Question:
Guruji….one Australian asked me a question. Would Buddha teach the same as Krishna if he were to counsel Arjuna” I felt Buddha would try to dissuade Arjuna from fight he would try to negotiate with Karna, Duryodhana, Bhishma, Drona etc etc….
Sri Prabhuji:
Dear Atmajyothi, Following are the commonality and difference in approach of Buddha and Sri Krishna.
1) Both Buddha and Sri Krishna would have prevented the war to the best of their abilities. Sri Krishna tried hard to prevent the war. He went with a proposal of truce to Dhuryodhana who rejected the proposal.
2) Bhagavad-Gita teaching of Sri Krishna is not about war. It is about enlightenment and liberation. Entire teaching is about Mukti – liberation. Sri Krishna calls this as Brahma Nirvana and Buddha calls it Nirvana.
3) Sri Krishna did not tell Arjuna to fight ! He gave him complete overview of spiritual path and helped Arjuna to make informed choice. Sri Krishna’s teaching is comprehensive. It starts from Dharma -duties to be performed to moksha -enlightenment. Sri Krishna stresses the importance of performing duties ( dharma ) for being ready for moksha (enlightenment). Hence He gives a step by step path involving karma yoga, bhakti yoga and jnana yoga to Arjuna preparing for enlightenment. In contrast, Buddha focuses more on enlightenment part directly. Buddha also teaches right living ( samyak jeevan) as preparation for enlightenment.
4) Both Sri Krishna and Buddha teach living in awareness.
5) Any teaching is dependent on the context and level of disciple. Sri Krishna takes into account the situation. War has already started in spite of best efforts to stop it. In this situation Sri Krishna gives Arjuna clarity about spiritual path and helps him make informed choices. It is very hypothetical question what Buddha would do in given situation. If Buddha advises Arjuna to withdraw from war and go for meditation that will be disaster since Arjuna is not ready for meditative life. Hence my feeling is Buddha would have given same teaching as Krishna to Arjuna – but this is hypothetical.