On to the world stage
On to the world stage
Vivekananda set out from Bombay on 31st May, 1893, on his historic visit to America.
He travelled via China, Japan and Canton and reached Chicago about the middle of July. In Canton he visited some Buddhist monasteries, while in Japan he noted with admiration the industrial progress and cleanliness of the people. Seeing Chicago, so dazzling with riches and with the inventive genius of the West, he was puzzled like a child. To his disappointment, he learnt that the Parliament of Religions would not be held until September and that no one could be a delegate without credentials. He felt lost but resigning himself to the will of Providence, went to Boston which was less expensive than Chicago. In the train, he happened to become acquainted with one Miss Katherine Sanborn, who invited him to be her guest at Boston. Through her, he came to know Professor John Henry Wright of Harvard University, who was overawed by Vivekananda’s depth of knowledge and versatility in philosophy. The Professor gave him a letter of introduction to the Chairman of the Parliament of Religions, paying the tribute: “Here is a man who is more learned than all our learned professors put together” The professor also told Vivekananda that “to ask for your credentials is like asking the sun if he has permission to shine!”
Vivekananda returned to Chicago a couple of days before the opening of the Parliament of Religions, but found to his dismay that he had lost the address of the Committee which was providing hospitality for the oriental delegates. It was the locality of German speaking people and he could not make himself understood by anybody. Tired, he rested for the night in a huge box in the railway freight yard. Next morning, he started out, searching for somebody who could help him out of his difficulty. But help for a coloured man was not readily available; exhausted by a fruitless search, he sat down on the roadside, resigning himself to the divine will. Suddenly, a lady of regal appearance emerged from the fashionable house opposite, approached him and offered him help. This was Mrs. George W. Hale, whose house was to later become almost the permanent address of Vivekananda, while he was in the U.S.A.; the Hale family members had become his devoted followers.
The Parliament of Religions opened on 11th September, 1893. The spacious hall of the Art Institute was packed with nearly 7000 people representing the acme of culture of the country. On the platform, every organised religion from all corners of the world had its representatives. Vivekananda could, of course, be counted as a delegate for Hinduism, but, in fact, as it later turned out, he was standing for something more profound than any one sect; he was standing for the ancient Indian doctrine of the universality of spiritual Truth. Vivekananda had never addressed such a huge and distinguished gathering. He felt extremely nervous, but when his turn came, he mentally bowed down to Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning and then began his speech with the words, “Sisters and Brothers of America!” Immediately there was a thunderous applause from the vast audience; it lasted for full two minutes. Seven thousand people rose to their feet as a tribute to something which they could not clearly define. He, however, continued,” It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I greet you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.”
It was only a short speech lasting for not more than three to four minutes. But it greatly impressed the Parliament of Religions, with its note of universal toleration, based on the Hindu belief that all religions are pathways to the self-same God.” We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all regions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all regions and all nations of the earth.” He ended by saying,” I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honour of this convention may be the death knell of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the goal.” It was a speech only a Hindu could have made in that august assembly- a Hindu whose faith in universal toleration and the oneness of all religions had been confirmed by the recent experience of Sri Ramakrishna. The appeal of his simple words of burning sincerity, his great personality, his bright countenance and his orange robe was so great that, next day, the newspapers described him as the greatest figure in the Parliament of Religions; the simple monk with a begging bowl had become a spiritual sovereign.
All subsequent speeches of the Swami at the Parliament were listened to with great respect and appreciation, because they all had the same key-note of universality.
On some occasions, he spoke of the abject poverty conditions in India. “The crying evil in the East is not want of religion, but want of bread. They ask us for bread but we give them stones. It is an insult to a starving man to teach him metaphysics. He asked the Christians of America, who were so fond of sending missionaries abroad to save the soul of heathens, why they did not try to save bodies of these people from starvation.”
In the address at the final session on 27th September, the Swami rose once again to declare clearly that.” the unity of religions of which so much had been said in the Parliament was not to be attained by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of others. “Do I wish that the Christian would become a Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or a Buddhist becomes a Christian? God forbid. The Christian is not to become a Hindu nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each religion must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve its individuality and grow according to its law of growth.”
Swami Vivekananda stayed in America for about three years after his Chicago success and continued giving discourses day in and day out. He had come to America to speak for his native land and tell America about India’s poverty and appeal to them for their help. But he also imparted an important message to the entire West. He asked his listeners to forsake their materialism and learn from the ancient spirituality of the Hindus.
What he was working for was an exchange of values. He recognized great virtues in the West energy, initiative and courage, which he somehow found lacking in India.
In his Vedantic lectures he would always say,” God is in each one of us; see no difference between an ant and an angel.” In other words, each one of us was born to re-discover his own divine nature. His favourite story was that of a lion who imagined himself to be a sheep, until another lion showed him his reflection in a pool. “And you are lions”, he would tell his hearers. “You are pure, infinite and perfect souls. He, for whom you have been weeping and praying in churches and temples, is your own self.” He spoke little about the cults of Hinduism in which devotion to Rama, Kali, Vishnu, Krishna, etc., is practiced by various sects. It was only occasionally that he would refer to his own personal cult and reveal that he had a Master who was a Divine incarnation and had lived till ten years ago. His restraint in glorifying Sri Ramakrishna in the West was explained by him by the words,” If I had preached the personality of Sri Ramakrishna, I might have converted half the world, but that would have been short-lived. So, I preached Sri Ramakrishna’s principles. If people accept the principles, they will eventually accept the personality.”
He paid a short visit of three months to England too and found that the response to his message there was also equally great. Here, he met the great savant Max muller. He then wanted to consolidate his work in America and organized the Vedanta Society of New York, which is a non- sectarian body with the aim of preaching Vedanta and applying the universal principles as basic to all religions. He wrote books on Raja yoga and Jnana Yoga. He toured Europe also. He gathered around him a number of ardent disciples wherever he went, notable among them being Capt. Sevier and his wife and Miss Margaret Noble who is better known as Sister Nivedita. Now his own motherland was calling him and was eager in its own right to receive his message. So, from London, he started for India towards the end of 1896.