Ramana Maharshi on the Buddha (was Re: Antiquity of Advaita Vedanta)

[Sankaran Kartik Jayanarayanan]

On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, Jaldhar H. Vyas wrote:

[..]

> ...but bear in mind he lived at least 13 centuries after Buddhism became
> extinct in the south of India.
>
> In the absence of living Buddhist traditions we have to look at such
> literary evidence as exists and the Buddhas philosophy as described in
> philosophical works seems to be quite different from Advaita Vedanta in
> some important respects.
>

According to Ramana, the Buddhists misinterpreted Buddha's silence.

>From "Talks", Talk no. 273, 23 October, 1936:

D: Buddha, when asked if there is the ego, was silent; when asked if there
is no ego, he was silent; asked if there is God, he was silent; asked if
there is no God, he was silent. Silence was his answer to all these.
Mahayana and Hinayana schools have both misinterpreted his silence because
they say that he was an atheist...His interpreters are wrong. Is it not
so?

M: You are right.

-Kartik