Buddha Avatar

The founder of Buddhism.

In days of old in a battle the devas were defeated by the asuras and the gods approached Vishnu with their grievance. Vishnu then descended as the son of Suddhodana with the name Gautama Buddha (Siddhartha). Then he went to the asuras and made them reject the Vedas and the laws thereof. All the Daityas (Asuras) became Buddhists. The story is in the Agni purana, Chapter 16, that the purpose of Buddha is convert every asura to Buddhism.

Asura = Violence  Buddhist = Non Violence.  Violence means not following the laws of nature and non violence means to follow them.

The story given above is in accordance with the Puranas. The following are the facts gained by historic investigations.

Gautama Buddha was born in B.C. 560, in Kapilavastu near the Himalayas. His father was Suddhodana. He was born in the family of the Sakyas. The word `Sakya' is another form of the.word Ksatriya. The real name of Buddha was Siddhartha. Suddhodana brought up his son in such a way that he should not be subjected to any sort of mental pain or worry. So he kept Buddha aloof from the outer world. Thus he spent his childhood in comfort and pleasure. Once by chance he happened to see a sick man, an old man and a dead body. The sight made him thoughtful. He felt from within his heart extreme compassion for all the souls. He began to think upon a way to remove sorrow and pain from the world and to bring about peace and comfort.

The change that appeared in the son worried the father. So at the age of sixteen he made Siddhartha marry Yasodhara. A son was born to them. But the mind of Siddhartha was restless, distressed and agitated. One day Siddhartha discarded everything and went out of the palace alone.

Siddhartha wandered from place to place learning from various teachers. But he did not find peace. Once on a full moon day while he was sitting in meditation under a banyan tree he got `Bodha'. (insight or realization). From that day onwards he began to be known by the name `Buddha'. After that he came to Kasi, and taught his disciples how he got Bodha or realization. The number of his followers increased day by day. Thus Buddhism came into being. Buddha said that the reason for pain and sorrow in the world was desire and that sorrow could be exterminated only by controlling and overcoming all desire. To attain Eternal Bliss one should be true and righteous in thought, deed and word and that non violence (Ahimsa) is the foundation of righteousness. Buddhism then spread everywhere in Bharata. Buddha meets and converses with Maitreya.

Gautama Buddha left this planet at the age of eighty.