Swami Vivekananda reaches Chicago
July 30, 1893 - Swami Vivekananda arrives in Chicago before speaking at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in September 1893, where he represented India and Hinduism. His famous speech began with the words “Sisters and brothers of America.” These five words received a two-minute standing ovation from the crowd of 7,000, as they captured his universality towards all humans as one family. Vivekananda further illustrated tolerance of all religions and acceptance of all religions as true, by quoting this hymn from his childhood: “As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.”
[Sindya N. Bhanoo writes the Observatory column in the Science section of The New York Times. She is also a board member of South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), from where this column is sourced. https://www.saadigitalarchive.org/.]
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