… the religion of Buddha spread fast. It was because of the marvellous love which, for the first time in the history of humanity, overflowed a large heart and devoted itself to the service not only of all men but of all living things -- a love which did not care for anything except to find a way of release from suffering for all beings.
Man was loving God and had forgotten all about his brother man. The man who in the name of God can give up his very life, can also turn around and kill his brother man in the name of God. That was the state of the world. They would sacrifice the son for the glory of God, would rob nations for the glory of God, would kill thousands of beings for the glory of God, would drench the earth with blood for the glory of God.
This was the first time they turned to the other God -- man. It is man that is to be loved. It was the first wave of intense love for all men -- the first wave of true unadulterated wisdom -- that, starting from India, gradually inundated country after country, north, south, east, west.
- Swami Vivekananda,
‘Buddha’s Message to the World’,
Talk at San Francisco
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