The fact that the earliest Buddhist texts, such as the Pali Jatakas, mention Buddha's birth as King Rama, Kapila, Janaka,
is called "Mahapurusha" and Purushottama and Narasiha shows that Buddha is none other than Vishnu himself. In ignorance,
both Buddhists and Hindus have been denying this fact. When we search the popular thousand names of Vishnu as found in the
Mahabharata, we find other names that clearly remind us of Lord Buddha.
Vishnu is called "shaanta-aakaaram" -- ever peaceful. Buddha too is the sage who has stopped, he is stillness
personified.
Veveshti Vyaapnoti iti Vishnuh-That which pervades everywhere is Vishnu. That which has the nature of pervasiveness is
Vishnu. He is the one who pervades all and nothing ever pervades Him. Even in early Pali texts Lord Buddha is able to go anywhere
in any realm - in one of the Suttas to Ananda, he explains his voice alone can reach anywhere in this universe.
Buddhists call Buddha the Supreme refuge, the shelter of all. Buddha is considered the father of all beings, and Buddhists
His sons and daughters in the Dhamma - we become Buddha Vachanam or the word made flesh -- Christ like beings free of sin
and defilements.
Narayana (Nara-ayana) means :
1) One, who is the resting place of Naras i.e. all chetanas and achetanas.
And indeed Buddha is the Refuge Supreme of all beings. Buddha is peace and rest, and in Him Buddhists rest.
Beautiful modern rendition of Lord Vishnu.
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Vishnu Sahasranama
(14) Purushah -One who dwells in the Fort-city (Puri sete iti Purushah). Herein metaphorically the Rishis conceive our
body as a fortress with nine gate-ways-Nava Dvaarc Pure Dehee;-
*In Buddhism, Buddha is known as the Mahapurisha and has the 32 markings of a "Great Man".
*The Sangha of the Buddha is like a fortress consisting of the 4 pair of persons (purishas) who overcome the army of Mara.
(15) Saakshee -Witness.
** In Buddhism, Buddhists confess to the Buddha any wrong doings and ask for forgiveness.
(21) Naarasimha-vapuh
** In Buddhism, Buddha is Narasiha -- or the Man-Lion
(24) Purushottamah -
Buddha is also called this in the Tipitika.
(49) Amaraprabhuh -The Lord ("prabhu") of the Immortals ("a-mara"), the Devas.
**Buddha is known as Amatasdata -- or the bestower of immortality under whom all the Gods are protected.
(80) Anuttamah One who is incomparably Great in glory
**Buddha is Anuttarah - unequalled.
(86) Saranam -According to the Sanskrit Lexicon (Amarakosa), the term Saranam means Protector and also home. Since the
Lord is the Ultimate Goal, Saranam, He is also the ;Destination, the ;Harbour. The One Who realizes Him comes to live in Him.
**Only Buddhists take refuge or 'Saranam' in Buddha.
(111) Pundareekaakshah -One who can be contacted and fully experienced in the Heart Space (Pundareekam). In the Narayana
Upanishad (10) we find the same term employed: In the core of the body, in the Heart Space, dwells the Supreme.
**The Dhammapada also mentions that Dukkha ends when Buddhists reach this space.
(112) Vrishakarmaa -Vrisha means Dharma. One whose every activity is righteous and who acts only to establish righteousness.
For the sake of establishing Dharma, I am born in every age, says Lord -(Geeta Ch. 4, St. 8).
**Buddha establishes the Dharma in kaliyuga.
(113) Vrishaakritih -One who is of the form (Aakriti) of Dharma (Vrisha). It is not only that His actions are righteous
but He is Himself Righteousness.
** Buddhists take refuge in the Dhamma as well.
(119) Amritah -One who is Immortal and Immutable.
**Buddha is the giver of amritah, his words are a shower of amrit.
(134) Suraadhyakshah -The President of the Heavens to whom the Devas run for protection when they are threatened by their
constant enemies -the Daityas and the Asuras.
**in Buddhism all Devas run to the Buddha for protection, including Indra, Surya and the moon.
(164) Vaidyah -The One Supreme Doctor
(170) Mahaamaayah -One who is the Supreme Master of all Maayaa.
**the mother of Buddha is known as Mahaamayah -- with the birth of Buddha this illusion of samsara is destroyed -- the
mother does not live long after the Buddha is born.
(173) Mahaabuddhih-In the previous term, we were told He is Omnipotent. Here He is indicated as Omniscient. The Supreme,
functioning through the intellect, is the intelligence. The quality and quantity of the intelligence will depend upon the
condition of the intellect through which the Infinite comes to play. The intelligence in a mathematician, poet or an artist,
scientist or politician-all are the different play-patterns of energies invoked from the one Supreme Intelligence, and therefore,
Mahavishnu, the Self, is called here as Mahaabuddhih, the Reservoir of all Intelligence.
(206) Saastaa -One who rules over the universe, Not only that He is the Administrator of the laws of the Phenomenon but
also He is the Saastaa. He is the One who, through Sastra, with firm hand, instructs and guides us through the righteous path,
drives us along steadily to progress in cultural beauty and finally reaches us at the Great Goal of all evolutions: the Seat
of Vishnu.
**Buddha is known as Sasta deva manushanam -- or teacher of Gods and men.
235. Dharaneedharah -One who supports (Dharah) the earth (Dharanee).
243. Saadhuh -One, who functions strictly according to the righteous code of living is a Saadhuh Atman, the Self, is the
Mighty Presence, which apparently lends intelligence and capacity to inert matter. The Supreme Saadhu is Vishnu Himself.
**Buddha is always represented as a Sadhu.
252. Siddhaarthah -One who has gained all that has to be gained and achieved all that has to be achieved. That which
has to be achieved in life during an individual’s existence have all been classified under four heads and they are
called as the four “aims of life” (Purushaartha). Theyare Righteousness in conduct, (Dharma), Wealth and
Possession (Artha), desires and ambitions (Kaama), liberation from imperfections (Moksha). One who has gained all these “four”
have nothing more to gain as there cannot be any sense of imperfection in Him. One who has gained (Siddhah) all that has to
be gained (Arthah) is Siddhaartha, Lord Vishnu.
**The name of the Bodhisat;
258. Vishnuh -All-Pervading: Long-Strident. We had already explained this term earlier (2). In Mahabharata we also read
the Lord Himself explaining to Arjuna, “Because I stand striding across the Universe (Kramanaat), O Partha, I am
known as Vishnu. -(Mahabharata 12-350-43).
In the Upanishad also we read, Vishnu has spread Himself and conquered all these three worlds.
**Buddha too cannot be stopped from entering any realm, Buddha is also known as having conquered the three realms.
337. Taaranah One who enables others to cross. The ego suffering the constant agitations of the equipments is saved by
the Self. The ego (jeeva), when it discovers its identity with the Self, automatically moves away from the sorrows of the
vehicles. In short, as Vishnubhaagavata says, who is there other than You that can save us from the wheel of birth and death.
338. Taarah One who saves is called Taarah, One who saves from the fear of re-birth and also One who is a constant protector
of the devotees and, therefore, the devotees themselves call Him as the Saviour (Taarah).
**Buddhism has the Tara tantra like no other tradition.
365. Maargah The Path. In order to realise the Highest which is the Nameless and Formless, human mind will have to first
hold on to a divine form, and that is Lord Vishnu. He is the Way and the Goal. In short, He is the One whom seekers of the
Highest meditate upon in order to reach the Supreme.
**The Noble Eightfold Path is called the "Maaga"
366. Hetuh The Cause. One who is the cause for the whole universe. He is at once the material-cause (Upaadaana Kaarana),
the instrumental-cause (Nimitta Kaarana) and He who alone is also the efficient-cause in the creation of this universe. Hence,
He is called The Cause.
397. Maargah The path. There is no other way to know Him. For complete liberation, there is no way other than realising
the Self, Sree Narayana.
577. Nirvaanam -The Lord is of the very nature of Ever-liberated, Ever-free. There is no trace of imperfection and sorrow
in Him whose nature is, All-Bliss.
578. Bheshajam means medicine.Hence, He who is the very specific cure for the disease of Samsar (change, becoming).
601. Sreevatsa-vakshaah -One who has the mark, Sreevatsa, upon His divine and sacred chest.
614. Lokatraya-asrayah -The Shelter for the three worlds. The Substratum for the three worlds-of-experiences (waking,
dream and deep-sleep). If the Self, the Consciousness, were not in us, no experience would ever be ours. Narayana is this
objectless awareness.
646. Triloka-atmaa The Reality, the Self of the three worlds. The three-worlds are the threefields of experiences the
waking, the dream and the deep-sleep. As the Pure Consciousness, in the Light of which the waker-dreamer- sleeper comes to
experience all the ;three-worlds, the Self, Sri Narayana is called The Atman of the three-worlds.
647. Triloka-eesah The Lord of the three-worlds.Lord is One in whose presence all activities take place; in Whose absence
all activities cease. He is called the Lord, the Great Proprietor. When life, the Self, manifests in a body, all experiences
take place; when life is extinct, all activities cease. Hence Lord Narayana is the Self, the spark of Existence in all creatures.
716. A-paraa-jitah The Unvanquished.Never-Conqueredis the Glory of the self, for, conquering is of objects’;
the ;subject can be conquered.
725. Ekah The One. The One-without-a second. As the Infinite is without any of the three distinctions, He, Sree Narayana,
the Brahman, can only be the One without any otherness.
**The Buddha
726. Naikah -The Many. One who, though the One, yet plays in the bosom of all the living creatures. Just as we are one
entity, but our thoughts are many, the Supreme Consciousness, Sree Narayana, though One, His reflections as Jeevas play in
all mind-intellect-equipments. Because He is thus seen to be manifested in the world of plurality, He is Not One.;Again,The
One; is a definition, a quality. The Lord is Indefinable, quality-less (unqualified). Hence after making the student grasp
that He is The One, where the pluralities are all merged, the teacher is immediately pointing out that He is Not even One
For, to conceive The One; is to conceive the Truth with our intellect-He is to be experienced on transcending the intellect.
The One has a meaning only with reference to the many. The One is a relative statement. To show that the Infinite is to be
experienced by the becoming and not by knowing, the teacher has negatedNot even One. Sruti says The Lord sports with many
forms by His Maayaa.
**the Sangha in whom the Buddha spirit presides
734. Loka-naathah One Who is the Lord of the World, or One Who is solicited by the world of beings for the fulfilment
of all their desires and needs. Or it also means, ;One Who adds glory to the world. There are also interpretations for the
term Naath which express shines, praised by or loved by& in all these different meanings, Sree Hari is described as the
Lord of the World Lokanaatha.
**Buddha is referred to as Lokanaatha in several prayers
737. Suvarna-varnah Golden Coloured is Sree Narayana for He is, in the devotee, the pure Self; and in all, He is the very
All-Illumining Pure Awareness. Mundaka Upanishad declares: When the Seer sees Him of Golden- hue. Upon witnessing the Self-Effulgent
(Golden) Being, the seers realization is completely transforming, and then that wise one, shaking off all deeds of merits
and demerits, becomes stainless, and attains the supreme State of Equipoise.
738. Hemaangah One who has limbs of Gold. The description of the Lord functioning through the orb of the Sun is well-known:
Hiranmaya-of pure-golden- form. Sruti mentions it: This Golden Person seen in the disc of the Sun This same Upanishad insists
further that Mind is Brahman and the Sun is Brahman.Lord Hari, as the Infinite Brahman, plays in the Sun (Soorya-Narayana)-
thus the term is most appropriate.
739. Varaangah With beautiful limbs. Also, Vara can take the meaning ;lovable,therefore, Sree Narayana is described here
as One whose form (limbs) is supremely lovable& to the yogi-of-devotion.
**Buddha is described throughout the Tipitika as beautiful to behold and with the skin the color of gold
743. Soonyah The Void. Here Void means the total absence of (a) the equipments-of-experiences-the body-mind-intellect;
(b) the fields-of-experiences-the objects- emotions-thoughts; (c) the experiencer-attitudes-the perceiver-feeler-thinker personality.
In Brahman, the Pure Consciousness, all these three (a, b and c) are totally absent as the devotee of Hari transcends them
all. So the Lord, in His Infinite Nature, is without attributes; seemingly then, He is theVoid.
**need I say anything?
773. Samaavartah The efficient turner -of the wheel-of-life. Aavarta is to turn. The wheel-of-life- and-death, the samsar,
is constantly being churned by the Law, which is none other than the Lord. The Law and the Law-Giver are one and the same
in this universe-Sree Narayana.
**Buddha turns the Dharma wheel --
793. Ratnanaabhah &Of beautiful navel. Text books of Bhakti-cult advise devotees that they should meditate upon the
Lords navel-point, as a flashy, brilliant jewel (Ratna).
873. Arhah -Narayana is the One Who de to be worshipped by all devotees. He, being our very own self is the treasure-source
of all our devotion. Thus He does from us all our surrender, love and reverence.
**Buddha is known as Arhan - worthy of worship.