In the year 1886 Swami
Vivekananda became Sanyashi. He had a great quest to know India and people of
India , its culture , heritage and geography, so he started Bharat Parikrama in the month of July 1890 on foot and travelled all throughout India and
finally reached Kanyakumari on 24th December 1892. After reaching
Kanykumari he lost his peace of mind and was completely depressed on finding
the present scenario of the country. People were not getting enough food to
eat, they were fighting in the name of caste, religion, language, rich- poor
etc. People had forgotten their past glory and were lacking in self confidence.
Indians started considering themselves as slaves under the British rule. Tears
started rolling down from his eyes and he was trying to get the answers, how to
rejuvenate India and how to put India in the throne of JAGAT GURU then, at that
moment he saw from the shore of Kanya kumari, a big rock in the mid of Indian Ocean
and decided to meditate there. But as he
was a sanyashi , so he had no money and no boat man was interested to take him there. Without wasting
any moment he swum and reached the mid sea rock and mediated there for three
nights and three days, that was on 25th to 27th December
1892. He mediated on past, present and future of India. After 3day he sprang up
and shouted, “I hit upon an idea……..’. That idea was to reunite all the Indians
and to make them understand their past glory. The vision of one India was laid.
From here a feelings of brotherhood spread length and breadth of India and tied
everybody together. So it can be concluded here that the seeds of National
Brotherhood was sowed for the first time in the fertile soil of India.
Before the advent of swami Vivekananda and his
teachings, Indians localized themselves in small groups. They had revolted
against British but those were to free themselves from the British imposed
rules and for their own existence. Those revolts were not at all to free India
from British. For example Farmers, Businessmen, sepoys, Kings and Kangs etc.
all these sections had a revolt against British that is true but for their own
and small cause, it was not for India as a whole. Farmers revolted to reduce
their taxes and for owning the cultivable land, Businessmen also revolted as
the finished products that time were coming from England. Sepoys had mutiny that
was for religious ethics and kings fought against British only to safe guard their kingdom and to remained
as rulers, for example Mysore , Jhanshi
etc. But the thread for unifying India was not existing during that period of
time otherwise British would had been thrown out from the country long time
back. After the teachings and philosophy of Swami Vivekananda, feelings of
oneness ignited every Indian mind and it would be difficult to find a single freedom
fighters that time who was not influenced by the teachings and works of Swami
Vivekananda, may it be Gandhiji, S.C. Bose, Bal Ganga Dhar Tilak, Sardar Vallab
bhai Patel, Nehru, Chittaranjan Das, A.P.J Abdul Kalam, Indira Gandhi, Serojini
Nidu, Rabiendra Nath Tagore, Jamshedji
Tata and host of others who were highly inspired and motivated by Swamiji’s
words and work. So Swamiji was successful in raising the morale, confidence and
infusing patriotic feelings among Indians. Thus the Seeds of Brotherhood sown in
India.
Now coming to the World’s
Parliament of religions, that took place for 17 days in Chicago, America from
September 11th to September 27th 1893. Charles Carroll
Bonney, Lawyer from Chicago and John Henry then the president of the organizing
committee of World's Parliament of religions made it clear that the parliament was
to show the richness and development of America to the rest of the world,
Supremacy of Christianity over other religions and along with that to
commemorate the completion of 400 years of
America Discovery by Columbus. On the first day that was on 11th
September 1893, Swami Vivekananda was given a chance to speak for a small
duration in the afternoon session, where he spoke for only three and half
minutes but was able to catch every body’s attention there. His first sentence,
“Sisters and Brothers Of America” electrified the whole Auditorium and all the
people at once stood up and kept clapping for more than two minutes, that was a
wonderful gesture given by Americans to welcome the Hindu Monk. Next morning
all the Newspapers from America published regarding him, they referred him as
cyclonic man, a man of wisdom, a man who overshadowed everybody in the parliament
of religions and some newspaper even went further to publish his speech.
A
Busy road in Chicago-.
Swami Vivekananda’s
first day speech to me is like a preface of a book where he gave a introductory
regarding his motherland, the religion which he belonged, Regarding tolerance
and universal acceptance, all religions to be true and sanatana dharma the
mother of all religions, about the nation which sheltered refugees from other
nations, all these were introduction but
nothing was in description. Those introductory sentences might had created
curiosity and interest among the masses to know about India, Vedas, Puranas,
culture etc. Here we find the adventurous and curious Americans left no stone
unturned to get the nectar of Spirituality from the great saint Swami
Vivekananda. After the first day speech, Swami Vivekananda became famous not
only in America but also around the globe through Newspapers and Radio broadcasting.
The world Parliament of
Religions which continued in Chicago for 17 days and if somebody dominated
completely the duration with religious thoughts, religious belief, religious
scripts, culture, logic and wisdom then it was only one man, the saint from India-Swami
Vivekananda. After the first day(11/09/1893), Swami Vivekananda was invited
again and again to give speech on different topics.
Let me give a little idea related to the topics
that Swamiji delivered during the Parliament of Religions.
1st speech
11/09/1893: Swamiji electrified everybody with his salutation “Sisters and
Brothers of America”. He made the world clear that he was from a Nation and a
religion which taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance and
thus in the first day itself he laid the stone of Brotherhood. Within his short
duration of speech, four times swamiji pronounced that he was proud of the
Nation and of Religion that he belonged, that showed his love for the country
and its values.
2nd Speech
15/09/1893: Topic – “Why we disagree”- To explain the topic, Swami Vivekananda told
a story of a frog. The story goes like this-
Once upon a time there
lived a frog in a well and it had been living there for a long time. One day another
frog that lived in the sea came and fell into the well.
” Where are you from ?”
asked the frog from the well. “I am from sea” replied the frog that entered.
“The Sea! How big is that ?…..is it as big my
well?”, enquired the frog of the well after taking a leap from one side of the
well to the other.
“ My friend “ said the
frog from the sea, ”how do you compare the sea with your little well.”
Then the frog took
another leap and asked” Is your sea so big?”. “What nonsense", replied the frog
from the sea,” how you compare a well with the sea.”
Then the frog of the
well proclaimed that nothing can be
bigger than his well and that frog was a liar and they threw him out from the
well.
So swamiji through this
story showed the difficulty that arise, the variation that develops and that
leads to disagree. Hindu seats in his well and thinks whole world is his little
well, Christians seats in their well and thinks that to be the world and same
way Mohomodian seats in their well and believes that the world is like that.
Swamiji in his speech
thanked America for taking steps in breaking the wall of each world and for
giving an opportunity for every religion to understand another.
Thus in the second day of
his speech, he gave another steps in developing brotherhood among all the
people of the globe.
3rd
speech 19/09/1893: Topic- Paper on
Hinduism – In his third speech he spoke about Vedas. Swamiji explained about
Accommodation and Spirituality that one would find in Hinduism. Swamiji made
everybody understood the concept of God,
soul and body in Hinduism
4th speech
20/09/1893: Topic – Religion is not a crying need for India – In that speech he
placed in front of the world that Religion was not the important need of
Indians. Instead of sending missionaries to India for spreading religion, it
would had been better if AID were provided that would impoverished the masses
in India.
Art institute of Chicago where swami
Vivekananda gave his speech,
The stairs of the institute has the writings of
Swamiji’s first day speech
Swamiji also stressed
for Universal religion, where all the religion would remain but there would be
ample scope for every religion to grow, in Swamiji’s words there would be
infinite space for the development of every religion.
5TH speech
26/09/1893: Topic – Buddhism in fulfillment of Hinduism- Swami Vivekananda in
his speech explained about Buddhism and its origin. He also made it clear in
front of everybody that Hinduism could not live without Buddhism and nor
Buddhism could live without Hinduism.
6th
speech 27/09/1893: Topic – Concluding Speech- That was Swamiji’s concluding
speech in the concluding day of the parliament of religions. Swamiji was
invited to address the final session. Swamiji in his bold voice made it clear
that the parliament of religions was not for the victory of one religion and
destruction of other and each religion should assimilate the spirit of other
religion and should preserve its individuality and grow. He stressed that
Religions should help and not to fight.
Swamiji wanted that the
science of the west and spirituality of India should combine together for the
progress of the world.
Swamiji thus gave to
the west, the nectar of spirituality of India and values from our Vedas and in
return Americans also did not fail to
play their role. Within a short period of time Swami Vivekananda had thousands
of Disciple in America and England. People of America showered him with so much
love and respect that none before him might have reached that pinnacle. Roads
were named after him, Art institute of Chicago where swami Vivekananda gave his
speech, the stairs of the institute has the writings of Swamiji’s first day
speech.
Later on, to
commemorate Swami Vivekananda’s iconic speech that propagated religious
tolerance and harmony, Universal brotherhood day was coined. It is observed
on 11th September around the
world to honour the historic speech delivered by Swami Vivekananda on this day
in 1893.
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