Gautama Buddha in world religions
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Gautama Buddha
is also venerated as a manifestation of God in Hinduism
, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
and the Bahá'í faith. Some Hindu texts say that the Buddha was an avatar of the god Vishnu, who came to Earth to delude beings away from the Vedic religion. The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet
by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
and a Manifestation of God
in the Bahá'í faith.
of Vishnu
in the Puranic texts of Hinduism
. In the Bhagavata Purana
he is twenty fourth of twenty five avatars, prefiguring a forthcoming final incarnation. A number of Hindu
traditions portray Buddha as the most recent of ten principal avatars, known as the Dashavatara (Ten Incarnations of God).
Siddhartha Gautama's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas
and consequently [at least atheistic] Buddhism is generally viewed as a nāstika
school (heterodox, literally "It is not so") from the perspective of orthodox Hinduism.
However, while he was against the authority of the Vedas, he might not have been against the Vedas themselves. Buddhist scholar Rahula Vipola wrote that the Buddha was trying to shed light on the true meaning of the Vedas. Buddha is said to be a knower of the Veda (vedajña) or of the Vedanta (vedântajña) (Sa.myutta, i. 168) and (Sutta Nipâta, 463).SOURCE[?]
Many of the eighteen orthodox purarnas mention the Buddha in a less favouring light. They present the birth of the Buddha as a ploy by the god Vishnu to corrupt demons and sway them from vedic teachings. Only by leading them astray with his teachings could the demons be destroyed. This myth is sometimes associated with the asuras of tripura (the three citadels) as well as others. Literature from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
, on the other hand, maintains that Krishna
took the appearance of an atheistic teacher out of benevolence, in order to trick atheists into worshipping God (i.e., himself).
In Japan, since one of the symbols of Dainichi Nyorai
(one of the non-historical buddhas of Mahayana
Buddhism) was the sun, many equated Amaterasu
, the Sun Goddess, with a previous reincarnation (bodhisattva) of Dainichi Nyorai.
, the Fourth Caliph
of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
, in his book Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth
, argues that Buddha was indeed a prophet of God who preached Monotheism. He quotes from the inscriptions on Ashoka's stupas which mention "Isa'na" which means God. He quotes, "'Thus spake Devanampiya Piyadasi: "Wherefore from this very hour, I have caused religious discourses to be preached, I have appointed religious observances that mankind, having listened thereto, shall be brought to follow in the right path, and give glory to God* (Is'ana)." The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
, holds the view that the Buddha was indeed a Prophet of God.
Mirza Tahir Ahmad
has also stated that the Qur'anic figure called Dhul-Kifl
may have been the Buddha in his book "An Elementary Study of Islam."
but actually written by the Georgian
monk Euthymius
in the 11th century, was ultimately derived, through a variety of intermediate versions (Arabic
and Georgian
) from the life story of the Buddha. The king-turned-monk Ioasaph (Georgian Iodasaph, Arabic Yūdhasaf or Būdhasaf: Arabic "b" could become "y" by duplication of a dot
in handwriting) ultimately derives his name from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva
, the name used in Buddhist accounts for Gautama before he became a Buddha. Barlaam and Ioasaph were placed in the Greek Orthodox calendar of saint
s on 26 August, and in the West they were entered as "Barlaam and Josaphat" in the Roman Martyrology on the date of 27 November.
The story was translated into Hebrew in the Middle Ages (13th century more exactly) by Abraham Ibn Chisdai (or Hasdai) as "Ben-Hamelekh Vehanazir" ("The Prince and the Nazirite
"), and is widely read by the Jews to this day.
, Buddha is classified as one of the Manifestations of God which is a title for a major prophet in the Bahá'í Faith. Similarly, the Prophet
of the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh
, is believed by Bahá'ís to be the Fifth Buddha, among other prophetic stations.
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
is also venerated as a manifestation of God in Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
and the Bahá'í faith. Some Hindu texts say that the Buddha was an avatar of the god Vishnu, who came to Earth to delude beings away from the Vedic religion. The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
and a Manifestation of God
Manifestation of God
The Manifestation of God is a concept in the Bahá'í Faith that refers to what are commonly called prophets. The Manifestations of God are a series of personages who reflect the attributes of the divine into the human world for the progress and advancement of human morals and civilization...
in the Bahá'í faith.
Hinduism
Gautama Buddha is mentioned as an AvatarAvatar
In Hinduism, an avatar is a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation," but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation"....
of Vishnu
Vishnu
Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....
in the Puranic texts of Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
. In the Bhagavata Purana
Bhagavata purana
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...
he is twenty fourth of twenty five avatars, prefiguring a forthcoming final incarnation. A number of Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
traditions portray Buddha as the most recent of ten principal avatars, known as the Dashavatara (Ten Incarnations of God).
Siddhartha Gautama's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas
Vedas
The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....
and consequently [at least atheistic] Buddhism is generally viewed as a nāstika
Nastika
Āstika exists") and Nāstika are technical terms in Hinduism used to classify philosophical schools and persons, according to whether they accept the authority of the Vedas as supreme revealed scriptures, or not, respectively...
school (heterodox, literally "It is not so") from the perspective of orthodox Hinduism.
However, while he was against the authority of the Vedas, he might not have been against the Vedas themselves. Buddhist scholar Rahula Vipola wrote that the Buddha was trying to shed light on the true meaning of the Vedas. Buddha is said to be a knower of the Veda (vedajña) or of the Vedanta (vedântajña) (Sa.myutta, i. 168) and (Sutta Nipâta, 463).SOURCE[?]
Many of the eighteen orthodox purarnas mention the Buddha in a less favouring light. They present the birth of the Buddha as a ploy by the god Vishnu to corrupt demons and sway them from vedic teachings. Only by leading them astray with his teachings could the demons be destroyed. This myth is sometimes associated with the asuras of tripura (the three citadels) as well as others. Literature from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness , known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organization. It was founded in 1966 in New York City by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada...
, on the other hand, maintains that Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
took the appearance of an atheistic teacher out of benevolence, in order to trick atheists into worshipping God (i.e., himself).
Taoism, Confucianism and Shinto
Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a reincarnation of Lao Tzu.In Japan, since one of the symbols of Dainichi Nyorai
Vairocana
Vairocana is a celestial Buddha who is often interpreted as the Bliss Body of the historical Gautama Buddha; he can also be referred to as the dharmakaya Buddha and the great solar Buddha. In Sino-Japanese Buddhism, Vairocana is also seen as the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of shunyata or...
(one of the non-historical buddhas of Mahayana
Mahayana
Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...
Buddhism) was the sun, many equated Amaterasu
Amaterasu
, or is apart of the Japanese myth cycle and also a major deity of the Shinto religion. She is the goddess of the sun, but also of the universe. the name Amaterasu derived from Amateru meaning "shining in heaven." The meaning of her whole name, Amaterasu-ōmikami, is "the great August kami who...
, the Sun Goddess, with a previous reincarnation (bodhisattva) of Dainichi Nyorai.
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
Mirza Tahir AhmadMirza Tahir Ahmad
Mirza Tahir Ahmad was Khalifatul Masih IV, Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and fourth successor to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad...
, the Fourth Caliph
Khalifatul Masih
Khalifatul Masih sometimes simply referred to as Khalifah is the elected spiritual leader of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and is the successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian...
of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
, in his book Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth
Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth
Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth is a book written by Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the fourth Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. It was published in 1998, originally written in English, and subsequently translated into the Urdu and Arabic. The book explores religious thought throughout...
, argues that Buddha was indeed a prophet of God who preached Monotheism. He quotes from the inscriptions on Ashoka's stupas which mention "Isa'na" which means God. He quotes, "'Thus spake Devanampiya Piyadasi: "Wherefore from this very hour, I have caused religious discourses to be preached, I have appointed religious observances that mankind, having listened thereto, shall be brought to follow in the right path, and give glory to God* (Is'ana)." The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
, holds the view that the Buddha was indeed a Prophet of God.
Mirza Tahir Ahmad
Mirza Tahir Ahmad
Mirza Tahir Ahmad was Khalifatul Masih IV, Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and fourth successor to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad...
has also stated that the Qur'anic figure called Dhul-Kifl
Dhul-Kifl
Dhul-Kifl, or Zul-Kifl, , is an Islamic prophet who has been identified with various Hebrew Bible prophets, most commonly Ezekiel. It is believed that he lived for roughly 75 years and that he preached in what is modern day Iraq...
may have been the Buddha in his book "An Elementary Study of Islam."
Christianity and Judaism
The Greek legend of "Barlaam and Ioasaph", sometimes mistakenly attributed to the 7th century John of DamascusJohn of Damascus
Saint John of Damascus was a Syrian monk and priest...
but actually written by the Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
monk Euthymius
Euthymius of Athos
Euthymius the Athonite was a renowned Georgian philosopher and scholar, also known as Eufimius the Abasgian or St. Euthymius the Georgian...
in the 11th century, was ultimately derived, through a variety of intermediate versions (Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and Georgian
Georgian language
Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...
) from the life story of the Buddha. The king-turned-monk Ioasaph (Georgian Iodasaph, Arabic Yūdhasaf or Būdhasaf: Arabic "b" could become "y" by duplication of a dot
Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
in handwriting) ultimately derives his name from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva
Bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...
, the name used in Buddhist accounts for Gautama before he became a Buddha. Barlaam and Ioasaph were placed in the Greek Orthodox calendar of saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s on 26 August, and in the West they were entered as "Barlaam and Josaphat" in the Roman Martyrology on the date of 27 November.
The story was translated into Hebrew in the Middle Ages (13th century more exactly) by Abraham Ibn Chisdai (or Hasdai) as "Ben-Hamelekh Vehanazir" ("The Prince and the Nazirite
Nazirite
In the Hebrew Bible, a nazirite or nazarite, , refers to one who voluntarily took a vow described in . The term "nazirite" comes from the Hebrew word nazir meaning "consecrated" or "separated"...
"), and is widely read by the Jews to this day.
Bahá'í views
In the Bahá'í FaithBahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
, Buddha is classified as one of the Manifestations of God which is a title for a major prophet in the Bahá'í Faith. Similarly, the Prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
of the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh
Bahá'u'lláh
Bahá'u'lláh , born ' , was the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. He claimed to be the prophetic fulfilment of Bábism, a 19th-century outgrowth of Shí‘ism, but in a broader sense claimed to be a messenger from God referring to the fulfilment of the eschatological expectations of Islam, Christianity, and...
, is believed by Bahá'ís to be the Fifth Buddha, among other prophetic stations.