SB 1.3.24 (1962)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT No. 24
Tatah kalou samprabritte sammohaya suradbisham Buddha namno anjana sutah kikatesu bhavisyati.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Tatah—thereafter, Kalou—the age of Kali, Sampravitte—having been ensued, Sammohaya—for the purpose of deluding, Sura—the theists, Dwisam—those who are envious, Buddha—Lord Buddha, Namno—of the name, Anjana—the name of Lord Buddha's mother, Kikitesu—in the province of Gaya (Bihar), Bhavisyati—will take place.
TRANSLATION
Then in the beginning of the Kaliyuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha the son of Anjana in the province of Gaya just for the purpose of deluding those persons who are envious of the faithful theist.
PURPORT
Lord Buddha the powerful incarnation of the Personality of Godhead appeared in the province of Gaya (Bihar) as the son of Anjana and He preached His own conception of non-violence and deprecated even the animal sacrifices sanctioned in the Vedas. At one time when Lord Buddha appeared, the people in general became almost all atheists and preferred animal food more than anything else. On the plea of Vedic sacrifice every place was practically turned into a slaughter house and animal killing was indulged in unrestrictedly. Lord Buddha preached non-violence taking pity on the poor animals. He preached that He did not believe in the tenets of the Vedas and stressed on the point of psychological effects in the matter of 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 up in moral discipline and non-violence the preliminary steps for proceeding further on the path of God realisation. 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 that He made the faithless faithful towards Him.
Killing of animals before the advent of Lord Buddha was the most prominent feature of all the then society under the shadow of Vedic sacrifices. When Vedas are not accepted through the authoritative desciplic chain of succession, the casual readers of the Vedas are misled by the flowery language of the system of knowledge. In the Bhagwat Geeta a comment has been made on such foolish Vedic scholars. The foolish scholars of Vedic literature who do not care to receive the transcendental message through the transcendental and realised sources of disciplic succession—is sure to be bewildered and such bewildered souls have been described 'as (avipascitah) or the foolish scholars'. To such foolish scholars of Vedas, the ritualistic ceremonies are considered to be all in all without any deep penetration in the depth of the knowledge. (Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyam) that is the verison of Bhagwat Geeta. (BG 15.15) The whole system of the Vedas is to lead one gradually to the path of the Supreme Lord. The whole theme of the Vedic literature is made to know the Supreme Lord, the individual soul, the cosmic situation and the relations between all these items. When the relation is known the relative function begins and as a result of such function the ultimate goal of life or going back to Godhead takes place in the easiest manner. Unfortunately unauthorised scholars of the Vedas became captivated by the purificatory ceremonies only and the natural progress is checked thereby to achieve the ultimate goal.
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 the dangerous elements on the path of 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 as well as those who have lost their identity of the soul, both are animal killers.
Maharaj Parikshit said that only the animal killer alone 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 bothwise as above mentioned. It is practically nonsensical for him who says that animal killing has nothing to do with spiritual realisation. By this dangerous theory many so called Sanyasins (?) have sprang up by the grace of Kaliyuga, who preached animal killing under the garb of Vedas. The subject matter is already discussed above in the way of arguments between Lord Chaitanya and the Maulana Chand Kazi Shaheb.* The purpose of animal sacrifice as stated in the Vedas is different from the unrestricted animal killing in the slaughter house. Because the Ashuras or the so called scholars of Vedic literatures would put forward the evidence of animal killing in the Vedas, Lord Buddha—superficially denied the authority of Vedas. This rejection of Vedas by Lord Buddha was adopted by Him in order to save people from the vice of animal killing as well as to save the poor animal from the slaughtering process by its big brother who clamour for universal brotherhood, peace, justice and equity. There is no justice when there is animal killing in the slaughter house. Lord Buddha wanted to stop it completely and therefore His cult of Ahimsha was propagated not only in India but also outside the country.
Technically Lord Buddha's philosophy is called atheistic philosophy because there is no acceptance of the Supreme Lord and because the system of philosophy denied the authority of the Vedas. But that is an act of camouflage by the Lord. He is the incarnation of Godhead. As such He is the propounder of the Vedic knowledge originally. He therefore cannot reject the Vedic philosophy. But He rejected it outward]y because the Suradbisha, or the demons who are always envious of the devotees of Godhead would try to put forward the evidence of cow killing or animal killing from the pages of the Vedas as it is being done by the modernised Sanyasins (?)—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. Neither He would have been worshipped in the transcendental songs of Poet Jayadeva who is a Vaishnava Acharya. He preached the preliminary principles of the Vedas in a manner suitable for the time being and so also did Acharya Sankaracharya to establish the authority of the Vedas. Therefore Lord Buddha and Acharya Shankara both of them paved the path of Theism and the Vaishnava Acharya specifically Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu led the people on the path rightly towards a realisation of Back to Godhead.
We are glad that people are taking interest in the non-violent movement of Lord Buddha. But will they take the matter very seriously and close the animal slaughter house altogether? If not there is no meaning in such caricature.
Shrimad Bhagwatam was composed just prior to the beginning of the age of Kali (about five thousands of years before) and Lord Buddha appeared about 2600 years before. Therefore in the Shrimad Bhagwatam Lord Buddha's time is foretold only and that is the authority of this clean scripture. There are many such foretellings and they are taking place one after another. All these foretellings indicate the positive standing of Shrimad Bhagawatam without any trace of mistake, illusion, cheating and imperfectness which are the four principles of flaws for all conditioned souls. The liberated souls are above these flaws and therefore they can see and foretell things which are to take place at prolonged future dates.