Lord Buddha appeared at a time where people were too much addicted to animal killing. Still it is going on. Kesava dhrta-buddha-sarira, jaya jagadisa hare. Sadaya-hrdaya darsita-pasu-ghatam. Pasu-ghatam. Any religion where pasu-ghatam is there, that is not religion. That is not religion. That is simply barbarianism, under the name of religion. So God Himself becomes so much disturbed that these rascals are simply killing. At that time, of course, the Buddha religion was not there. The so-called followers of the Vedic religion. In the Vedas there are sanction for killing animal in a special sacrifice, but people took it as general, and they began to kill animals like anything, under the protection of Veda.

Therefore when Lord Buddha began to preach his philosophy, ahimsa, nonviolence, he did not accept the authority of Vedas. Because people will misuse it. Therefore he said that "I don't care for your Vedas." Just like Lord Jesus Christ rebelled against the whole Testament. He formulated his own testament, New Testament. Similarly, Lord Buddha also, he rejected Vedas and He presented his own philosophy: ahimsa, nonviolence. Ahimsa paramo dharmah. Because he was very kind upon on the poor animals. Sadaya-hrdaya darsita-pashu-ghatam. Pasu-ghatam means animal killing. Nindasi yajna-vidher ahaha shruti-jatam. Sruti-jatam. Sruti means Veda.

So in the Vedas, although there are, in particular cases, there are animal sacrifice… That is also very restricted. But we cannot say that there is no animal sacrifice. There is in some cases. So Lord Buddha, nindasi, He decried, "No, I don't accept your Vedas." Therefore Buddha religion is different from Vedic religion, because he rejected Vedas. And the Vedic followers, because he rejected Vedic principles, Vedic followers said that he, "You are nastika." Nastika means unbeliever.

So Caitanya Mahaprabhu has explained this Buddha religion. Veda na maniya bauddha haya ta' nastika. Because nastika means, atheist means one who does not follow the principles of Veda.

[from a lecture by Prabhupada at Los Angeles on SB 1.3.24 given on Sept. 29, 1972]