| Chicago
Address |
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by
Swami Vivekananda on September 11, 1893 at the World's Parliament of Religions
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| 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; 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 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 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 places all mingle their water in the sea, sources in 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 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. |
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| Why
we disagree: 15th September, 1893 |
| I
will tell you a little story. You have heard the eloquent speaker who has
just finished say, "Let us cease from abusing each other", and he was very
sorry that there should be always so much variance. |
| But
I think I should tell you a story which would illustrate the cause of this
variance. A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It
was born there and brought up there, and yet was a little, small frog. Of
course the evolutionists were not there then to tell us whether the frog
lost its eyes or not, but, for our story's sake, we must take it for granted
that it had its eyes, and that it every day cleansed the water of all the
worms and bacilli that lived in it eith an energy that would do credit to
our modern bacteriologists. In this way it went on and became a little sleek
and fat. Well, one day another frog that lived in the sea came and fell
into the well. "Where are you from?" "I am from the sea." "The sea! How
big is that? Is it as big as my well?" and he took a leap from one side
of the well to the other. "My friend", said the frog of the sea, "how do
you compare the sea with your little well?" Then the frog took another leap
and asked, "Is your sea so big?" "What nonsense you speak, to compare the
sea with your well" "Well, then," said the frog of the well, "nothing can
be bigger than my well; there can be nothing bigger than this; this fellow
is a liar, so turn him out." |
| That
has been the difficulty all the while. |
| 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 future, the Lord will help you to accomplish your
purpose. |
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| Address
at the Final Session: 27th September, 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 labour. |
| My
thanks to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth first dreamed
this unfearful dream and then realised 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 anyone here hopes that this unity will
come by the triumph of anyone of the religions and the destruction of 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,
not 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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