One cannot reflect for a moment upon the histories of the different Avatars of India, without being struck with the apparent contradiction of one part to the other. Thus Cristna is the Sun, yet he is Apollo. He is Bala Rama, and yet Bala Cristna. He is also Narayana floating on the waters. Again, he is Vishnu himself, and an incarnation of Vishnu. He is also Parvati, the Indian Venus. In short, he is every incarnation. All this is precisely as it ought to be, if my theory be correct. He is an Avatar or renewed incarnation, in every case, of the sun, or of that higher principle of which the sun is an emblem—of that higher principle which Moses adored when he fell down upon his face to the blazing bush. The adoration of the solar fire, as the emblem of the First Great Cause, is the master-key to unlock every door, to lay open every mystery.
Buddha may be seen in the India House with a glory round his head. This I consider of great consequence. The glory round the head of Jesus Christ is always descriptive of his character, as an incarnation of that Higher Power of which the sun is himself the emblem, or the manifestation.
There were thousands of incarnations, but those were all portions of the divinity. Emanations, perhaps they may be called, in vulgar language, from the Divine Mind, inspired into a human being. But Cristna, as the Brahmins hold, was one of the three persons of their Trinity, Vishnu himself incarnated; he was the second person of their Trinity, become man. Inspired or inspirated might be said to be the same as incarnated; this was exactly the same as the Christian doctrine. We have many inspired persons, but Jesus is held to be God himself incarnated—the Logos, one of the three, incarnated.—To return to my subject.
Buddha passed his infancy in innocent sports; and yet he is often described as an artificer. In his manhood he had severe contests with wicked spirits, and finally he was put to death, we shall find, by crucifixion,[1] descended into hell, and re-ascended into heaven. The present sect of the Brahmins hold Buddha to have been a wicked impostor; therefore, we need not expect them to say any thing favourable of him; but I can entertain no doubt that he was the same kind of incarnation as Cristna.
In my Celtic Druids I have observed, that the word Creeshna, of the old Irish, means the Sun. Now, in the Collectanea of Ouseley,[2] we find Budh, Buth, Both, fire, the sun; Buide lachd, the great fire of the Druids. We also find in Vallancey’s ancient Irish history, that they brought over from the East the worship of Budh-dearg, or king Budh, who was of the family of Sacasa, or bonus Saca. In the Hindoo Chronology there is a Buddha Muni, who descended in the family of Sacya: and one of his titles was Arca-bandu, or Kinsman of the Sun. If my reader will look back a little, and observe that the Hindoo Budhh was of the family of Sakya, he will, I think, believe with me that here we have the Hindoo Buddha in Ireland. It is impossible to be denied. How contemptible does it make our learned priests appear, who affect to despise facts of this kind, and to consider the learning wherein they are contained, beneath their notice! But they do not despise them; they hate them and fear them. They feel conscious that they prove a state of the world once to have existed, which shakes to their foundations numbers of their nonsensical dogmas, and, with them, their gorgeous hierarchies.
In the above extract General Vallancey calls Saca-sa, bonus Saca. I dare say it means bonus,
- ↑ Neither in the sixteen volumes of the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, nor in the works of Sir W. Jones, nor in those of Mr. Maurice, nor of Mr. Faber, is there a single word to be met with respecting the crucifixion of Cristna. How very extraordinary that all the writers in these works should have been ignorant of so striking a fact! But it was well known in the Conclave, even as early as the time of Jerom.
- ↑ Vol. III. No. I.
