Author: Anubha Sawhny
Publication: The Times of India
Date: September 10, 2006
The year was 1893. A 30-year-old monk from
India had travelled across the world to represent his country at Chicago's
Parliament of Religions.
"The purpose of organising this parliament
was to prove the superiority of the Christian religion. Unfortunately, no
invitation was extended to any representative of the Hindu faith," says
Swami Gokulananda, secretary, Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi.
"Swami Vivekananda was urged by his disciples
in Chennai to represent India in Chicago. The swami was not an invited delegate
and worried about how he would live in America. An American lady, impressed
with his noble bearing, offered him boarding and food in her house. She also
introduced him to Prof J H Wright from Harvard," says Gokulanand. When
Vivekananda explained to the professor that he had no credentials, Wright
shot back, "To ask you, swami, for credentials is like asking the sun
to state its right to shine."
On the afternoon of September 11, when he
could no longer put off his turn, he stepped up to the rostrum and addressed
the assembly as 'Sisters and Brothers of America'... A wave of enthusiasm
went through the audience and the swami was given a standing ovation even
before 'he began his speech....
"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 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."
