buddha

[Parabrahman 0]

do vaisnavas follow the teachings of buddha since he is a form of krishna or do they not?

[Max_ 0]

I'm no authority on this at all, so I'll just tell you what Srila Prabhupada said in a recording I once heard. He said that Lord Buddha is indeed an avatara of Lord Krishna, but the main purpose that He came in the form of Lord Buddha was to stop people from sacrificing animals in Vedic rituals.

[silvere 0]

i don't think so... as Buddha came for a specific goal as mentionned, we don't follow Him because he preached against the Vedas to make people stop animal slaughter...

 

But of course, we honor Him and offer pranams

[Max_ 0]

Forgive me if I'm wrong but didn't a Vaishnava(I can't remember if it was Srila Prabhupada or not) say that Lord Buddha taught impersonalism because it is all the people could understand at the time? or something to that effect.

[silvere 0]

yes i think so. Still we respect Buddha.

[mark 0]

Haribol,

This is from Srimad Bhagavatam canto 1 chap 3 txt 24:

 

"Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Aïjanä, in the province of Gayä, just for the purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theist."

 

Srila Prabhupadas comments:

"Lord Buddha, a powerful incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, appeared in the province of Gayä (Bihar) as the son of Aïjanä, and he preached his own conception of nonviolence and deprecated even the animal sacrifices sanctioned in the Vedas. At the time when Lord Buddha appeared, the people in general were atheistic and preferred animal flesh to anything else. On the plea of Vedic sacrifice, every place was practically turned into a slaughterhouse, and animal-killing was indulged in unrestrictedly. Lord Buddha preached nonviolence, taking pity on the poor animals. He preached that he did not believe in the tenets of the Vedas and stressed the adverse psychological effects incurred by animal-killing. Less intelligent men of the age of Kali, who had no faith in God, followed his principle, and for the time being they were trained in moral discipline and nonviolence, the preliminary steps for proceeding further on the path of God realization. He deluded the atheists because such atheists who followed his principles did not believe in God, but they kept their absolute faith in Lord Buddha, who himself was the incarnation of God. Thus the faithless people were made to believe in God in the form of Lord Buddha. That was the mercy of Lord Buddha: he made the faithless faithful to him."

 

I suppose one need not worship Lord Buddha if one believes in God but if you do not believe in God and would prefer to worship a wise and intelligent 'man' then best to worship Lord Buddha (as he was an incarnation of God).

 

Are buddhists supposed to be vegetarian ? I know someone who

says they are a buddhist but still eats meat?

 

I have only read a little about Buddhism, and there are many varieties but some of the teachings about how we should live (ie being truthful, honest, non-violent, right thinking etc) seem to coincide with principles of God conciousness, apart from believing in Gods personal feature, ie seeing the sunshine but not the sun.

 

Please excuse any offence or ignorance on my part, as I am not learned but am interested, and would happily stand corrected if wrong.

Hare Krishna

Mark