ततः कलौ संप्रवृत्ते संमोहाय सुरद्विषाम् ।
बुद्धो नाम्नाञ्जनसुतः कीकटेषु भविष्यति ।।24।।
SYNONYMS
tataù—thereafter; kalau—the age of Kali; sampravåtte—having ensued;
sammohäya—for the purpose of deluding; sura—the theists; dviñäm—those
who are envious; buddhaù—Lord Buddha; nämnä—of the name;
aïjana-sutaù—whose mother was Aïjanä; kékaöeñu—in the province of Gayä
(Bihar); bhaviñyati—will take place.
TRANSLATION
Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha,
the son of Aïjanä, in the province of Gayä, just for the purpose of deluding
those who are envious of the faithful theist.
PURPORT
Lord Buddha, a powerful incarnation of the Personality of Godhead,
appeared in the province of Gayä (Bihar) as the son of Aïjanä, and he
preached his own conception of nonviolence and deprecated even the animal
sacrifices sanctioned in the Vedas. At the time when Lord Buddha appeared,
the people in general were atheistic and preferred animal flesh to anything
else. On the plea of Vedic sacrifice, every place was practically turned into a
slaughterhouse, and animal-killing was indulged in unrestrictedly. Lord
Buddha preached nonviolence, taking pity on the poor animals. He preached
that he did not believe in the tenets of the Vedas and stressed the adverse
Copyright © 1998 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Int'l. All Rights Reserved.
psychological effects incurred by animal-killing. Less intelligent men of the age
of Kali, who had no faith in God, followed his principle, and for the time being
they were trained in moral discipline and nonviolence, the preliminary steps
for proceeding further on the path of God realization. He deluded the atheists
because such atheists who followed his principles did not believe in God, but
they kept their absolute faith in Lord Buddha, who himself was the
incarnation of God. Thus the faithless people were made to believe in God in
the form of Lord Buddha. That was the mercy of Lord Buddha: he made the
faithless faithful to him.
Killing of animals before the advent of Lord Buddha was the most
prominent feature of the society. People claimed that these were Vedic
sacrifices. When the Vedas are not accepted through the authoritative
disciplic succession, the casual readers of the Vedas are misled by the flowery
language of that system of knowledge. In the Bhagavad-gétä a comment has
been made on such foolish scholars (avipaçcitaù). The foolish scholars of Vedic
literature who do not care to receive the transcendental message through the
transcendental realized sources of disciplic succession are sure to be
bewildered. To them, the ritualistic ceremonies are considered to be all in all.
They have no depth of knowledge. According to the Bhagavad-gétä (15.15),
vedaiç ca sarvair aham eva vedyaù: the whole system of the Vedas is to lead one
gradually to the path of the Supreme Lord. The whole theme of Vedic
literature is to know the Supreme Lord, the individual soul, the cosmic
situation and the relation between all these items. When the relation is
known, the relative function begins, and as a result of such a function the
ultimate goal of life or going back to Godhead takes place in the easiest
manner. Unfortunately, unauthorized scholars of the Vedas become captivated
by the purificatory ceremonies only, and natural progress is thereby checked.
To such bewildered persons of atheistic propensity, Lord Buddha is the
emblem of theism. He therefore first of all wanted to check the habit of
animal-killing. The animal-killers are dangerous elements on the path going
back to Godhead. There are two types of animal-killers. The soul is also
sometimes called the “animal” or the living being. Therefore, both the
slaughterer of animals and those who have lost their identity of soul are
Copyright © 1998 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Int'l. All Rights Reserved.
animal-killers.
Mahäräja Parékñit said that only the animal-killer cannot relish the
transcendental message of the Supreme Lord. Therefore if people are to be
educated to the path of Godhead, they must be taught first and foremost to
stop the process of animal-killing as above mentioned. It is nonsensical to say
that animal-killing has nothing to do with spiritual realization. By this dangerous
theory many so-called sannyäsés have sprung up by the grace of Kali-yuga who
preach animal-killing under the garb of the Vedas. The subject matter has
already been discussed in the conversation between Lord Caitanya and
Maulana Chand Kazi Shaheb. The animal sacrifice as stated in the Vedas is
different from the unrestricted animal-killing in the slaughterhouse. Because
the asuras or the so-called scholars of Vedic literatures put forward the
evidence of animal-killing in the Vedas, Lord Buddha superficially denied the
authority of the Vedas. This rejection of the Vedas by Lord Buddha was
adopted in order to save people from the vice of animal-killing as well as to
save the poor animals from the slaughtering process of their big brothers who
clamor for universal brotherhood, peace, justice and equity. There is no justice
when there is animal-killing. Lord Buddha wanted to stop it completely, and
therefore his cult of ahiàsä was propagated not only in India but also outside
the country.
Technically Lord Buddha’s philosophy is called atheistic because there is no
acceptance of the Supreme Lord and because that system of philosophy denied
the authority of the Vedas. But that is an act of camouflage by the Lord. Lord
Buddha is the incarnation of Godhead. As such, he is the original propounder
of Vedic knowledge. He therefore cannot reject Vedic philosophy. But he
rejected it outwardly because the sura-dviña, or the demons who are always
envious of the devotees of Godhead, try to support cow-killing or
animal-killing from the pages of the Vedas, and this is now being done by the
modernized sannyäsés. Lord Buddha had to reject the authority of the Vedas
altogether. This is simply technical, and had it not been so he would not have
been so accepted as the incarnation of Godhead. Nor would he have been
worshiped in the transcendental songs of the poet Jayadeva, who is a Vaiñëava
äcärya. Lord Buddha preached the preliminary principles of the Vedas in a
Copyright © 1998 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Int'l. All Rights Reserved.
manner suitable for the time being (and so also did Çaìkaräcärya) to establish
the authority of the Vedas. Therefore both Lord Buddha and Äcärya Çaìkara
paved the path of theism, and Vaiñëava äcäryas, specifically Lord Çré Caitanya
Mahäprabhu, led the people on the path towards a realization of going back to
Godhead.
We are glad that people are taking interest in the nonviolent movement of
Lord Buddha. But will they take the matter very seriously and close the animal
slaughterhouses altogether? If not, there is no meaning to the ahiàsä cult.
Çrémad-Bhägavatam was composed just prior to the beginning of the age of
Kali (about five thousand years ago), and Lord Buddha appeared about
twenty-six hundred years ago. Therefore in the Çrémad-Bhägavatam Lord
Buddha is foretold. Such is the authority of this clear scripture. There are
many such prophecies, and they are being fulfilled one after another. They will
indicate the positive standing of Çrémad-Bhägavatam, which is without trace of
mistake, illusion, cheating and imperfection, which are the four flaws of all
conditioned souls. The liberated souls are above these flaws; therefore they can
see and foretell things which are to take place on distant future dates.
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