Das(h)avathara -a small confusion

vkrithika1 · Mar 12, 2008

hi all,

I have small confusion in 10 avataras of vishnu.When i was young,My mother taught me a sloka on dhasavathara which goes like this

Malsya,koorma,varaha,narashimha,vamana,parusurama,rama,balarama,krishna,kalki.

my daughter's sloka teacher taught her the dasavathara which included Bhudha as 8th avathara instead of balarama.

I asked her sloka teacher why did she teach her like this.She said Balarama and krishna belong to same age and two avatars cannot happen in same age.so Buddha is the 8th avatara she said.

Even the Famous kolu set Dhasavathara comes with balarama.

Balarama or Bhuddha- please give your information on this.

Sowparnika · Mar 13, 2008

hi,
i think the south indian version of the dasavatharam always has balarama.so our kolu dolls always feature balarama.

but i think some north indian versions have buddha instead of balarama.
You might have heard of the famous Dasavatara stotram (pralaya payodhi jale)...it was written by the 12th century saint-poet Jayadeva in his Ashtapadhi (or Gita govindam as it is also known). In it, he also mentions the ninth avatar as the buddha...

i guess a final decision would be the subject matter of religious debate...

as to the teacher's argument, i would like to think that God is capable of taking as many avatars as he wants in the same time...isn't that what makes God, God? - his omniprescence...
by the way, even parasurama and rama are contemporaries...rama is suppposed to have encountered parasurama and he challenged rama to a fight...i guess you could present it to the teacher as a counter arguement !! - if she accepts that rama and parasurama can exist at the same time, then so can krishna and balarama...!!

vkrithika1 · Mar 13, 2008

Hi sow,

I also had the same opinion regarding parsurama.Even In krishna avatar,Karna learnt Brahmastram from Parasurama.But Parasurama is chiranjeevi,I donot whether we can take this argument.I learnt from some sources,even Buddhist people do not accept this fact that Buddha is vishnu's incarnation.

Thanks for the reply.

Sowparnika · Mar 13, 2008

hi,
i subsequently found this link which has the lyrics and meaning of the dasavatara stotram...
Dasavatara

jayadeva mentions both balarama( as the 8th) and buddha (as 9th) but leaves out Krishna !
now,this makes it even more complicated !!
i'll try to chk for info from more sources,u also let me know if u have found any explanation for this difference in opinion...

rgds,
sowpar

Sriniketan · Mar 13, 2008

Krithika,
Me too had the confusion.
but when I saw in the movie, DASHAVATHARAM, there Lord Krishna explains that he gives Balarama, his elder brother the place as one of his Avatars because, in His Lord Rama's avatar, Lakshman had done yoemen service to his brother, Lord Rama decided to reciprocate that service in the form of Avatar.

sowparnika, your arguement is acceptable.

sriniketan

vkrithika1 · Mar 13, 2008

hi srini,

Thanks for the reply.It is a very good explanation.

Shanvy · Mar 13, 2008

hi krithika,

The confusion of buddha/balarama is confusing for too long. they say buddha was the ninth avatara. if that logic was to be used balarama is will not be in the picture.

The confusion starts with a dasavathara stotra which lists buddha as the 9 the avataar.

.but the buddists don't accept buddha as 9th avatar .
and his teaching differ.

Let us wait and see, what others have to say

srinivasan_vanaja · Mar 13, 2008

hi,

Even Buddhists deny that Lord Buddha is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]In the Northern tradition Balarama is replaced by Buddha who appears as the ninth avatar after Krishna, his mission being to purify Hinduism.

So once Buddha himself became an incarnation of Vishnu there was no need for the religion (Buddhism) to exist separately in this country.

What do you all say?
[/FONT]

vkrithika1 · Mar 13, 2008

hi vanaja,

Exactly. that's y buddhist don't accept the argument.

srinivasan_vanaja · Mar 13, 2008

To add some more -

Lord Buddha rejected the authority of the Vedas, condemned ritualistic practices and denied the existence of gods.

Where as, you must have heard of Lord Krishna Himself doing Sandhyavandanam and Suryanamaskaram etc.

Even Shri Chandrasekherendhra Saraswathi Swamigal specifically dealt with Buddhism, he condemned only its denial of the existence of God.

Why did Buddhism declined in its own birth place?

Even as people admired Buddha and turned to his religion, they did not give up their old beliefs and ritualistic practices. To give a contemporary example, many call themselves Gandhians but in their lives, official or personal, they follow a path just the opposite of what he showed!:mrgreen:

Buddhist texts written by bikshus have a Saraswati stotra in the beginning paying obeisance to the Hindu goddess of learning. It is not unusual to see an idol of Lord Ganesha in a Buddhist temple.

Adi Sankara accepted the tenets of Buddhism at the level of pure consciousness. The ultimate stage in his philosophy was the giving up of rituals and concentrating the mind on the infinite. Lord Buddha wanted his followers to take a quantum leap at the initial stage itself to this ultimate goal, something which is difficult to expect of ordinary men and women.

However, Lord Buddha did believe in two cardinal principles of Hinduism namely the transmigration of the soul and the law of karma. Thus fundamentally there is little difference between the two religions.

May be this denial of existence of God by Buddha is the reason for decline of Buddhism in its own birth place.

But personally I admire Lord Buddha and His teachings except the fact of non-existence of God.