Chapter (অধ্যায়): XVIII THE SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AND HIS ATTITUDE TO BUDDHA PAGE-218Page: 218 of 336
broke upon the inner ear, he paused a moment, and fell back on the deathless charge of the Dhammapada to the soul:
"Go forward without a path!
Fearing nothing, caring for nothing,
Wander alone, like the rhinoceros!
Even as the lion, not trembling at noises,
Even as the wind, not caught in a net,
Even as the lotus-leaf, unstained by the water,
Do thou wander alone, like the rhinoceros!”
"Can you imagine what their strength was?" he said one day, as he dwelt on the picture of the First Council, and the dispute as to the President. "One said it should be Ananda, because He had loved him most. But someone else stepped forward, and said no! for Ananda had been guilty of weeping at the death-bed. And so he was passed over!" "But Buddha," he went on, "made the fatal mistake of thinking that the whole world could be lifted to the height of the Upanishads. And self-interest spoiled all. Krishna was wiser, because He was more politic. But Buddha would have no compromise. The world before now has seen even the Avatar ruined by compromise, tortured to death for want of recognition, and lost. But Buddha would have been worshipped as God in his own lifetime, all over Asia, for a