BUDDHA AND BODHISATTVA —A HINDU VIEW ay ‘DR. ARUN KUMAR BISWAS PROFESSOR Indian Institute of Teehnology Kanpur Ini) COSMO PUBLICATIONS NEW DELFI) (NDIA) 1987Made in India. First Published 1987 Bodaha and Bodhisative— ‘A Binds View © Author Published by : Rani Kapoor (Mrs) COSMO PUBLICATIONS 248, Ansari Road, Daryagaa) ‘New Delhi-t10002, All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced stored ino retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or ‘by any means, electronic, mechanieal, photocopying, ecording or otherwise, Without the peior ‘permission ofthe publisher. Printed ‘NEW ERA PRINTERS 'B-223, Naraina Industrial Atea, Phase New Delki-10028, HUMBLY DEDICATED stem aie sinderstiet sraeeafesrs oRBeTT a TePreface ‘A few introductory remarks may be made to justify the publication of another book on the Buddha, The wondecful message of the great incu, ‘The Light of Asa’ came to be nearly forgotten in the land of his bith, twenty-three centuries after his advent. ‘Then, in the 19th century A.D., Burnouf, Faussball, Oldenberg, Rhys Davids and several other European scholars Unearthed, translated and edited the Pill canons. Some of them wrongly concluded from the Theravada (nick ‘named as Hinayana) texts that the early Buddhism was a radical departure from the Hinduism. Fortunately, however, the discovery of the Sanskrit Mahayana literature revealed. the ‘loseness. between Buddhism, Shaivism and the Vedenta octrine, During our recent era, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Viveka- nanda, Sti Aurobindo, Coomaraswamy, Radhakrishnan, et, have strongly emphasized that the Buddba didnot propound ‘any new religion—his original message was essentially Vedantic. An attempt has been made in this book to project their wellconsidered views. After briefly narrating the Buddha's life and message in the fest wwo chapters, we have concentrated, inthe third chapter, fon elucidating and resolving the controversies regarding his message.