At the age of 30, Vivekananda first visited the United
States in 1893 as a delegate to the World's Parliament of Religions, held in conjunction
with the Chicago World's Fair. In his opening remarks, he greeted the assembled
gathering with the words "Sisters and Brothers of America." The 7,000 people in
attendance rose to their feet for an ovation lasting more than three minutes.
Vivekananda proceeded to give a brief but eloquent speech that celebrated toleration and
condemned fanaticism and its ills: "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."Continuing in this vein, Vivekananda
went on to quote from the Bhagavad Gita: "As different streams having their sources in
different places all mingle their waters in the sea, so, Oh Lord, the different paths
which men take through different tendencies various though they appear, crooked or
straight, all lead to Thee."
His ideas were admired by
renowned thinkers and writers, including
Ingersoll,
Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. are, The older I grow, the more everything
seems to me to lie in manliness. love. Religion is realization; not talk, not doctrine,
nor theories, however beautiful they may be. It is being and becoming, not hearing or
acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming changed into what it believes. Religion is
the manifestation of the Divinity already in man. Teach yourselves, teach everyone his
real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory
will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will
come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity. They alone live who
live for others, the rest are more dead than alive ,It is love and love alone that I
preach, and I base my teaching on the great Vedantic truth of the sameness and
omnipresence of the Soul of the Universe.
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