Epistles (first series)

Swami Swarupananda

The Math,
15th May, 1901
My dear Swarup{ananda},

Your letter from Naini Tal is quite exciting. I have just returned from my tour through East Bengal and Assam. As usual I am quite tired and broken down.
If some real good comes out of a visit to H. H. of Baroda I am ready to come over, otherwise I don't want to undergo the expense and exertion of the long journey. Think it well over and make inquiries, and write me if you still think it would be best for the Cause for me to come to see H. H. . . .
Yours with love and blessings,
Vivekananda

 

Gopal Lal Villa,
Benares (Varanasi) Cantonment
9th February, 1902
My dear Swarup{ananda},

. . . In answer to Charu's letter, tell him to study the Brahma-Sutras himself. What does he mean by the Brahma-Sutras containing references to Buddhism? He means the Bhashyas, of course, or rather ought to mean, and Shankara was only the last Bhashyakara (commentator). There are references, though in Buddhistic literature, to Vedanta, and the Mahayana school of Buddhism is even Advaitistic. Why does Amara Singha, a Buddhist, give as one of the names of Buddha--Advayavadi? Charu writes, the word Brahman does not occur in the Upanishads! Quelle betise !
I hold the Mahayana to be the older of the two schools of Buddhism.
The theory of Maya is as old as the Rik-Samhita. The Shvetashvatara Upanishad contains the word "Maya" which is developed out of Prakriti. I hold that Upanishad to be at least older than Buddhism.I have had much light of late about Buddhism, and I am ready to prove:
(1) That Shiva-worship, in various forms, antedated the Buddhists, that the Buddhists tried to get hold of the sacred places of the Shaivas but, failing in that, made new places in the precincts just as you find now at Bodh-Gaya and Sarnath (Varanasi).
(2) The story in the Agni Purana about Gayasura does not refer to Buddha at all--as Dr. Rajendralal will have it--but simply to a pre-existing story.
(3) That Buddha went to live on Gayashirsha mountain proves the pre-existence of the place.
(4) Gaya was a place of ancestor-worship already, and the footprint-worship the Buddhists copied from the Hindus.
(5) About Varanasi, even the oldest records go to prove it as the great place of Shiva-worship; etc., etc.
Many are the new facts I have gathered in Bodh-Gaya and from Buddhist literature. Tell Charu to read for himself, and not be swayed by foolish opinions.
I am rather well here, in Varanasi, and if I go on improving in this way, it will be a great gain.
A total revolution has occurred in my mind about the relation of Buddhism and Neo-Hinduism. I may not live to work out the glimpses, but I shall leave the lines of work indicated, and you and your brethren will have to work it out.
Yours with all blessings and love,
Vivekananda

 

Epistles (fifth series)

CXXXIV
To Swami Swarupananda, editor of Prabuddha Bharata,
Mayavati
[March 1899]
My dear S[warupananda],
I have no objection whether Mrs. Sevier's name goes on top or mine or anybody else's; the prospectus ought to go in the name of the Seviers, mustering my name also if necessary. I send you a few lines 131 for your consideration in the prospectus. The rest are all right.
I will soon send the draft deed.
V.

 

 

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