The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 4/Lectures and Discourses/On Lord Buddha
ON LORD BUDDHA
(Delivered in Detroit)
In every religion we find one type of self-devotion particularly developed.
The type of working without a motive is most highly developed in Buddhism.
Do not mistake Buddhism and Brâhminism. In this country you are very apt to
do so. Buddhism is one of our sects. It was founded by a great man called
Gautama, who became disgusted at the eternal metaphysical discussions of his
day, and the cumbrous rituals, and more especially with the caste system.
Some people say that we are born to a certain state, and therefore we are
superior to others who are not thus born. He was also against the tremendous
priestcraft. He preached a religion in which there was no motive power, and
was perfectly agnostic about metaphysics or theories about God. He was often
asked if there was a God, and he answered, he did not know. When asked about
right conduct, he would reply, "Do good and be good." There came five
Brâhmins, who asked him to settle their discussion. One said, "Sir, my book
says that God is such and such, and that this is the way to come to God."
Another said, "That is wrong, for my book says such and such, and this is
the way to come to God"; and so the others. He listened calmly to all of
them, and then asked them one by one, "Does any one of your books say that
God becomes angry, that He ever injures anyone, that He is impure?" "No,
Sir, they all teach that God is pure and good." "Then, my friends, why do
you not become pure and good first, that you may know what God is?"
Of course I do not endorse all his philosophy. I want a good deal of
metaphysics, for myself. I entirely differ in many respects, but, because I
differ, is that any reason why I should not see the beauty of the man? He
was the only man who was bereft of all motive power. There were other great
men who all said they were the Incarnations of God Himself, and that those
who would believe in them would go to heaven. But what did Buddha say with
his dying breath? "None can help you; help yourself; work out your own
salvation." He said about himself, "Buddha is the name of infinite
knowledge, infinite as the sky; I, Gautama, have reached that state; you
will all reach that too if you struggle for it." Bereft of all motive power,
he did not want to go to heaven, did not want money; he gave up his throne
and everything else and went about begging his bread through the streets of
India, preaching for the good of men and animals with a heart as wide as the
ocean.
He was the only man who was ever ready to give up his life for animals to
stop a sacrifice. He once said to a king, "If the sacrifice of a lamb helps
you to go to heaven, sacrificing a man will help you better; so sacrifice
me." The king was astonished. And yet this man was without any motive power.
He stands as the perfection of the active type, and the very height to which
he attained shows that through the power of work we can also attain to the
highest spirituality.
To many the path becomes easier if they believe in God. But the life of
Buddha shows that even a man who does not believe in God, has no
metaphysics, belongs to no sect, and does not go to any church, or temple,
and is a confessed materialist, even he can attain to the highest. We have
no right to judge him. I wish I had one infinitesimal part of Buddha's
heart. Buddha may or may not have believed in God; that does not matter to
me. He reached the same state of perfection to which others come by Bhakti
— love of God — Yoga, or Jnâna. Perfection does not come from belief or
faith. Talk does not count for anything. Parrots can do that. Perfection
comes through the disinterested performance of action.