9. The Buddha Avatāra

Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic, by W.J. Wilkins, [1900], at sacred-texts.com

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9. THE BUDDHA AVATĀRA.

This incarnation of Vishnu is "originally foreign to the cycle of the Avatāras of Vishnu, and therefore is only briefly alluded to in some of Purānas. Where this is done, the intention must have been to effect a compromise between Brāhmanism and Buddhism, by trying to represent the latter religion as not irreconcilably

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BUDDHA.

antagonistic to the former." ^* Colonel Kennedy, ^† on the other hand, argues that the Buddha of the Purānas and Buddha the founder of the Buddhist system of religion have nothing in common but the name, and that the attempted identification of these two is simply

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the work of European scholars, who have not been sufficiently careful to collect information, and to weigh the evidence they have had before them. There can be

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BUDDHIST TEMPLE AND DAGOBA AT KELANIYA, CEYLON.

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little doubt that Colonel Kennedy's view is untenable. Seeing the bitter antagonism that existed between the advocates of the rival systems, it need occasion no surprise that full accounts of Buddha are not to be found in Brāhmanical books, nor that the meagre accounts that are there should try to represent him as a despicable character. The Brāhmanical writers were far too shrewd to admit that one who exerted such immense influence, and won so many disciples, could be other than an incarnation of deity; but as his teaching was opposed to their own they cleverly say that it was to mislead the enemies of the gods that he promulgated his doctrine, that they, becoming weak and wicked through error, might be led once again to seek the help and blessing of those whom they had previously neglected.

The Purānic account of Buddha will be given, supplemented by further particulars of his life and work from Buddhist writings.

In the "Bhāgavata Purāna" ^* are only four short passages respecting him. "At the commencement of the Kāli-yuga will Vishnu become incarnate in Kikata, under the name of Buddha, the son of Jina, for the purpose of deluding the enemies of the gods." "The Undiscernible Being, having assumed a mortal form, preached heretical doctrines in the three cities founded by Māya (and in Kāsi), for the purpose of destroying, by deluding them, the enemies of the gods, steadfast in the religion prescribed by the Vedas." "Praise to the pure Buddha, the deluder of the Daityas and the Dānavas." "By his words, as Buddha, Vishnu deludes the heretics."

In the Skanda, ^† the legend, of which the Bhāgavata gives but the merest outline, is more fully given. There was a dire famine in the earth, owing to the failure of

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rains for six successive years. On this account Brahmā in great distress visited a prince named Ripanjaya, and told him that if he would become king, the gods would serve him, and his name should be changed to Divodāsa. On asking why he was chosen before all others, Brahmā tells him, "All other kings are wicked, and the gods will not shower rain upon the earth unless you accept the government. Divodāsa accedes to Brahmā's request on condition that that deity would assist him and that all the other gods would forsake the earth, so that he might reign without a rival, and be the only one who could confer happiness on men. Brahmā, in fulfilling this condition, with some difficulty persuaded Siva to forsake Kāsi (Benares), his favourite dwelling-place.

Divodāsa fixed his throne at Kāsi, where for 8000 years he ruled with the greatest benefit to men. The gods becoming jealous of his power went to Vrihaspati, their preceptor, and, whilst they spoke well of the effects of the king's government, complained that he, and not the gods, was benefited by it. Siva especially was annoyed at his enforced absence from Kāsi; for although he sent several times to make inquiries about its inhabitants, his messengers were too happy on earth to return to their lord in heaven. Vishnu, accompanied by Lakshmi and Garuda, at Siva's request, "then proceeded to Kāsi, a little to the north of which he formed by his divine power a pleasant abode named Dharmakshetra, and there, attended by his lovely spouse, did he reside under the form of Buddha, while Lakshmi became a female recluse of that sect. Garuda also appeared under the name of Panyakirti, as a pupil with a book in his hand, and attentively listening to the delusive instructions of his preceptor (Buddha), who with a low,

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sweet, and affectionate voice taught him various branches of natural and supernatural religion."

Vishnu, as Buddha, taught that "the universe was without a creator; it is false therefore to assert that there is one universal and Supreme Spirit, for Brahmā, Vishnu, Rudra, and the rest are names of mere corporeal beings like ourselves. Death is a peaceful sleep: why fear it?" He further taught that "we should guard as our own life the life of another; that pleasure is the only heaven, and pain the only hell, and liberation from ignorance the sole beatitude. Sacrifices are acts of folly." Through the exertions of Panyakirti, these doctrines soon spread through the city; whilst Lakshmi deluded the women by teaching them to "place all happiness in sensual pleasures; as the body must decay, let us, before it becomes dust, enjoy the pleasures which it gives. The distinction of castes has been vainly imagined." As Lakshmi gave numerous boons to her disciples, her influence was great, and her teaching spread widely.

As a result of the dissemination of these doctrines in the city, Divodāsa became dispirited. Vishnu in the form of a Brāhman appeared to him, and hears an account of his troubles, and is delighted as he expresses a wish to resign his crown, The king mentions a number of cases in which virtuous men have had to suffer, owing to the power of the gods, and inquires how he can obtain final beatitude. Vishnu informs him that he has acted unwisely in compelling Siva to forsake Kāsi, and advises him to consecrate an image of that god, by worshipping which he will obtain the fulfilment of his desires. Divodāsa follows this counsel, inaugurates his son as king, and as he is worshipping the Linga he had set up, Siva appears and conducts him to Kailasa (Siva's heaven). It is the common belief of the people

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in the west of India, that when Vishnu had effected the apostasy of Divodāsa, he was prevailed upon to terminate the propagation of his heretical opinions, and disappeared in a deep well at Gya.

The following legend from the "Siva Purāna" ^* gives another reason for the rise of Buddhism. A famous Rishi named Gautama, with his virtuous wife named Ahalyā, performed during a thousand years a severe tapas (penance) in the southern country near the mountain Brahmādri. During this time there was a severe drought, to remove which, Gautama worshipped Varuna for six months with great fervour, when the deity promised to grant any boon that should be asked. Gautama asked for rain, but Varuna said, "How can I transgress the divine command? Ask some boon which it is in my power to grant." Gautama then desired Varuna to cause a surpassingly beautiful hermitage to appear, shaded from the sun by fragrant and fruit-bearing trees, where holy men and women by meditation shall be liberated from pain, sorrow, and anxiety; "and as thou art lord of water, let it enjoy a perennial fountain." Varuna granted this request, and the hermitage of Gautama became "the loveliest on the terrestrial orb."

One day as the disciples of Gautama went to the fountain, some Brāhman women tried to prevent them drawing water until they had filled their own pots. Ahalyā going herself was subjected daily to the same annoyance: the Brāhman women would not allow her to draw water before they had themselves obtained all they required. These women, not satisfied with annoying the ascetics, complained to their husbands of the unkind treatment they alleged they had received from Ahalyā.

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[paragraph continues] Their husbands resorted to Ganesa for advice, who being pleased with their devotion promised a boon; they asked that Gautama might be made to leave his hermitage without their incurring the sin of driving him away. To this Ganesa reluctantly consented; and in order to effect this object he transformed himself into a poor debilitated cow, and walked into a field of rice where Gautama was standing, and began to eat the grain. The sage, knowing nothing of this disguise, took up a straw and tried to drive the cow away; no sooner did he touch it than it fell down dead. Having incurred the enormous guilt of killing a cow, the poor man had to leave the neighbourhood.

Gautama and his wife removed to a distance; but until he had expiated his sin they could not perform acceptable worship. Gautama seeks the Brāhmans, and asking how he can be free from his crime, is told to walk round the mountain of Brahmā a hundred times; bathe in the Ganges, and consecrate and worship ten million images of Siva. As he is propitiating him, Siva, delighted with the man's earnestness, appears, informs him of the trick by which Ganesa had driven him from the hermitage, and brings the Ganges so near that he can bathe in it easily. Tradition says that Gautama was so disgusted with the conduct of the Brāhmans that he separated himself from their communion, and established a new system of religion, which for a time eclipsed Brahmanism.

The following extracts, giving an account of Buddha, are from the "Lalita-Vistara," ^* a Buddhist work from which M. Barthélemy St. Hilaire has taken the materials for his work, "La Boudda et sa Religion."

"Buddha, or more correctly The Buddha—for Buddha

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is an appellative, meaning enlightened—was born at Kapilavastu, the capital of a kingdom of that name, situated at the foot of the mountains of Nepal, north of the present Oude. His father, the King of Kapilavastu, was of the family of the Sākyas, and belonged to the clan of the Gautamas. His mother was Māyādevi, daughter of King Suprabuddha, and need we say that she was beautiful, as he was powerful and just? Buddha

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BUDDHA.

was therefore by birth of the Kshattriya, or warrior caste, and he took the name of Sākya from his family, and that of Gautama from his clan, claiming a kind of spiritual relationship with the honoured race of Gautamas. The name of Buddha, or The Buddha, dates from a latter period of his life, and so probably does Siddhārtha (he whose objects have been accomplished), though we are told that it was given him in his childhood.

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[paragraph continues] His mother died seven days after his birth, and the father confided the child to the care of his deceased wife's sister, who, however, had been his wife even before the mother's death. The child grew up a most beautiful and most accomplished boy, who soon knew more than his masters could teach him. He refused to take part in the games of his playmates, and never felt so happy as when he could sit alone, lost in meditation in the deep shadows of the forest. It was there that his father found him when he had thought him lost; and, in order to prevent the young prince from becoming a dreamer, the king determined to marry him at once. When the subject was mentioned by the aged ministers to the future heir to the throne, he demanded seven days for reflection, and, convinced at last that not even marriage could disturb the calm of his mind, he allowed the ministers to look out for a princess. The princess selected was the beautiful Gopā, the daughter of Dandapani. Though her father objected at first to her marrying a young prince who was represented to him as deficient in manliness and intellect, he gladly gave his consent when he saw the royal suitor distancing all his rivals in feats of arms and power of mind. Their marriage proved one of the happiest, but the prince remained, as he had been before, absorbed in meditations on the problems of life and death. 'Nothing is stable on earth,' he used to say; 'nothing is real. Like is like the spark produced by the friction of wood. It is lighted and is extinguished—we know not whence it came, or whither it goes. It is like the sound of a lyre, and the wise man asks in vain from whence it came and whither it goes. There must be some supreme intelligence where we can find rest. If I attained it I could bring light to man; if I were free myself, I could deliver

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the world.' The king, who perceived the melancholy mood of the young prince, tried everything to divert him from his speculations; but all was in vain. Three of the most ordinary events that could happen to any man proved of the utmost importance in the career of Buddha.

"One day, when the prince with a large retinue was driving through the Eastern gate of the city on the way to one of his parks, he met on the road an old man, broken and decrepit. One could see the veins and muscles over the whole of his body; his teeth chattered, he was covered with wrinkles, bald, and hardly able to utter hollow and unmelodious sounds. He was bent on his stick, and all his limbs and joints trembled. 'Who is this man?' said the prince to his coachman. 'He is small and weak, his flesh and his blood are dried up, his muscles stick to his skin, his teeth chatter, his body is wasted away; leaning on his stick, he is hardly able to walk, stumbling at every step. Is there something peculiar in his family, or is this the common lot of all created beings?'

"'Sir,' replied the coachman, 'that man is sinking under old age, his senses have become obscure, suffering has destroyed his strength, and he is despised by his relations. He is without support and useless, and people have abandoned him, like a dead tree in a forest. But this is not peculiar to his family. In every creature youth is defeated by old age. Your father, your mother, all your relations, all your friends, will come to the same state: this is the appointed end of all creatures.'

"'Alas!' replied the prince, 'are creatures so ignorant, so weak and foolish, as to be proud of the youth by which they are intoxicated, not seeing the old age which awaits them? As for me, I go away. Coachman, turn

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my chariot quickly. What am I, the future prey of old age—what have I to do with pleasure? ' and the young prince returned to the city without going to the park.

"Another time the prince was driving through the Southern gate to his pleasure-garden, when he perceived in the road a man suffering from illness, parched with fever, his body wasted, covered with mud, without a friend, without a home, hardly able to breathe, and frightened at the sight of himself and the approach of death. Having questioned his coachman, and received from him the answer which he expected, the young prince said: 'Alas! health is but the sport of a dream, and the fear of suffering must take this frightful form. Where is the wise man, who, after having seen what he is, could any longer think of joy and pleasure?' The prince turned his chariot, and returned to the city.

"A third time he was driving to his pleasure-garden through the Western gate, when he saw a dead body on the road, lying on a bier and covered with a cloth. The friends stood about crying, sobbing, tearing their hair, covering their heads with dust, striking their breasts, and uttering wild cries. The prince, again calling his coachman to witness this painful scene, exclaimed: 'Oh, woe to youth, which must be destroyed by old age! Woe to health, which must be destroyed by so many diseases! Woe to this life, where a man must remain for so short a time!' Then, betraying for the first time his intentions, the young prince said, 'Let us turn back; I must think how to accomplish deliverance.'

"A last meeting put an end to his meditation. He was driving through the Northern gate on the way to his pleasure-gardens, when he saw a mendicant who appeared outwardly calm, subdued, looking downwards,

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wearing with an air of dignity his religious vestment and carrying an alms-bowl.

"'Who is this man? ' asked the prince.

"'Sir,' replied the coachman, 'this man is one of those who are called bhikshus or mendicants. He has renounced all pleasures, all desires, and leads a life of austerity. He tries to conquer himself. He has become a devotee. Without passion, without envy, he walks about asking for alms.'

"'This is good and well said,' replied the prince. The life of a devotee has always been praised by the wise. It will be my refuge, and the refuge of all other creatures. It will lead us to a real life, to happiness and immortality.' With these words, the young prince turned his chariot and returned to the city.

"After having declared to his father and his wife his intention of retiring from the world, Buddha left his palace one night when all the guards that were to have watched him were asleep. After travelling the whole night, he gave his horse and his ornaments to his groom, and sent him back to Kapilavastu. 'A monument,' remarks the author of the 'Lalita-Vistara,' 'is still to be seen on the spot where the coachman turned back.' Hiouen Thsang saw the same monument at the edge of a large forest; on his road to Kusinagara, a city now in ruins, and situated about fifty miles E.S.E. from Gorakpore.

"Buddha first went to Vaisali, and became the pupil of a famous Brāhman, who had gathered round him 300 disciples. Having learnt all that the Brāhman could teach him, Buddha went away disappointed. He had not found the road to salvation. He then tried another Brāhman at Rājagriha, the capital of Magadha or Behar, who had 700 disciples, and there, too, he looked in vain

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for the means of deliverance. He left him, followed by five of his fellow-students, and for six years retired into solitude, near a village named Uruvilva, subjecting himself to the most severe penances, previous to his appearing in the world as a teacher. At the end of this period, however, he arrived at the conviction that asceticism, far from giving peace of mind and preparing the way to salvation, was a snare and a stumbling-block in the way of truth. He gave up his exercises, and was at once deserted as an apostate by his five disciples. Left to himself, he now began to elaborate his own system. He had learned that neither the doctrines nor the austerities of the Brāhmans were of any avail for accomplishing the deliverance of man, and for freeing him from the fear of old age, disease, and death. After long meditations and ecstatic visions, he at last imagined that he had arrived at that true knowledge which discloses the cause, and thereby destroys the fear, of all the changes inherent in life. It was from the moment when he arrived at this knowledge that he claimed the name of Buddha the enlightened. Buddha hesitated for a time whether he should keep his knowledge to himself or communicate it to the world. Compassion for the sufferings of man prevailed, and the young prince became the founder of a religion which, after more than 2000 years, is still professed by 455,000,000 of human beings.

"The further history of the new teacher is very simple. He proceeded to Benares, which at all times has been the principal seat of learning in India, and the first converts he made were the five fellow-students who had left him when he threw off the yoke of the Brāhmanical observances. Many others followed, but as the Lalita-Vistara ' breaks off at Buddha's arrival at Benares, we have no further consecutive account of the

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rapid progress of his doctrine. From what we can gather from scattered notices in the Buddhist canon, he was invited by the King of Magadha, Bimbisāra, to his capital, Rājagriha. Many of his lectures are represented as having been delivered at the monastery of Kalavataka, with which the king or some rich merchant had presented him; others on the Vulture Peak, one of the five hills which surround the ancient capital.

"Three of his most famous disciples—Sariputra, Kātyāyana, and Maudgalyāyana joined him during his stay in Magadha, where he enjoyed for many years the friendship of the king. The king was afterwards assassinated by his son Ajātāsatru, and then we hear of Buddha as settled for a time at Srāvasti, north of the Ganges. Most of Buddha's lectures were delivered at Srāvasti, the capital of Kosala, and the King of Kosala himself, Prāsenagit, became a convert to his doctrine. After an absence of twelve years, we are told that Buddha visited his father at Kapilavastu, on which occasion he performed several miracles, and converted all the Sākyas to his faith. His own wife became one of his followers, and, with his aunt, offer the first instance of female Buddhist devotees in India.

"We have fuller particulars again of the last days of Buddha's life. He had attained the good age of threescore years and ten, and had been on a visit to Rājagriha, where the king, Ajātāsatru, the former enemy of Buddha and the assassin of his own father, had joined the congregation, after making a public confession of his crimes. On his return he was followed by a large number of disciples, and when on the point of crossing the Ganges, he stood on a square stone, and, turning his eyes back towards Rājagriha, he said, full of emotion, 'This is the last time that I shall see that city.' He likewise visited

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[paragraph continues] Vaisali, and, after taking leave . of it, he had nearly reached the city of Kusināgara, when his vital strength began to fail. He halted in a forest, and, while sitting under a Sāl tree, he gave up the ghost, or, as a Buddhist would say, entered into Nirvāna."

The following verses by Dr. Muir ^* are a translation of part of the "Lalita-Vistara," from which the quotations given above were made:—

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Buddhism, the system of religion taught by Buddha, starts with the doctrine common to it and Hinduism of transmigration. ^* It then goes on to say that pain and

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pleasure are simply the result of Karma (works), no notice whatever being taken of the existence or nonexistence of God. It assumes that existence is and must be miserable; and that the highest conceivable good is to obtain entire exemption from existence. Death does not necessarily bring this exemption; it may be but an entrance into a worse form of it than is at present endured. Buddha's four " Sublime verities," containing the germ of his system, are as follows:—The first is that pain exists; the second, that desire is the cause of pain; the third, that pain can be ended by Nirvāna, or exemption from existence, practical annihilation; the fourth shows the way that leads to Nirvāna. The great thing is to get rid of desire, and when this is accomplished, the soul is ready for complete Nirvāna, and a man dying in this state will not again be born. He taught the evil of caste distinctions, and all who embraced his tenets became members of a great brotherhood. Instead of the painful mortifications and costly sacrifices by which the Hindus were compelled to make expiation for sin, he taught that confession and promise of amendment were all that was necessary. Its moral code is one of the most perfect in the world: the spring of all virtue is Maitri, which can only be translated as charity or love. "It does not express friendship, or the feeling of particular affection which a man has for one or more of his fellow-creatures, but that universal feeling which inspires us with good-will towards all men and constant willingness to help them." ^*

There is one peculiarity of the followers of Buddha as compared with the Hindus, viz. the preservation of and veneration for relics of their founder. With the exception of a legend stating that Krishna's bones were

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placed in the image of Jagannāth, and another teaching that Vishnu cut the dead body of Sati into fifty-one parts, each of which is now enshrined in a temple, we have no record of relics being preserved by the Hindus. But the Buddhists profess to have carefully preserved parts of their great leader, and enshrine them in Dagobas. One of the most celebrated of these is represented on page ²²⁶. A tooth of Buddha is believed to be kept in it; in others a single hair is most religiously guarded. These Dagobas are not temples, though in some cases they form part of buildings that are, or have been, used for worship.

Footnotes

225:* Goldstücker, Chambers's Cyclopædia.

225:† "Hindu Mythology," p. 248.

227:* Kennedy, "Hindu Mythology," p. 250.

227:† Ibid., p. 423.

230:* Kennedy, "Hindu Mythology," p. 253.

231:* Max-Müller, "Chips," vol. i. p. 210 ff.

239:* O. S. T., ii. 496.

243:* In Hinduism it is the transmigration of souls from the lowest to the highest scale, until they become fit for absorption into the Divine from whence they came. At its close each life is carefully judged, and when next the person returns to the earth he is born in a higher stage if good preponderated; in a lower if the evil turned the scale. In Buddhism, which denies the existence of souls, the transmigration is somewhat different in form. As soon as a person dies a new being is produced in a more or less miserable condition, according to the "Karma," the sum total of the good or evil in all its many previous lives. Practically there is no great difference between these views. For though the Hindu believes that the same soul passes through countless changes in successive lives, there is no memory of previous experience, so that each life is separate and distinct from what went before. It is a formal rather than a real difference.

244:* Burnouf, quoted by Max-Müller, "Chips," i. 222.