BUDHA AVATAR

 SASHI'S VIEWS                                                                                                                                 The Story on original Budda Avatara is as follows: Tripurasura was a demon who had a very pious and chaste wife. Since she was always praying for her husband’s good health and long life, the demigods were unable to violate her good conduct and kill the demon. Hence, Rudra, popularly known as Shiva, along with the demigods, sought the help of the Supreme Lord Vishnu.                                                                                                 Tripura’s wife was a chaste woman who went on a pilgrimage to temples to pray for the longevity of her husband and security of her status as a married woman. At one place she saw very beautiful handsome Buddha who was digambara or nude and lost her heart to him and embraced him in ecstasy forgetting her mission. This Buddha was the avatara of Vishnu meant to mislead all demons to hate the Vedas by his mesmerising words. So once her chastity was lost, the devas were no longer honor bound to fulfill her prayers (as she has become sinful) and it was easy for Rudra (Shiva) to kill Tripurasura. In most of our temples, Dashavatara statues are carved on the doors or on sides. More often, we can find that, Budda is carved as a naked man. Even, in the dashavatara slokas, we mention “Battale Nintiha Boudha” (Budda standing naked).                               Nowhere in the history of Goutama Buddha, there is a mention that, he stood naked. Only Jain religion talks about Digambaras and not Buddist. So, we can conclude that, the Budda that we believe an avatara of Lord is not Gautama Budda.                                                                                                                                                                          If we believe that, Goutam Budda is Lord’s Avatara, then all his preaching will become as sacred as Bhagawat Gita itself and we cannot question anything. He did rejected many of the sayings in Vedas and Puranas. I have no doubt that, Gautam Budda was a very learned person and he did a great help in introducing Ahimsa into Sanatana Hindu Dharma. As Bhagavat says, “Every great personality has Lords Amsha in him”, Gautam Budda must have Lord’s amsha in him. But, I will stop short of accepting him as an Avatara of Lord himself.