Hinduism 101 - Mandhata Global

Krishna’s life can be divided into four parts: childhood, when He performed feats of great strength including slaying
the demon Kansa who, incidentally, was His own maternal uncle; youth, when He dallied with the cowgirls and
acquired for Himself a reputation as a lover that not even the current top stars of Bollywood can yet rival; manhood
when He took up the Kingship of Dwarka and showed His mettle in statesmanship and middle age when He joined the
fray in the battle of the Mahabharata and gave His famous speech of advice to the warrior Arjuna.
Krishna took no active part in the epic battles but only gave advice and let the mortal warriors fight it out. The most
important advice He gave was to Arjuna and it was that all is illusion (Maya), including battle and death in arms, and
that it is not the prerogative of human beings to question their duty, they only have to perform it and leave the greater
perspective to the Gods. This is contained in the Bhagavad Gita.
Ultimately Krishna dies, tragically, for the death and sorrow He brought to millions leaving for us the message that not
even the Gods can deflect that which is preordained and that every action has a reaction and the causes are inextricably
interwoven with their effects. That is, one receives as one does and, thus, Karma (duty) is Dharma (religion).
Buddha:
The Buddha himself is the surprise ninth avatar of Vishnu. This is observed in some quarters as an attempt to subvert
Buddhism into becoming a sect within Hinduism, which it definitely is not.
Hinduism in some way distorts the Buddha’s teachings as a sort of hedonistic view of the universe in which the Buddha
observes that there is no actual Hindu triad but the trio of Gods are merely human, the greater idea of samsara (the
world) and humans following their duty according to their castes as dharma have no real value as death is only a sleep
and an annihilation, that heaven is only pleasures on earth and hell the mundane sufferings, that sacrifices are of no
value because the only salvation humans are capable of achieving is release from ignorance and that, since the body
crumbles back to earth after death, the only pleasure possible on earth is mostly sensual.
Hinduism thus uses the Buddha as a foil against whose faulty preaching the original religion prospers as misbelievers
are led astray and, in disarray, return to Hinduism for their salvation. In a sense Buddhism has done just that but never
at the cost of relinquishing the Buddha as the supreme teacher.
On the ground level, most Hindus regard the Buddha as a revered incarnation of Vishnu and he is loved for his gentle
teachings which ultimately further preservation, Vishnu’s prime function. Hindus untaught in the scriptures regard the
Buddha as an extension of the triad and refuse to be fuddled by the notion that Hinduism and Buddhism are two
entirely separate religions.
On its part Buddhism has, since its inception, acquired a number of elements of Hinduism that has ultimately drawn it
closer to the older religion its founder, the Buddha, had initially sought to reform.
Kalki Avatar:
Vishnu’s tenth and last incarnation is yet to come and will usher in the end of this present age, the Kaliyuga, while
bringing in the next age, the Mayayuga. Social and spiritual life will have degenerated to the level where, ultimately,
humans will begin living like animals in the forest and men and women will wear only the barks of trees as clothes and
fight and quarrel among each other as the beasts. To bring on the ultimate decline the rulers will be power-hungry
immoral personages whose only desire will be to gain power and wealth, even at the expense of their subjects. Even the
Brahmins will have nothing of worth except the outward show of their sacred threads. The wealth of materialists will
be the only show as all real worth will have departed from everything.
Truth and love will have disappeared from the earth and the only currency will be dishonesty and the only bond among
humans and man and wife will be sensuality. The land of the Hindus will lose all its sacred associations and the earth
will be worshipped only as a reservoir of mineral wealth. The sacred rites will disappear, mere washing will be deemed
as purification, mutual assent will replace the marriage ceremonies and bluff will replace real learning. No man or
woman shall live longer than twenty-three years.
At this point of degeneration, Vishnu will ride in on a white horse, Kalki, his tenth avatar, and exterminate all the
immoral and establish virtue as the prime human objective, as before, and the mighty Mayayuga, the next set of four
Yugas, will set in.