29/08/2017
Swamiji’s Chikago Speech of
11th September 1893
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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 honour 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 with their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered an is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoorastraian 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 everyday repeated by millions of human beings, “As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various through 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 from. I reach him all men are struggling though paths which in the end lead to me.” Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendent, fanatism, 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 the death-knell of all fanatism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.
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Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari
