Swami Vivekananda’s Voyage for the World’s Parliament of Religions

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S VOYAGE FOR THE
WORLD’S PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S Voyage for the World’s Parliament of Religions on 31st May, 1893 heralded an impor­tant decade in the history of mankind. Swamiji wanted integration of man­kind through acceptance of all relig­ions as true. The decade 1993-2002 may, therefore, be observed as the “DECADE OF INTEGRATION OF MANKIND, 1993-2002”, and as the centenaries of all the important events in the life of Swami Vivekananda fall­ing within this period – i.e., his ap­pearance in the World’s Parliament of Religions, his return to India, the set­ting up of the Ramakrishna Mission and so on, – all may be celebrated for the spreading of Swamiji’s messages. The following calls given by Swamiji at the final session of the World’s Parlia­ment of Religions, on 27th September 1893, may be regarded as his calls for the “DECADE OF INTEGRATION OF MANKIND, 1993-2002”:

1) Help and not Fight.

2) Assimilation and not Destruction.

3) Harmony and Peace and not Dissen­sion.

Swami Vivekananda’s appearance before the World’s Parliament of Religions in September 1893 was a momentous occasion for India, nay; for the entire world, as Swamiji put before the World’s Parliament of Religions the message of acceptance of all religions as true, which was new to the world. Besides, apart from appearing before the World’s Parliament of Religions. Swamiji also played the role of a wan­dering religious teacher in the West. This brought glory to India, as the rest of the world thus became aware of the spiritual wealth of India. The Centenary of Swami Vivekananda’s appear­ance before the World’s Parliament of Religions is being celebrated not only in India, but also in many other places of the world.

After concluding his Bharat Parikrama, Swamiji sailed for the U.S.A. on 31st May, 1893 to appear before the World’s Parliament of Relig­ions. This was, therefore, a very significant day for not only India, but also for the entire world. Swamiji undertook this voyage for the World’s Parliament of Religions after receiving Sri Ramakrishna’s command in a divVine vision.

During his Bharat Parikrama, Swami Vivekananda not only discovered the spiritual wealth of India, but also the misery and deprivation from which his countrymen had been suffering. That is why he said, – “The poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted – let these be your God; know that service to these alone is the highest religion.” He went to say: “I love the poor, the ignorant, the downtrod­den. I feel for them – the Lord knows how much.”

He not only loved his country­men, but also immensely loved his motherland. Sister Nivedita has de­scribed Swami Vivekanda’s love for his motherland in the following words:

“He told us how he had longed, when in the West, to stand once more at dusk some little way outside an Indian village and hear again the eve­ning calls – the noise of children growing sleepy at their play, the eve­ning bells, the cries of the herdsmen and the half-veiled sound of voices through the quickly-passing twilight. How homesick he had been...”

This love for his country and his countrymen made him a great patriot. Fighters for freedom of the country and politicians drew inspiration from his writings and speeches. It is with this patriotism that he wrote to Swami Ramakrishnananda from the U.SA: “As our country is poor in social vir­tues, so this country is lacking in spirituality. I give them spirituality, and they give me money. “Swami Vivekananda did not need the money for himself; he needed the money for the poor and downtrodden in his motherland. This love for his country and countrymen prompted him to say in the World’s Parliament of Religions on 20th September, 1893: “...the crying evil in the East is not religion – ­they have religion enough – but it is bread that the suffering millions of burning India cry out for with parched throats.”

Swami Vivekandanda’s Voyage to America on 31st May 1893 to appear before the World’s Parliament of Relig­ions and to play the role of a wander­ing religious teacher was not an iso­lated event. The preparation for this significant event had been going on for long.

Left to himself, Swamiji would have liked to remain deeply in medita­tion. Sri Ramakrishna, however, had already earmarked his role in this world. When Swamiji expressed that his highest ambition was to remain always in meditation, Sri Ramakrishna told him, “I thought you had been born for something greater, my boy!”

When Sri Ramakrishna was lying critically ill in Cossipore Garden House, he was training his disciples for their future roles. On one of these days Sri Ramakrishna asked for a piece of paper and wrote on it that “Naren (later Swami Vivekananda) will teach others. “Not only that, three or four days before Sri Ramakrishna left his mortal body, he called Swami Vivekananda (then Naren) and asked to be left alone with him. What hap­pened thereafter has been described by Romain Rolland in his book, “The Life of Ramakrishna.” According to this description, Sri Ramakrishna “looked lovingly at Naren and passed into ecstasy. It enveloped Naren in its folds. When he came from the shadows, he saw Ramakrishna in tears.” Romain Rolland has added that Sri Ramakrishna then told him, “Today I have given you my all and am now only a poor fakir, possessing nothing. By this power you will do immense good in the world and not until it is accomplished will you re­turn.”

This is the power, with which Swami Vivekananda completed his Bharat Parikrama and then sailed for the U.SA. to attend the World’s Parlia­ment of Religions and perform the role of a wandering religious teacher in the West.

Such was the power passed on to him by Sri Ramakrishna that some­time before his voyage to U.S.A he told a brother disciple, “I feel a mighty power! It is as if I were about to blaze forth. There are so many powers in me! It seems to me as if I could revo­lutionize the world.”

It is, therefore, no wonder that he appeared before the World’s parlia­ment of Religions, nay, before the entire spiritual world as a blaze and became an instant success. He himself had written in a letter to his brother disciples from the U.S.A.: “...what­ever comes to my lips – Gurudeva s me up.” In an earlier letter he wrote from the U.S.A. to Swami Ramakrishnananda, a brother disciple: “I am an instrument, and He is the operator. Through this instrument He is rousing the religious instinct in thousands of hearts in this far-off country.”

In response to the welcome on the 11th September 1893 at the World’s Parliament of Religions. Swami Vivekananda addressed the people of America as “Sisters and Brothers of America” which had an electrifying effect on the people of that country. Not only that, he went on to pro­nounce: “We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true” – this was a new message to the Western World – “acceptance of all religions are true.”

Swamiji pointed out to the au­gust Assembly on 19th September, 1893, in his paper on “Hinduism”:“Unity in variety is the plan of nature, and the Hindu has recognised it.” He went on to say in the final session of the Parliament of Religions: “...if any one 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, your’s is an impossible hope.’ “He went on to clarify: “The Christian is not to be­come a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or 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. “And then he declared: “...holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive posses­sions of any chruch in the world, and ... 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 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 non-destruc­tion.’ ‘Harmony and Peace and not Dissension.’ ”

Swami Vivekananda put forward the concept of a Universal Religion before the Parliament, saying that it would be one “...which will have no location in place or time; which will be infinite like the God it will preach, and whose sun will shine upon the follow­ers of Krishna and of Christ, on saints and sinners alike; which will not be Brahminic or Buddhistic, Christian or Mohammedan, but the sum total of all these, and still have infinite space for development; which in its catholicity will embrace in its infinite arms, and find a place for, every human being...” Subsequently, he went to say: “What I want to propagate is a religion that will be acceptable to all minds: it must be equally philosophic, equally emotional, equally mystic, and equally conducive to action.”

To swami Vivekananda. “Religion is realisation; not talk nor doctrine, nor theories, however beautiful they may be. It is being and becoming, not hearing or acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming changed into what it believes, “and,” the end of all religions is the realising of God in the soul. That is the Universal religion. If there is one universal truth in all relig­ions. I place it there – in realizing God. Ideals and methods may differ, but that is the central point.”

Swami Vivekananda wanted re­ligion to be subjected to the same methods of investigation as are applied to sciences. He said: “Is religion to justify itself by the discoveries of rea­son, through which every other sci­ence Justifies itself? Are the same methods of investigation, which we apply to sciences and knowledge out­side, to be applied to the science of religion? In my opinion this must be so, and I am also of opinion that the sooner it is done the better....Not only will it be made scientific – as scien­tific, at least, as any of the conclusions of physics or chemistry – but will have greater strength, because physics or chemistry has no internal mandate to vouch for its truth, which religion has.”

Why did he want religion to be subjected to such investigation? He wanted this because the purpose of religion is realisaton of God. That is the absolute goal. In Swami Viveka­nanda’s words: “God is Truth” and “...the absolute truth is only one.” As such, religion which leads to this absolute truth will certainly withstand the scientific investigations to satisfy the modern minds.

Swami Vivekananda’s voyage to U.SA. to attend the World’s Parlia­ment of Religions and for performing the role of a wandering religious teacher in the West had a mission: his mission was to integrate mankind by arousing spirituality in them and by spreading the message of acceptance of all religions as true.

The world had already heard of the need for religious co-operation, religious unity and religious tolerance. These are all laudable objectives. But all these have a limit, a breaking point; they do not last for all time.

Sri Ramakrishna has given us the message of “As many faiths, so many paths.” Once this message is realised, acceptance of all the religions as true follows. Acceptance has no limit. So, with acceptance of all the ­religions as true, the cause of conflict vanishes. That is the need of the hour, when the world is afflicted with vio­lence and strife. With Spirituality aroused in us, let us march forward, with the acceptance of religions as true, to the truth that “The one thing unchangeable is God.” That is the only way to integrate mankind and thus to make the world a better place to live in, and fulfil the mission of Swami Vivekananda. In the words of Swami Vivekananda: “God helps them that help themselves” Let us help ourselves in fulfilling the mission of Swami Vivekananda.

–Courtesy All India Radio, Delhi

“Man, therefore, according to the Vedanta philosophy, is the greatest be­ing that is in the universe, and this world of work the best place in it, beca­use only herein is the greatest and best chance for him to become perfect.”

–Swami Vivekananda