The Parliament of Religions offered Swami Vivekananda the long desired opportunity
to present before the Western world the eternal and universal truths of his Aryan
ancestors. And he rose to the occasion. As he stood on the platform to give his
message, he formed, as it were, the confluence of two great streams of thought, the two
ideals that had moulded human culture. The vast audience before him represented
exclusively the Occidental mind — young, alert, restless, inquisitive, tremendously
honest, well disciplined, and at ease with the physical universe, but sceptical about the
profundities of the supersensuous world and unwilling to accept spiritual truths without
rational proof. And behind him lay the ancient world of India, with its diverse religious
and philosophical discoveries, with its saints and prophets who investigated Reality
through self-control and contemplation, unruffled by the passing events of the
transitory life and absorbed in contemplation of the Eternal Verities. Vivekananda's
education, upbringing, personal experiences, and contact with the God-man of modern
India had pre-eminently fitted him to represent both ideals and to remove their
apparent conflict.
To Vivekananda the religion of the Hindus, based upon the teachings of the Vedas,
appeared adequate to create the necessary synthesis. By the Vedas he did not mean any
particular book containing the words of a prophet or deriving sanction from a
supernatural authority, but the accumulated treasure of spiritual laws discovered by
various Indian seers in different times. Just as the law of gravitation existed before its
discovery, and would continue to exist even if all humanity forgot it, so do the laws
that govern the spiritual world exist independently of our knowledge of them. The
moral, ethical, and spiritual relations between soul and soul, and between individual
spirits and the Father of all spirits, were in existence before their discovery, and will
remain even if we forget them. Regarding the universal character of the Hindu faith the
Swami said: 'From the high spiritual flights of the Vedanta philosophy, of which the
latest discoveries of science seem like echoes, to the low ideas of idolatry with its
multifarious mythology, the agnosticism of the Buddhists, and the atheism of the Jains,
each and all have a place in Hindu religion.'
The young, unknown monk of India was transformed overnight into an outstanding
figure of the religious world. From obscurity he leapt to fame. His life-size portraits
were posted in the streets of Chicago, with words 'The Monk Vivekananda' written
beneath them and many passers-by would stop to do reverence with bowed heads.
Dr. J.H. Barrows, Chairman of the General Committee of the Parliament of Religions,
said: 'Swami Vivekananda exercised a wonderful influence over his auditors,' and Mr.
Merwin-Marie Snell stated, more enthusiastically: 'By far the most important and
typical representative of Hinduism was Swami Vivekananda, who, in fact, was beyond
question the most popular and influential man in the Parliament....He was received
with greater enthusiasm than any other speaker, Christian or pagan. The people
thronged about him wherever he went and hung with eagerness on his every word. The
most rigid of orthodox Christians say of him, "He is indeed a prince among men!"'
Newspapers published his speeches and they were read with warm interest all over the