Chicago’s tryst with an Indian monk

“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.” With these words a young monk by the name of Swami Vivekananda alias Narendranath Dutta from Calcutta took the shores of USA by storm on September 11, 1893 in the 1 st session of the World Parliament of Religion in Chicago. On September 27, 1893, in his concluding speech, he further pronounced: “Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if anyone here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, "Brother, yours is an impossible hope.” As Vivekananda continued to speak on harmony between religions and India’s soul, USA welcomed him with open arms. The ‘Boston Evening Transcript’ reported that he was“a great favourite at the parliament….if he crosses the platform, he is applauded.” After the Parliament of Religions, the American esoteric community took Vivekananda under its wing, hosting him as a guest speaker around the country and it was in New York City that Vivekananda and his message for harmony and unity received the greatest following.