swami vivekananda - chicago speeches.docx
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Swami Vivekanandas Speeches at World Congress of Religions in Chicago in 1893
On September 11, 1893, Swami Vivekananda gave his famous speech at the World Congress
of Religions in Chicago. Among the first monks from the East to visit the West, Swami
Vivekananda managed to enthral the audience of seven thousand people with his very first
speech. He impressed the audience so much that he was invited to speak five more times over
the next fortnight. The core theme of his speech revolved around tolerance and universal
acceptance of different religions. It was ironic that exactly 108 years after his speech, on
September 11, 2001, that the World Trade Centre and other iconic institutions in America
were attacked by religious extremists. Given the present scenario, his speech all those years
back certainly has relevance even today.
Swami Vivekanandas first speech explained the core value of Hinduism. I am proud to
belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance, he
said. 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 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.
Most of the speakers representing all the major religions of the world gave lengthy prepared
speeches explaining the superiority of their faiths. Vivekananda, however, put all those
speakers to shame by speaking about the validity of each religion and the unreasonableness
of faith-based intolerance. He called for an end to fanaticism. 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 honour 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. Vivekananda received a standing
ovation at the end of his speech from an astonished audience, who were impressed with his
immense clarity and vision, as well as his ability to speak without any prepared speech.
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Vivekanandas astounding first speech prompted the organizers to invite him to give five
more speeches over the next fortnight. On September 15, 1893, Vivekananda spoke on the
topic Why we disagree? The major point he made in the speech was that religious harmony
could be possible if we came to the understanding that all religions were, in essence, the
same. He explained this with the help of a story. I am a Hindu, he said. 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. These words helped espouse his cause for harmony, and
cautioned that to do otherwise would lead to a world of religious strife.
On September 19, 1893, Vivekananda presented a paper on Hinduism. Most of this speech
revolved around the Vedas. He believed that the Vedas were not just some books, but theaccumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons in different times.
There were four major points that explained this: creation is without beginning or end, the
human being is not body, but an eternal spirit, this spirit is subject to multiple births and
deaths in its quest for perfection, and that perfection means freedom from the bonds of
imperfection, death, and misery. He summarised the essence of Hinduism in the following
manner: The Hindu religion does not consist in struggles and attempts to believe a certain
doctrine or dogma, but in realising not in believing, but in being and becoming. Thus the
whole object of their system is by constant struggle to become perfect, to become divine, to
reach God and see God, and this reaching God, seeing God, becoming perfect even as the
Father in Heaven is perfect constitutes the religion of the Hindus.
During his next speech, on September 20, 1893, Vivekananda criticised the Christians
without offending their sensibilities. In fact, he asked from one of the Christian priests on the
stage whether the Americans were open to criticism, and only then did he continue his
speech. He said that religion was not the crying need of India. Instead of trying to send outmissionaries to save the soul of the heathen, he asked the Christians why they did not try to
save their bodies from starvation. In India, a priest that preached for money would lose caste
and be spat upon by the people, he said. I came here to seek aid for my impoverished
people, and I fully realised how difficult it was to get help for heathens from Christians in a
Christian land.
Buddhism, the fulfilment of Hinduism was the topic of Vivekanandas next speech that was
delivered on September 26, 1893. He believed that Buddha was misunderstood by his
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disciples. He said that Buddha did not preach anything new, but he came to fulfil the truths of
the Hindu religion. Again, I repeat, he said, Shakya Muni came not to destroy, but he was
the fulfilment, the logical conclusion, the logical development of the religion of the Hindus.
Buddhism died a natural death in India, and according to Vivekananda, this was mainly due
to the misunderstanding of his teachings by his disciples. Due to this, he believed that
Brahminism lost something that reforming zeal, that wonderful sympathy and charity for
everybody. Hinduism cannot live without Buddhism, nor Buddhism without Hinduism, he
said. Let us then join the wonderful intellect of the Brahmins with the heart, the noble soul,
and the wonderful humanising power of the Great Master.
Vivekanandas address at the final session on September 27, 1893, thanked the organizers for
providing such an amazing platform to shower liberal sentiments. He also thanked theaudience for their uniform kindness and appreciation. According to him, each religion should
assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve their individuality and grow according to
their own law ofgrowth. He finished his speech with the following words: 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, and Harmony and Peace and not Dissension.
Although he was proud to be a Hindu, Vivekanandas phi losophy transcended religions and
he had little respect for rituals and ceremonies. His speeches were a source of inspiration for
many people across the world over the years, and would continue to remain so and be
relevant in the years to come.
References:
http://www.viveksamity.org/user/doc/CHICAGO-SPEECH.pdf http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/bCxLFO6mXEnWV5jYzweoII/Vivekanandas-120yearold-
911-speech.html
http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1073&context=jhcs
http://www.viveksamity.org/user/doc/CHICAGO-SPEECH.pdfhttp://www.viveksamity.org/user/doc/CHICAGO-SPEECH.pdfhttp://www.livemint.com/Opinion/bCxLFO6mXEnWV5jYzweoII/Vivekanandas-120yearold-911-speech.htmlhttp://www.livemint.com/Opinion/bCxLFO6mXEnWV5jYzweoII/Vivekanandas-120yearold-911-speech.htmlhttp://www.livemint.com/Opinion/bCxLFO6mXEnWV5jYzweoII/Vivekanandas-120yearold-911-speech.htmlhttp://www.livemint.com/Opinion/bCxLFO6mXEnWV5jYzweoII/Vivekanandas-120yearold-911-speech.htmlhttp://www.livemint.com/Opinion/bCxLFO6mXEnWV5jYzweoII/Vivekanandas-120yearold-911-speech.htmlhttp://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1073&context=jhcshttp://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1073&context=jhcshttp://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1073&context=jhcshttp://www.livemint.com/Opinion/bCxLFO6mXEnWV5jYzweoII/Vivekanandas-120yearold-911-speech.htmlhttp://www.livemint.com/Opinion/bCxLFO6mXEnWV5jYzweoII/Vivekanandas-120yearold-911-speech.htmlhttp://www.viveksamity.org/user/doc/CHICAGO-SPEECH.pdf