There has been some discussion about whether Buddha is an incarnation
of the Lord. SrI ParASara BhaTTar interprets the nAma-s 787 to 810
in terms of the Buddha incarnation. According to this
interpretation, the Buddha incarnation was a kapaTa avatAram that was
meant to mislead those who do not deserve to reach Him in this birth
because of their bad deeds, and it is a form of punishment metted out
to these folks by the Lord, namely to mislead them from the path that
will lead them to Him. SrI V. V. Ramanujan refers to the AzhvAr
pASuram "kaLLa vEDattaik koNDu pOyp puram pukkavARum kalandu aSurarai
uLLam bedam SeiddiTTu uyir uNDa upAya'ngaL". The Buddha incarnation
is not one of the incarnations that we worship.
The detailed write-up of SrI BhaTTar's interpretation for the nAma-s
from SrI vishNu sahasra nAma for this segment can be found in the
postings on SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam. It should be clearly
understood that this incrnation is NOT for worship by us, but for the
sole purpose of BhagavAn misleading those whom He does not wish to
bless with the right path in this birth. A vague example to
illustrate the concept of kapaTa avatAram is the Mohini avatAram that
the Lord took for the sole purpose of deceiving the demons.
There is a reference to Buddha and Buddha matham in SrImad rAmAyaNa,
ayodhyA kANDa 109.35 - yathA hi coraH sa tathA hi buddhaH... (rAma
addresses jAbAli and refers to buddha as a cheat and the buddha
matham as a non-vedic religion). Thus, there is a reference to
buddha and the buddhist religion even in rAmAyaNa, and so the
reference to buddha in SrI vishNu sahasra nAmam may not be to the
buddha that lived in our times.
SrI v.n. vedAnta deSikan notes that there is a lot of difference in
interpretation of nammAzhvAr's pASuram in this context, and he deems
it fit to leave the discussion at a superficial level for AzhvAr's
pASuram. The same approach seems relevant for the issue at hand,
except to state that there was an incarnation of the Lord that taught
the Buddhist religion for the purpose of misleading those with
demonic qualities or Asuric tendencies.
-dAsan kRshNamAcAryan
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