The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Reports in American Newspapers/At the Parliament of Religions
AT THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS
(The Dubuque, Iowa, Times, September 39, 1893)
WORLD'S FAIR, Sept. 28. — (Special.) — The Parliament of religions reached a
point where sharp acerbities develop. The thin veil of courtesy was
maintained, of course, but behind it was ill feeling. Rev. Joseph Cook
criticised the Hindoos sharply and was more sharply criticised in turn. He
said that to speak of a universe that was not created is almost unpardonable
nonsense, and the Asiatics retorted that a universe which had a beginning is
a self-evident absurdity. Bishop J. P. Newman, firing at long range from the
banks of the Ohio, declared that the orientals have insulted all the
Christians of the United States by their misrepresentations of the
missionaries, and the orientals, with their provokingly calm and
supercilious smile, replied that this was simply the bishop's ignorance.
BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY
In response to the question direct, three learned Buddhists gave us in
remarkably plain and beautiful language their bed-rock belief about God, man
and matter.
[Following this is a summary of Dharmapala's paper on "The World's Debt to
Buddha", which he prefaced, as we learn from another source, by singing a
Singhalese song of benediction. The article then continues:]
His [Dharmapala's] peroration was as pretty a thing as a Chicago audience
ever heard. Demosthenes never exceeded it.
CANTANKEROUS REMARKS
Swami Vivekananda, the Hindoo monk, was not so fortunate. He was out of
humor, or soon became so, apparently. He wore an orange robe and a pale
yellow turban and dashed at once into a savage attack on Christian nations
in these words: "We who have come from the east have sat here day after day
and have been told in a patronizing way that we ought to accept Christianity
because Christian nations are the most prosperous. We look about us and we
see England the most prosperous Christian nation in the world, with her foot
on the neck of 250,000,000 Asiatics. We look back into history and see that
the prosperity of Christian Europe began with Spain. Spain's prosperity
began with the invasion of Mexico. Christianity wins its prosperity by
cutting the throats of its fellow men. At such a price the Hindoo will not
have prosperity."
And so they went on, each succeeding speaker getting more cantankerous, as
it were.
* * *
(Outlook, October 7, 1893)
. . . The subject of Christian work in India calls Vivekananda, in his
brilliant priestly orange, to his feet. He criticises the work of Christian
missions. It is evident that he has not tried to understand Christianity,
but neither, as he claims, have its priests made any effort to understand
his religion, with its ingrained faiths and raceprejudices of thousands of
years' standing. They have simply come, in his view, to throw scorn on his
most sacred beliefs, and to undermine the morals and spiritualist of the
people he has been set to teach.
* * *
(Critic, October 7, 1893)
But the most impressive figures of the Parliament were the Buddhist priest,
H. Dharmapala of Ceylon, and the Hindoo monk, Suami Vivekananda. "If
theology and dogma stand in your way in search of truth," said the former
incisively, "put them aside. Learn to think without prejudice, to love all
beings for love's sake, to express your convictions fearlessly, to lead a
life of purity, and the sunlight of truth will illuminate you." But eloquent
as were many of the brief speeches at this meeting, whose triumphant
enthusiasm rightly culminated in the superb rendering by the Apollo Club of
the Hallelujah chorus, no one expressed so well the spirit of the
Parliament, its limitations and its finest influence, as did the Hindoo
monk. I copy his address in full, but I can only suggest its effect upon the
audience, for he is an orator by divine right, and his strong intelligent
face in its picturesque setting of yellow and orange was hardly less
interesting than these earnest words and the rich, rhythmical utterance he
gave them.... [After quoting the greater part of Swamiji's Final Address,
the article continues:]
Perhaps the most tangible result of the congress was the feeling it aroused
in regard to foreign missions. The impertinence of sending half-educated
theological students to instruct the wise and erudite Orientals was never
brought home to an English-speaking audience more forcibly. It is only in
the spirit of tolerance and sympathy that we are at liberty to touch their
faith, and the exhorters who possess these qualities are rare. It is
necessary to realize that we have quite as much to learn from the Buddhists
as they from us, and that only through harmony can the highest influence be
exerted.
Chicago, 3 Oct., 1893.
* * *
[To a request of the New York World of October 1, 1893, for "a sentiment or expression regarding the significance of the great meeting" from each representative, Swamiji replied with a quotation from the Gita and one from Vyâsa:]
"I am He that am in every religion — like the thread that passes through a
string of pearls." "Holy, perfect and pure men are seen in all creeds,
therefore they all lead to the same truth — for how can nectar be the
outcome of poison?"