The Sages Of India - Part 3

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Swami Vivekananda

The Sages Of India - Part 3

 

In later times, there developed a conflict between the two powerful communities of India, the kings and the priests. And from the topmost crust of the wave that deluged India for a nearly thousand years we see another glorious figure, and that was our Gautama, the Shakyamuni. We worship him as God-incarnate, the greatest, the boldest preacher of morality that the world ever saw, the greatest Karma Yogi. Buddha or Shakyamuni stood for the highest ideal of renunciation. He stood for the poor and the downcast. He preached in the language of the people in place of Sanskrit. But in the course of the expansion of his ideas, it absorbed into its fold, many different barbarous races of mankind and all their superstitions and degrading practices got mixed up with Buddhism.

 

India had to be lifted from this state of degradation and the last fell upon the marvelous boy-sage Shankaracharya. All the hideous races like Tartars and Baluchis had come to India and become Buddhists. The became assimilated with us, bringing into our society all their national customs. The whole of our national life became a huge page of the most horrible and most bestial customs. From that time to this, the whole work in India is a reconquest of this Buddhistic degradation by the Vedanta. It is going on and is not over yet.

 

Shankara came, the great philosopher, and showed the real essence of Buddhism and that of the Vedanta are not very different, but that the disciples, not understanding the teach correctly, had degraded themselves. They denied the existence of the soul and of God, and have become atheists. The Buddhists then began to come back to the Vedantic root, but many of their custom continued to vitiate the society. Next came the great Ramanuja, who had a great heart, who felt for the downtrodden and sympathized with them. He instituted new ceremonies and new methods of worship. At the same time he opened the door of the highest spiritual worship to all including the lowest strata of society. This work spread to the north and found expression through Chaitanya. Though himself of the highest status and a great scholar, Chaitanya abandoned all this and took to the life of asceticism and intense devotion. He drew into his circle people from every strata of society including the Mohammedans. Thus his movement was one of wonderful liberalism.

 

Now we come to the modern times. These arose the need for one who had the large heart of these Vaishnava teachers combined with the intellect of Shankara; one who would see in every sect the same spirit working, the same God; one who would see God in every being; one whose heart would weep for the poor, the weak, for the outcast, for the downtrodden; and at the same time whose brilliant intellect would conceive noble thoughts that harmonize all conflicting sects and bring into being a marvelous harmony, a universal religion of head and heart. Such a sage was born in Shri Ramkrishna Paramhansa. He is the one whose teachings are now the most beneficial, His life and teachings have already attracted large numbers of people in the East and in the West, and in times to come are bound to attract still large numbers.