CONCLUDING ADDRESS at Chicago by Swami Vivekananda!!!!

WELCOME ADDRESS - Chicago, Sept 11, 1893

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.

By Swami Vivekananda

Source:

https://hinduism.about.com/od/vivekananda/a/vivekananda_speeches_1.htm

Some Trivia

• Swami Vivekananda was the first Indian to be invited to accept the chair of Oriental Philosophy at Harvard
• The Place of Jamshedpur the great Indian Iron Ore mine of TATA (TISCO) was indicated by Swami Vivekananda to Jamshedji Tata. Tata also set up the Tata Institute or the Indian Institute of Science at Bengaluru on the Swamiji's advice and vision to provide quality higher technology and scientific education to Indian students.
• World celebrates "World Brotherhood Day" on the 11th September every year, the date Swami Vivekananda delivered his famous speech in Chicago.
• India celebrates National Youth Day on his birthday 12th January every year.
• In 1963 on centurion birth calibration of Vivekananda, country got a huge Rock memorial at kanyakumari. every year millions of people around world visits the place. Mr. Eknath Ranade was the dedicated person behind this memorial. He also found Vivekanand Kendra, an organization of non-monastic volunteers working to fulfill the dreams of Vivekananda.^[136]

Honored

On November 11, 1995, a section of Michigan Avenue, one of the most prominent streets in Chicago, was formally renamed "Swami Vivekananda Way". July 13, 1998 Press Release From the Consulate General of India, Chicago, IL, USA

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda

Bridge between the East and the West: - Another great contribution of Swami Vivekananda was to build a bridge between Indian culture and Western culture.  He did it by interpreting Hindu scripttures and philosophy and the Hindu way of life and institutions to the Western people in an idiom which they could understand.  He made the Western people realize that they had to learn much from Indian spirituality for their own well-being.  He showed that, in spite of her poverty and backwardness, India had a great contribution to make to world culture.  In this way he was instrumental in ending India’s cultural isolation from the rest of the world.  He was India’s first great cultural ambassador to the West.

On the other hand, Swamiji’s interpretation of ancient Hindu scripttures, philosophy, institutions, etc prepared the mind of Indians to accept and apply in practical life two best elements of Western culture, namely science and technology and humanism.  Swamiji has taught Indians how to master Western science and technology and at the same time develop spiritually.  Swamiji has also taught Indians how to adapt Western humanism (especially the ideas of individual freedom, social equality and justice and respect for women) to Indian ethos.

Source:

https://www.belurmath.org/swamivivekananda.htm

·      --  Rishis did great work in the past, but we must do greater work.

·     --   To know the Om is to know the secret of the universe.

·     --  In religion there is no caste; caste is simply a social institution.

·        --India’s theme is religion.

·        --The Indian mind is first religious, then anything else.

·        --The seat of religion is in heart.

-- Swami Vivekananda