore he had to reject the Vedic principles because in the Vedic principle, in the sacrifice, there is recommendation sometimes, not always, about sacrifice of the animal. But his aim was, mission was, to stop animal killing. Therefore for the time being he rejected the Vedic authority, because people will take advantage that "In the Vedas there is recommendation for sacrificing animals." So just to stop, to take this advantage, he said that "I do not accept the authority of Vedas." Therefore he was accepted as atheist. Veda nā māniyā bauddha haya ta' nāstika. That's a big story.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
So accept or no accept, His work, His activities, His characterize, characteristics will be known because God will be known. Just like Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha is accepted as incarnation in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And during the time of Emperor Aśoka, he was patronized, Lord Buddha was patronized, not Buddha, or Buddhism was patronized by Aśoka. So practically the whole of Far East, including India, all over, the Buddhism was broadcast and everyone become Buddhist. Whole of India, practically, became Buddhist during his time. But later on, after Śaṅkarācārya's drive against Buddhism, Buddha-ism... Śaṅkarācārya wanted to establish the difference of Buddhism and Hinduism is that Buddhism, Lord Buddha did not accept Vedic authority. He did not accept Vedic authority. But according to Hindu culture, if somebody does not accept the Vedic authority, then he's not a authority. Vedānta philosophy, there are different parties in India. The Māyā... Generally, two parties: the Māyāvāda philosophers and the Vaiṣṇava philosophers, or the impersonalists and the personalists. Otherwise, there is no difference. Ultimately, the Māyāvādī philosophers they say that God, the Supreme Absolute Truth, is impersonal, and the Vaiṣṇava philosophers, they say in the ultimate end, the Absolute Truth is Person and He is, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam (SB 1.3.28). This is little difference, and they stick to their position and they fight. Fight means by philosophical arguments. That is going on since a very long time. But both of them belong to the sanātana Hindu dharma because both of them will talk on the Vedānta philosophy. They'll simply, they can give different interpretation, but they cannot say that "We don't accept Vedānta." Oh, that will..., then it is at once rejected.
Festival Lectures
So Buddha philosophy simply takes account of this gross body. They do not take account of the mind, because as soon as they go to the platform of mind, then immediately the question will be "Whose mind? Whose intelligence?" Then you have to come to the spirit soul. But the people for whom this Buddha philosophy was preached, they were not very intelligent class of men. Therefore Lord Buddha did not give them the information of the subtle body or the soul. They were unable. Why they were unable? They were gross materialists. The gross materialists, they are animal-killers, gross materialists. That, these animal-killers, according to Bhāgavata also, they cannot understand finer things. Those who are animal-killers and animal-eaters, they cannot understand finer philosophical matter. Their brain is gross. Therefore they are much inclined to mechanical way of life. Machine. Machine is gross. You see? We therefore forbid our students, not to be meat-eaters, because by refraining yourself from meat-eating, you will have, you will develop finer... Not only refraining from meat-eating. That is one of the conditions. There are other conditions also. But this is one of the condition. Parīkṣit Mahārāja said, "This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is understandable by liberated class of men." Liberated class means above the brāhmaṇas. "But those who are killer of the animals..." The killer of the animals are two kinds: one, gross killer, killing cows, goats, chickens, so many, gross killer... Another killer is soul-killer. Soul-killer means those who do not take any care for the soul. They are taking care of this gross body.
Initiation Lectures
Āstikyam means to believe firmly in the scriptures. Just like Bhagavad-gītā we are studying, or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. We should firmly believe what Kṛṣṇa says, not interpretation. This is called āstikyam. And nāstikyam means not firm belief, atheism. Just like Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha simply said that "I don't believe in the Vedas." Therefore he is immediately calculated as atheist, nāstikyam. Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, veda nā māniyā bauddha haila nāstika: "The followers of Buddha, they did not accept Vedic, I mean to say, direction; therefore they are nāstika." What is that Vedic direction? In the Dāsavatāra-stotra by Jayadeva Gosvāmī, he says, nindasi yajña-vidher ahaha śruti-jātam. In the śruti, in the Vedas, there is prescription of sacrifice, and in some of the sacrifice there is recommendation for sacrifice of some animals, goats. So that is... But Lord Buddha says, "No. I want to introduce nonviolence, no animal killing. So even there is Veda, prescription, I don't accept Vedas." Therefore he became nāstika. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that veda nā māniyā bauddha haila nāstika: "Because Lord Buddha did not accept the authority of the Veda, therefore he was considered nāstika, atheist." He was Indian. He was Hindu. His forefathers were kṣatriyas, Vedic. He revolted. So therefore he was called nāstika. But a brāhmaṇa should not be nāstika; he should be āstik. Āstikyam: "He must believe in the scriptural injunction." These are brahminical qualifications.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: ...dehaṁ punar janma naiti. Such person, those who are fully absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, such person, after giving up this body, does not accept any more material body. He goes back to Kṛṣṇa. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). "He comes to Me." So you cannot go to Kṛṣṇa unless you have your spiritual body. Because the spiritual world and Kṛṣṇa, they are all spiritual. So you cannot enter into fire unless you are fire. So you have to revive your spiritual body, spiritual consciousness. Then, after giving up this body, you enter the spiritual world. So Lord Buddha did not speak anything about the spiritual world, but his philosophy said that "Dismantle this material existence." Nirvāṇa. Nobody has preached that "You become happy here," either Lord Buddha or Lord Christ or Kṛṣṇa or anybody, Śaṅkara. Nobody. But modern materialistic people, they are thinking that "We can become happy by adjustment of our material condition." That is not possible.
Buddhist Monk (1): They want to have the cake and eat it.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Buddhist Monk (1): They want to have the cake and eat it. They want to have two paradises, one here and one there also.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Buddhist Monk (1): And they want to bite.
Prabhupāda: No, they have no idea any other paradise than this paradise. They have no idea.
| Page Title: | Lord Buddha did not... |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika |
| Created: | 16 of Dec, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=1, CC=1, OB=1, Lec=8, Con=1, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 12 |