The
World Parliament of Religions
Swami Vivekananda's Address to the World Parliament of Religions September
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."
