19 April 2013

Swami Vivekananda On Gautama Buddha

    In this page we'll make a collection of Swami Vivekananda's quotes and comments on Gautama Buddha (Shakya Muni)

    Swami Vivekananda on Gautama Buddha

    • At the time Buddha was born, India was in need of a great spiritual leader, a prophet.
      At the time Buddha was born,
      India was in need
      of a great spiritual leader, a prophet.
      —Swami Vivekananda
      Image source: Wikimedia Commons
    • All my life I have been very fond of Buddha. I have more veneration for that character than any other— that boldness, that fearlessness, and that tremendous love! He was born for the good of men. Others may seek God, others may seek truth for themselves; he did not even care to know truth for himself. He sought truth because people were in misery. How to help them, that was his only concern. Throughout his life he never had a thought for himself.
    • Buddha died at a ripe old age. I remember a friend of mine, a great American scientist, who was fond of reading his life. He did not like the death of Buddha, because he was not crucified. What a false idea! For a man to be great he must be murdered! Such ideas never prevailed in India. This great Buddha travelled all over India, denouncing her gods and even the God of the universe, and yet he lived to a good old age. For eighty years he lived, and had converted half the country.[Source]
    • Buddha is expressly agnostic about God; but God is everywhere preached in our religion. The Vedas teach God -- both personal and impersonal. God is everywhere preached in the Gita. Hinduism is nothing without God. The Vedas are nothing without Him. That is the only way to salvation. Sannyasins have to repeat the following, several times: I, wishing for Mukti, take refuge in God, who created the world, who breathed out the Vedas.[Source]
    • Buddha is said to have denied the Vedas because there is so much Himsa (killing) and other things. Every page of Buddhism is a fight with the Vedas (the ritualistic aspect). But he had no authority to do so.[Source]
    • Buddha made the fatal mistake of thinking that the whole world could be lifted to the height of the Upanishads. And self - interest spoilt all. Krishna was wiser, because He was more politic. But Buddha would have no compromise. The world before now has seen even the Avatara ruined by compromise, tortured to death for want of recognition, and lost. But Buddha would have been worshipped as God in his own lifetime, all over Asia, for a moment's compromise. And his reply was only: 'Buddhahood is an achievement, not a person!' Verily was He the only man is the world who was ever quite sane, the only sane man ever born![Source]
    • Buddha never bowed down to anything, neither Veda, nor caste, nor priest, nor custom. He fearlessly reasoned so far as reason could take him. Such a fearless search for truth and such love for every living thing the world has never seen.
    • Buddha said: 'These ceremonials were all wrong. There is but one ideal in the world. Destroy all delusions; what is true will remain. As soon as the clouds are gone, the sun will shine.' How to kill the self? Become perfectly unselfish, ready to give up your life even for an ant. work not for any superstition, not to please any God, not to get any reward, but because you are seeking your own release by killing your self. Worship and prayer and all that, these are all nonsense. You all say, 'I thank God'— but where does He live? You do not know, and yet you are all going crazy about God.
    • Buddha was a reformer of Hinduism.
      —Swami Vivekananda
      Image source: Wikimedia Commons
    • Buddha came to whip us into practice. Be good, destroy the passions. Then you will know for yourself whether Dvaita or Advaita philosophy is true -- whether there is one or there are more than one.[Source]
    • Buddha was a great Vedantist (for Buddhism was really only an offshoot of Vedanta), and Shankara is often called a "hidden Buddhist". Buddha made the analysis, Shankara made the synthesis out of it. Buddha never bowed down to anything — neither Veda, nor caste, nor priest, nor custom. He fearlessly reasoned so far as reason could take him. Such a fearless search for truth and such love for every living thing the world has never seen. Buddha was the Washington of the religious world; he conquered a throne only to give it to the world, as Washington did to the American people. He sought nothing for himself.[Source]
    • Buddha was a reformer of Hinduism.[Source]
    • Buddha was more brave and sincere than any teacher. H said: "Believe no book; the Vedas are all humbug. If they agree with me, so much the better for the books. I am the greatest book; sacrifice and prayer are useless." Buddha was the first human being to give to this world a complete system of morality. He was good for good's sake, he loved for love's sake.
    • Buddha was one of the Sannyasins of the Vedanta. He started a new sect, just as others are started even today. The ideas which are now called Buddhism were not his. They were much more ancient. He was a great man who gave the ideas power.
    • Buddha was the only great Indian philosopher who would not recognise caste, and not one of his followers remains in India. All the other philosophers pandered more or less to social prejudices; no matter how high they soared, still a bit of the vulture remained in them.[Source]
    • Buddha was the great preacher of equality. Every man and woman has the same right to attain spirituality— that was his teaching.
    • Buddhism was entirely within Hinduism! Even caste was not attacked it was not yet crystallized, of course! And Buddha merely tried to restore the ideal. [Source]
    • I have come to deal with principles. I have only to preach that God comes again and again, and that He came in India as Krishna, Rama, and Buddha, and that He will come again. It can almost be demonstrated that after each 500 years the world sinks, and a tremendous spiritual wave comes, and on the top of the wave is a Christ.[Source]
    • I would like to see moral men like Gautama Buddha, who did not believe in a Personal God or a personal soul, never asked about them, but was a perfect agnostic, and yet was ready to lay down his life for anyone, and worked all his life for the good of all, and thought only for the good of all. Well has it been said by his biographer, in describing his birth, that he was born for the good of many, as a blessing to the many. He did not go to the forest to meditate for his own salvation; he felt that the world was burning, and that he must find a way out. "Why is there so much misery in the world?" —was the one question that dominated his whole life.
    • In Buddha we had the great, universal heart and infinite patience, making religion practical and bringing it to everyone’s door. In Shankaracharya we saw tremendous intellectual power, throwing the scorching light of reason upon everything. We want today that bright sun of intellectuality joined with the heart of Buddha, the wonderful infinite heart of love and mercy. This union will give us the highest philosophy. Science and religion will meet and shake hands. Poetry and philosophy will become friends.What! Those giants of old, the ancient Rishis, who never walked but strode, of whom if you were to think but for a moment you would shrivel up into a moth, they sir, had time--and you have no time!
    • In the Buddha Incarnation the Lord says that the root of the Adhibhautika misery or, misery arising from other terrestrial beings, is the formation of classes (Jati); in other words, every form of class-distinction, whether based on birth, or acquirements, or wealth is at the bottom of this misery. In the Atman there is no distinction of sex, or Varna or Ashrama, or anything of the kind, and as mud cannot be washed away by mud, it is likewise impossible to bring about oneness by means of separative ideas.[Source]
    • It was the Great Buddha, who never cared for the dualist gods, and who has been called an atheist and materialist, who yet was ready to give up his body for a poor goat. That Man set in motion the highest moral ideas any nation can have. Wherever there is a moral code, it is a ray of light from that Man.
    • Shakya Muni came not to destroy, but he was the fulfilment, the logical conclusion, the logical development of the religion of the Hindus.
    • The Lord Buddha is my Ishta—my God. He preached no theory about Godhead—he was himself God, I fully believe it.[Source]

     

    Are Christ and Buddha identical?

    Swami Vivekananda told—
    It is my particular fancy that the same Buddha became Christ.
    —Swami Vivekananda
    Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Jesus's image, Buddha's image)
    It is my particular fancy that the same Buddha became Christ. Buddha prophesied, "I will come again in five hundred years", and Christ came here in five hundred years. These are the two Lights of the whole human nature. Two men have been produced, Buddha and Christ; these are the two giants, huge gigantic personalities, two Gods. Between them they divide the whole world. Wherever there is the least knowledge in the world, people bow down either to Buddha or Christ. It would be very hard to produce more like them, but I hope there will be. Mohammed came five hundred years after, five hundred years after came Luther with his Protestant wave, and this is five hundred years after that again. It is a great thing in a few thousand years to produce two such men as Jesus and Buddha. Are not two such enough? Christ and Buddha were Gods, the others were prophets. Study the life of these two and see the manifestation of power in them -- calm and non - resisting, poor beggars owning nothing, without a cent in their pockets, despised all their lives, called heretic and fool -- and think of the immense spiritual power they have wielded over humanity.[Source]

      Notes taken down in Madras

      Excerpts from the lectures delivered in Madras, 1892–1893:[Source]
      • Hindus believe Buddha to be an Avatara.
      • Buddha came to whip us into practice. Be good, destroy the passions. Then you will know for yourself whether Dvaita or Advaita philosophy is true—whether there is one or there are more than one.
      • Buddha was a reformer of Hinduism.
      • Buddhism proves nothing about the Absolute Entity. In a stream the water is changing; we have no right to call the stream one. Buddhist deny the one, and say, it is many. We say it is one and deny the many. What they call Karma is what we call the soul. According to Buddhism, man is a series of waves. Every wave dies, but somehow the first wave causes the second. That the second wave is identical with the first is illusion. To get rid of illusion good Karma is necessary. Buddhists do not postulate anything beyond the world. We say, beyond the relative there is the Absolute. Buddhism accepts that there is misery, and sufficient it is that we can get rid of this Duhkha (misery); whether we get Sukha (happiness) or not, we do not know. Buddha preached not the soul preached by others. According to the Hindus, soul is an entity or substance, and God is absolute. Both agree in this, that they destroy the relative. But Buddhists do not give what is the effect of that destruction of the relative.
      • Buddha is said to have denied the Vedas because there is so much Himsa (killing) and other things. Every page of Buddhism is a fight with the Vedas (the ritualistic aspect). But he had no authority to do so.
      • Buddha is expressly agnostic about God; but God is everywhere preached in our religion. The Vedas teach God—both personal and impersonal. God is everywhere preached in the Gita. Hinduism is nothing without God. The Vedas are nothing without Him. That is the only way to salvation. Sannyasins have to repeat the following, several times: I, wishing for Mukti, take refuge in God, who created the world, who breathed out the Vedas.
      • Buddha, we may say now, ought to have understood the harmony of religions. He introduced sectarianism.

        Buddha's Message to the World

        On 18 March 1900, Swami Vivekananda delivered a speech on Gautama Buddha in San Francisco, which was later published as Buddha's Message to the World in the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Following excerpts are taken from that lecture—[Source]
        At the time Buddha was born,
        India was in need of a great spiritual leader, a prophet

        —Swami Vivekananda
        Image source: Wikimedia Commons
        • The followers of Buddha were most enthusiastic and very missionary in spirit. They were the first among the adherents of various religions not to remain content with the limited sphere of their Mother Church. They spread far and wide. They travelled east and west, north and south. They reached into darkest Tibet; they went into Persia, Asia Minor; they went into Russia, Poland, and many other countries of the Western world. They went into China, Korea, Japan; they went into Burma, Siam, the East Indies, and beyond. When Alexander the Great, through his military conquests, brought the Mediterranean world in contact with India, the wisdom of India at once found a channel through which to spread over vast portions of Asia and Europe. Buddhist priests went out teaching among the different nations; and as they taught, superstition and priestcraft began to vanish like mist before the sun.
        • To understand this movement properly you should know what conditions prevailed in India at the time Buddha came, just as to understand Christianity you have to grasp the state of Jewish society at the time of Christ. It is necessary that you have an idea of Indian society six hundred years before the birth of Christ, by which time Indian civilisation had already completed its growth.
        • At the time Buddha was born, India was in need of a great spiritual leader, a prophet. There was already a most powerful body of priests. You will understand the situation better if you remember the history of the Jews — how they had two types of religious leaders, priests and prophets, the priests keeping the people in ignorance and grinding superstitions into their minds. The methods of worship the priests prescribed were only a means by which they could dominate the people. All through the Old Testament, you find the prophets challenging the superstitions of the priests. The outcome of this fight was the triumph of the prophets and the defeat of the priests.
        • India was full of it in Buddha's day. There were the masses of people, and they were debarred from all knowledge. If just a word of the Vedas entered the ears of a man, terrible punishment was visited upon him. The priests had made a secret of the Vedas -- the Vedas that contained the spiritual truths discovered by the ancient Hindus!
          At last one man could bear it no more. He had the brain, the power, and the heart -- a heart as infinite as the broad sky. He felt how the masses were being led by the priests and how the priests were glorying in their power, and he wanted to do something about it. He did not want any power over any one, and he wanted to break the mental and spiritual bonds of men. His heart was large. The heart, many around us may have, and we also want to help others. But we do not have the brain; we do not know the ways and means by which help can be given. But this man had the brain to discover the means of breaking the bondages of souls. He learnt why men suffer, and he found the way out of suffering. He was a man of accomplishment, he worked everything out; he taught one and all without distinction and made them realise the peace of enlightenment. This was the man Buddha.
        • You know from Arnold's poem, The Light of Asia, how Buddha was born a prince and how the misery of the world struck him deeply; how, although brought up and living in the lap of luxury, he could not find comfort in his personal happiness and security; how he renounced the world, leaving his princess and new - born son behind; how he wandered searching for truth from teacher to teacher; and how he at last attained to enlightenment. You know about his long mission, his disciples, his organisations. You all know these things.
        • Buddha was the triumph in the struggle that had been going on between the priests and the prophets in India. One thing can be said for these Indian priests -- they were not and never are intolerant of religion; they never have persecuted religion. Any man was allowed to preach against them. Theirs is such a religion; they never molested any one for his religious views. But they suffered from the peculiar weaknesses of all the priests: they also sought power, they also promulgated rules and regulations and made religion unnecessarily complicated, and thereby undermined the strength of those who followed their religion.
        • Buddha cut through all these excrescences. He preached the most tremendous truths. He taught the very gist of the philosophy of the Vedas to one and all without distinction, he taught it to the world at large, because one of his great messages was the equality of man. Men are all equal. No concession there to anybody! Buddha was the great preacher of equality. Every man and woman has the same right to attain spirituality -- that was his teaching. The difference between the priests and the other castes he abolished. Even the lowest were entitled to the highest attainments; he opened the door of Nirvana to one and all. His teaching was bold even for India. No amount of preaching can ever shock the Indian soul, but it was hard for India to swallow Buddha's doctrine. How much harder it must be for you!
        • His doctrine was this: Why is there misery in our life? Because we are selfish. We desire things for ourselves -- that is why there is misery. What is the way out? The giving up of the self. The self does not exist; the phenomenal world, all this that we perceive, is all that exists. There is nothing called soul underlying the cycle of life and death. There is the stream of thought, one thought following another in succession, each thought coming into existence and becoming non - existent at the same moment, that is all; there is no thinker of the thought, no soul. The body is changing all the time; so is mind, consciousness. The self therefore is a delusion. All selfishness comes of holding on to the self, to this illusory self. If we know the truth that there is no self, then we will be happy and make others happy.
        • This was what Buddha taught. And he did not merely talk; he was ready to give up his own life for the world. He said, "If sacrificing an animal is good, sacrificing a man is better", and he offered himself as a sacrifice. He said, "This animal sacrifice is another superstition. God and soul are the two big superstitions. God is only a superstition invented by the priests. If there is a God, as these Brahmins preach, why is there so much misery in the world? He is just like me, a slave to the law of causation. If he is not bound by the law of causation, then why does he create? Such a God is not at all satisfactory. There is the ruler in heaven that rules the universe according to his sweet will and leaves us all here to die in misery -- he never has the goodness to look at us for a moment. Our whole life is continuous suffering; but this is not sufficient punishment -- after death we must go to places where we have other punishments. Yet we continually perform all kinds of rites and ceremonies to please this creator of the world!"
        • Buddha said, "These ceremonials are all wrong. There is but one ideal in the world. Destroy all delusions; what is true will remain. As soon as the clouds are gone, the sun will shine". How to kill the self? Become perfectly unselfish, ready to give up your life even for an ant. Work not for any superstition, not to please any God, not to get any reward, but because you are seeking your own release by killing your self. Worship and prayer and all that, these are all nonsense. You all say, "I thank God"-- but where does He live? You do not know, and yet you are all going crazy about God.
        • Buddha's idea is that there is no God, only man himself. He repudiated the mentality which underlies the prevalent ideas of God. He found it made men weak and superstitious. If you pray to God to give you everything, who is it, then, that goes out and works? God comes to those who work hard. God helps them that help themselves. An opposite idea of God weakens our nerves, softens our muscles, makes us dependent. Everything independent is happy; everything dependent is miserable. Man has infinite power within himself, and he can realise it -- he can realise himself as the one infinite Self. It can be done; but you do not believe it. You pray to God and keep your powder dry all the time.
        • Buddha taught the opposite. Do not let men weep. Let them have none of this praying and all that. God is not keeping shop. With every breath you are praying in God. I am talking; that is a prayer. You are listening; that is a prayer. Is there ever any movement of yours, mental or physical, in which you do not participate in the infinite Divine Energy? It is all a constant prayer. If you call only a set of words prayer, you make prayer superficial. Such prayers are not much good; they can scarcely bear any real fruit.
        • The life of Buddha has an especial appeal. All my life I have been very fond of Buddha, but not of his doctrine. I have more veneration for that character than for any other -- that boldness, that fearlessness, and that tremendous love! He was born for the good of men. Others may seek God, others may seek truth for themselves; he did not even care to know truth for himself. He sought truth because people were in misery.
          How to help them, that was his only concern. Throughout his life he never had a thought for himself. How can we ignorant, selfish, narrow - minded human beings ever understand the greatness of this man?
          And consider his marvellous brain! No emotionalism. That giant brain never was superstitious. Believe not because an old manuscript has been produced, because it has been handed down to you from your forefathers, because your friends want you to -- but think for yourself; search truth for yourself; realise it yourself. Then if you find it beneficial to one and many, give it to people. Soft - brained men, weak - minded, chicken - hearted, cannot find the truth. One has to be free, and as broad as the sky. One has to have a mind that is crystal clear; only then can truth shine in it. We are so full of superstitions! Even in your country where you think you are highly educated, how full of narrownesses and superstitions you are! Just think, with all your claims to civilisation in this country, on one occasion I was refused a chair to sit on, because I was a Hindu.
        • Six hundred years before the birth of Christ, at the time when Buddha lived, the people of India must have had wonderful education. Extremely free - minded they must have been. Great masses followed him. Kings gave up their thrones; queens gave up their thrones. People were able to appreciate and embrace his teaching, so revolutionary, so different from what they had been taught by the priests through the ages! But their minds have been unusually free and broad.
        • Gautama Buddha's death: And consider his death. If he was great in life, he was also great in death. He ate food offered to him by a member of a race similar to your American Indians. Hindus do not touch them, because they eat everything indiscriminately. He told his disciples, "Do not eat this food, but I cannot refuse it. Go to the man and tell him he has done me one of the greatest services of my life -- he has released me from the body." An old man came and sat near him -- he had walked miles and miles to see the Master -- and Buddha taught him. When he found a disciple weeping, he reproved him, saying, "What is this? Is this the result of all my teaching? Let there be no false bondage, no dependence on me, no false glorification of this passing personality. The Buddha is not a person; he is a realisation. Work out your own salvation."
          Even when dying, he would not claim any distinction for himself. I worship him for that. What you call Buddhas and Christs are only the names of certain states of realisation. Of all the teachers of the world, he was the one who taught us most to be self - reliant, who freed us not only from the bondages of our false selves but from dependence on the invisible being or beings called God or gods. He invited every one to enter into that state of freedom which he called Nirvana. All must attain to it one day; and that attainment is the complete fulfilment of man

        Swami Vivekananda on Buddhism

         

        See also

          1. Swami Vivekananda Quotes on Jesus Christ
          2. Swami Vivekananda Quotes on Ramakrishna

            External links

              1. Addresses at The Parliament of Religions — Buddhism, the Fulfilment of Hinduism (26 September 1893) from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume I
              2. Buddhistic India from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume III
              3. On Lord Buddha from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume IV 

              This page was last updated on: 16 April 2014, 2:49 pm IST (UTC+5:30 hours)
              Number of revisions in this page: 18

              19 comments:

              1. Hi, i just want to say thank you for sharing your collection of Swami Vivekananda quotes on Gautama. More power to your blog!

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              2. Some of his quotes are inaccurate actually.

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                1. Please mention which quotes? And why do you think those are inaccurate? We'll revise their accuracy.

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              3. The Great Swamis insight on Buddhism is nothing unique or extraordinary. He repeats like a parrot what several Pundits have raged on since centuries, eg.. Avatar of Hindu Gods, a clean up guy of Hindu filth, a disdaining fellow for the Vedanta, etc. etc.. What is surprising is from his limited knowledge are words that Buddha has said in Dhammapada or several Sutras throughout his life time. Which are pillars of freedom from difficulties in life. That is why we have Ashoka pillars. They are boldest messages of freedome form circle of life and death.
                The great Vivekanand is truly a very ignorant man.

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                1. Vivekananada's understandings on Buddhism is MUCH better than your fake Lamas'.
                  Even your Lamas or religious preachers agree that Buddhism have degraded.

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                2. Rajesh, I pity at your ignorance. Have you read about the Great Vivekananda? Do you know all about Buddhism and under what circumstances it started? Poor you...

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                3. you have missed the way...you condemn and abuse altogether everyone...including your own faith.

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              4. Truly, both Gautama and Vivekananda, are called wise of the world by the wisdom that is blind. For wisdom that does not begin with the fear of the Lords is not the true wisdom (refer Bible Proverbs 9:10). I read the complete blog, and could see tremendous effort by Vivekananda to please his audience by giving respect to Christ Jesus, but doing so he has actually undermined the true image of Christ Jesus and also revealed how shallow was his investigation, search about Christ. For I am convinced if he would have submitted to the authority of Bible in his study would have not called Christ same as Buddha the enlightened.
                Buddha was troubled with a question, which is not a unique question for him as there are many who ask this question.. Why is there suffering in the world? Possibly unique thing in his case was he left everything in search of the truth. Eventually, as he reached his old age, his search was yet not finished but as in the case of any old man who lives for so many years gathers great deal of experience from life and remains firm with his beliefs.. But the point here is he was yet searching the truth.. to which people around with political interests and some sort of blind zeal with lack of discernment called his state to be enlightened and makes him Buddha the enlightened and even some worship him which even he would not like as he is true to his principles but sadly he cannot express that as he like every other leader remains dead..

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              5. As the blind cannot lead blind and even who thinks he/she can see in the darkness stumbles, I am not surprised the reach of Vivekananda’s analysis over Christianity which he concludes in saying “after every 500 years a new leader comes, I quote his words here “I have come to deal with principles. I have only to preach that God comes again and again, and that He came in India as Krishna, Rama, and Buddha, and that He will come again. It can almost be demonstrated that after each 500 years the world sinks, and a tremendous spiritual wave comes, and on the top of the wave is a Christ.” 
                He calls Christ also another Buddha.. or the one of whom Buddha prophesy.. I hope the reader of this blog and truth seekers seek for truth sincerely for their own benefit first (it is the same principle as is in the aeroplane i.e. instructions are to put the Oxygen mask to self by an adult and then help the child in their care) and read the Bible prayerfully and only relying upon the author of the Bible the Triune God revealed in the Bible – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. As surly although Vivekananda read the Bible he missed on this principle and derived his own principle as quoted above and said even Christ like Buddha, is an enlightened one.. But refer to these verses from bible..
                John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me”
                Yet again, John 8:12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."

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              6. Jesus Christ never went out searching for truth to be one day enlightened but he boldly claims to be the truth himself.. he says in John 10:30 "I and the Father are one." He has no fear of speaking the truth that he is the Son of God..
                John in his Gospel refers to him as The Word of God and says John 1: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
                Gautama Buddha was searching answers and remedy for the suffering of the world…. And having not fully able to comprehend it, yet the blinded world calls him enlightened… whereas Christ being the essence of true God himself knew the core reason for the suffering of the world that it is Sin and because of the Sin of disobedience by the first ever man God had to curse the whole creation (Read Genesis 3) and so when we are born may it be any cast, religion or atheism we are born with inherent sin (we are born dead - spiritually dead). World religions and including Buddhism teaches we become sinful because we sin. But Bible alone is the true scripture boldly says we sin because we are sinners already.. Law of God says “Wages of Sin is death” (Romans 6:23) and so as God is Just, a righteous God he fulfils the law by sending his Son (God the Son see John 3:6) to pay the punishment, to pay the ransom for the world to save broken hearted who captives of the sin & death. And Jesus Christ being that son in full awareness and obedience came in the world not searching for answers, but to answer all unanswered questions. He came as a redeemer for the people of God chosen from eternity by dying in their place as a substitution on the Roman Cross. So that his righteous sacrifice was acceptable in the sight of eternal father and the judgement of sin was passed from those who believe in the death of Jesus Christ and believe in his resurrection and ascension to heaven from where he came. See John 3:16
                16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

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              7. Nowhere bible suggests as Vivekananda perceived that Christ is enlightened one as if he found answers. No no no.. he himself was an answer to all our questions and burdens. See how Matthew records in his Gospel these words of Jesus Christ:
                Matthew 11:28-30
                28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
                Like the evolutionists yet lacking in provable evidence speak of 60 million and 100 billions of years for a big-bang or an atom or a fish or a monkey to evolve as a Man rejecting the existence of God as what actually pleases Satan, who has blinded them and so they drive theories of cycle of reincarnation and moksha or Nirvana as Buddhists like to call it and work it out based on Karma / works would end up nowhere but be in the same state as are now – lost..
                The ultimate rest is one that we will get when we are with our creator.. we cannot get there by our good works, as works produce boasting and there is no place for boasting before the Lord. So if not our works then what????
                See these words recorded in the book of Acts in the bible:
                Acts 4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: 9 If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, 10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’[a] 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
                It is by faith alone and not by works Ephesians 2:8 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves (i.e. not by Karma / works), it is the gift of God;
                So my dear friends, please seek the truth, not on your own but depend on God for this.. Don’t be deceived by the so called truth that gives man a fake standing of his own but all the principles of the world are although seem to be truth… look carefully these are all half-truths and believe me half-truth is worse than a lie.. It is deceiving …
                Come to the saving truth in Jesus Christ.. Take the oxygen mask for yourself first then you will gain sufficient strength to help others in the time of suffering otherwise all your help like Gautama’s will be blind leading other blind.. May the Lord of Creation shine his face upon you and create in you a new desire to seek the truth in Jesus Christ Amen.
                How long do I have till I can find the truth myself..? No one knows. There are only 3 things that are certain in the world:
                1. All will die
                2. Christ Jesus is coming soon to establish his visible kingdom on the heaven and new earth
                3. All the elect will believe in him in repentance and faith – Born again in Spirit of the Lord before our Lord Jesus comes.. Amen.
                So when is the right time for repentance? Now
                What do I need to achieve to be right with God? Faith in Christ Jesus. God Bless!

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              8. Swami Vivekananda some thought on Buddhism is not correct because he said The Buddha thought is given by Vedas or Upanishad is totally wrong. Buddha was not Avatar of Hinduism.

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              9. Swami Vivekananda was great scholar but his some thoughts on Buddha is totally wrong like Buddha sermon is taken by Vedas and Upnisada and Buddha is Avatar of Hinduism. There are so many things on Buddhism connected to Hinduism by Swami Vivekananda is not good. He is great

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              10. I mean who the hell cares what is the opinion of this guy Vivekananda on anyone. Isn't Vivekananda the same guy who -
                a. Went to America and praised the White population calling them racially and intellectually superior to the persecuted Black community and suggesting that the persecution of blacks was legitimate since they were lesser humans than the white population.
                b. Went to Germany and said that the germans were fellow Aryans similar to Brahmins and Aryans (Hindus). He said that the superior race always have the right to dominate over the inferiors.
                c. Blatently and openly (in his writing) supported the Caste system saying that the Caste system was a proper means to run the Indian society.
                d. Near the time of his death(some people speculate it was a suicide) that he was wrong all his life and that teachings of Vedas, Upanishads and other Hindu/Brahmanical texts was utter garbage and that true religion and philosophy lies with the Buddha, Kabir and Nanak?

                I mean give me a break here......Look at his EGO . He tells the Blessed one Gautama Buddha that he had no authority to criticize the Vedas and Brahmins and the sacrifices?. I mean give me a break here folks. What is the status of vivekananda compared to the Buddha?. Was vivekananda even enlightened that he can comment on the likes of the Blessed one and Jesus?

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                1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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              11. Buddha was a Hindhu Prince and learned vedas & upanishads to go up to 8th Jana. He did R & D to take vedanta to common people as well as to diminish priests domination. Buddhism, Jainism & Sickism are all off shoot of Hinduism. Converted perverts willn't accept this. I do Vipasana meditation everday for two hours and heard a lot about Buddha. He was against creating Buddhism and praing him as God. He asked, If all the people in this world converted and don't lead a moral life what purpose it would serve. On the contrary, if they remain as they are and lead a moral life how greatly this world will be benefited. Today, conversion is the mail agenda of christitianity and islam and see the fanatism to tear apart peace & love which was core of Hinduism, Christ & Buddha.

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                1. Lol !.

                  Buddha was not a "Hindu prince". He was a Sakyan (An Indo-Scythian) a different race from the Brahmins - the founder of Brahmanism and now Hinduism.

                  Its not "Sickism" but Sikhism. And Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism are not "off-shoots of Hinduism" but brutal rebels condemning the entire framework of Hinduism or Brahmanism.

                  If he was against creating "Buddhism" why did he create the Sangha?. He predicted that his religion will one day dominate the country but would remain only for 500 years since he knew the Brahmins will bring it down eventually.

                  "On the contrary, if they remain as they are and lead a moral life how greatly this world will be benefited."
                  Again lies. Stop being cunning you moron. You cannot fool all the people all the time.

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              12. Buddha was a reformer of Hinduism
                its inaccurate quote

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                1. It does not seem to be. It is taken from CW, Vol 6, Notes Taken Down In Madras, 1892-93

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