SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S CHICAGO ADDRESS

 

By Dr. D. ANJANEYULU

 

            IN THE RENAISSANCE of mod­ern India, Swami Vivekananda re­mains one of the most dynamic and fascinating figures. To my mind, this process of Renaissance starts, in a different sphere, with Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who can be described as the first of the really modem men in this coun­try. Though he lived some two hundred years ago, he still strikes me as being more modem and liberal than many of the social and political leaders, who manage to dominate our lives today.

 

            Vivekananda has been a celeb­rity in this country and elsewhere too, in the world outside. But there is no need for us to romanticise the starting point of his Western odyssey. If we care to check the facts correctly, we would realise that no eager crowds were there to surround him on disem­barking at the port. Nor was a red-­carpet welcome awaiting him at the venue i.e., in the great Hall of Colum­bus Art Institute, Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

 

            When the Swami arrived in the U.S., he was an obscure person, barely thirty years old. He was almost an obscure person in his own country as well. He had even difficulty in getting admission to the Parliament as a delegate, for want of the specified cre­dentials. Luckily for him, and the fu­ture of humanity, India in particular, these credentials were provided by Prof. J. H. Wright of Harvard Univer­sity. He met Swamiji at a private din­ner and was so impressed by his scholarship that he wrote to a number of important people connected with the Parliament of Religions. In introducing him, he wrote: “Here is a man who is more learned than all our learned professors put together.”

 

            When the young and handsome monk finally appeared at the podium on 11 September 1893, he attracted the widest attention by the strange­ness of his cloak - like attire, more so by his magnetic eyes. Added to all this was the mode of his address, which was unconventional, but heart-warm­ing. He said:

 

            “Sisters and Brothers of Amer­ica, ... 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 sheltering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation.

 

            “I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is everyday repeated by millions of human beings: ‘As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the differ­ent paths which men take through different tendencies various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.” (‘Nadeenaam Sagaram Gachhati’)

 

 

            Commending the main objective of the convention, the Swami looked upon it as a vindication in itself, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: “Whoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me.

 

            He then deplored the tragic fact that sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They had filled it with violence, bloodshed and despair. He fervently hoped that “the ell that tolled this morning in honour of this convention maybe 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.”

 

            In his address on 15 September 1893, the Swami referred to the so­ called differences between the various faiths, often exaggerated, comparing the narrow perceptions to the world­views of the frogs in the well. Putting it in his own characteristically pictur­esque way, he observed:

 

            “I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole world is my little well. The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in his little well and thinks that is the whole world. I have to thank you of America for the great attempt you are making to break down the barriers of this little world of ours, and hope that, in the future, the Lord will help you to accomplish your pur­pose.”

 

            As the convention lasted for 17 days (11 to 27 September 1893), Swami Vivekananda had to wait for more than a week to present his paper on “Hinduism” (on 19 September). Dr. Noble, who presided over the ses­sion, presented the Hindu monk, who wore an orange robe bound with a scarlet sash, and a pale yellow turban, with a customary smile on his face. He was applauded loudly by a huge crowded audience, in which women vastly outnumbered the men.

 

            To the concerted attack on “Hinduism” by the Christian dele­gates earlier, the Swami made a telling reply, citing chapter and verse from the history of the world. He said: “We look back into history and see that the prosperity of Christian Europe began with Spain. Spain’s prosperity began with the invasion of Mexico. Christian­ity wins its prosperity by cutting the throat of its fellowmen. At such a price, the Hindu will not have prosper­ity. I have sat here and heard the height of intolerance. I heard the creeds of Moslems applauded, when the Moslem sword is carrying destruc­tion into India. Blood and sword are not for the Hindu, whose religion is based on the laws of love.”

 

            Apart from rebuttals and repar­tees, the long document presented a masterly summary of the philosophy, psychology, and general ideas and statements on Hinduism in its all inclusive aspects. It was probably the first authentic and authoritative expo­sition of the essence of Hinduism for the benefit of the Western world.

 

            At the final session of the Parlia­ment (On 27 September 1893) the Swamiji made a grand appeal for the harmony of religious faiths. He said:

 

            “Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if anyone here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of anyone 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.”

 

            It was a case for harmony and peaceful co-existence of religions con­vincingly argued. Was there anything else that could be learnt from the Parliament of Religions?

 

            Swami Vivekananda was clear in his own mind about the wholesome lesson of humility that should not be lost on anyone. To quote his own words:

 

            “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.”

 

            How we wish that Swami Vivekananda’s robust optimism were fully justified by subsequent developments in the different religions! Unfortunately for us, we now live in an age in which it has become a fashion for everyone to call everyone else a “fundamentalist”, which is but a euphemism for “fanaticism”. It doesn’t matter what is written on the banner of every religion, if they do have a banner. But in the minds of many are planted the seeds of hatred and intolerance, which are growing into plants and trees in an atmosphere of suspicion and tension.

 

            But, it would do everyone a lot of good to pay attention to Swami Viveka­nanda’s words of lasting wisdom. (Viveka itself literally means “Wisdom, with discrimination”). He went West to spread the message of Truth, according to Vedanta, which underlines the potential divinity of man. More so to seek the help of the advanced coun­tries of the West for the material prog­ress of the Indian masses, who didn’t need a new religion. He found himself famous, overnight, but he was not happy. He was worried, all the while, about the lot of India’s lowly and lost. He lit the flame of social awareness, economic development and spiritual self-confidence. For others to make it burn brighter and brighter.

 

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