Lord Buddha: Living embodiment of true Vedanta

- Swami Vivekananda

Disciple: Can’t we call the attitude of the Buddha, too, another kind of fanaticism, sir?   He went to the length of sacrificing his own body for the sake of a beast!

Swamiji: But consider how much good to the world and its beings came out of that ‘fanaticism’ of his—how many monasteries and schools and colleges, how many public hospitals and veterinary refuges were established, how developed architecture became—think of that. What was there in this country before Buddha’s advent? Only a number of religious principles recorded on bundles of palm leaves—and those too known only to a few. It was Lord Buddha who brought them down to the practical field and showed how to apply them in the everyday life of the people. In a sense, he  was the living embodiment of true Vedanta.