Q. Lord Vishnu incarnated as Buddha and preached voidism. Lord Siva appeared as Sankaracarya and preached impersonalism. Why are there different and deliberate attempts to confuse people by preaching false beliefs when they are already struggling with Maya?
Answer by Romapada Swami: Whatever the Supreme Lord does is all-merciful, even if we may not initially understand how it is so. By hearing from His authorized representatives we can begin to understand His mercy.
For those who want to forget Him, the Supreme Lord grants them forgetfulness; in fact this is the whole purpose of material creation. This is in fact the Lord’s compassion upon the conditioned souls, that He creates this material world and gives various forms and identities to the conditioned souls, simply so that they can try to enjoy an illusory sense of happiness independent of Him, just as they desired. Simultaneously, the material world also serves to offer an opportunity to rectify the conditioned living entities of this bewildered mentality. This the two-fold purpose of this material creation.
The living entity is completely dependent on the Lord for every aspect of his existence, whether it be remembrance or forgetfulness. Mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca, “From Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness.” (BG 15.15) Unless God gives us the freedom and facility, we cannot forget Him! Therefore, He facilitates those who want to forget Him and pursue different goals, thereby developing faith in different paths. Krishna reveals that He is seated in everyone’s heart as the Supersoul and makes one’s faith stronger in different objects of worship. (BG 7.21 and BG 7.22)
In a similar manner, by appearing as Lord Buddha He makes arrangements for living entities who want to be misled in Kali-yuga by giving them that opportunity in the form of nihilistic and impersonal philosophies.
Yet, even in such an act there is His underlying compassion. As Lord Buddha, He propounded voidism, while simultaneously he stopped the misuse of the Vedas (viz. indiscriminate animal killing in the name of Vedic sacrifices), he took the unscrupulous followers away from tampering with the Vedas and instead tricked them into following Him. Thus indirectly He gave them the benefit of following the Lord, so that they may be gradually elevated by following sub-religious principles clearly given within the Vedas (!) such as ahimsa.
Similarly, Shankaracharya’s advent accomplished many purposes – he drove away Buddhism and many other atheistic offshoot religions outside the borders of India and strongly reestablished the authority of the Vedas. By preaching “covered Buddhism”, i.e. a philosophy that was not too different from voidism, he brought people one step closer and back to the fold of the Vedas. Thus Shankaracarya paved the way for ushering in devotional teachings once again by the vaishnava acharyas who came after him. Simultaneously, he kept away those who have strong aversion to the Supreme Lord by keeping them busy with the philosophical wrangling of the Vedanta sutra. As a result, the devotees can freely discuss and understand the confidential glories of Lord Krishna amongst themselves without disturbance! According to our acaryas, this was an intentional albeit indirect act of kindness to the devotees.
