Lord Chaitanya Defeats the Buddhists
Having made their plot, the Buddhists brought a plate of untouchable food before Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and called it maha-prasada. When the contaminated food was offered to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a very large bird appeared on the spot, picked up the plate in its beak and flew away. Indeed, the untouchable food fell upon the Buddhists, and the large bird dropped the plate on the head of the chief Buddhist
Here is an interesting pastime of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taken from the Chaitanya Charitamrita.
There are many kinds of philosophers. Some are logicians who follow Gautama or Kanada. Some follow the Mimamsa philosophy of Jaimini. Some follow the Mayavada philosophy of Shankaracarya, and others follow Kapila’s Sankhya philosophy or the mystic yoga system of Patanjali. Some follow the smriti-shastra composed of twenty religious scriptures, and others follow the Puranas and the tantra-shastra. In this way there are many different types of philosophers. All of these adherents of various scriptures were ready to present the conclusions of their respective scriptures, but Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu broke all their opinions to pieces and established His own cult of bhakti based on the Vedas, Vedanta, the Brahma-sutra and the philosophy of acintya-bhedabheda-tattva. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu established the devotional cult everywhere. No one could defeat Him.
Being thus defeated by Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, all these philosophers and their followers entered into His cult. In this way Lord Chaitanya made South India into a country of Vaisnavas. When the nonbelievers heard of the erudition of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, they came to Him with great pride, bringing their disciples with them. One of them was a leader of the Buddhist cult and was a very learned scholar. To establish the nine philosophical conclusions of Buddhism, he came before the Lord and began to speak. Although the Buddhists are unfit for discussion and should not be seen by Vaisnavas, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu spoke to them just to decrease their false pride. The scriptures of the Buddhist cult are chiefly based on argument and logic, and they contain nine chief principles. Because Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu defeated them in their argument, they could not establish their cult. The teacher of the Buddhist cult set forth the nine principles, but Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu broke them to pieces with His strong logic.
All mental speculators and learned scholars were defeated by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and when the people began to laugh, the Buddhist philosophers felt both shame and fear. The Buddhists could understand that Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a Vaisnava, and they returned home very unhappy. Later, however, they began to plot against the Lord.
Having made their plot, the Buddhists brought a plate of untouchable food before Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and called it maha-prasada. When the contaminated food was offered to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a very large bird appeared on the spot, picked up the plate in its beak and flew away. Indeed, the untouchable food fell upon the Buddhists, and the large bird dropped the plate on the head of the chief Buddhist teacher. When it fell on his head, it made a big sound. The plate was made of metal, and when its edge hit the head of the teacher, it cut him, and the teacher immediately fell to the ground unconscious.
When the teacher fell unconscious, his Buddhist disciples cried aloud and ran to the lotus feet of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu for shelter. They all prayed to Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, addressing Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself and saying, “Sir, please excuse our offense. Please have mercy upon us and bring our spiritual master back to life.” The Lord then replied to the Buddhist disciples, “You should all chant the names of Krishna and Hari very loudly near the ear of your spiritual master. “By this method your spiritual master will regain his consciousness.
”
Following Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s advice, all the Buddhist disciples began to chant the holy name of Krishna congregationally. When all the disciples chanted the holy names Krishna, Rama and Hari, the Buddhist teacher regained consciousness and immediately began to chant the holy name of Lord Hari. When the spiritual master of the Buddhists began to chant the holy name of Krishna and submitted to Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, all the people who were gathered there were astonished.
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the son of Sachidevi, then suddenly and humorously disappeared from everyone’s sight, and it was impossible for anyone to find Him.
End of Story
Yours in service of Lord Krishna,
Stoka Krishna Dasa.
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That large bird was surly GARUDA.
This is done by supreme God himself to show that Sri Hari and Sri Buddha are not different. Only we are differentiating them. And Sri Hari himself tells whenever there is injustice, I will be taking birth on the land. He took birth as Lord Buddha to falsify the sacrificial teachings of Vedas, and taught Karma and show mercy towards all living beings, which today Vaishnavism follows.He didn’t taught Bhakti, but uplifted the depressed classes from injustice, just like Hari tells in Bhagwad Gita. There are so many instances where Sri Buddha proves the line Yada Yada hi Dharmasya. Even today, Vaishnavism omits caste system, just like Srimad Ramanujacharya or Chaitanya Prabhu, the forefathers of Vaishnavam did. Buddha discarded sacrifices and killing of animals and followed mercy path, the same concept of vegetarianism is followed in Vaishnavism. But fools have discarded such merciful Buddhist teachings and eat meat. For them, God Hari himself have given punishment. Even many priests discarded Bhakti path of equality, kindness and devotion, and followed Vedic principles of Caste and sacrifice. The nightmare of Muslim attacks was a punishment to such people given by Hari himself. Buddha and Hari one.
it is said that the original Vishnu avatar Buddha was a son of anjana who preached non violence and Gautama was a person who got enlightened under the same tree on which lord Buddha ,sugata Buddha meditated and he became Buddha I have read that sugata Buddha was adi Buddha or vishnus incarnation but Gautama was a great man who became Buddha by meditation is it true
Hare Krishna, Madhudvisa can you tell me when Kali yuga shall end and shall the Supreme Personality of Godhead grace this earth in human form again.
Yes. We have just started Kali-yuga around 5000 years ago after the departure of Lord Krishna from this planet. Kali-yuga goes for 132,000 years and we have passed just 5000 years of it so that leaves a total of 427,000 years remaining in this Kali-yuga.
Yes Krishna will appear again but not for a very long time. He is only appearing as Krishna once in a day of Lord Brahma, so that is something like 4.3 million times 1000 years. Then Lord Brahma has a night of the same duration. So it means after about 8.6 billion years…
Krishna is all and his expansions are all mayic.He is the sole enjoyer of his lila as he is all in all.Nought else exist.
Truth is incontrovertible. Scriptures contain and proclaim truth. Buddha worshipped as an incarnation is not Gautama Buddha. None can defeat Gautam Buddha, Adi Shankarcharyya or Chaitanya Mahaprabhu for all of them are perfect.Their exemplary life and selfless mission are an inspiration for us all. They are our purvacharyyas. I humbly bow to them all.
Hare Krishna Bidesh
Actually Shankacharaya is an incarnation of Lord Shiva and Buddha is an incarnation. But they are both servants of Krishna and both have presented a particular philosophy, which is not actually correct, at a particular time because it was needed at that time.
Anyone can defeat the Buddhist philosophy. It is just wrong. Sankacharaya is more difficult to defeat but he was soundly defeated by Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is Krishna Himself. So no one can compare to Krishna or Lord Caitanya. All are servants of Krishna and Lord Caitanya.
One who accepts all opinions actually accepts no opinions. The intelligent person finds out which opinion is correct and he accepts that correct opinion.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna,
I was brought up in a Buddhist Temple and was very confused as a child. I did not like the atmosphere as everything about it to me as a child was wrong. The clergy called themselves ministers and they drank alcohol, went to shameful adult clubs and they along with the congregation consumed all sorts of flesh from every animal you can imagine. I stopped going there when I was about 12 years old, I told my mother that I could not handle this atmosphere any longer. Oh, I was bullied there by other kids as well. And my step father was a minister there, so I witnessed first hand how these people lived their lives. I don’t like to say anything bad about anyone, but going to this temple was a very dark period in my life, one that I wished I never had experienced. But then since I did I feel that it was an opportunity to learn about human nature. These ministers were very greedy as well, always looking for more salary. Anyhow, thank you for allowing me to post.
Haribol
Hare Krishna!!!! Thank you!!! I couldnt help but to cry in joy reading this.
Lord Krsna is so kind to us, he is so patient and loving, he wants mankind to understand, so he came again as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu & his associates. He knows our minds are very weak and forgetful and full of nonsense. This is like a young kid nowadays explaining the internet or computers to an older grandparent. The older person cannot seem to grasp the new technology, so maybe the grandkid finally says “I will make it easy for you, just let me come over this afternoon and I will set everything up so you don’t have to bother.” In this same way, Krsna came again as Lord Caitanya and said “Just chant, just please chant Hare Krsna and you will be one with god”, but still people argue about different philosphies haha! All glories to the Panca-Tattava! Hare Krsna!
Akira, that is a beautiful comment, thank you. It was food for thought to me.
Hare Krishna,
I never understood the concept of rebirth, I understand that my this birth is due to previous death and my previous birth was due to earlier life. But why did my 1st birth happen, before that where and what was I? Kindly enlighten.
Hare Krishna Nisha
The idea of ‘birth’ is misleading. We are eternal spirit souls. We are never born and we never die. It is only that in the material world we change from one body to another. And when we take a new body we think that we were born. But we are not ‘born’ when the new body is born. One body dies and we are transferred to another body. This is not birth. It is like going to sleep and waking up the next morning.
So we were never born. We are, like Krishna, eternal. We have no birth and no death.
We are eternally servants of Krishna and our home is in the spiritual world serving Krishna. We have the same qualities as Krishna but Krishna is unlimitedly great and we are unlimitedly small. But everything that Krishna has we also have it. But we have it in a small quantity and Krishna has it in an unlimited quantity. So we are qualitatively the same as Krishna but qualitatively Krishna is very great and we are very small.
So as Krishna is unlimitedly independent we also have a little independence. Our relationship with Krishna is one of voluntary love and service. It is not that Krishna forces us to love Him. That would not be love. No. Krishna gives us the choice. So that is our limited independence. So if we misuse our limited independence and decide that we don’t want to love and serve Krishna, but rather we want to compete with Krishna. We want to become a master like Krishna, not a servant of Krishna. Then actually that is not possible. Because constitutionally we are all eternal servants of Krishna. We really can not do anything except serve Krishna. But because Krishna has given us the independence to choose not to serve Him he has also created this material world for us to come to when we decide that instead of serving Krishna we want to become the lord and master ourselves.
So this is the material world. We have all come here because we have missed our limited independence and we are all trying to become the lord and master, like Krishna, in the material world. This is what makes the material world such a hellish place. Everyone is trying to become the master of everyone else and no one wants to serve anyone else. So it is a horrible place, the material world. But Krishna has also created mahamaya. And by the mercy of maya we are convinced that somehow, if we just adjust things enough, we can be happy in the material world. But we can never be happy in the material world. We can only happy serving Krishna.
So the material world is something like a prison. It is a place of reformation. In the material world the living entities who have misused their independence are given a chance to act apparently independently from Krishna but the result is always suffering and frustration. So after many, many lifetimes of such suffering and frustration in the material world a thoughtful living entity finally comes to realize that it is not possible to be happy in the material world. It is only possible to be happy by surrendering to and serving Krishna.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Haha nice story….what was the bird btw. A projectile thrown by a disciple?
I am not really sure what your question is? The big bird appeared and picked up the plate and dropped it on the head of the leader of the Buddhists thus saving Lord Caitanya from the untouchable food… So it was the metal plate that hit the head of the leader of the Buddhists and cut it and knocked him unconscious…
what is god&bhakthi/
Read the articles… Read Prabhupada’s books….
if you can show me convincing evidence,not just the nasa photo or the stones of rameshwara,that there was a man named rama who lived in ayodya and kiled raavan to rescue sita,i will convert to your kraishnavism but i doubt you will be able to do that.the first mention of rama wasnt ramayana but one of the jataka’s of buddha which first mentions a rama.also rama,according to the jataka story,was from varanasi and was sent away for 14 years but came back and lived happily ever after.thasts what the jataka says.i dont know for sure but thats what it says.i would sooner accept the buddhist concept of rama than the hindu one(or at least the north indian one).there is no proof that a bunch of talking monkeys(or as some contemporary hindus say,south indian tribals) built a bridge to lanka and killed a proto-muslim ruler named raavan.suffice to say that the saiva version that ram was the real demon and that raavan was a rightous tamil king sounds more likely to have happened than the aryan rama story.im not nessesarily denying that ram did exsist just that valmikiji’s ramayana is NOT his story,thats something valmiki or whoever wrote it made up.if there really was a historical rama then he was either the rama in the jataka or he was the south indian(tamil) rama and the real monkeys were actually tamil tribals and raavana was a muslim.or he(rama) was a demon and raavan was a just king.either way those three are more likely to be acturate than your aryan ramayana.just saying what’s most likely true.
Dear Nagarjuna,
Hare Krishna! If you believe in the scientific proofs let me tell you NASA has released a photograph which clearly shows the bridge between india and Sri lanka which is not visible from ordinary eyes but only from sky.
Sri lanka was much larger a few thousand years back due to cold weather and much of the ice was in glaciers.
Krishna’s Dwarika is found beneath the sea in Gujrat which has mention in ancient texts. There is mention of multiverses as against universe which is very much scientifically possible. We do not even know 0.000000000001 percent of what is around us and just gauging everything scientifically is not possible and “what scientifically you know is abolute truth” thinking this is totally arrogant and absurd. A few years back we knew nothing can travel faster than light but now we know neutrons can. So dude, keen an open mind, read those ancient texts and make some sense.
Haribol
Hello,
I have a more personal question relating to Buddhism. I am a Buddhist. I’m also a vegetarian to clarify the hypocrisy stipulated earlier on the posts. I used to go to the Hare Krishna temple back home for Sunday services for a while but I have walked another path since then which took me away from Visnu. Perhaps it is indeed because of Kali-Yuga in which case I believe I will come back to samsara and try another life to reach out for Krishna. I agree with the fact that I will personally not be able to make any sort of spiritual progress as long as I survive on the killings of other sacred beings. That being said, I do not judge Buddhists who eat meat or Hare Krishna for not doing so. These are only my personal choices. Among other teachings in Amidism, compassion and loving kindness are very central. And so my question is: how come Hare Krishna devotees have so much animosity against Buddhists? I still have many friends in the Hare Krishna movement, up until very recently, and when they learnt that I went through my Buddhist affirmation ceremony, they all refused to talk to me which broke my heart. The more I read Krishna related posts, the more aggressiveness I find against Buddhists, sadly. I believe in a place where the Supreme being is omnipresent, there is no room for hatred and despise. We are all trying to achieve a greater and more sensible spiritual life and what happens in the end is nevertheless a mystery. It all lies within our believes. I would imagine if there were to be a God, or Visnu, or Allah, what he would feel for all creatures, be it animals still working their way up to humanity to achieve Krishna Consciousness, or misled people who do not believe in him and live kind and respectful lives nonetheless, what he would be feeling is love and compassion. I have saked this question to many people, from the movement, and none have answered. Not even the temple I sent an email to a little while back. So how are we to progress, how are we supposed to correct our mistakes of we are willing to see things that way from a Buddhist perspective, how are we to realize our illusions from a Hare Krishna perspective if no one answers the questions when we have them? I still hold very dearly a lot of the Vedic principles for I find them sound and compassionate. I mean absolutely no disrespect in posting this and hope someone will reply.
In Gassho,
Shaku Eshin
Hi Shaku
Thanks for the nice question.
Actually the world is flooded by two things at the moment and that is impersonalism and voidism. The philosophy of Buddhism is voidism. Because the idea of perfection for a Buddhist is to cease to exist.
On the other hand the philosophy of Krishna consciousness is to reestablish our original eternal relationship with Krishna and to remember Krishna at the time of death and be transferred to the spiritual world where we can enjoy with Krishna and the other devotees of Krishna and live an eternal life of unending bliss and knowledge there. It is a much nicer alternative to ceasing to exist.
So devotees of Krishna do not like voidists or impersonalits very much. They do not like to associate with these people because association is powerful. So if these people are not interested in hearing about Krishna then generally a devotee will not be very interested in speaking with them.
Actually we offer prayers to Srila Prabhupada and part of that is that his mission is to destroy the impersonal and voidist philosophies that currently flood the world and replace them with the ocean of transcendental love of Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtan movement…
Of course you may know that Lord Buddha is an incarnation of Krishna and we also worship Lord Buddha. But Lord Buddha’s appearance is a bit confusing. He is Krishna, but when he appeared in India around 500 BC the whole country was full of meat-eating atheists who were justifying their meat eating as Vedic sacrifices. So they were using the Vedas to support their sinful activities. Krishna wanted to help them advance in spiritual life but He knew that if He appeared as God then the atheists would not accept Him. So instead He tricked them. He appeared as Lord Buddha and said that He rejects any scripture that condones animal killing, so He is an incarnation of Krishna, but He rejected the Vedas, and He went on to preach a philosophy centered around “ahimsa parama dharma” “non-violence is the highest religious principle.” His preaching is atheistic, there is no God, and even the soul is not eternal in the Buddhist doctrine. So actually the Buddhist philosophy is not really correct. It was given by Buddha, an incarnation of Krishna, to achieve a particular goal at a certain point in the history. And it worked. Buddhism spread all over India and everyone in India became vegetarian again and that paved the way for the next empowered personality who was Sankacharaya, an incarnation of Lord Shiva. Sankara reestablished the authority of the Vedas and as his philosophy was much more sound and logical than the Buddhist philosophy very quickly it spread all over India and Buddhism was only left in the surrounding countries. In India even now Buddhism is very rare.
But Sankacharaya was preaching the impersonal philosophy. It is not incorrect like the Buddhist philosophy, but it is not complete. The Supreme is manifest in three features. (1) The all-pervading brahman effulgence, (2) The paramatma form within the hearts of every living entity and (3) Krishna and his Visnu-tattva expansions, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
So Sankacharaya was only speaking of the brahman, the all-pervading energy of the Lord.
The devotees of Krishna are in love with Krishna and have a personal relationship with Krishna so they do not like the voidist [Buddhist] or impersonal philosophy.
So if you have decided to follow the path of voidism then you can not really expect that the devotees of Krishna who are interested in a personal relationship with Krishna will get much joy from associating with you…
The Buddhist philosophy is not good at all. It is attractive for atheists because there is no god to surrender to. But it is quite a bleak future… Entering the void, ceasing to exist. It is a horrible thought to me…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Thank you for the reply! It is much appreciated indeed. 🙂
Thank you very much indeed. I appreciate you taking the time to reply. Could I count on your consideration furthermore and express these points?
I am reading your reply and sincerely understand and respect your point of view. At the same time, I fail to understand why there can be no amicable encounter with a Buddhist even knowing our different perspectives. When I was at the temple (ISKCON), as well as in the restaurant (Govindas), which as you very well know, a big part of is also focused on Krishna, there used to be random talks. About life, studies, various personal endeavors. So why do these amicable talks need to end? Why can’t we still live in harmony? As a general rule, I try not to talk about my spiritual journey much. Not because I hide it but because it is such a personal path that I do not see fit to discuss it with friends, there really is only my Sensei who can assist me. On a more Buddhist perspective, one really paves one’s own path and every one has a unique experience which renders rather irrelevant any personal discussions on that matter.
Also, in Amidism, we are grateful and thankful to Amida Buddha for his Primal Vow to wait for all beings to have reached enlightenment until He may experience His to the fullest. When our time comes, He will come with His two Bodhisattvas and welcome us to the Pure Land. So there is something else at the end of our journey. When we leave Samsara, there is the Pure Land. And for an Amidists, our deepest wish is to become ourselves Bodhisatvas and return to Samsara to help people free themselves from it. Also, we chant the Nembutsu very much like you chant Hare Krishna in order to be connected to Amida Buddha. So why can’t we accept each other in this superficial plane of existence that is Samsara?
Again, my most sincere thanks for your consideration. I have had these questions for a long time and I am more than grateful to you for considering them.
In Gassho,
Shaku Eshin
Hare Krishna Shaku
Devotees have no interest in hearing about Buddha or the Buddhist philosophy which they hate actually. It is atheism. It is against Krishna. So you can not expect devotees to be very interested in talking to you if you have decided to follow this path of Buddhism which is completely against all the principles of Krishna consciousness. You should talk to the Buddhists if you want to follow the Buddhist path.
Devotees of Krishna have no interest in talking to anyone unless it is in connection with Krishna. So if you are not interested in hearing about Krishna and trying at least a little bit to practice the process of Krishna consciousness in your life then the devotees are going to try and find someone else to talk to who is interested in hearing about Krishna rather than wasting time with you and having to tolerate all your talks about Amidism and the Holy Land and the Bodhi Sattvas… We are just not interested in any of this stuff. We are interested in talking about Krishna to people who are interested to hear about Krishna…
If you develop an interest in Krishna consciousness the devotees will be interested to talk to you but if you want to talk to them about Buddha they will be gone before you can say “om mani padmi hum…”
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Again, thank you for the reply Madhudvisa dasa (though I must admit I personally find hatred to be a very strong feeling to have against anyone, let alone someone you’ve never met). As I mentioned, I actually don’t talk about Buddhism with anyone but my Sensei really. I engaged in a conversation with you on the ground that you seemed to be very well versed on Krishna Consciousness works and as I mentioned earlier on, I still hold dear a lot of the Vedic precepts. I never said I wasn’t interested one little bit about Krishna Consciousness. As a matter of fact, I am currently reading an excellent work by Devamrita Swami, Searching for Vedic India. It’s a very refreshing and welcome perspective on what we know, I find. On a lighter note, I don’t actually know what “om mani padmi hum” exactly means except that is is related to Tibetan Buddhism. It appears I have some reading ahead of me. 🙂
In Gassho,
Shaku Eshin
Hi Shaku
There is no hatred at all. If one is actually a devotee of Krishna he has love for everyone. But we are interested in talking with people who want to hear about Krishna. If you want to find out about Krishna you have to hear from a pure devotee of Krishna, because he is always seeing Krishna and he can naturally describe Krishna to you. So rather than reading books by Davimrita Swami who is probably not a pure devotee of Krishna and is probably not seeing Krishna himself constantly, I strongly suggest you read the books of Srila Prabhupada. If you want to advance spiritually it is very important to hear from the right person. The only way we can come to understand Krishna actually is by hearing from someone who is a pure devotee of Krishna. Otherwise it is more-or-less a waste of time.
I think actually you do not really know what you are. You are saying you are a Buddhist at the moment but I think you do not completely comprehend what it means to be a Buddhist and what the Buddhist philosophy really is. It is really miserable and really artificial. Ultimately it is about ceasing to exist and entering the void. But actually we can not cease to exist and there is no void anywhere within the material or spiritual worlds. These days, because the actual Buddhist philosophy is so miserable, the modern Buddhists are changing it and saying things like you are saying about the beautiful land you will go to after nirvana, etc. But this is nonsense. In Buddhism there is no beautiful land to go to. The Buddhists analyze everything and come to the conclusion that everything is a source of misery so their ultimate conclusion is that everything should be given up, everything should be taken away. And when you take away everything you are left with nothing and that is the true Buddhistic concept of Nirvana.
Anyhow the devotees love Krishna and they love everyone but if you are not interested in hearing about Krishna from them they will go on to speak with someone else who is interested to hear. That does not mean they hate you, just that you don’t want to hear about Krishna and it is the devotees business, their whole existence, is glorifying Krishna…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hello Madhudvisa dasa,
Thank you for the reply; I am indebted to your consideration as always. 🙂
I’m quite surprised to read your comment about Devamrita Swami though. I mean he was initiated by Srila Prabhupada himself so surely Srila Prabhupada would have had a different opinion of him other than “probably not a pure devotee of Krishna and (who) is probably not seeing Krishna himself constantly”. I believe you are describing a Guru here, in respect to your post “Who Is a Real Guru?”, by all means, correct me if I’m wrong. He is one of Krishna’s humble and faithful devotees and the Hare Krishna movement sells his books. He must have some support within ISKCON. As a matter of fact, this is how I came to have his book. It was offered to me by a devotee on the recommendation of their guru. He is “a member of ISKCON’s Governing Body, he has been chosen by his peers to serve as international vice-chairman and then chairman. His extensive current regional responsibilities include “down-under”–Australia and New Zealand–where he spends five months of the year, as well as north western Russia, South Africa, Hawaii, and the Gita-nagari farm project in Pennsylvania. Beyond those areas of spiritual responsibility, he travels far and wide, especially in North America, Europe, and India.” http://www.devaswami.com/
As for the statement that I “don’t know (who rather than) what( I am)”, well, to a certain extent, indeed. I haven’t found any set of truths anywhere that would justify that I close my mind to the world. The Buddha said “don’t take my word for it, find out for yourself”. Lord Buddha was Lord Krishna Himself as you and I both came to agree upon. I read the Bhagavad-gita, yes, but I also read the Bible, and the The Dhammapada, yet I am not a follower of any of the above. Curiosity feeds wisdom and from a Buddhist perspective, one can never be further away from enlightenment than if one cultivates a narrow mind and a narrow heart.
Greed, hate and ignorance are poisons to a clean mind. I was convinced of that before I turned to any sort of spirituality. Perhaps I lack objectivity in thinking that it is fairly obvious that these extremes will always spoil a beautiful mind, just like too much sun will burn a flower, or too much water will drown it, and the same goes for the opposite. Srila Prabhupada himself said: “We are glad that people are taking interest in the nonviolent movement of Lord Buddha.” I believe his ultimate point was to ensure that in that direction, Buddhists would stop the killing of animals. My understanding of that is that he’s talking about the meat-eating practice. I cannot endorse what other Buddhists do, as you cannot endorse what other Krishna devotees do. But in the end, I feel there is a lot of prejudice against Buddhists on the ground that they are Buddhists, even though they might be vegetarian, use plant based shaving cream and after shave and wear plant-based clothing and footwear.
Unfortunately, this is why I shied away from ISKCON back then, “devotees have no interest in hearing about Buddha or the Buddhist philosophy which they hate actually.” That’s already stating the cultivation of ignorance and hatred in that one sentence alone, be it against a philosophy or against people for whom that philosophy is part of. 🙁
I am just wondering in the end how come we cannot acknowledge each other without judgement. Buddhism isn’t for everyone, I agree and honestly see your point when you say that (e)ntering the void, ceasing to exist(…) is a horrible thought to (you); I would respectfully argue that the constant rejection and belittling of other’s beliefs isn’t for everyone either. But I do not despair and surely there must be a peaceful way to simply appreciate each other’s dedication and heartfelt devotion to whatever our higher purposes may be. This is what I do anyway, and whenever I get a chance to defend ISKCON’s devotees beliefs and way of life from prejudicial comments, I do so. As I do about all sort of prejudices which to me are sources to a lot of pain and unneeded extra suffering in our Societies.
In Gassho,
Shaku Eshin
Hare Krishna Shaku
As far as the Swami, yes, he is obviously doing some nice service and distributing Srila Prabhuapda’s books. He is certainly a nice devotee. But there is a difference between a nice devotee and someone who is a liberated soul and who has the potency to guide you back home, back to Godhead. I can guarantee you that Srila Prabhupada has this potency, but I do not know if Devamrita Swami has this power or not. We have become a little skeptical about these ISKCON swamis after being in the movement for over 25 years and seeing dozens of these swamis turn out to be ordinary conditioned souls like the rest of us.
So my point is not to belittle the swami but to simply let you know that I can guarantee Prabhupada is a pure devotee of Krishna and if you read his books the potency is there. There is no guarantee at all that potency is in this other swami’s books. So time is short, it would be better to read Srila Prabhupada’s books–that is my point.
We are glad that people are becoming Buddhists if that means they stop killing the animals… That is the point of Buddhism. To stop the animal killing. That is its only purpose.
That does not mean we like the atheistic, godless philosophy of Buddhism. Surely you can understand that a lover of God will hate a philosophy that claims that there is no god, only a void? That doesn’t mean devotees hate Buddhists. They love all living entities.
As far as philosophies we will speak the truth and some may not like it but what can we do about that?
There is a class of bogus so-called spiritualists in India who say ‘yato mat tato pat,’ it means ‘whatever path you are following, that is good…’ If I would say that to you then you would be very happy. They also say all the paths lead to the same destination. People like this sort of watered-down bogus nonsense. What can we do about that? We will continue to speak the truth and the truth is that there are different paths and the different paths have different destinations.
Although as I have already mentioned the Buddhist philosophy is not sound and it talks about things that do not exist. There is no void anywhere in the spiritual or material worlds and the eternal soul can never cease to exist. So these two basic fundamental principles of Buddhism are simply incorrect. Wrong. That is just the way it is, that is the truth. You will not hear it in many other places of course…
It is probably better if you post your questions on the Buddhist websites and they can tell you all about the void and ceasing to exist. But I think if you do a little meditation and contemplation yourself you can actually perceive you have a spiritual existence separate from your physical body and you may even be able to perceive an eternal nature to this spiritual existence…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy [why not give it a try?]!
Madhudvisa dasa
Brother, you speak the words of a true and loving spiritual and compassionate person. I respect you and agree with your words. Its a shame most of these Hindus don’t have the same respect for others that they expect. Peace
Hare Krishna,
I heard Bhuddists eat meat. They also say Lord Bhuddha ate meat. Is it true? In that case how can you say that Bhuddha had come to this world to prevent animal killing?
Hare Krishna Rajesh
Yes. Lord Buddha was a vegetarian and preached ahimsa paraama dharma. “Non-violence is the supreme religious principle.” So he preached vegetarianism. In fact that was the purpose of his appearance. At that time the Hindus had misrepresented the Vedas and were using the mention of animal sacrifice in the Vedas as an excuse for animal killing and meat eating. So the whole of India became a country of meat-eaters. So to rectify this Krishna appeared as an empowered incarnation in the form of Lord Buddha and simply preached non-violence and vegetarianism because the meat eaters can not understand any fine spiritual subject matters.
The “Hindus” were all meat eaters and were basing their meat eating on the Vedas so Lord Buddha rejected any scripture that condones animal killing, so he rejected the Vedas and presented his own teachings.
But the whole purpose of Lord Buddha’s appearance in India was to stop the meat eating. And it worked. With the spread of Buddhism all over India the whole country returned to a vegetarian diet. This paved the way for Sankaracarya who defeated Buddhism and reestablished the authority of the Vedas, even though he stressed the impersonal conception, still his preaching convinced practically all the Buddhists in India to switch back to becoming followers of the Vedas.
Sankaracharya could not have done this with a country full of meat eaters. Because they would not have been able to understand what he was saying… So Lord Buddha made India vegetarian and Sankacharaya converted the Buddhists back to followers of the Vedas, and Lord Caitanya converted the impersonalist followers of Sankacarya into personalists, Vaisnavas, devotees who believed in and worshipped Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
This movement of Lord Caitanya is still going on and we are that movement. And Lord Caitanya’s mission is far from complete. Lord Caitanya predicted that His Sankirtan movement will go to every town and village of the world. We still have a long way to go and the impersonal philosophy is still very, very strong.
So we have a lot of work against us.
So the bottom line is if you find someone is eating meat that person is most certainly not a Buddhist.
It is Kali-Yuga, the age of hypocrisy–in this age we find practically everyone is not following the things they are supposed to be following, but they still claim the qualification anyhow. A person eating meat is not a Buddhist. But still he will claim to be a Buddhists and the fools will believe him because they want to eat meat. It is a world of the cheaters and the cheated. The people like the idea of something spiritual. They like to think they are philosophers, Buddhists, but they like eating meat and will not give it up. So some bogus Buddhist comes and tells them “No worries, Buddhists eat meat…” And they are very happy and give him a lot of money…
It is a world of the cheaters and the cheated and they are all going to hell..
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
!! Hare *Krishna !!
Krishna is great teacher. His followers mush spread his teachings which are always perfect.
Hi dears,
I am really and honestly sympathetic to most of my friends who are carrying jealousy, stressed out souls, not happy, not contented, ready to fight, ready to insult, ready for unhappiness, ready to show, ready to get frustrated , rhetoric, pejorative- All these are because, you haven’t understood the buddhism ( not need to be a buddhist..as it isn’t a religion in no way).
Buddhism is like a mirror. when you see through it, it doesn’t lies about how u look. It is the truth like fire is hot and ice is cold..thats it. Buddhism isn’t a design as per your taste. Lord Krishna was immeasurables in the way we know. Buddhas teachings has no connection with what krishna taught, so why u people feel the competitiveness. There is nothing substaintial to be disscussed, because it is simple that, you believe that God can cancel your bad doings if he is pleased and I believe that, only myself can do that and for that matter not even buddha can do it for me. So,don’t take tension. Be with your god and never feel the need to come here and write who was defeated or won.
my friend: If one doesn’t have guts for the following four immeasurables, He/She is not a ready rocket to reach Buddhas moon….
1. Love-means= wanting, hoping and waiting to see others happy.
2. compassion-means= wanting, hoping and ready to feel and rectify sufferings in others.
3. Sympathetic joy-means= Wanting, waiting and hoping to see others in prosperity..
4. Equanimity-Means= a fealess stable soul with no anger, hatred, jealousy,fear etc.
In case i don’t have these minimum ..i Just can’t make it in buddhism…so understand it…i know..non of you seem to possess these..But I do atleast some of them…..take care…creat causes of happiness….
Hello,
Your comment is correct. In this story and the subsequent “Hare Krsna” comments, I see nothing but competitiveness and the belief in legends and stories meant to misdirect truth. There is alot of hearsey, but no real substance.
The floor is yellow.
vaishnavas teach to Love God…they say Love is most important. What I feel is Love is stable feeling..When you attain to love you should Love all humanity.
If a person is hungry give him food..give him shelter. a place to live. loving suffering human beings is the way to love god.
If love for krishna is not matured in to love for suffering people…then you have failed in your mission.
true love results from True Understanding. Love has no meaning for me if it is devoid of Understanding. a mind which is open to understanding can love.
I always have one question in my mind…
1. If God control everything.. why can’t he control my angry attitude.
2. hey Lord Chaitanya please help me out , so that i again become a calm girl.
!! Hare Krishna !!
The aim of human life is to love and understand God, thus you attain humanity and morality in your life…………….. OK.
CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU TEACHING IS A GLORY, BRAHMA SAYS NETI NETI(DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND GOD)……………….
I ONLY REQUEST TO PEOPLE TO ATLEAST READ THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU AND FOLLOW ITS TEACHING………………… ITS VERY EASY TO UNDERSTAND AND LOVE GOD BY THIS PHILOSOPHY……….THAT;S IT I WANT TO SAY.
THANKING YOU FOR THE OPPORTUNITY…….
PRAISE THE LORD, HARE KRISHNA.
here i say dharma not meant for competence.dharma is a path by which we know to take decision about our soul wheather it goes in path to nirvana.Bhudhism clearly said know the god exist or not by your self,i can only show the path.lord budha got nirvana ,that means he become free of cycle of life.then how can you declare someone to rebirth .thankyou.namo budhaye.
There are many problems in Buddhist philosophy…There are many contradictions…A contradictory thing can not be true…Buddhist deny soul…but who is that denies…Buddhist preach Shunyata (void)…But who is that sees or experiences that void…An Arhat gets Nirvana…If there is no soul,who gets this Nirvana…Everything can be denied,but a watcher (seer) consciousness can never be denied…Try to deny it,and you,an Atma, will always remain separated from it…True knowledge is given in Gita…and it is given by God Himself…The word “Nirvana” is also taken from Gita (see shloka 2/72)…
Buddhists do not deny the existence of the soul. Stop embarressing yourselves. The Buddhist teachings contain no iconsistencies, if they do, please reveal them to me? Give me your proof please? You are wasting time when the Bhuddist Dharma could be of assistence to you. They do believe in the Soul, they believe in reincarnation, karma, realms of Gods, Nirvana, Ghosts, rebirth, God etc. Where do you get you information from? What source? Show me a referrence please? Your ego seems very keen on finding something, anything it can to oppose, so long as you gain a debate for your own egoic satisfaction. Notice how zero Bhuddists are here challeging your Hindu faith? Ask yourself why? If you don’t know the answer then we know how ignorant you are.
Hare Krishna Brother Lambros
I am not saying the Buddhist teachings are inconsistent, I am saying in many ways they are completely incorrect.
Lord Buddha is an incarnation of Krishna so we have the full information of the purpose of Lord Buddha’s appearance and his philosophy in the Vedic scriptures.
The Buddhist philosophy is not correct. It is, however, a very attractive philosophy for atheists. It is “spiritualim” without God. But what is spiritualism without God? The whole point of spiritualism is to reunite with God and reestablish our loving relationship with God and after finishing our time in this life to go back home, back to Godhead. But as Buddhists are athiests who do not believe in God they have no goal… The Buddhists rightly conclude that this world is a place of suffering, that relationships with others ultimately only cause us distress, that individuality and our very existence are nothing but cause of suffering. So for the Buddhist there is no other alternative than to attempt to cease to exist. And that is exactly the Budhistic concept of ‘nirvana’. Nirvana is a state of non-existence. Because the Buddhists come to the conclusion that the result of any sort of existence or activity is ultimately suffering they must try to eliminate all existence and activity…
But they do not know that the soul is eternal and eternally activity and can never cease to exist… That is a great error in the Buddhist philosophy. Yes, you are correct, Buddhists accept the existence of the soul and the fact that according to the state of consciousness at the time of death the living entity can take birth again in another body, so they accept reincarnation. In fact many aspects ofthe Buddhist philosophy have been taken from the Vedas as Lord Buddha appeared in India and was preaching to people who were nominally followers of the Vedas.
But the Buddhists make a great mistake in claiming that the soul is not eternal and can cease to exist. This aspect of the Buddhist philosophy is completely incorrect. The soul is eternal and can never be killed or destroyed or cease to exist in any way. Therefore the Buddhistic idea of ‘nirvana’, a state of non-existence, can never be achieved, as the soul will always exist. The sould can never cease to exist.
The other great mistake and great void in the Buddhist philisophy is they are athiests, they do not believe there is any god or supreme controller. They do not offer any special respect to the Buddha, except that he has become ‘enlightened’ and they imagine they can all also become equally ‘enlightened’, just like the Buddha. They put themselves on the same platform as the Buddha. Whereas, in reality, there is a Supreme Person, God, who is on a much higher platform than us that we can never reach. He is all-conscious, we are simply conscious of our own bodies. He is all-knowing, we are knowing only within very limited boundaries, He has unlimited strength, our strength is very limited. And therefore the Buddhists have no knowledge of the Kingdom of God, nor do they have any idea that one can have a loving relationship with God.
For the Buddhists there is only this material world and through their meditations they determine that everything in this world is a source of suffering. They find that all activities end in suffering, all relationships end in suffering, even the very individuality and existence is ultimately a cause of suffering. So the sollution? ‘Nirvana’, negatating everything, with the ultimate ‘goal’ of nonexistence…. A very miserable end in deed. But even in this the Buddhists will be frustrated becasue the soul is eternal and there is no void anywhere withing the creation. So they will never be able to find this Buddhistic nirvana…
Because the Buddhists are athiests and do not know God or the Kingdom of God they have no one to serve and no ultimate destination to go to… We are all eternal servants of God and we can only be happy serving God. Because the Buddhists deny the existence of God and refuse to surrender to Him and engage in His service they are destined to an eternity of suffering. Because Buddhistic nirvana simply does not exist…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna Madhudvisa dasa,
Thank you for your insightful response.
I definitely agree that many Bhuddist sects reject the notion of a creator God, however not all not all of them. Those that do have sadly missed the point in my opinion.
I believe Lord Buddha very cleverly devised a philosophy that can be embraced by all schools of thought, not to replace, but to enhance ones journey towards the path of spiritual liberation. This is why His Holiness The Dalai Lama teaches that anyone interested in Bhuddistic philosophy should continue to practice their own respective religions and use Bhuddism to enhance and enrich their own religious practices. So in a manor of speaking one can apply the methods used in Bhuddism to become a better Hindu, Christian, Muslim or even Atheist. What other philosophy appeals also to those that have not yet reached the awareness of the fact that there is indeed a supreme God? None. And this is exactly what makes Bhuddism a beautiful philosophy, very clever indeed and designed to include all and reject none. Even the poor atheists can embrace a meaningful philosophy that (whether they realise it yet or not) will ultimately reveal God to them slowly but surely!
Of course, we know Lord Bhudda, being an incarnation of the Divine personality knew this – only his followers over the centuries got carried away, as like always, the truth is one but can be interpreted in many ways due to human perspective (egoic error). So Lord Bhudda was not trying to lead people away from the glory or God, but served to subtly reveal him even to those who have not yet evolved to the point of being able to comprehend him yet in all his inconceivable greatness – small steps over a very long period of time, allowing all of us to share the light of true wisdom in due course.
Also, the concept of Nirvana varies in depiction. However those that have tasted even a glimpse of this state will report that it is precisely the opposite of a state of none-existence, nothingness if you will. In fact, anyone that has tasted the true state of Nirvana will report that it is indeed a state completely free from material delusional existence – a state of utter oness with all creation, a connection with the source of all that is and ultimately the realisation that we are all one with God, infinite in nature and eternally free, all knowing and consumed by love and ever lasting bliss. The exact opposite of nothingness and none existence. This is also the state to which Lord Jesus Christ was referring to when he described the Kingdom of Heaven within.
Indeed I am also very drawn to the teachings of Lord Jesus Christ, whose teachings were identical in every way to Lord Krishna. In fact I would go as far as to say that they are again one and the same entity. Would you agree with this statement?
So, as you can see, the teachings of Lord Bhudda, Lord Jesus Christ and Lord Krishna very much compliment each other, and both Bhuddistic and Christian philosophy synch perfectly in every way with Vedic teachings. God knows a greater plan and reveals it in varying ways to different groups of people at different times for a divine purpose that we cannot yet comprehend at this point. It is all part of a greater plan that will ultimately lead us all to oness and bliss in a future that we should all look forward to. It is our job not to debate the differences but to celebrate the similarities of our faiths and share our knowledge. All will be revealed in due course.
Please let me know what you think brother.
Peace & Blessings
Brother Lambros
Hare Krishna Brother Lambros
You are very confused and you do not know what Buddhism is. We know what Buddhism is much better than others because as I have mentioned before Lord Buddha is an incarnation of Krishna so we have actual written and authorative descriptions of the philosophy which Guttam Buddha preached in India. Generally todays Buddhists do not have any idea about what Buddhism is… You say:
“I definitely agree that many Bhuddist sects reject the notion of a creator God, however not all not all of them. Those that do have sadly missed the point in my opinion.”
All Buddhists MUST reject the notion of a creator God, because that is the very essence of the Buddhist philosophy. You are lamenting about this but you can not be a Buddhist and believe in God. It is incompatible. Buddhism is atheistic. It is incompatible and contrary to any theistic religion.
So as I say you are very confused and please do not take offense if I delete your comments as you need to spend some time reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and get a clear idea of spirituality and philosophy.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishn Madhudvisa,
I was not trying to say that conventional Bhuddism is a religion that believes in God. I was however saying that it can still be applied by those that do believe in God to enhance ones path. Its more of a practice than a religion! In the same way that sports helps to strengthen the body, Bhuddist philosophy can help one strengthen the mind, and ultimately, whether the followers of this faith accept it or not, it will eventually lead them to God, as this is where all paths lead in the end.
Please can you let me know where I can read more about the purpose of Lord Bhuddas appearance in more detail in the Vedas? I would be intrigued.
I have a lot of time and love for Hinduism, especially Bhakti-Yoga, believe me. If you can suggest any books that will help I would be delighted! I have a copy and have read The Bhagavata by HDG A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada it you are correct, it is intriguing. I also have a copy of “Beyond Liberation” by Swami’s great friend Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja which is also most insightful. Can you suggest others? I of course have a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, but not the one you mention in the news letter – “How I Is”!
A strange thing occurred last night when I dreamt: I was running away from explosions, and when I found myself in a safe place, I man dressed in brilliant white appeared. I told him of my ordeal and he said, “now would be the perfect time to start chanting”. I don’t know whether this was purely a dream or some kind of message!
Peace and belssings
Brother Lambros
You have to understand that Buddhism is atheistic and no atheistic religion can ‘enhance’ the practice of a Christian who believes in God… This is a crazy idea. Buddhism is religion for atheists, not theists.
It is not possible to change Buddhism into something else, something different from what was originally taught by Gautama Buddha. Which of course many of today’s so-called Buddhist sects have done, but when it is changed like this it is no longer Buddhism and no longer has any potency.
The original Buddhism is actually good for atheists because as the ‘prime directive’ is ahimsa parama dharma, they have to become vegetarians if they take to Buddhism and also although the philosophy of Buddhism is atheistic Buddha is an incarnation of Krishna. So in this way indirectly the athiests are tricked into following and respecting God in the form of Lord Buddha. But Buddhism is NOT good for someone who believes in God like a Christian…
Yes, it is a good message in your dream. You should start chanting Hare Krishna immediately. That will really enhance everything for you I guarantee.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Yes I am a Shudh(pure) Buddhist and we Buddhist don’t believe anything what the Buddha says but by our own experiences and our own understanding then if it is good for us then we believe it. The Buddha doesn’t force anyone to follow his teaching nor he proclaimed as a messenger or god. He just show us the path that if we also do what the Buddha teaches we all can achieve what Buddha also achieved. and at the early Buddha time, the Buddha doen’t start the debate to Brahmins, it was the Brahmins who start to debate with Buddha that the Buddha rejects the Gods things and the creator. No, I tell you that what Buddha says that there is no thing like creator and nor he says there is no gods ,he just teaches us that we don’t have to rely on gods because Gods are also living in samsara and there is a example which will help you. yeah I know what you are thinking, that we Buddhist also are so jeolous and can’t handle of their words to our Lord Buddha, no we just want to show the realthing of this whole. The real natures of Gods “Baka Brahmā (literally “crane-Brahmā”) appears in the Majjhima Nikaya, where he is a deity who believes that his world is permanent and without decay (and that therefore he is immortal), and that therefore there are no higher worlds than his. The Buddha refutes Baka’s claims, relating the concept of anitya or impermanence, but one of Baka’s attendants (influenced by Māra) asserts that Baka is the Creator, that those who praise him will be rewarded, but those who deny his powers will be terribly punished. The Buddha identifies the real speaker as Māra, and states that he is free of his power.
Baka then states that it is futile to escape his domain (which he imagines to be universal), and points out that if the Buddha depends upon any of the things within Baka’s cognizance, he will be within his realm, and Baka can act upon him as he sees fit. The Buddha responds that Baka does have this much power, but that there are things which Baka knows nothing of, and that the Buddha’s knowledge places him beyond Baka’s power. Baka was not convinced by the Buddha’s statement at first. So, he took the challenge to disappear from the Buddha’s presence, but in vain; despite trying to hide from the Buddha using all his powers. However, when Baka’s turn came upon to look for the Buddha, He simply went into Nibbanic state where there is no materiality nor mentality can be comprehended. Baka could not find the Buddha’s nimita (created) image however hard he tried to look for among all the existence throughout the 31 realms within his domain. Baka is at last convinced by this display of the Buddha’s superiority in power. Then, the Buddha asked him to look into why he attained his current position and into his previous lives to identify the gaps which were so rapid to make him believe that they were continuous. He then, realized that he was not immortal as he had presumed and accepted that the Buddha was more superior than him. Baka became a disciple of the Buddha after that incident.
Baka was in a past life a human ascetic named Kesava; by various means he saved many people from destruction. For his meditative prowess he was born as a Bṛhatphala deva, and in successive rebirths gradually sank through the levels of the Rūpadhātu until he became an ordinary Brahmā.
On another occasion, Baka believes that no monk or ascetic can enter his world (through supramundane powers of manifestation), but the Buddha himself and several of his disciples visit him to prove him wrong” So if you don’t believe now also then its your wish because You have use your understanding and our thinking is that whether it is weitten on scriptures or whether it is telling from the centuries or whether the gods himself tell you the things but first we have to examine by our common sence and then if it is fitting then accept it or leave it. Now I am waiting for your responce. lastly Thank You.
hi
I think there is no difference between one Buddhist or one Moslem or one vaishnav.
it depends on the degree of surrendering to god.
I think religions should marry with each other
I like nature of Lord Chaitanya as much as I like Mohammad P. nature
they both are so close to god very humble.
thanks
Dear Afsaneh,
Your thinking is really great, Each and every individual is part and parcel of God.ACTUALLY THE PHILOSOPHY OF HARE KRISHNA ISKCON IS VERY GOOD, ONE 4 RULES 1.nO MEAT EATING. 2. nO gAMBLING.3. no ILLICIT SEX. 4. nO dRUGS, INTOXICATION………………
as per your liking IF YOU LIKE ISLAM, CHRISTIAN, OR OTHER RELIGION AND YOU CAN ADVANCE IN BHAKTI AND SELFLESS SERVICE THAT IS ALSO GREAT.
THANKS. hARE KRISHNA
Is it a matter of such great importance as to who someone “defeated” ?
There is a reason why Lord Buddha was against the vedas and the vedic Gods, including Mahadev and the rest. But even this was twisted through religious propaganda and Lord Buddha “was made to become” Lord Vishnu’s reincarnation, when, in fact, there is no connection between Buddha and Vishnu, and such references connecting the two are only to be found in hindu books, not the main buddhist ones, like the Dhammapada.
One would like to trust the buddhist books more, isnt it, with regard to the personality of the Buddha ?
Do you really think the Hindu sources are more trustworthy when it comes to the Buddha, when the Buddha was opposed to the Hindu religious books, like the vedas and so on ?
That would be like saying…. you trust the very sources Buddha was opposed to, in order to know more about the Buddha.
The world has been deceived, and most people do not question it, because it is thought to be not safe to do so. But there is no safety in falsehood.
Hare Krishna
The Buddhist scriptures are not at all reliable.
Buddha is an incarnation of God. But he is preaching to atheists. If you speak about God to athiests they get angry. So Visnu, in the form of Lord Buddha, was very careful not to mention God…
So basically the Buddhist philosophy is simply a concoction, the only real truth in Buddhism is that to make spiritual advancement one needs to be a vegetarian. The only real point of the preaching of the Buddha was “ahimsa parama dharma,” non-violence is the highest religious principle. At the time Lord Buddha was preaching India was full of meat eating athiests. Meat eaters can not understand the subtle aspects of spirituality and philosophy. So he was simply trying to get them to stop eating meat.
Therefore Buddhist books are not a very good or authoritative source for anything. And of course they do not say that Buddha is an incarnation of Visnu… Why would they?
But Buddha is an incarnation of Visnu and this is perfect knowledge as revealed in the Vedas.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
wonderful story taken from caitanya caritamrata.
but here too i have a question,it is said that lord buddha is also an incarnation of sri krishna then how can he teach a void philosophy.
please clarify my doubt
Krishna can teach anything He wants to teach. At that time in India the people in general were claiming to be followers of the Vedanta, claiming to be religious, but they had taken out of context quotes from the Vedas that mention animal sacrifice. So practically the whole of India had become atheistic meat eaters who were using the Vedas, “religion” to justify their sinful activities.
If you try to talk to an atheist about God he will simply get angry. You can not preach to them. And meat eaters are not capable of understanding the finer spiritual ideas. So Krishna, in His incarnation as Lord Buddha, had the gradual elevation of the people as His goal. In the incarnation of Lord Buddha He taught “ahimsa parama dharma,” He taught that “non-violence is the highest religious principle.” In this way Lord Buddha encouraged his followers to stop animal killing and meat eating. That was the purpose of his preaching.
Later on Krishna sent Lord Shiva in the form of Sankaracarya and he preached the impersonal Vedanta philosophy, again accepting the Vedas as the authority, but explaining everything in an impersonal way, giving stress on the impersonal brahman, and minimizing the personal form of Visnu, Krishna, etc.
Then later on Krishna Himself appeared as Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and He defeated the impersonal teachings of Sankaracarya and established the pure personal teachings of Krishna consciousness.
So you see Krishna has a plan and He executes that plan over a period of many hundreds of years. Hundreds of years seems like a long time to us but it is nothing for Krishna.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna,
Thanks for kindly explaining about why Krishna preached Budhist philosophy.
Hare Krishna,
I am very new to ISKCON. I have a question regarding the “Lord Chaitanya defeats the Budhhits”
I heard that Gautam Budhha was an incarnation of lord Krishna.If its true then how come Budhhists(Followers of Gautam Budhha)could do that to Lord Chaitanya and why they are not seen as vaishnava’s?
Please reply
Hari Bol
Gautam Buddha is considered an incarnation of Krishna. But due to the time and place he is not preaching Krishna consciousness. What Buddha is preaching is basically non-violence. At that time the whole of India had become meat eaters based on some mention of animal sacrifice in the Vedas. So to stop the meat eating Buddha said “I reject any scripture that condones animal killing.” So Buddha actually rejected the Vedas and taught a philosophy that does not have any connection with God, but which does stress non-violence.
So the bottom line is although Buddha is an incarnation of Krishna, due to the time and place and the consciousness of the people he was preaching to, he did not preach Krishna consciousness at all. Therefore the followers of Buddha are not Vaisnavas at all. They do not even believe in Visnu, how could they be Vaisnavas.
The Buddhist philosophy is very weak. It was only prominent in India for about 1000 years and then another incarnation of Krishna appeared, Sripad Sankaracharya, and he preached strongly, again reestablishing the authority of the Vedas, and as a result of his powerful preaching Buddhism no longer had any followers in India and whatever Buddhists were left went to neighboring countries. Even though Sankacharaya was preaching impersonal philosophy it was far superior to the Buddhist philosophy and therefore the people in India accepted this and gave up Buddhism.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna
PAMHO, AGTSP.
The Manu Samhita says that if one cheats a Brahmana and makes him eat contaminated food to degrade from his position, one has to spend about 100 years in the mansions andha Tamisra of hell, where the vultures and jackals will rip out the entrails, and then will be born as a vulture, a pimp or a buzzard. If he is a ksatriya 75 years, a vaisya 50 years, a Sudra 25 years and so on.
In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna says that if you do not offer the food are eaten only sin. It makes sense that foods not offered to Krishna are unclean by nature and therefore our mind is contaminated with material desires.
In addition that the unclean foods also contain bacteria that produce gas and phlegm.
There are the misleading concept that we are vegetarian, when in reality we are prasadians, we are vegetarians because Krishna is vegetarian, but in fact we go much further. The concept is that one must offers everything to Krishna and Krishna does not accept unclean foods. Another thing is that the plants do not suffer when you cut them because it has the conscience asleep.
Another distorted concept is that Ekadasi is only for eat whitout grains. Ekadasi means total fasting. But if you can not fast completely be allowed to eat foods that not contain grains and beans. It is also said in the puranas that if one eats on Ekadasi after taking a glass of water first is not considered an offence if eats without grains.
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu highly recommend to Mother Sachi to do Ekadasi fast. After Srila Prabhupada’s departure gbc changed the Vaisnava calendar schema and say that if you were born in the West then you have to do the Ekadasi fast in the next day because there are ten degrees of the moon of difference with respect to India. This is another speculation for many reasons. Some of these are: First and foremost, we must understand that Sri Ekadasi Devi or Sri Papa Purusa not going to say, “Today we will give our influence over half the globe and the other half tomorrow.” No. It is not a matter of astrological karma of the people, but a planetary astronomical phenomenon. Even karmis have an international line for the date change. If the Lord Caitanya is in India and says: “Today is Ekadasi.” One can not speculate and say well but as I live in America I will do Ekadasi fast tomorrow. It is a matter of planetary astronomy not astrology. If we applied that rule to astrological charts would create great confusion, because if I was born on Sunday but the moon says that I was born on a Saturday.
SRILAPRABHUPADAPAGE.KIJAY
vande ‘nantaadbhutaishvaryam
shree-caitanya-mahaaprabhum
nico ‘pi yat-prasaadaat syaad
bhakti-shaastra-pravartakah
(teachings of Lord Chaitanya Chapter 2)
can you please tell me how can one best serve his spitual master and all the devotees of LORD GAURANGA in seperation?
Hare krishna,
Your question is one of the main & greatest question of our spritiual life ….thanks for your question .
ANSWER : WE CAN SERVE THE SPIRITUAL MASTER BY SURRENDERING TO THE LOTUS FEET OF THE MASTER & BY OBEYING ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN BY OUR SPIRITIUAL MASTER..
THAT IS THE ONLY WAY & ONLY WAY & ONLY WAY……
HARE KRISHNA
IN YOUR SERVICE
SHYAMSUNDERDAS
harer nama harer nama
harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva
nasty eva gatir anyatha