Mail Archive

Doubts -- Buddha, the Moon, Hare Krishna's reputation

• Subject: Doubts -- Buddha, the Moon, Hare Krishna's reputation
• From: Josh
• Date: Sun Mar 17 13:35:05 1996
• Message-Id: Josh2472304
• Reply-to: madhudvisa@krishna.org

Dear Josh        



Hello. Hare Krishna! 



> thanks for the response,  i have another question for you regarding

> buddhism among other things.  now you teach that buddha was a

> incarnation of krishna, but he preached aethism and free thougth

> (speculation?).  i know you say he came to preach non-violence but

> why would he also preach philosophy opposed to his own worship? this

> seems like a big contradiction.



Yes Buddhism. Buddha's philosophy is certainly at odds with Krishna

consciousness. They accept the soul and reincarnation, but they don't

accept the soul is eternal. Their idea is everything is suffering so

to get rid of the suffering you have to get rid of everything. That is

nivarna, the void, freedom fom suffering. So they don't have any

positive information. Just that life is suffering. They don't know

about the spiritual world -- the planets where Krishna and His

expansions and devotees live:



                        paras tasmat tu bhavo 'nyo

                         'vyakto 'vyaktat sanatanah

                          yah sa sarvesu bhutesu

                           nasyatsu na vinasyati



     "Yet there is another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is

transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is

supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is

annihilated, that part remains as it is." (Bhagavad-gita 8.20)



So there is a spiritual world, a place where we can exist eternally in

an ever-youthful body experiencing full knowledge, and ever-increasing

transcendental bliss serving Krishna...



But when Lord Buddha appeared the people in India were calling 

themselves followers of the Vedas, but were actually not following the

Vedic scriptures at all. There are some mentions in the scriptures

about animal-sacrifice, but it was not meant for killing the animals

and eating them, it was meant to show that the priests at the

sacrifice were qualified and chanting the mantras properly. The Vedic

sacrifices depend on having very expert learned Brahmanas who can

perfectly chant the mantras. They are very dependant on the proper

chanting of the mantras, so in this age one cannot find such qualified

Brahmanas -- so this type of sacrifice is no prohibited. Without

qualified priests there can be no good result. So there is an

injunction that an old animal be offered into the sacrificial fire and

the priests would prove they were competent to chant the mantras by

causing the animal to again come out of the fire in a new, young body.

That would put everyone's mind at ease and convince them the priests

were qualified and therefore the sacrifice would be successful... But

as I said there are no qualified priests now so this system has been

stopped.



So, at the time of Lord Buddha's appearance, people were taking this

animal sacrifice mentioned in the Vedas out of context and were using

it to justify turning practically every place into a

slaughter-house... But still they claimed to be followers of the Vedic

religion. Actually they were atheists. So you cannot preach theism to

atheists -- they just get angry...



Lord Buddha's main purpose was to stop the animal killing -- that was

the first thing -- as animal killers cannot understand spiritual life,

he was paving the way for the appearance of Sripada Sankaracarya who

appeared after him and preached so strongly that he defeated the

Buddhists, reestablished the authority of the Vedic scriptures and

converted or chased all the Buddhists out of India. That is why today

Buddhism is not very common in India at all -- even though Lord Buddha

appeared there [in Gaya] and once practically everyone in India was a

Buddhist... But now it is very rare. The Buddhists were mostly driven

out into the surrounding countries... But Sripada Sankaracarya didn't

preach Krishna consciousness either. He preached "covered Buddhism" or

impersonalism. But he did re-establish the authority of the Vedas...

He was also preparing the way for another incarnation of the Lord,

Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is not an incarnation actually -- He

is Krishna Himself appearing in the mood of Srimati Radharani to try

and understand Her love for Krisha... So that is very highly advanced

subject matter -- but it was Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu who defeated the

"covered Buddhism" or impersonal philosopy of Sripada Sankaracarya and

established Krishna consciousness and the perfect philosophy of

"Inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference."



So you have to stand back a little and look at the whole picture. You

can't just look at one incarnation. Krishna has a plan and He is

implementing it in stages. Buddha stopped the animal killing but

rejected the Vedic scriptures then Sankaracarya reestablished the

authority of the Vedic scriptures but still didn't give much

information about Krishna's personal form or the spiritual world, then

Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared and presented everything so

perfectly...



      namo maha-vadanyaya krsna-prema-pradaya te

      krsnaya krsna-caitanya-namne gaur-tvise namah



"O most munificent incarnation! You are Krishna Himself appearing as

Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of

Srimati Radharani, and you are widely distributing pure love of

Krishna. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You." (Sri Gauranga

Pranama)



>  i was also curious about

> something i read in the bhagavad-gita i believe its 13.15, where

> krishna says he supplies the plants food by the moonlight.  this

> seems like an ubsurdity to me.  so what is the explination for this?

                          gam avisya ca bhutani

                            dharayamy aham ojasa

                         pusnami causadhih sarvah

                           somo bhutva rasatmakah



     "I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit. I

become the moon and thereby supply the juice of life to all

vegetables."



It is described in the Bhagavad-gita that the moon gives taste to the

vegetables, the moon shine makes them taste very nice. It is not

unknown to farmers either. Many, many farmers have moon charts and

plant according to the phases of the moon. So it is a well established

fact that the moon does infulence the growth of plants.



In the same way as the moon is controlling the great oceans, it is the

moon that is causing the high tides/low tides, etc...  It is also

affecting the growth and taste of the vegetables.



There are many Vedic "Joyti-sastras" which describe the effects of

various bodies in the sky on us here on earth. Of course everyone

knows the effect of the Sun in providing heat and light. So that is

obvious. But the other planets, stars and constellations also exert an

influence and affect what is happening here on earth. It is the

science of astrology. Unfortunately the western "astrologers"

generally know very little of this science and have thus given it a

bad name, but it is actually a great science. An expert astrologer can

find out many, many things by studying the position of the planets,

stars and constellations at the time of someone's birth and comparing

them with the current positions... But it is very rare to find someone

who knows this science nowadays, even in India. But Krishna

consciousness is beyond astrology. The influence of the stars,

planets, etc is the way karma works. You get a certain time of birth

[either auspicious or inauspicious] due to your past karma... Sinful

people are born at inauspicious times and pious people at auspicious

times... It is a great science. But if you take to Krishna

consciousness seriously then there is no more karma, the influence of

the planets, etc on you is very much reduced...



>  i had also heard that before buddha that hindus believed that you

> had to go to the body of a cow after the human form to obtain

> transfer to the spiritual planets, is this true or just some rumor? 

>   these are some more things i was wondering about



As for taking birth as a cow before going back to Godhead, that is not

correct. A cow becomes a human being in the mode of goodness in the

next life then if he takes to Krishna consciousness he can go directly

back home, back to Godhead after leaving his present body.



> hare krishnas don't have a very good reputation in this country and

> i think it is for three reasons.

> 

> 1) some ask people for money at the airports, this coupled with the

> strange attire makes them easy targets.



Unfortunately the devotees in the past not only asked the people for

money [which is OK really if done honestly -- after all the people are

getting something very, very valuable -- Srila Prabhupada's books] but

they would cheat the people very badly. Peope would be in a very big

hurry to catch their airplane and the devotees would get them to give

a big note ($50, $100 etc) and promise to give change... which they

did give... One doller change... then asking "Is that OK..." so they

would keep this up until the person had to go or he would miss his

plane... So it was a disaster... So many people cheated, so many

people turned off the Hare Krishna movement.



> 2) the US has a big history

> of fanatical cults which leads people to be skeptical of religious

> movements, especially one that gets people to renounce their lives.



Yes. You have certainly had some wako cults there...



> 3) people in america are really, really addicted to sense

> gratification, we have a great deal of material success and love to

> relish in it to the point we think of someone who doesn't as evil. i

> think personally its that deep inside they know whats right and feel

> a certain guilt at their own foolishness, even if its not concsious.

> 



Yes. Krishna consciousness is there in everyone's heart. It is not

something new we have to learn, it is already there -- we just have to

uncover it -- reawaken our love for Krishna. Srila Prabhupada says in

the "Nectar of Devotion" [a VERY important book you should read if you

haven't yet -- even if you have you can read it again, every time you

read it it gets better!] that just as the walking capacity is already

there in the child, it just has to practice a little bit to walk, so

Krishna consciousness is also within everyone's heart. We just have to

practice Bhakti-yoga, Krishna consciousness to reawaken it... that's

all...



So thanks again for so many nice questions. I look forward to hearing

from you soon. Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!



Your servant



Madhudvisa dasa



--------------------------------------------------------------------

                           Chant

        Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare

             Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

                       and be Happy!

      madhudvisa@krishna.org         </sudarsana>

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