About his [ Buddha’s ] doctrines, some of you know a little. It is his doctrines that appeal to many modern thinkers whom you call agnostics He was a great preacher of the brotherhood of mankind: “Aryan or non-Aryan, caste or no caste, and sects or no sects, every one has the same right to God and to religion and to freedom. Come in all of you.” But as to other things, he was very agnostic. “Be practical.”
There came to him one day five young men, Brahmin born, quarrelling upon a question. They came to him to ask him the way to truth. And one said: “My people teach this, and this is the way to truth.”
The other said: “I have been taught this, and this is the only way to truth.”
“Which is the right way, sir?”
“Well, you say your people taught this is truth and is the way to God?”
“Yes.”
“But did you see God?”
“No, sir.”
“Your father?”
“No, sir.”
“Your grandfather?”
“No, sir.”
“None of them saw God?”
“No”
“Well, and your teachers — neither [any] of them saw God?”
“No.”
And he asked the same to the others. They all declared that none had seen God.
“Well,” said Buddha, “in a certain village came a young man weeping and howling and crying: ‘Oh, I love her so! oh my, I love her so!’ And then the villagers came; and the only thing he said was he loved her so. ‘Who is she that you love?’ ‘I do not know.’ ‘Where does she live?’ ‘I do not know’ — but he loved her so. ‘How does she look?’ ‘That I do not know; but oh, I love her so.'”
Then asked Buddha: “Young man, what would you call this young man?”
“Why, sir, he was a fool!”
And they all declared: “Why, sir, that young man was certainly a fool, to be crying and all that about a woman, to say he loved her so much and he never saw her or knew that she existed or anything?”
“Are you not the same? You say that this God your father or your grandfather never saw, and now you are quarrelling upon a thing which neither you nor your ancestors ever knew, and you are trying to cut each other’s throats about it.”
Then the young men asked: “What are we to do?”
“Now, tell me: did your father ever teach that God is ever angry?”
“No, sir.” “Did your father ever teach that God is evil?”
“No, sir, He is always pure.”
“Well, now, if you are pure and good and all that, do you not think that you will have more chance to come near to that God than by discussing all this and trying to cut each other’s throats? Therefore, say I: be pure and be good; be pure and love everyone.” And that was [all].
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Buddhistic India
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