so strongly on this aspect of animal sacrifices, Buddha could only pretend to deny the authority of the sacred texts. He only acts in order to snatch men from this vice of killing animals, and also to protect the poor animals from the massacre reserved for them by their “elders”, so eager in words of brotherhood, universal peace, justice and equality. Where is the justice when we allow innocent beasts to be killed?
Buddha wanted to put an end to all this butchery, and his cult of non-violence was propagated for this purpose, not only in India, but also far outside the mainland.
From a technical point of view, one will say that the philosophy of Buddha is a form of atheism, because it does not recognize the Supreme Lord and denies the authority of the Vedas, the original holy scriptures. But this is only a cover-up maneuver on the part of the Lord. Buddha, as a divine manifestation, identifies himself with the original author of Vedic knowledge: he cannot therefore reject it. If he pretended to do so, it was because the demonic beings who ceaselessly envy the devotees of the Lord, tried to justify the slaughter of the cow, or of animals in general, from the Vedic texts (as some “fashionable” priests still do). It is only for this reason that Buddha had to reject outright the authority of the Vedic scriptures. His enterprise is pure tactics, and it must be understood that if it had been otherwise, he would not have been recognized for the Avatar announced in the scriptures themselves.
The poet Jayadeva, the master scholar, would not have revered him in his sublime hymns either. Buddha resumed the teaching of the basic principles of the Vedas, but according to the demands of the time (as Acarya Sankara will also do later), precisely in order to restore the authority of the Vedas. Both, the Avatar Buddha and the sage Sankaracarya, again cleared the path of theism, and the learned masters who came afterwards, more especially Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who was none other than the Lord, guided men on this way, leading them to realize God and return to Him.
The Srimad bhagavatam, words of wisdom, the wisdom of God, the pure spiritual science, was compiled just before the onset of kali-yuga, the iron age, the present age, here is nearly 5,000 years ago, and Buddha appeared about 2,600 years ago. The Srimad-Bhagavatam had therefore predicted his coming. Such is the value of this writing of light, which also contains a number of other prophecies, which we all see come true one after the other. This point helps to establish the absolute character of Srimad-Bhagavatam, where there is no trace of error, illusion, deception or imperfection, that is to say of the four weaknesses proper to any being conditioned by matter. Liberated souls stand beyond these imperfections, and this is how they can see and predict future events, even far removed.
Logos 356
What kind of sex life can one lead in living in the material world?