Pure Land Buddhism as
Vaishnavism
Part Nine: Exposing the Historical Emptiness of Theravadin Buddhist
Claims
by Bhakti Ananda
Goswami
So far I have stated that the
Buddhist iconography of both the Northern or Mahayana (with the Pure Land
devotional tradition at its core) and Southern or Hinayana (Theravadin or
atheistic) schools is the same. I have described seeing examples of this
canon of sacred forms from the earliest known Buddhist sites from Japan and
Angkor Wat Cambodia to Nepal and Sri Lanka, the proud ‘capital’ of Buddhist
atheism. Furthermore I have stated
that this symbology and iconography is easily recognizable as deriving from
Krishna-centric Vaishnavism, as exemplified by the devotional cultus of Sri
Krishna (Hari = HRIH Dharma Kaya Amitabha) and Sri Baladeva (Sankarshan Vishnu =
Sambhogya Kaya Amitayus-Lokeshvara) at Their ancient Indian Center of
devotion in Vrindavana-Mathura. I have explained that authentic (pure Pure
Land) early Buddhism was a form of Krishna-centric Vaishnavism, but that
atheistic Buddhism has misrepresented itself to the world as the original form
of Buddhism. Because the Theravadin
Buddhist elite of Sri Lanka proudly proclaim Sri Lanka to be the historical
capital of Buddhist atheism (Theravada), and this claim is not disputed in the
Theravadin Buddhist world, I have very carefully sought evidence to support
this claim. Since the Sri Lankan Theravadins themselves assert that
their Buddhism first came to Sri Lanka as part of the Indian Emperor Ashoka the
Great’s Buddhist missionary effort, logically one should be able to understand
the ‘original’ Buddhism of the island from gaining an accurate understanding
of the Buddhism promoted by Ashoka’s missionaries. So I carefully
investigated the Buddhism of Emperor Ashoka, and here is what I found.
(Remember that the earliest archeological evidence of Buddhist Sacred Art
throughout both the Northern and Southern ranges of Buddhism has striking
commonalities with Vrindavana-Mathuran Krishna-centric Vaishnava iconography and
symbolism.)
In
Joseph Campbell’s Masks of God (4 volumes, Viking) and other comparative and
exclusive studies of Buddhism, it has been readily acknowledged that
Ashoka’s own Buddhist Master had a great monastery in Mathura.
Campbell cites a reference to this claiming that Ashoka’s Master’s (Third
Century BCE) monastery in Mathura had 10,000 monks residing in it!
About Mathura
This area, popularly known as Brij
Bhoomi, is a major pilgrimage place of Hindus.
Shree Krishna, the popular incarnation of Vishnu, is believed to have
been born in Mathura (Muttra) and the area is closely linked with many episodes
in his early life. Nearby is Vrindavan (Vrindaban) where Krishna ‘sported’
with his gopis (milkmaids).
History
Mathura is an ancient cultural and
religious center. The Buddhist
monasteries that were built here received considerable patronage from Ashoka,
and Mathura was mentioned by Ptolemy and by the Chinese visitors Fahsien (who
visited India from 401 to 410 AD) and Xuan Zhang (634-762 AD) in their works…
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Ashoka (Third Century
BCE) was the last of the great Mauryan Dynasty Emperors. The Mauryas
were Vaishnavas, but Ashoka, after a particularly horrific military campaign
(against Kalinga) that consolidated his rule over much of India, is said to have
‘converted’ to the non-violent discipline of ‘Buddhism’, becoming its
greatest royal advocate. Filled
with missionary zeal, he energetically patronized this ‘Buddhism’, building
up its holy places and supporting its monasteries and sending missionaries with
its messages of benevolence as far as the Mediterranean! It is one of
these missions (actually related to his personal family) that supposedly reached
the Island of Sri Lanka, establishing Buddhism there. He participated
in Buddhist councils, and while he protected Vaishnavism and some other
traditional Indian religions, he also suppressed heterodox groups. In
fact, “There is also evidence from the Edicts [of Ashoka] that he
intervened to expel dissident elements from the Buddhist Order...” (Page
100, The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, 1997, Oxford University Press.)
It is not contested that Ashoka continued his protection and support of
Vaishnavism, or that his own Buddhist Master’s ashram was in Mathura, the
royal religio-cultural capital of Krishna-centric Vaishnavism, so what was the
so-called ‘Buddhism’ that in his liberality he found so intolerable that he
actually suppressed and expelled as “dissident”? Well, what is
the heterodox ‘Buddhism’ that arrived in Sri Lanka at that time?
What ‘Buddhism’ has continuously denied the clearly Mahayana-related
evidence of Pure Land Ashokan Buddhism, which from all of the archeological
hard evidence arrived in Sri Lanka during the same era, and was spread
throughout the entire region (and beyond) by Ashoka’s missionaries?
Considered heterodox, it appears that Theravadin Buddhism was expelled from India by the Emperor Ashoka!
Is it conceivable that
everywhere else Ashoka’s Missionaries were spreading
Vaishnava-Bhakti-related Pure Land Mahayana Buddhism, but that in Sri Lanka
alone they were teaching Theravada / Hinayana atheism? Is
it conceivable that atheistic Theravadin Buddhism would be blissfully
co-existing with Krishna-centric Vaishnavism in Mathura, the very world
intellectual epicenter of Krishna-centrism? Would the ‘Vatican City’
of Krishna-Vaishnavism tolerate the presence of thousands of Theravadin Buddhist
Atheists who believed that Krishna was a demon? Nearby Vrindavana, as the
more esoteric ‘Bridal Mysticism’ Center of pastoral (Bucolic / Gokula /
Gokura) Krishna-Vaishnavism was never the university (monastery) intellectual or
royal seat of Krishna Vaishnavism. As the sanctum sanctorum of Sri Sri
Radha-Krishna and Baladeva and the Gopis’ Bridal Mysticism Rasa Lila
‘Pastimes’, Vrindavana’s sacred pastoral character was always
religiously safeguarded from certain kinds of development. However, as the
center of awesome and reverential royal / raja Krishna-worship, nearby Mathura
was the diffusional royal epicenter of Krishna-centric Vaishnavism for countless
centuries. At the time of Ashoka,
it was the intellectual and artistic capital of Krishna-centric Vaishnavism. How
could Ashoka’s own Master have had an ashram with 10,000 monks in it in the
royal capital of Sri Krishna’s worship (Sri Krishna’s own birthplace), if he
had been a Theravadin Buddhist ? The Theravadin Buddhists of Sri Lanka
teach that Krishna and Balarama are demons, and some teach the Jain doctrine
that Krishna is in a hell for his role in the Great (Mahabharata) War!
In fact, in both of the
university-like intellectual ‘Buddhist’ centers of Mathura and Gandhara, the
Vaishnavas and Buddhists were completely compatible as members of various
lineages or orders of the SAME RELIGION. This fact cannot be contested.
No honest scholar can deny that Gandhara and Mathura, the two greatest early
Mahayana centers of Buddhist intellectual and artistic activity and diffusion
were also Vaishnava centers of the same! This
was not a sequential phenomenon either! The Vaishnava and Buddhist
presence in these centers of Bhakti Yoga was contemporaneous.
In fact, there was a Western Bhakti Asyla Temple Federation
representation in the visitors and residents of these two great Vaishnava and
Buddhist ‘university’ Centers of Gandhara and Mathura too! Greeks,
Romans and other western Eli-Yahu / Heli-os / Heri-Asu worshipers visited and
lived in these two Centers. (In my
next installment in this series I plan to describe a little about the Greek and
specifically Rhodian connections to the Vaishnava-Buddhist Sacred Art of these
two Centers.) When it is known that Mathura was the North Indian
regional Center of Krishna Bhakti, how is it possible that the very
antithesis of Krishna-Vaishnavism and closely related Pure Land Buddhist Bhakti,
namely atheistic Theravadin Buddhism, could have been the Buddhism that Ashoka
patronized there? When it is clear
from evidence all over the region (and beyond) that Ashoka equally protected and
supported Vaishnavism and Mahayana (Pure Land) Buddhism, and that at the time
these two great Bhakti Traditions were considered part of the SAME RELIGION, how
is it conceivable that the ‘Buddhism’ that he patronized in Sri Lanka was
Theravadin, the historical and doctrinal antithesis of both Vaishnavism and Pure
Land Buddhism?
It is inconceivable that
Ashoka’s Mathuran Vaishnava-related Pure Land Buddhism became Theravadin
Atheism upon arrival in Sri Lanka. This is why the Theravadin Buddhists of
Sri Lanka must misrepresent the historical evidence to support their claim.
This is why they have been (and still are) involved in the occupation and
destruction of important early Buddhist and Hindu archeological sites, and why
they have stolen, obscured and defaced, etc. so much iconographic evidence from
their own early Buddhist history. Like the Taliban and other
iconoclastic Muslim barbarians, the Sri Lankan Theravadin Buddhist atheists must
obscure or destroy the ancient Buddhist Sacred Art, which is the constant
reminder of their hostile occupation of a land once populated by a people of
faith in the Personal God of Grace, Who has incarnated to save the world.
By erasing this ‘Hindu-related’ Buddhist Sacred Art of the Incarnate God,
the atheistic Sri Lankan Theravadin Buddhist iconoclasts are attempting to erase
the truth of history, and in its place to assert the originality and
authenticity of their own corrupt God-less tradition. However, if we
examine the evidence (before the iconoclasts have stolen or destroyed it all and
it is too late), we will learn the truth about Ashoka-related Sri Lankan
Buddhism’s original relationship to Vaishnavism, and we will learn that the
Theravadin Buddhist’s historical claims to being the world’s original
Buddhism are, like their doctrine, full of only “emptiness.” If
the case supporting the historical claims of atheistic Buddhism in Sri Lanka
(its undisputed world-capital) is empty, then there is no meritorious case for
it anywhere.
May Buddhists everywhere
recover the theistic devotional purity of their original Pure Land
tradition, and may they, in doing so, rediscover their ancient unity with the
Great Bhakti Traditions of India and the Asyla Federations of the West.
Praying for the day when
a new university will rise, like a phoenix from the ashes of the memory of
Gandhara and Mathura, to reunite the Lord’s Bhakti Yoga devotees of
the East and West,
Your aspiring
Catholic-Vaishnava-Pure Land Buddhist servant, Bhakti Ananda Goswami