The ninth incarnation of Vishnu was Buddha. The word Buddha, like the word Christ, is not a name, but a title. It means “the enlightened one.” The name of this religious founder was Siddhartha Gautama. He was born about 643 B. C., and died 563 B. C. His mother, Mahamaya, was a virgin. Dean Milman, in his “History of Christianity,” says: “Budh, according to a tradition known in the West, was born of a virgin” (Vol. I, p. 99, note). Devaki, Mary, and Mahamaya, all gave birth to their children among strangers. Krishna was born in a prison, Christ in a stable, and Buddha in a garden. “Werner’s Encyclopedia,” in its article on Buddha, speaks of “the marvelous stories which gathered round the belief in his voluntary incarnation, the miracles at his birth, the prophecies of the aged saint at his formal presentation to his father, and how nature altered her course to keep a shadow over his cradle, whilst the sages from afar came and worshiped him.”
The “Tripitaka,” the principal Bible of the Buddhists, containing the history and teachings of Buddha, is a collection of books written in the centuries immediately following Buddha. The canon was finally determined at the Council of Pataliputra, held under the auspices of the Emperor Asoka the Great, 244 B. C., more than 600 years before the Christian canon was established. The “Lalita Vistara,” the sacred book of the Northern Buddhists, was written long before the Christian era.
Buddha was “about 30 years old” when he began his ministry. He fasted “seven times seven nights and days.” He had a “band of disciples” who accompanied him. He traveled from place to place and “preached to large multitudes.” Bishop Bigandet calls his first sermon the “Sermon on the Mount.” At his Renunciation “he forsook father and mother, wife and child.” His mission was “to establish the kingdom of righteousness.” “Buddha,” says Max Muller, “promised salvation to all; and he commanded his disciples to preach his doctrine in all places and to all men.” “Self-conquest and universal charity” are the fundamental principles of his religion. He enjoined humility, and commanded his followers to conceal their charities. “Return good for evil”; “overcome anger with love”; “love your enemies,” were some of his precepts.
Buddha formulated the following commandments: “Not to kill; not to steal; not to lie; not to commit adultery; not to use strong drink.” Christ said: “Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery; do not kill; do not steal; do not bear false witness; honor thy father and thy mother ([Luke xviii, 20]). Christ ignored the Decalogue of Moses and, like Buddha, presented a pentade which, with the exception of one commandment, is the same as that of Buddha.
Prof. Seydel, of the University of Leipsic, points out fifty analogies between Christianity and Buddhism. Dr. Schleiden calls attention to over one hundred. Baron Harden-Hickey says: “Countless analogies exist between the Buddhistic and Christian legends—analogies so striking that they forcibly prove to an impartial mind that a common origin must necessarily be given to the teachings of Sakay-Muni and those of Jesus.”
Concerning the biographical accounts of the two religious teachers Harden-Hickey says: “One account must necessarily be a copy of the other, and since the Buddhist biographer, living long before the birth of Christ, could not have borrowed from the Christian one, the plain inference is that the early creed-mongers of Alexandria were guilty of an act of plagiarism.” The following are some of the parallels presented by this writer:
Both have genealogies tracing their descent from ancestral kings.
Both were born of virgin mothers.
The conception of each was announced by a divine messenger.
The hymns uttered at the two annunciations resemble each other.