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| “Face the brutes.” That is a lesson for all life—face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them. ******************* |
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| The powers of the mind should be concentrated and the mind turned back upon itself; as the darkest places reveal their secrets before the penetrating rays of the sun, so will the concentrated mind penetrate its own innermost secrets. |
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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 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.
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The
World's Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished fact, and the
merciful Father has helped those who labored to bring it into existence, and
crowned with success their most unselfish labor.
My thanks to those
noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth first dreamed this wonderful
dream and then realized it. My thanks to the shower of liberal sentiments that
has overflowed this platform. My thanks to this enlightened audience for their
uniform kindness to me and for their appreciation of every thought that tends
to smooth the friction of religions. A few jarring notes were heard from time
to time in this harmony. My special thanks to them, for they have, by their
striking contrast, made general harmony the sweeter.
Much has been said
of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my
own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph
of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say,
"Brother, yours is an impossible hope." Do I wish that the Christian
would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become
Christian? God forbid.
The seed is put in
the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed
become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant. It develops
after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water,
converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant.
Similar is the case
with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a
Hindu or a 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.
If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the
world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity
are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that 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 the 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 not
Destruction," "Harmony and Peace and not Dissension."
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God is self-evident, impersonal, omniscient, the Know-er and the Master of nature, the Lord of all. He is behind all worship and it is being done according to Him, whether we know it or not.
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