Editor: Excerpts “How did Swamiji recognise the Buddha when he had the vision in the early years of the last quarter of the nineteenth century? Pramatha Chaudhuri writes in his preface to the book Buddha Dharma by Satyendra Nath Thakur, first published in 1901:

‘I take refuge in Buddha, I take refuge in Dhamma, I take refuge in Sangha’—in ancient India millions chanted these words while embracing Buddhism. But in time this great Indian religion vanished from India. About half-a-century ago, even one among a million Indians could not tell who Buddha was, what his religion was, and what a Buddhist Sangha was, because even the memory of the trisharanams or the three refuges perished from this land where Buddhism originated.

With no active preaching of Buddhism and no easy access to current or ancient scholarly works on Buddhism, it appears out of the ordinary that Swamiji had a spiritual vision of the Buddha.”

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Also read by Swami Vivekananda -
1. Buddhism the fulfilment of Hinduism
2. Buddha and his Message

This article was first published in the Prabuddha Bharata, monthly journal of The Ramakrishna Order started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896. This article is courtesy and copyright Prabuddha Bharata (www.advaitaashrama.org). I have been reading the Prabuddha Bharata for years and found it enlightening. You can subscribe online at www.advaitaashrama.org. Cost is Rs 100/ for one year, Rs 280/ for three years, Rs 1,200/ for twenty years and Rs 2,000 for twenty five years.