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In 1893, a World's Parliament of Religions was held in Chicago in conjunction with an early world's fair, the World Columbian Exposition.
At the conference were representatives from Taoism, Confucianism, the Bahai Faith, Buddhism and Jainism, from the East. New Western religious movements of the time were represented as well, including Theosophy, Spiritualism and Christian Science. The conference seemed an honest attempt to begin connection between groups that had not before been able to communicate.
What is still remembered to this day from the conference was an opening day address given by a participant who was allowed entry almost as an afterthought. This was Swami Vivekananda, who subsequently founded The Vedanta Society in America. (Those of you here in Los Angeles may visit their temple, a place anyone can meditate during the day, and their very well-stocked book store in the Hollywood Hills.) Swami Vivekananda was a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, himself one of the earliest proponents of religious pluralism. Hearing about the Parliament of Religions, Swami Vivekananda decided it was an opportunity to bring Vedic knowledge to the West, to educate Westerners about his homeland of India and to raise money for a mission he wished to build there.
From his first talk he was a hit. He seemed to embody the very principle around which the Parliament was organized.
I am proud to belong to a religion (Hinduism) that has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal tolerance but we accept all religions to be true.
from Swami Vivekananda's Opening Day speech
at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions
Though it is a different approach than ours to the same end, Swami Vivekananda's expressed wisdom from the Veda is shared absolutely by our tradition. In the introduction to his book, Raja Yoga, Swami Vivekananda writes the following:
It is wrong to believe blindly. You must exercise your own reason and judgment; you must practice, and see whether these things happen or not. Just as you would take up any other science, exactly in the same manner you should take up this science for study.
from Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda
Take nothing on faith. Try the concepts of unity, tolerance, love and oneness that the Veda suggests. Learn to meditate and do it twice a day for a year. Even half a year. 90 days. See if anything changes.
We have our own World's Parliament of Religions to conduct. Our world, perhaps more than ever before, requires that someone somewhere bring the qualities of tolerance and acceptance to the collective, that someone insists on seeing the divine in the face of their fellows, regardless of differences. We can all be this 'someone.'
Just for today I will see God in the face of everyone I meet, even those who seem to be doing everything they can to make this impossible.
Swami Vivekananda, signed, from the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions
(the photo is in public domain, this copy courtesy of Wiki Commons)
All material copyright Jeff Kober (except photo above)
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