p. 35The Parliament of Religions

A. J. Canfield, speaking of the Parliament of Religions, says: “It will long remain the enviable distinction of the Brahman, Brahmo-Somaj, Jain, Buddhist, Japanese both Buddhist and Shintoist, Confucian and Parsee representatives in the great historic parliament, that they were in the front rank not only by the interest of their appearance, but by their own high character and character of their contribution.” Swami Vivikananda, a representative from Calcutta, created a regular furore at this parliament and was one of the most popular members thereof. The Chicago Inter-Ocean at the time said: “Great crowds of people, the most of whom are women, pressed around the doors leading to the hall of Columbus, an hour before the time stated for opening the afternoon session, for it had been announced that Swami Vivikananda, the popular Hindu monk, was to speak.” The following are some quotations from his speeches: “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 to be true. I am present to tell you that I belong to a religion into whose sacred language, the Sanscrit, the word exclusion is untranslatable. … India is the Punya Bhumi, the land of religious merit, the land of spirituality. Our sacred mother-land is a land of philosophy and religion, the birthplace of spiritual giants, the land of renunciation, where, and where alone, from the most ancient to the most modern times there has been the highest ideals of life open to man. Ours is the land from whence, like tidal waves, spirituality and philosophy have again and again marched out and deluged the world, and this is the land from which once more such tides must proceed in order to bring life and vigor into the decaying races of mankind. The eyes of the whole world are now turned towards this land of old India for spiritual food; and India has to work for all the races. Here alone is the best ideal for mankind, and western scholars are now struggling to understand the ideal which is enshrined in our Sanscrit literature and philosophy, and which has been the characteristic of India all through the ages.”

“We Hindus have now been placed under God’s Providence in a very critical and responsible position. The nations of the West are coming to us for spiritual help.”

Swami Vivikananda stayed in America for nearly three years, going from one of the large cities to the other, and gaining admittance in the upper classes of society, made it a point to have special gatherings in the houses of the more fashionables and there he spread his doctrine. The Brahmavadin, an Indian Paper, March 14, 1896, says:

“His lecture before the Metaphysical Society in Brooklyn and the People’s Church in New York were as usual well attended and highly appreciated. In February he will lecture before the Metaphysical Society at Hartford, Connecticut, and the Ethical Society, Brooklyn, where the numerous followers are eagerly anticipating the pleasure of his coming.”

“At the close of a second series of lectures in New York, the Swami will accept an urgent invitation extended to him repeatedly by the Harvard University to lecture before the Graduate Philosophical Club, which is the leading Philosophical organization at Harvard.” From America the Swami went to England. The London Daily Chronical of June 10, 1896, states that “the Swami’s lectures may be heard at 63 St. George’s Road, on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, at half past eleven A. M. and at half past eight P. M. up to the end of July. It is also announced that the Swami will lecture in one of the rooms of the Royal Institution, 191 Piccadilly, at half past three Sunday afternoons.” Shortly before leaving England The Daily Graphic says: “He has now a considerable following in London. It would not be too much to say that his weekly audiences here number in the aggregate 500, and on the strength of his preaching a room in Victoria Street has just been engaged permanently for meetings of these people interested in the Swami’s message, while the nucleus of a lending library finds a place along the walls.”

On his return to India he boasted: “I helped on the tide of Vedantism which is flooding the world.”

“… before ten years more elapse a vast majority of the English speaking world will be Vedantists.”

His return to India was hailed by his friends and many addresses were read to him. The Colomba address says: “To your self-sacrificing zeal Western nations owe the priceless boon of being placed in living contact with the genius of India.”

The Calcutta address says of his teaching: “The general effect was a revolution in the religious ideas of a large section of cultivated Americans.”

The Ahamara address says: “Which of us ever dreamt that a descendant of the old Indian Aryans by dint of tapas (bodily mortification) would prove to the learned people of England and America the superiority of the ancient Indian religions over every other creed?”

Another great light at the Parliament was Protap Chunder Mozeomdar of the Brahma-Somaj of India. In his paper he said: “Christianity declares the glory of God, Hinduism speaks about His infinite and eternal excellence. Mohammedanism, with fire and sword, proves the almightiness of his will. Buddhism says how joyful and peaceful He is. He is the God of all religions, of all denominations, of all lands, of all scriptures, and our progress lies in the harmonizing these various systems, these various prophecies and their development into one great system. Hence the new system of religion in the Brahma-Somaj is called the New Dispensation. The Christian speaks in terms of admiration of Christianity, so does the Hebrew of Judaism, so does the Mohammedan of Islam and the Zoroastrian of Zend-Avesta. The Christian admires his principles of spiritual culture, the Hindu does the same and the Mohammedan does the same. … May the spread of the New Dispensation rest with you all, your brothers and sisters. Representatives of all religions, may all your religions merge into ‘The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of men,’ that Christ’s prophecy may be fulfilled and mankind become one kingdom with God our Father.”

Some Japanese were equally confident that Buddhism was to be “the religion of the future.” The Indian Messenger of November 11, 1894, says: “A surprising account of the effects of the Parliament of Religions at the Chicago Exposition is given by a Japanese Buddhist to his co-religionists on his return from Chicago. He says, that whilst the Parliament was undertaken in the interest of Christianity, it resulted contrarywise in displaying the glory of Buddhism. So strongly has America been impressed with the revelation of the inferiority of Christianity, that Buddhist temples and images are now being erected on the Pacific coast. He added that in Europe also Christianity is decaying and Buddhism gaining ground and showing promise of supplanting Christianity. The people of Europe, he says, are indeed eager for the coming of Buddhist priests of Japan.”

Kinza Ringe M. Hirai, a Japanese Buddhist, an educated layman, said among many other things this: “The clean Parsee, purified by fire, standing almost alone today under the untarnished flag of Zoroaster, still hopes and dreams of the revival of his faith by the influence of this parliament of religions, and he is right, but there is something more. Members of this great auxiliary assembly, there is a surprise for you. The lamb and the lion shall lie down together. Looking more intently, some of us behold a strange thing—the paradox, the anomaly—the Christian a Buddhist and the Buddhist a Christian: the Moslem a Parsee and the Parsee a Moslem. The grand, far-reaching result to grow out of this parliament is not what you conceive, but, as I said before, a surprise awaits you. Out of it shall come a pure being, unfettered, naked, white, with eyes like Christ and dignity like Buddha, bearing the rewards of Zoroaster and the flaming sword of Moslem. To her the Jew bows his head, the Christian kneels, the Brahman prays; before her the habiliments of sects and creeds fall off, for she is pure and naked, she is the one truth resurrected from the mingled heart and interchanged mind of the world’s great parliament of religions.”

Swami Vivikananda was succeeded by Swami Abbedannanda as preacher of Vedantism in America. Says the New York Sun of December 26, 1897: “A reporter of this paper had an interview with Swami Abbedannanda, who said among other things: ‘To understand Christ one must understand the Hindu conception of the soul and of the universe; for Christ, although a Jew by race, was in every fiber of His character a Hindu, or Vedantist, and when the Christian looks at his Savior from a Hindu point of view, he will not only get a more beautiful and sublime conception of Christ, but will receive a much better opinion of himself and his fellow-men. All that Christ did and said will become vastly more interesting to him, for he can himself confidently hope some day to become a Christ himself. The beauty of the Vedantic view of Christ is, to be able to realize from experience that you and I and all of us will some day, on this very earth, clothed in flesh and blood, become Christ, for in every one of us is the pure and sublime soul that shows forth Him on the Mount of Transfiguration. It needs only to be set free and connect itself with the cosmic intelligence that stands behind and directs, evolves and projects all these gross forms of matter that we see. In every one of us is a spark of this universal intelligent energy that is moving towards freedom. In Christ, in Buddha, and in many of our Hindu sages this cosmic energy is set free.’”

Several Buddhist missionaries are working in the larger cities now to establish temples and make converts. Even if their accounts of the success of their work are exaggerated, still the field in the United States is for a time favorable to the “Oriental Antiquity—the present Novelty,” since secret societies are continuously preparing the ground.