Sanatan Dharma and Buddhism

Many contemporary scholars on Buddhism have been treating Buddhism as an entirely different thought and philosophy from Hinduism or Sanatan Dharma.

But the concepts need to be understood in the perspective of ancient Hindu texts.

Today we understand only the present modern age to be the most developed one since the mankind became ‘civilized’ according to the modern Western contemporary theorists. Modern science considers its theory of various ages such as stone age, ice age and so on, to be the ultimate truth.

However, ancient Indian texts give an entirely different picture of human civilization on Earth. Historical data of various kings and civilizations during the current lifecycle on Earth dates as far back as about 3.8 million years is available in ancient Hindu texts. The present lifecycle on Earth is the 28th lifecycle of the 3rd day of 51st year of Brahma of the total age of Brahma of 100 years. Each lifecycle is 43,20,000 solar years.

The multidimensional system of time has been extensively described in ancient Indian texts. It is important to understand that both Vedas and Puranas were created at the beginning of this universe. The texts may have been handwritten by the sages few thousand years ago but that does not imply that this is also the time of origin of the Vedas and Puranas.

Vedas are also considered as Shabd Brahm. Meaning Brahm itself or the God Almighty Himself in the form of words.

However, Vedas are difficult to be understood by a layman as they are. Therefore, Puranas were also created to give better understanding of the contents of Vedas by giving real life examples in the form stories contained in Puranas and direct references to the Vedas.

In this backdrop, Bhagwan Buddha is also mentioned in Shrimad Bhagwat Purana Skandh 1, Chapter 3, Verse 24.

ततः कलौ सम्प्रवृत्ते सम्मोहाय सुरद्विषाम्।
बुद्धो नाम्नाजनसुतः कीकटेषु भविष्यति॥१.३.२४॥
After that when the Kaliyug starts, to delude the demons who are opposed to the Devatas, Buddha will take birth as the son of Anaj. 1.3.24

This verse shows that Shrimad Bhagwat Purana was conceived and written much earlier than the birth of Bhagwan Buddha. Bhagwan Buddha has been described in future tense.

Agni Purana describes Bhagwan Buddha as the Ninth avatar of Bhagwan Krishna. In addition, Bhagwan Buddha finds mention in Matsya Purana, Varaha Purana, Garuda Purana, Vishnu Purana and Padma Purana.

To understand better I would like to give a small explanation on Bhagwan Krishna. According to these Puranas, Bhagwan Krishna took avatar as Bhagwan Buddha because during those times animal sacrifices had become dominating as a ritual practice. To lead the masses away from violence Bhagwan Krishna took the avatar of Bhagwan Buddha.

Some people have mistranslated and misinterpreted Narayana and Virat Purush as Bhagwan Vishnu. However, Virat Purush has been clearly mentioned as One God Almighty Bhagwan Krishna Himself in all text Sanskrit verses.

According to all ancient Hindu texts One Supreme God Almighty is Bhagwan Krishna. For each of the billions of creations just like ours, There are individual Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh.

Buddhism, in essence, was created as a branch of Sanatan Dharma with Sanatan Dharma and its principles as the core foundation. Bhagwan Buddha took the avatar to lead people away from violent sacrificial practices.

Hinduism and Buddhism share deep cultural, philosophical, and spiritual roots, since Buddhism emerged in India in the 6th century BCE within the broader context of Hindu thought.

Here are the main similarities:

Both emphasize liberation (moksha in Hinduism, nirvāṇa in Buddhism) as the highest goal of human life.

The core fundamental principle according to ancient Indian texts on which this existence is based is Karma. Thus, according to the Karma performed a human being takes a re-birth. Buddhism also has the same fundamental principles.

Both advocate spiritual practices to end sufferings and reach liberation. Self-discipline, meditation, ethical living, and detachment are central in both.

Buddhism inherited
Dhyana and Sadhana practices from
Hindu Scriptures

Both stress upon self-realization and focus of mind.

Ahimsa is central to both.

According to ancient Hindu texts Ahimsa is neither tormenting nor killing INNOCENT living beings, even for food.

Today Ahimsa is interpreted as not resorting to violence under any circumstances, which is incorrect.

Shri Rama and Shri Krishna, Devi Durga resorted to violence as the last alternative against persons going against following the principles of Dharma or being human.

Killing innocent birds and animals is Himsa and the entire world is doing it.

This is why both traditions encourage vegetarianism.

The five fundamental principles of being human described HERE on this website, are fundamental to both Buddhism’s Five Precepts parallel Hindu Yamas and Niyamas (moral codes). No killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, or intoxication.

Both have traditions of renunciation (sannyāsa in Hinduism, saṅgha in Buddhism).

Monks, ascetics, and yogis pursue the spiritual path away from worldly attachments In Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna Buddhism, many deities resemble Hindu gods for example Avalokiteśvara as Shiva, Tārā as form of Devi.

Tara Sadhana originates from Hindu texts. Both use mantras, yantras (mandalas in Buddhism), and sacred syllables like Om (ॐ / ཨོཾ).

Kundalini awakening is again common to both Hinduism and Buddhism.

Both traditions share similar ideas of multiple heavens, hells, and realms of rebirth. According to Hindu texts Devatas exist but are not eternal, There is only One Supreme God Almighty. Thus, ancient Sanatan texts clearly define that there is One Eternal Supreme God Almighty and HE is Bhagwan Krishna. While Brahma Vishnu Mahesh and other Devi Devatas have a limited life duration of hundred years of the life of Brahma or the life of this universe.

In essence therefore, the core principles and practices of Buddhism originate from the core principles and practices of Sanatan Dharma.

And the core practices of Sanatan Dharma include

1. Having been born as a human, being a human first. Without being human all Vedic practices are futile and will give no results.

2. The Practice of Dhyana.

3. The practices of Sadhanas including Mantras and Yantras. Yantras known as Mandalas in Buddhism.

4. Even the deities in Buddhism are the same as those described in ancient Hindu texts.

In Sanatan Dharma these have largely been forgotten or not given importance to.

Angkor Vat and hundreds of other temples in the Southeast Asian region were originally Hindu temples devoted to Brahma, Vishnu or Mahesh (Bhagwan Shiva). These were later converted into Buddhists shrines when Buddhism started to dominate the region.

Buddhist or Tibetan script also closely matches the Devanagari script, or the Sanskrit and the fonts have much similarity when viewed closely. Even phonetically most are identical.

Vowels (4 main independent vowels + inherent "a"): ཨ (a, inherent vowel), ཨི (i), ཨུ (u), ཨེ (e), ཨོ (o)

Consonants (30 basic letters): ཀ ka ཁ kha ག ga ང nga ཅ ca ཆ cha ཇ ja ཉ nya ཏ ta ཐ tha ད da ན na པ pa ཕ pha བ ba མ ma ཙ tsa ཚ tsha ཛ dza ཝ wa ཞ zha ཟ za འ ’a ཡ ya ར ra ལ la ཤ sha ས sa ཧ ha ཨ a

Extra letters (used for Sanskrit transliteration in Buddhist texts): ཊ ṭa ཋ ṭha ཌ ḍa ཎ ṇa ཥ ṣa

Phonetically both vowels and consonants are identical or close to the Sanskrit vowels and consonants. In fact, the set of Sanskrit vowels and consonants are more extensive and more than the Tibetan alphabets.

Many Western Indologists and scholars consider Sanskrit language as a dead language. However, in Hindu traditions all original practices of Stotra Recital and Mantra recital are in Sanskrit Language only. Important texts are all in Sanskrit language. 

The Western Indologists have never considered the basic structures of the two languages. Sanskrit language vowels and consonants are described as below.

The reader will find huge similarities between Sanskrit and Tibetan scripts.

1. Vowels (स्वर / svara) There are 16 vowels. Short vowels: अ (a) इ (i) उ (u) ऋ (ṛ) ऌ (ḷ)

Long vowels: आ (ā) ई (ī) ऊ (ū) ॠ (ṝ) ॡ (ḹ)
Diphthongs (compound vowels): ए (e) ऐ (ai) ओ (o) औ (au) अँ (am) अः (aaa)

2. Consonants (व्यंजन / vyañjana)
There are 35 main consonants grouped by place of articulation.
(a) Velar (कण्ठ्य / gutturals): क (ka) ख (kha) ग (ga) घ (gha) ङ (ṅa)
(b) Palatal (तालव्य): च (ca) छ (cha) ज (ja) झ (jha) ञ (ña)
(c) Retroflex (मूर्धन्य): ट (ṭa) ठ (ṭha) ड (ḍa) ढ (ḍha) ण (ṇa)
(d) Dental (दन्त्य): त (ta) थ (tha) द (da) ध (dha) न (na)
(e) Labial (ओष्ठ्य): प (pa) फ (pha) ब (ba) भ (bha) म (ma)

3. Semi-vowels (अन्तःस्थ): य (ya) र (ra) ल (la) व (va)

4. Sibilants (उष्म): श (śa) ष (ṣa)  स (sa) ळ (ldy) क्ष (ksh)

5. Aspirate: ह (ha)

6. Special signs: Anusvāra (ं) – nasalization Visarga (ः) – aspiration Avagraha (ऽ) – elision marker Chandrabindu (ँ) – nasalization over vowels

In total: 16 vowels + 35 consonants = 51 primary letters.

It is known history that Tibetan monks visited Hindu universities such as Nalanda.

We are fortunate that the Buddhist monks duplicated many scriptures from Nalanda, Taxila and other universities and took them to Tibet. These scripts are still preserved in the libraries located at Lhasa, Tibet and many other monasteries even in India.

A lot of research work is required to be done on these manuscripts and a lot can be recovered from what was destroyed when the Indian universities were destroyed by the invaders centuries ago.

In the present times, however, both Sanatan Dharma as well as Buddhism have largely deviated from their original course.