Das(h)avathara -a small confusion

Very nice explanation, vanaja, and am also admire Lord Buddha and his teachings...

sriniketan

 

hi srini,

thanks for your comments.

 

Hi friends,
Regarding the confusion in Balarama and Buddha Avatar, I remembered a paragraph which I studied long time ago, just now i remembered it.

It is in the book--'SRI RAGHAVENDRA MAHIMAI'---Part 1, page 28.
The author explains rather clears the doubt regarding the Buddha Avatar, read it as follows:

"In order to protect the good souls from the atrocities of 'THIRUPURAASURAS' Lord took the BOUTHA OR BOUDDHA AVATAR. It happened during the sandhyakalam'of Dwapara Yuga, which means before the end of Dwapara Yuga and the advent of Kali Yuga. We need not be confused with Lord Buddha here."

Vanaja, I think this is what Jayadevar had mentioned in Ashtapathi..

sriniketan

 

hi,
thanks vanaja for the nice explanation on buddha.As you say,even buddhists don't accept that buddha was an avatar of vishnu .
thanks sriniketan for your reference.yes,this might be what is referred to in the ashtapadhi and the confusion may have arisen due to later interpretations...

i am giving here a link which i found which explains the avataras and the meaning of jayadeva's ashtapadhi...it is interesting to note that he considers balarama as the eighth avatar and buddha as the ninth. krishna is not considered an avatar as i believe the north indian vaishnava school of thought considers that krishna is the ultimate god and not the avatar. SanathanaDharma

This is however not the case in the south indian srivaishnava philosophy which considers vishnu as the ultimate and krishna is considered as an avatar.
Sri vedanta desikar,the great saint and vaishnava aacharya also describes krishna and balarama as the eighth and ninth avatars in his dasavatara stotram which he composed in the dasavatara sannidhi of srirangam temple.

rgds,
sowpar

 

hi,

srini had mentioned Boutha or Buddha and she is correct. Boutha is another name to Buddha. no separate Boutha exists as you say.

There are two type of avatars, primary avatars and secondary avatars. The most common type of primary avatars are called Swarupavatars, in which He manifests Himself in His Sat-cid-ananda form. In the primary avatars, such as Narasimha, Rama and Krishna, Vishnu directly descends.

The Svarupavatars are subdivided into Amsarupavatars and Purna avatars. In Amsarupavatars, Vishnu is fully present in the person of the organism but He manifests in the person only partially. Such avatars include the first five avatars from Matsya to Vamana except for Narasimha.

Narasimha, Rama and Krishna, on the other hand, are types of Purna avatars, in which all the qualities and powers of the Lord are expressed. Narasimha and Rama are also additionally considered to be Lila avatars.

Other avatars are secondary avatars, such as Parashurama in which Vishnu does not directly descend. Parashurama is the only one of the traditional ten avatars that is not a direct descent of Vishnu.

Note that the secondary avatars are not worshipped. Only the direct, primary avatars are worshipped. However, in practice, the direct avatars that are worshipped today are the Purna avatars of Narasimha, Rama and Krishna. Krishna, among most Vaishnavites, is considered to be the highest kind of Purna avatar.

So, you can see that there is lot of difference in the Primary Avatars itself.

And you need to note one more point - all these primary avatars somewhere or other in the Puranas have said or given viswaroopa darshan and showed that they are descendants of Lord Vishnu.

But Lord Buddha neither believed in existence of God nor he declared that he is God or an avatar of Lord Vishnu. Nor he killed demons like other avatars.

I hope I am clear.

 

Thanks vanaja for your explanation regarding Boutha Avatar which will be the 9th.

To make it clear the author has stated that not to confuse Boutha Avatar and Lord Buddha, as the same person and he has given the explanations ( which I had given here).

Krithika, If I had confused you I am sorry. I have given what I read on that book and he states that Boutha Avatar as the 9th Avatar. (Hope your confusion is cleared by vanaja's explanation) Thanks for starting this thread.

sriniketan

 

hi ILtes,
that's a good point of discussion. I too had this doubt regarding the nineth incarnation. Lord Rama bestowed lakshmana to become his elder brother Balrama. then Lakshmana shld also be included in the list.
Another interesting observation regarding dasavtharam is that it is a system of evolution of man from an aquatic to amphibian etc upto man. while this is reached at Rama's incarnation Krishna rep the evolution of intelect.
It is great how our ancestors had such vision. Please share ur views in this regard.
vidya