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SWAMI
VIVEKANANDA |
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ADDRESSES AT THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS
RESPONSE TO WELCOME
Chicago,
September 11, 1893 |
Sisters and Brothers of
America,
It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the
warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the
name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the
name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions
and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.
My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who,
referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men
from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different
lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which
has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe
not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I
am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and
the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud
to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the
Israelites, who came to
Southern
India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy
temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to
the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of
the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines
from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood,
which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the
different streams having their sources in different paths which men take
through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or
straight, all lead to Thee."
The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies
ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the
wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: "Whosoever comes to Me,
through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through
paths which in the end lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its
horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful
earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and
often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to
despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would
be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I
fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this
convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions
with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between
persons wending their way to the same goal.
ADDRESS AT THE FINAL SESSION
Chicago,
September 27, 1893
The World's Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished
fact, and the merciful Father has helped those who labored to bring it
into existence, and crowned with success their most unselfish labor.
My thanks to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth
first dreamed this wonderful dream and then realized it. My thanks to
the shower of liberal sentiments that has overflowed this platform. My
thanks to this enlightened audience for their uniform kindness to me and
for their appreciation of every thought that tends to smooth the
friction of religions. A few jarring notes were heard from time to time
in this harmony. My special thanks to them, for they have, by their
striking contrast, made general harmony the sweeter.
Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am
not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes
that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and
the destruction of the others, to him I say, "Brother, yours is an
impossible hope." Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God
forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God
forbid.
The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are
placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the
water? No. It becomes a plant. It develops after the law of its own
growth assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into
plant substance, and grows into a plant.
Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a
Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian.
But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his
individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.
If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world, it
is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity
are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that
every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character.
In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive
survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity
him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the
banner of every religion will soon be written in spite of resistance:
"Help and not fight," "Assimilation and not Destruction," "Harmony and
Peace and not Dissension."
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SWAMI
VIVEKANANDA'S
inspiring personality was well known both
in India and in America during the last
decade of the nineteenth century and the
first decade of the twentieth. The unknown
monk of India suddenly leapt into fame at
the Parliament of Religions held in
Chicago in 1893, at which he represented
Hinduism. His vast knowledge of Eastern
and Western culture as well as his deep
spiritual insight, fervid eloquence,
brilliant conversation, broad human
sympathy, colorful personality, and
handsome figure made an irresistible
appeal to the many types of Americans who
came in contact with him. People who saw
or heard Vivekananda even once still
cherish his memory after a lapse of more
than half a century.
In America
Vivekananda's mission was the
interpretation of India's spiritual
culture, especially in its Vedantic
setting. He also tried to enrich the
religious consciousness of the Americans
through the rational and humanistic
teachings of the Vedanta philosophy. In
America he became India's spiritual
ambassador and pleaded eloquently for
better understanding between India and the
New World in order to create a healthy
synthesis of East and West, of religion
and science.
In his own
motherland Vivekananda is regarded as the
patriot saint of modern India and an
inspirer of her dormant national
consciousness, To the Hindus he preached
the ideal of a strength-giving and
man-making religion. Service to man as the
visible manifestation of the Godhead was
the special form of worship he advocated
for the Indians, devoted as they were to
the rituals and myths of their ancient
faith. Many political leaders of India
have publicly acknowledged their
indebtedness to Swami Vivekananda.
The Swami's
mission was both national and
international. A lover of mankind, be
strove to promote peace and human
brotherhood on the spiritual foundation of
the Vedantic Oneness of existence. A
mystic of the highest order, Vivekananda
had a direct and intuitive experience of
Reality. He derived his ideas from that
unfailing source of wisdom and often
presented them in the soul stirring
language of poetry.
The natural
tendency of Vivekananda's mind, like that
of his Master, Ramakrishna, was to soar
above the world and forget itself in
contemplation of the Absolute. But another
part of his personality bled at the sight
of human suffering in East and West alike.
It might appear that his mind seldom found
a point of rest in its oscillation between
contemplation of God and service to man.
Be that as it may, he chose, in obedience
to a higher call, service to man as his
mission on earth; and this choice has
endeared him to people in the West,
Americans in particular.
In the course
of a short life of thirty-nine years
(1863-1902), of which only ten were
devoted to public activities-and those,
too, in the midst of acute physical
suffering-he left for posterity his four
classics: Jnana-Yoga, Bhakti-Yoga,
Karma-Yoga, and Raja-Yoga, all of which
are outstanding treatises on Hindu
philosophy. In addition, he delivered
innumerable lectures, wrote inspired
letters in his own hand to his many
friends and disciples, composed numerous
poems, and acted as spiritual guide to the
many seekers, who came to him for
instruction. He also organized the
Ramakrishna Order of monks, which is the
most outstanding religious organization of
modern India. It is devoted to the
propagation of the Hindu spiritual culture
not only in the Swami's native land, but
also in America and in other parts of the
world.
Swami
Vivekananda once spoke of himself as a
"condensed India." His life and teachings
are of inestimable value to the West for
an understanding of the mind of Asia.
William James, the Harvard philosopher,
called the Swami the "paragon of
Vedantists." Max Muller and Paul Deussen,
the famous Orientalists of the nineteenth
century, held him in genuine respect and
affection. "His words," writes Romain
Rolland, "are great music, phrases in the
style of Beethoven, stirring rhythms like
the march of Handel choruses. I cannot
touch these sayings of his, scattered as
they are through the pages of books, at
thirty years' distance, without receiving
a thrill through my body like an electric
shock. And what shocks, what transports,
must have been produced when in burning
words they issued from the lips of the
hero!''
NIKHILANANDA
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center
New York
January 5, 1953
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