THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONSOn Monday, September 11, 1893 the Parliament of Religions opened itsdeliberations with due solemnity. This great meeting was an adjunct of theWorld's Columbian Exposition, which had been organized to celebrate the fourhundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.One of the main goals of the Exposition was to disseminate knowledge of theprogress and enlightenment brought about in the world by Western savants andespecially through physical science and technology; but as religion forms a vitalfactor in human culture, it had been decided to organize a Parliament ofReligions in conjunction with the Exposition.Dr. Barrows, in his History of the Parliament of Religions, writes:Since faith in a Divine Power to whom men believe they owe service andworship, has been like the sun, a life-giving and fructifying potency inman's intellectual and moral development; since Religion lies at the backof Hindu literature with its marvellous and mystic developments; of theEuropean Art, whether in the form of Grecian statues or Gothiccathedrals; and of American liberty and the recent uprisings of men onbehalf of a juster social condition; and since it is as clear as the light, thatthe Religion of Christ has led to many of the chief and noblestdevelopments of our modern civilization, it did not appear that Religionany more than Education, Art, or Electricity, should be excluded from theColumbian Exposition.It is not altogether improbable that some of the more enthusiastic Christiantheologians, among the promoters of the Parliament, thought that theParliament would give them an opportunity to prove the superiority ofChristianity, professed by the vast majority of the people of the progressiveWest, over the other faiths of the world. Much later Swami Vivekananda said, inone of his jocular moods, that the Divine Mother Herself willed the Parliamentin order to give him an opportunity to present the Eternal Religion of the Hindusbefore the world at large, and that the stage was set for him to play hisimportant role, everything else being incidental. The appropriateness of thisremark can be appreciated now, six decades after the great event, from the factthat whereas all else that was said and discussed at the Parliament has beenforgotten, what Vivekananda preached is still cherished in America, and themovement inaugurated by him has endeared itself to American hearts.'One of the chief advantages,' to quote the words of the Hon. Mr. Merwin-MarieSnell, president of the Scientific Section of the Parliament, 'has been in the greatlessons which it has taught the Christian world, especially the people of theUnited States, namely, that there are other religions more venerable thanChristianity, which surpass it in philosophical depths, in spiritual intensity, inindependent vigour of thought, and in breadth and sincerity of humansympathy, while not yielding to it a single hair's breadth in ethical beauty andefficiency.'At 10 a.m. the Parliament opened. In it every form of organized religious belief,as professed among twelve hundred millions of people, was represented. Amongthe non-Christian groups could be counted Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism,Confucianism, Shintoism, Mohammedanism, and Mazdaism.The spacious hall and the huge gallery of the art Palace were packed with seventhousand people � men and women representing the culture of the UnitedStates. The official delegates marched in a grand procession to the platform, andin the centre, in his scarlet robe, sat Cardinal Gibbons, the highest prelate of theRoman Catholic Church in the Western hemisphere. He occupied a chair of stateand opened the meeting with a prayer. On his left and right were grouped the

Oriental delegates: Pratap Chandra Mazoomdar of the Calcutta Brahmo Samaj,and Nagarkar of Bombay; Dharmapala, representing the Ceylon Buddhists;Gandhi, representing the Jains; Chakravarti and Annie Besant of theTheosophical Society. With them sat Swami Vivekananda, who represented noparticular sect, but the Universal Religion of the Vedas, and who spoke, as willpresently be seen, for the religious aspiration of all humanity. His gorgeous robe,large yellow turban, bronze complexion, and fine features stood out prominentlyon the platform and drew everybody's notice. In numerical order the Swami'sposition was number thirty-one.The delegates arose, one by one, and read prepared speeches, but the Hindusannyasin was totally unprepared. He had never before addressed such anassembly. When he was asked to give his message he was seized with stagefright,and requested the chairman to call on him a little later. Several times hepostponed the summons. As he admitted later: 'Of course my heart wasfluttering and my tongue nearly dried up. I was so nervous that I could notventure to speak in the morning session.'At last he came to the rostrum and Dr. Barrows introduced him. Bowing toSarasvati, the Goddess of Wisdom, he addressed the audience as 'Sisters andBrothers of America.' Instantly, thousands arose in their seats and gave himloud applause. They were deeply moved to see, at last, a man who discardedformal words and spoke to them with the natural and candid warmth of abrother.It took a full two minutes before the tumult subsided, and the Swami began hisspeech by thanking the youngest of the nations in the name of the most ancientmonastic order in the world, the Vedic order of sannyasins. The keynote of hisaddress was universal toleration and acceptance. He told the audience howIndia, even in olden times, had given shelter to the religious refugees of otherlands � for instance, the Israelites and the Zoroastrians � and he quoted fromthe scriptures the following two passages revealing the Hindu spirit oftoleration:'As different streams, having their sources in different places, all mingletheir water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men takethrough different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked orstraight, all lead to Thee.''Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him. All menare struggling through many paths which in the end lead to Me.'In conclusion he pleaded for the quick termination of sectarianism, bigotry, andfanaticism.The response was deafening applause. It appeared that the whole audience hadbeen patiently awaiting this message of religious harmony. A Jewish intellectualremarked to the present writer, years later, that after hearing Vivekananda herealized for the first time that his own religion, Judaism, was true, and that theSwami had addressed his words on behalf of not only his religion, but allreligions of the world. Whereas every one of the other delegates had spoken forhis own ideal or his own sect, the Swami had spoken about God, who, as theultimate goal of all faiths, is their inmost essence. And he had learnt that truthat the feet of Sri Ramakrishna, who had taught incessantly, from his directexperience, that all religions are but so many paths to reach the same goal. TheSwami gave utterance to the yearning of the modern world to break down thebarriers of caste, colour, and creed and to fuse all people into one humanity.Not a word of condemnation for any faith, however crude or irrational, fell fromhis lips. He did not believe that this religion or that religion was true in this orthat respect; to him all religions were equally effective paths to lead theirrespective devotees, with diverse tastes and temperaments, to the same goal ofperfection. Years before, young Narendra had condemned before his Master, inhis neophyte zeal, a questionable sect that indulged in immoral practices in the

name of religion, and Ramakrishna had mildly rebuked him, saying: 'Whyshould you criticize those people? Their way, too, ultimately leads to God. Thereare many doors to enter a mansion. The scavenger comes in by the back door.You need not use it.'How prophetic were the master's words that his Naren would one day shake theworld! Mrs. S.K. Blodgett, who later became the Swami's hostess in Los Angeles,said about her impressions of the Parliament: 'I was at the Parliament ofReligions in Chicago in 1893. When that young man got up and said, "Sistersand Brothers of America," seven thousand people rose to their feet as a tribute tosomething they knew not what. When it was over I saw scores of women walkingover the benches to get near him, and I said to my self, "Well, my lad, if you canresist that onslaught you are indeed a God!"'