[Advaita-l] nAstika mata (bauddha mata) khaNDana in rAmAyaNa

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

"Anguttara Nikaya- Acintita Sutta" in Buddhism does speak about the inconceivable (acintiya) areas and that any discussion on them will only result in madness.   Another equivalent of this word is "Anirvachaniya",  with which the Advaitins are familiar. Should we stii dub Lord Buddha's silence on the topic of God as Nastika Mata?. May be Lord Buddha did not think about the opinion of the furture scholars and that is why he did not feel the need to elaborate that point. Of course purana does tell us that people were confused by the teachings of Lord Buddha.

Regards,

Sunil KB

--- On Sat, 4/30/11, Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com> wrote:

From: Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] nAstika mata (bauddha mata) khaNDana in rAmAyaNa
To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Date: Saturday, April 30, 2011, 9:42 AM

On Thu, 28 Apr 2011, Bhaskar YR wrote:

> Being a (mediocre)
 follower of vaidika dharma, I do agree bauddha matha is
> a nAstika mata and has to be a discarded philosophy.  But I dont think
> they are deserved to be called thieves and need punishment !!

There have been a range of views towards Buddhism from the astikas ranging from quite supportive to downright antagonistic.  Some have accused Buddhism of taking Vedic concepts but refusing to acknowledge their source.  For instance Gaudapadacharya in his karika 4.99 says

kramate na hi buddhasya GYAnaM dharmeShu tAyinaH |
sarve dharmAstathA GYAnaM naitadbuddhena bhAShitam || 99 ||

"The knowledge of the all-pervading enlightened one does not associate with objects. In the same way all souls do not associate with objects. This was not taught by the Buddha."

Shankaracharya observes that it was not taught by the Buddha because it had already been taught by the upanishads.

So in that sense they are
 "thieves".

>  When it
> comes to observance of shishtAchAra (moral & ethical values),
> dharmAcharaNa, ahimsAcharaNa, shAnti, sahana etc. traditional monks from
> baudha & jain schools never drop back and lose the race with vaidika
> dharma followers.  The sublimity & tranquility among these sAdhu-s &
> saNyAsi-s is always an ideal for the followers of same path in other
> religions also.  bhagavan gautama buddha stands tall as an example.

Is this just a case of "the grass looks greener on the other side?" Indian newspapers carry stories about scandals amongst Hindu sadhus but Thai newspapers (to give one example) often report stories about scandals amongst Buddhist bhikshus.  Here is one example from the Bangkok Post.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/199026/scandal-rocks-thailand-buddhist-sangha-once-again

The lesson to be learned from all this is that one should look at the character of the individual not the group they belong to.

-- Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
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