The two great men shook the world by their ideas and deeds, and lived their lives for others on this very land, twenty-five centuries apart. Lord Buddha, the mover of the wheel of religion, gifted with transcendental power, overwhelmed the universe with his teachings of compassion and detachment while Swami Vivekananda spread the philosophies of the Vedanta, the ancient sacred scripture of India, worldwide. They both lived more than a phenomenal existence. The lives of these two great men had astounding resemblances in many ways. Both wandering monks spent every moment of their lives for a purpose. Their minds did not enjoy any worldly objects. Disease and decay, and the transitory pain of manhood assailed Buddha.

Lord Buddha meditated by the side of river ‘Nairanjana’ for seven long days at a stretch with the conviction to attain eternal knowledge and completed it. The knowledge absolute that he thus acquired shows the means of removing misery, the misery of desire of mankind. Prince Siddhartha Gautama attained ‘Nirvana’. The auspicious rain enabled the seed of religion to germinate. Sitting on the last stone of India at Kanyakumari for three consecutive days – December 24 to 26, 1892 – Swami Vivekananda passed into a deep meditation on the present and future of his country. Poverty and ignorance of the countrymen preoccupied his mind. He was in search of a remedy for the misery of the masses of India.

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Lord Buddha after attaining ‘Nirvana’ traversed his whole life in the Gangetic plains in cities and towns on foot “….in the fashion of a Rishi passed From street to street, with beggingbowl in hand, Gathering little pittance of his needs.” [Light of Asia] The four months of rain were the only deterrent. Sister Nivedita in her book ‘The Master As I Saw Him’ perceived that the study of writings of Dr Rajendralal Mitra and the ‘Light of Asia’ sowed the seeds of interest about Buddha in Swamiji in his boyhood days. “During the years … the attention of the world had been much concentrated on the story of Buddhism” she commented. ‘Light of Asia’ by Edwin Arnold (1832 – 1904) was published in 1879. Babu Rajendralal Mitra (1822- 1891), the Bengalee scholar, took active part in the restoration of the Mahabodhi temple, the great shrine, at Bodh Gaya. The restoration work was undertaken by the British government between 1879 and 1894. Babu Rajendralal was requested in 1877 by the then British government of Bengal to visit Bodh Gaya and advise the government about the excavation and the restoration job.

His research work on Bodh Gaya was published in 1878 as ‘Budhya Gaya: The Hermitage of Sakya Muni’. In later years Swamiji also read ‘Lalita Vistara’ and ‘Prajna Paramita’, the two great books on Buddhism, in original text i.e. Sanskrit. At one time (April 1885) the chief topic of discussion and meditation among Swami Vivekananda and his brother disciples had been the life and gospel of Buddha. In January 1886, Sri Ramakrishna initiated Vivekananda and eleven others to Sannyas by distributing ochre cloths and ‘rudraksha’ to them.

In April 1886, Swamiji along with Kali (later Swami Abhedananda) and Tarak (later Swami Shibananda) went to Bodh Gaya without informing anyone. They spent three-four days there and meditated. Already a Sannyasi by then, Swamiji thought: “Is it possible that I breathe the air He breathed? That I touch the earth He trod?” According to Nivedita it was the ‘historic authenticity of the personality of Buddha that held him spellbound’. Vivekananda cut his last attachment with his brother-disciples and went out alone for a spiritual journey. “On these travels he took the vow of not touching money.”

He started travelling in 1888 along the Ganges to the Himalayas and then to other parts of India from Himalayas to Kanyakumari. He remembered the words of the Dhammapada: ‘Go forward without a path! Fearing nothing, caring for nothing, Wander alone, like the rhinoceros!’ Swamiji had a profound reverence for Buddha. On several occasions he expressed his thoughts about Buddha and Buddhism in lectures in America and other places after 1893. His lecture titled ‘Buddhism, the Fulfilment of Hinduism’ delivered on 26 September 1893 at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago was significant. He said: “I am not a Buddhist, as you have heard, and yet I am.

If China or Japan or Ceylon follow the teachings of the Great Master, India worshipped him as God incarnate on earth.” Vivekananda believed that Buddhism was an integral part of Hindu religion. He said: “The idea was always within Hinduism.” He further said: “Again I repeat, Shakya Muni came not to destroy, but he was the fulfilment, the logical conclusion, the logical development of the religion of the Hindus.” Vivekananda was of the opinion that India was full of superstition and priestcraft at that time and India needed Buddha, who brought a great social change through his teachings. Vivekananda repeatedly returned to the perfect rationality of Buddha. He said: “I have more veneration for that character than any other – that boldness, that fearlessness, and that tremendous love.” He often referred to Buddha “as the one absolutely sane man that the world has ever seen”.

He said: “Buddha was not a man, but a realisation.” Vivekananda also described the cause of decline of Buddhism in India. In a Madras lecture in 1897 Swamiji said: “I have every respect and veneration for Lord Buddha, but mark my words, the spread of Buddhism was less owing to the doctrines and the personality of the great preacher than to the temples that were built, the idols that were erected, and the gorgeous ceremonials that were put before the nation. Thus Buddhism progressed. The little fireplaces in the houses, in which the people poured their libations were not strong enough to hold their own against these gorgeous temples and ceremonies, but later on the whole thing degenerated.”

Buddha did not accept the idea of existence of any Personal God. Nor did he agree to be worshipped as God. But the disciples of Buddha evolved very different schools of thought and it was difficult for them to determine what were really his ideas and teachings. They started worshipping Buddha as God after his death. Swamiji said: “The very Buddha who declared against the existence of a Personal God had not died fifty years before his disciples manufactured a Personal God out of him.” The Buddhists have become a meagre minority in India.

According to Census 2011, the number of Buddhists in India was 8.4 million which is 0.7 per cent of the population. There was a major surge in the number of Buddhists after Dr B R Ambedkar adopted ‘Navayana or Neo Buddhism’ in 1956 along with his millions of followers. Significantly on his last birthday (according to tithi in the Hindu almanac) on 29 January 1902, Vivekananda was in Bodh Gaya for the second time. He spent the day in meditation on Buddha. Swamiji had also earlier planned to visit Tibet through Nepal with Swami Akhandananda to study Buddhist scriptures. But it did not materialise.

Thus, almost throughout his whole life, Swami Vivekananda was preoccupied with the historic and philosophical significance of the doctrines of Buddhism. Lord Buddha believed that every common man could be uplifted to the level of ‘Nirvana’ so they can get relief from miseries of pain and sorrow. Vivekananda had the vision to regenerate his poor, ignorant countrymen from despair they were suffering from. Both of them had deep faith in the inner strength of man. The thoughts of these two wise men converge somewhere portraying their virtually identical missions though they lived thousands of years apart.

(The writer is a cost accountant who worked in a state power utility.)