Conference on World Religions 1994 07 NY Queens

Author(s): Council for The Conference on World Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

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SWAMI VIVEKANANDA'S CALL TO A WORLD IN CHAOS 1
BY J. P. VASWANI
Swami Vivekananda! There is an inspiration in his name: there is a music in his memory!
He was a symbol of India's deathless culture which stands for the supremacy of the Atman, The Spirit. In his hands he held a torch. On his lips was the live coal of inspiration. He thrilled those that heard him He carried with himself a tremendous power of the Spirit. He was a man of fire. There was fire his words, in his heart and in his soul.
He appeared at a time when millions in Europe and America considered the Hindus to be heathens and condemned the Hindu religion as paganism. With the roar of a lion, Swami Vivekananda said to the Christians of America:--"Hinduism is the only religion which tells you that you are not a sinner, that you are not doomed to burn eternally in the fires of hell. It is a sin to call a man a sinner. Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep. You are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal. You are not matter, you are not bodies. Matter is your servant, you are not the servants of matter." When he was asked:--"Swami, have you come to America to convert us to a new belief?" He laughed as he answered:--"In this country I do not come to convert you to a new belief. I want you to keep your own belief. I want to make the Methodist a better Methodist, a Presbyterian a better Presbyterian, a Unitarian a better Unitarian."
In the heart of Swami Vivekananda there was no sense of separateness. He recognized the great truths of world religions. In a lecture before the Ethical Society of Brooklyn, he said: "We Hindus not only tolerate but we accept every religion, praying in the mosque of the Muslim, worshipping before the fire of the Zoroastrians, and kneeling before the Cross of the Christians, knowing that so many religions are but so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize the infinite."
Swami Vivekananda understood the value of Islam and its message of social equality. He entered into the heart of the message of the Christ. Is it not also a message of spiritual adviata? "I and my Father are one, said Jesus. He also said:--"Ye are Gods!" and again:--"Be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect!" Alas! The Jews of his generation understood him not. Has the West understood him yet? NO! To be able t understand Jesus, one must be imbued with the spirit of the East.
Above all, Vivekananda realized the value of Higher Hinduism. He called it Vedanta. He wished to make it a world-force.
Vivekananda said:--"With God, you can sail over the seas. Without God, you cannot cross over the threshold." With God, Vivekananda went over the seas. With God, Vivekananda crossed the continents and re-proclaimed the Wisdom of the Rishis. "Arise! Awake! And stop not until the goal is reached!" was his trumpet-call to the Hindus. Also to India, Europe and America.
1 Speech delivered by Dada J. P. Vaswani, at the Global Vision 2000, held at the Capital Centre, Washington, D.C. August 6-8, celebrating the Centenary of Swami Vivekananda's Universal Vedantic Message.
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