Vivekananda and Buddha Part 1

Swami Vivekananda had mentioned in many places that Lord Buddha was his Ishta Devata. In fact in his childhood he had a vision that a serene looking monk approached him while he was meditating in his room one day but he being afraid of the monk got up from his meditation and the monk just disappeared within him. He later realized that he must have seen the Buddha. He was devoted to Buddha for primarily two reasons – 1) Buddha’s struggle and search of truth in the early life resonated with his early life struggles to find the truth 2) Buddha’s uncompromising approach towards Truth and Rationality. Buddha rejected anything that was not rational or logical. He constructed his sermons on logic and rationalism and rejected conventional theories of Brahmanical Hinduism that advocated either physical austerities or life of enjoyment and luxury here and hereafter, material prosperity through sacrifices or Yagnas for the appeasement of gods. This quest for truth and lifelong devotion to rationalism endeared Buddha to Vivekananda. The other aspect of Buddha that was most appealing to him was the great compassion that Tathagata had one and for all. Such a compassion meant a very large heart which endeared Buddha to all and sundry. Vivekananda himself inherited that large heart. His transcendental realization of oneness of everything, everything being Brahman, led him to feel one with all the beings and therefore he was naturally compassionate towards every being without distinction, as Buddha was. He also saw the same compassion living in Sri Ramakrishna, who had only blessings even for his arch enemies and slanderers. When Sri Ramakrishna was very ill and was in the Kashipur garden house, the young Narendra, along with Tarak or later Swami Shivananda (Mahapurush Maharaj) and young Kali, later Swami Abhedananda, went to Bodh Gaya for meditating and finding the truth. Both Narendra and Tarak were attracted by Buddha’s teachings. Later when they established the Baranagar Math the young sannyasins lead by Narendra used to read various Buddhist texts like Lalita Visatara and Dhamma Padas.

When as a young itinerant monk Swamiji left the Math and went out travel by foot or by train to different parts of India he met people in various conditions and stayed sometimes in the palaces of kings and sometimes in roadside shanties with a poor peasant. With the poor in India he found wonderful sense of morality, honesty and simplicity that made them much better human beings than the rich. But what pained him was that they were often mercilessly being exploited and treated shabbily by the British Government, by the rich landlords and others who minted money at their expenses. The condition of the people of India led him to develop a firm resolve that religion is not what the poor needed. They had plenty of it. They needed secular education and opportunities for improving their lives – Abhyudaya first and then nishreyasa. His guru’s words rang in his ear – khali pete dharma hoina, no religion in empty stomach. So he appealed to the kings who could change the conditions of their subjects, but they were also helpless as the yoke of the foreign rule also choked them and made them devoid of the power to do good. He tried to influence the educated class who were naturally attracted to his merit and knowledge. But he was not satisfied by their response as he knew that they could do more. He saw with consternation that the so called educated class that was demanding some privileges from British ruling class were only doing so on the basis of prayers and petitions and did not have any inclination to work among their brethren, the poor, the oppressed, the peasants, artisans and industrial workers. They paid only lip service to the poor. So he decided that India was still not ready for independence. She had to fight her way out, not through mere begging of some privileges, but through a mass awakening and that is possible when the so called lower classes are awakened about their rights through education and when women are brought into the forefront. He saw with disgust how women were mistreated in a patriarchal society and how upper castes had been treating the lower castes in different regions. He witnessed the plight of the poor who, despite the sufferings were deeply spiritual and good. He saw that most of the Hindus were so ignorant of their great religion that all their religion were limited to their kitchen and “Don’t touchism” was predominant. He saw that people were burdened with family life at a very early age to seriously pursue any endeavor that would be elevating and uplifting. They married early and fathered many children whom they were not able to provide proper education, were desperate for a degree and the job of a petty clerk to maintain the large family. In this way Hindu society was being crushed under the burden of the foreign rule, superstition and rigid societal norms. He therefore thought of the only conceivable means, that of getting the best of the Western ideas and ideals into India, their science, moral values and practical education and instill in the comatose society a fresh breathe of life so that they could wake up from tamas to rajas – from inertia and dullness to an intensely active life that would ultimately help them to gain independence and work towards developing their own country. Man making and character building was his goal. But for that foreign help cannot be sought by begging. We need to be equal partners and we should earn respect from them. That can only happen if they are able to know about the ancient gems in our storehouse which we had been so loathe to give. The ancient treasures is that of spiritual knowledge and insights, from the greatest and grandest philosophies of Sankhya and Vedanta. But even to disseminate that would need a living example in front of them, otherwise how would they believe in them? And what better example than he himself could be there? By seeing him, they would see every principle of Vedanta in action. They would see a spiritual giant and would believe about all the spiritual ideas that a spiritual giant could only bring in. And parliament of religion could give him that platform where he would be planting the seeds of his ideas which would germinate in time. He declared, “I have a message for the West as Buddha had a message for the East”. The comparison was drawn, the modern age Buddha knew his mission and his mahabhiniskraman started with his leaving the shores of India. However he was already enlightened. There was nothing for him to know as he had already realized the highest. He knew the truth from Upanishads that verily Brahman was everything. The lowest of the low, the meanest of the mean was actually Brahman covered in Maya and Maya had already removed her veil for him. Only a thin covering remained in order to complete his guru’s mission, as Sri Ramakrishna had predicted. In Kakrighat after a deep meditation under a tree he told an astonished “Ganges”, Gangadhar Maharaj or Swami Akhandananda, his brother disciple, “I have now realized the oneness of macrocosm and microcosm” and years later, he gave a lecture on the same topic with his realization as the basis.

When he met his brother disciples Swami Turiyananda and Swami Brahmananda, both spiritual giants like him, they were amazed to see the transformation. He said to Swami Turiyananda, “Haribhai, I have not been able to understand your so called religion, but one thing that I have realized is that my heart has expanded like anything, that it cannot remain within this cage of flesh and blood.” Swami Turiyananda or Hari Maharaj was stunned. He thought to himself, “Didn’t Buddha have the same experience?”

Swamiji travelled via Japan and one of his travel partners was J.N Tata. Years later, Tata would reveal to Sister Nivedita, that the Japanese were astonished to see the physical similarities between this monk from India and Buddha as depicted in their texts.

Buddha’s major doctrine revolved around suffering, its cause and the way to overcome suffering in a practical sense. Swamiji in his practical Vedanta lay emphasis on how we can transcend our ego and selfishness to become pure and perfect and thereby manifest the divinity that is already within us – by realizing our real nature of Atman, one with Brahman – ever pure, infinite existence consciousness and bliss. That will end all sorrow, all miseries and make us free for ever. Free we are, we just have to realize that. Infinite power is within us, we’ll have to unlock it through sadhana. Thus both Buddha’s and Swamiji’s teachings were full of hope, joy and optimism.