Vivekananda and Buddha Part 3

In the late nineteenth century we saw a huge decline facing Hinduism. Its people had forgotten the true meaning and purpose of religion and were fighting amongst each other as petty sects. Islamic rule had already crippled Hindu enthusiasm for reforms and orthodoxy became the bane which led to a mass disillusionment among the educated class. Scientific ideas and materialism held great dangers, esp. for the dogmas and Reforming religions like Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj placed formidable challenge. Christianity as state religion attacked almost every aspect of Hinduism which was looked down upon by Christian missionaries who launched a vicious propaganda as they saw a great opportunity to convert. Even the most educated scholars among Elite ruling class estimated that it would be a matter of time before Hinduism as a religion vanishes in thin air and Christianity becomes the religion of masses. But they underestimated the resilience of Hinduism. In a remote hamlet about 160 miles away from the capital of India there took birth a remarkable boy, who devoid of all English education, used a superhuman force to conquer the realms of super sensuality, like a true scientist experimented with the religious methods of all major traditions and thus proclaimed after realizing the ultimate truth, the different facets of the mother of the universe including the attribute less formless Brahman, “All religions are paths to God, all are true if followed with earnestness and sincerity, God can be realized and that should be the goal of mankind, as long as we live so long we learn, as many opinions so many paths”, and so on. Slowly scholars and devotees gathered round him and later came the enquirers and the real spiritual aspirants who wanted to realize God. Narendra was one of them. Like Buddha Narendra was from a well to do family. But he had a firsthand experience of suffering when his father died and his family almost starved for months and his close relatives filed lawsuits to take everything away. Misery after misery followed, but by then the urge to renounce had grown stronger. So at the age of 23 he renounced in comparison with Buddha who did it at 40. But like Buddha Swamiji spent the years in austere practices and meditation and unlike Buddha he also devoted considerable time in studying. Unlike Buddha he had Ramakrishna as his guru and therefore did not need to search for a new one, also his chosen path and spiritual ideal was quite clear. Sri Ramakrishna said that Narendra belonged to the realm of Akhanda or indivisible. So his lifelong practices revolved around meditating on the indivisible existence, consciousness and bliss and therefore he stood wholeheartedly for Advaita Vedanta. However prior to renunciation he had fought for six long years before accepting advaita Vedanta as a path. But once he was established in advaita which was further cemented by his experience of nirvikalpa Samadhi in Kashipur garden house, there was no looking back. Like Buddha everybody who saw him during his itinerant days knew him to be a powerful sannyasi, a person of realization. Unlike Buddha however the kings and masses alike did not gather around him until he had achieved the fame in the West. But whoever came in close contact with him, kings and masses alike, were drawn to him. In this way there developed a close bonding with raja of Khetri Ajit Singh, Wodiyar of Mysuru, Bhaskara Sethupati of Ramnad, Mangal Singh of Alwar, king and the Diwan of Junagadh and rulers as well as adminstrators of several other princely provinces. Buddha had developed a close kinship with several rulers of his time including king Prosenjit of Koshala and Bimbisara of Magadha. True spirituality never goes unnoticed. In the words of Sri Ramakrishna when a lotus blooms bees come to it on their own accord, attracted by the fragrance. Similarly sincere spiritual aspirants flocked around Swiamiji wherever he went, despite being an unknown monk, irrespective of religion and caste. Buddha spent 40 years of his remaining life after enlightenment in building his monastic order and in preaching, developing his ideal among the masses. Swamiji only got around sixteen years after renunciation. But the impacts were the same – both of them brought aver arching reforms in the society directly as well as indirectly. One is yet to fully assess the influence of Vivekananda but we need to remember that he strongly advocated man making and character building, working selflessly for the nation building, investment in science, technology and education, developing talents in music and arts and in ensuring gender equality, i.e. making sure that women gets education and solev their own problem and get equal opportunities everywhere. Within three years of his death India erupted against the foreign rule, something that he wanted lifelong, to instill manliness and courage in what he perceived as a nation steeped in dullness or tamas. Leaders came up from nowhere to lead the movements. Inspired by his ideals several young men and women embraced monasticism, thus developing and enriching a new monastic order, something like that of the Buddhists of the early days. Many intrepid men and women jumped into the fire of the freedom movement and several of them embraced death willingly. Inspired by them thousands of others came up and by the turn of the twentieth century India had almost got rid its thousands of years of lethargy and was struggling to get up and get rid of its shackles. Romaine Rolland had said it is as if he stood in front of his nation’s body and said “Lazarus, come forth” and it got up. Rest was history. A similar awakening happened after Buddha, a strong and resilient India received a great impetus in art, culture, spirituality, literature and strong and unified regimes came up to even deter  Alexander the great from further pursuing his misadventures in India.

We’ll end with two interesting anecdotes, one mentioned by Mahendranath Dutta, the brother of Swamiji who stayed with him for some time in London. In his book Vivekananda in London Maahendraanath Dutta mentioned about a curious incident. One evening while having a discussion with Henrietta Mueller, Swamiji got into an exalted state and revealed a lot of things. Mahendranath and Swami Saradananda were also there listening spell bound. One of the statements that was made by Swamiji was that he was none other than Buddha. Sadly Miss Mueller did not take any notice of the statements but both Mahendranath and Swami Saradananda were amazed.

The other one is mentioned in the book Devloke (in the realm of the Gods) by Swami Apurvananda. Dealing primarily with the reminiscences about Mahapurush Maharaj or Swami Shivananda, the second president of Ramakrishna Order, it mentioned one dream of Swami Shivananda towards the end of his life which he mentioned to his sevaks. He was also considerably interested in Buddhism in his early life and remained in an exalted spiritual state throughout his life. He often used to say to his intimate ones that he came around 2500 years earlier, during the time of Lord Buddha. In the dream that he mentioned he saw, Swamiji came to him and said, “Tarakada, come back, why are you staying forth? You don’t know who you are? In our previous incarnation I was Buddha and you were Ananda, my chief disciple. Come back now, leave your body.” Mahapurushji passed away soon after but this was important enough to be recorded by Swami Apurvananda.

Sri Ramakrishna had said about Swamiji that if Naren knows who he was he would leave his body. A few days before his departure from earthly realsm, somebody had Swamiji, “Swamiji, do you now know who you are?” Swamiji said gravely, “yes, I know.”  He knew it but it would forever remain a mystery to us and we can only conjecture.