GOPAL LAL VILLA,
BENARES (VARANASI) CANTONMENT,
9th February, 1902.

MY DEAR SWARUP (ĀNANDA),

… In answer to Chāru’s letter, tell him to study the Brahma-Sutras himself. What does he mean by the Brahma-Sutras containing references to Buddhism? He means the Bhāshyas, of course, or rather ought to mean, and Shankara was only the last Bhāshyakāra (commentator). There are references, though in Buddhistic literature, to Vedānta, and the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism is even Advaitistic. Why does Amara Singha, a Buddhist, give as one of the names of Buddha—Advayavādi? Charu writes, the word Brahman does not occur in the Upanishads! Quelle bêtise!

I hold the Mahayana to be the older of the two schools of Buddhism.

The theory of Māyā is as old as the Rik-Samhitā. The Shvetāshvatara Upanishad contains the word “Māyā” which is developed out of Prakriti. I hold that Upanishad to be at least older than Buddhism.

I have had much light of late about Buddhism, and I am ready to prove:

(1) That Shiva-worship, in various forms, antedated the Buddhists, that the Buddhists tried to get hold of the sacred places of the Shaivas but, failing in that, made new places in the precincts just as you find now at Bodh-Gayā and Sārnāth (Varanasi).

(2) The story in the Agni Purāna about Gayāsura does not refer to Buddha at all—as Dr. Rajendralal will have it—but simply to a pre-existing story.

(3) That Buddha went to live on Gayāshirsha mountain proves the pre-existence of the place.

(4) Gayā was a place of ancestor-worship already, and the footprint-worship the Buddhists copied from the Hindus.

(5) About Varanasi, even the oldest records go to prove it as the great place of Shiva-worship; etc., etc.

Many are the new facts I have gathered in Bodh-Gayā and from Buddhist literature. Tell Charu to read for himself, and not be swayed by foolish opinions.

I am rather well here, in Varanasi, and if I go on improving in this way, it will be a great gain.

A total revolution has occurred in my mind about the relation of Buddhism and Neo-Hinduism. I may not live to work out the glimpses, but I shall leave the lines of work indicated, and you and your brethren will have to work it out.

Yours with all blessings and love,
VIVEKANANDA.