By Swami Vivekananda
In every religion we find one type of self-devotion particularly developed. The type of working without a motive is highly developed in Buddhism. 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 priest craft. 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 replay, “Do good and be good.” There came five Brahmins, who asked him to settle their discussion. One said, “Lord, my book says that God is such and such, and 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, my Lord, 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?”
He was the only man who bereft of all motive power. There were other great men who all said they were the Incarnation of God himself, and 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 your own salvation.”He said about himself, Buddha is the name of infinite knowledge, infinite as sky ; I, Gautama have reached that state; you will all reached this 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 with a heart as wide as the ocean.
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. He stands as the perfection of the active type, and very height to which he attained shows that throw the power of work we can also attains to the highest spirituality.
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 confessed materialist, even he can attain to the highest. We have no right to judge him. He reached the same state of perfection to which others come by Bhakti- love of God, Yoga or Jnana. Perfection does not come from belief or faith. Talk does not count for anything. Perfection comes through the disinterested performance of action.
LORD BUDDHA
