V
vignesh2014
Guest
How Swami Vivekananda arrived at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, and appeared at the Parliament of Religions held there, is a saga in itself. His passage across the Pacific from Japan was paid for by friends in India, who, having no idea of the cost of living in the New World, provided him with only enough to get him here, and nothing on which to live. He came via Vancouver, B.C. and made his way to Chicago only to find that he was too early. Several weeks would elapse before the Parliament opened. In the meantime he managed with the help of generous strangers to spend this time in New England, in the homes and summer homes of some very distinguished people.
At any rate, the outlook was bleak in every way: he not only had no money, he had no official credentials and the aforesaid friends were responsible for getting him onto the program.
Here are the names of some of the important people who were to take part: Cardinal Gibbons, the highest Catholic official in New York, Archbishop Zante (Greek Orthodox), D.T. Suzuki (later the famous Zen authority), Mrs. Potter Palmer, (the equivalent of a feminist for those days), and ambassadors and free-lancers of all kinds.
Vivekananda was stirred by their eloquence, as was the audience of over four thousand knowledgeable people. How were people affected by him? We are going to look at the scene from four different perspectives: his biographers’; reporters and contemporaries’; as he saw it; and ours, one century later.
First to set the familiar scene, his first sentence, “Sisters and Brothers of America” was greeted by a two-minute standing ovation. He spoke ten times in all, at various sessions. When he had finished, the concept of idolatry had been smashed, Protestants (except for Unitarians, Swedenborgians and some Anglicans) writhed and ranted. The Catholics set up “counselling” in one of the rooms. The question that ran through everything was not only whether Christianity was superior to other religions, but whether it was going to replace them through missionary activity, and if so, how. He made the academics present uncomfortable too, for, with the highest metaphysics, he spoke like a fervidly emotional preacher.The Theosophist paper, on the other hand, was labeling Vivekananda an upstart and an ingrate (not to have acknowledged credits they felt were theirs).
Each speaker at the Parliament, said the reporters, spoke of his own God — the God of his sect; Vivekananda alone spoke of the God of all.
At any rate, the outlook was bleak in every way: he not only had no money, he had no official credentials and the aforesaid friends were responsible for getting him onto the program.
Here are the names of some of the important people who were to take part: Cardinal Gibbons, the highest Catholic official in New York, Archbishop Zante (Greek Orthodox), D.T. Suzuki (later the famous Zen authority), Mrs. Potter Palmer, (the equivalent of a feminist for those days), and ambassadors and free-lancers of all kinds.
Vivekananda was stirred by their eloquence, as was the audience of over four thousand knowledgeable people. How were people affected by him? We are going to look at the scene from four different perspectives: his biographers’; reporters and contemporaries’; as he saw it; and ours, one century later.
First to set the familiar scene, his first sentence, “Sisters and Brothers of America” was greeted by a two-minute standing ovation. He spoke ten times in all, at various sessions. When he had finished, the concept of idolatry had been smashed, Protestants (except for Unitarians, Swedenborgians and some Anglicans) writhed and ranted. The Catholics set up “counselling” in one of the rooms. The question that ran through everything was not only whether Christianity was superior to other religions, but whether it was going to replace them through missionary activity, and if so, how. He made the academics present uncomfortable too, for, with the highest metaphysics, he spoke like a fervidly emotional preacher.The Theosophist paper, on the other hand, was labeling Vivekananda an upstart and an ingrate (not to have acknowledged credits they felt were theirs).
Each speaker at the Parliament, said the reporters, spoke of his own God — the God of his sect; Vivekananda alone spoke of the God of all.
