A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

544 THE TRUE METHOD OF SOCIAL REFORM.nation. And the problem is not so easy. It is a, big anda vast problem before us. Be not in a hurry, and,my words, ^thvp problem has been known Nihese severalhundred years.To-day it is the fashion to talk of Buddhism, andBuddhistic agnosticism, especially in the South. Littie dothey dream that this degradation which we have in ^urhands to-day has been left by Buddhism. This is the legacywhich Buddhism left in our hands. You read in bookswritten by men who had never studied the rise and fall ofBuddhism that the spread of Buddjiism was owing to thewonderful ethics and the wonderful personality of GautamaBuddha. I have every respect and veneration for LordBuddha, but mark my worcjs, the spreadof Buddhism vvisless coring to the doctrines, less owing to the personality ofthe great preacher and more owing to the temples that werebuilt, the idols that were erected and the gorgeous ceremonies that were put before the nation. Thus Buddhismprogressed.The little fire-place in the houses in which werepoured the libaJons was not strong enough to hold its ownagainst these gorgeous temples and ceremonies, and lateron the whole thing degenerated. It became a mass of filthof which I cannot speak before this audience, but those whowant to know it may look into those big temples, full ofsculptures, in Southern India, and this is all the inheritance we have from the Buddhists. Then arose the greatreformer, Sankaracharya and his followers, and all thesehundreds of years,since his rising to the present day, hasbeen the slow bringing back of the Indian masses tothe pristine purity of the Vedantic religion. Thesereformers knew well the evils which existed, yet they didnot condemn. They did not say, All that you have iswrong, and you must throw it out. It could never be so,1