The UU history book I turn to most often does not tell the story of
Vivekananda, nor speculate about how his visit to America may have changed our
Unitarian Universalist faith forever. We
know that the transcendentalists were aware of the philosophical teachings of
India. Emerson had been was introduced to Hindu literature by his aunt, Mary
Moody Emerson. As early as the 1820s Emerson began to write of India in his
journals and in the 1840s he began to publish excerpts from "Ethnical
Scriptures" in the transcendentalist journal The Dial. It is clear from his writings that Thoreau had the Bhagavad Gita (one Hindu Scriptures) with him during his time at
Walden. "In the morning," he
wrote, "I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy
of the Bhagvat-Geeta . . . in comparison with which our modern world and its
literature seem puny and trivial."
Emerson was
an growing old when Narendra Nath Datta was born in Calcutta on
January 12 , 1863. (This past winter the 150th anniversary of his
birth was celebrated by the Unitarian church of Oakland in conjunction with the
Swami Vivekananda Celebratory Organization with great ceremony.) Narendra’s father was a lawyer, and his
mother was described as “a devout woman. ” He was a voracious reader, and
studied Western Philosophy and History in college. It was not until after
college that he first sought out the guru Ramakrishna. At first Narendra argued
with the guru, and struggled with his teachings. After Narendra’s father died
leaving the family penniless, Narendra had a crisis of faith, and ultimately
accepted Ramakrishna as his teacher, renouncing everything else. Sadly less
than a year later, Ramakrishna developed throat cancer and Narendra and other disciples
cared for him until his death, continuing to study with him all the while. It
was during Ramakrishna’s last year that they took on the ochre robes and formed
the first monastic order of Ramakrishna.
After his
death in 1886, Ramakrishna’s admirers stopped sending donations to fund the monastery
he and his disciples had shared, and it had to be closed. Some followers went
back to family life, but Narendra and other disciples chose a new house, small
and rundown, and there formed a monastery based on Ramakrishna’s teachings. The
Ramakrishna Math was funded by “holy begging.” The
word we use for this in English is “Mendicant,” a person who has taken a vow of
poverty for religious reasons, and so must beg for food from door to door.[i]
In 1887, when
he would have been only 24, Narendra and eight other disciples took formal
monastic vows, and Narendra took the new
name Swami Bibidishananda. Vivekananda himself described the early days
of the monastery:
In 1888 he began 5 years as
wandering monk, His sole
possessions were a water pot, staff, and his two favorite books—Bhagavad Gita and The
Imitation of Christ. He
crossed India walking or taking the train
when a ticket was donated by a benefactor, visiting centers of learning and
meeting people from all walks of life, often staying with them in their homes.
During his
time as a wandering monk, Vivekananda had the "Vision of one India",
He wrote,
“At Cape Camorin sitting in Mother Kumari's
temple, sitting on the last bit of Indian rock—I hit upon a plan: We are so
many sanyasis wandering about, and teaching the people metaphysics—it is all
madness. Did not our Gurudeva use to say, 'An empty stomach is no good
for religion?' We as a nation have lost our individuality and that is the cause
of all mischief in India. We have to raise the masses."[iii]
Before this
vision, many folks had encouraged him to represent India at the
World parliament of religions, but it was this desire to speak to the rich
western nations about the plight of the poor of his country that finally
convinced him to go. Said Vivekananda: “it is for this reason — to find means
for the salvation of the poor of India — that I am going to America.” [iv] The Raja of Khetri, provided him with an
orange silk robe, an ochre turban, some funds for his travels, and a
first-class ticket on a ship that would take him to North America. The Raja
also gave him the name “Vivekananda”.[v]
Which is a combination of the words for “wisdom” and for “joy” and it was by
this name that he would be known around the world.
The Boat
traveled first to Japan, then to Vancouver, before arriving in Chicago in July.
Soon after his arrival in Chicago, he went to the information bureau of the
Exposition to ask about the upcoming Parliament of Religions. There he learned both
that the Parliament had been put off
until the first week of September , and that no one without “credentials from a
bona fide organization” would be accepted as a delegate. Not only that, he was
also told also that it was then too late for him to be registered as a
delegate. Assuming that the presence of the holy man himself would be all that
was needed to participate in the Parliament, none of his Indian benefactors and disciples, not
even the Raja, had contacted the organizers of the Parliament of Religions to
learn their protocols. Vivekananda’s Irish disciple, Sister Nivedita, later remembered,
''The Swami himself was as simple in
the ways of the world as his disciples, and when he was once sure that he was
divinely called to make this attempt, he could see no difficulties in the way.
Nothing could have been more typical of the lack of organizedness of Hinduism
itself than this going forth of its representative unannounced, and without
formal credentials, to enter the strongly guarded door of the world's wealth
and power.”[vi]
In the
meantime, the money from India was running
out --things were much more expensive in America. He did not have enough funding to live on in
Chicago until the Parliament in September. A friend suggested he travel to
Boston where living was cheaper, and on the train Vancouver to Chicago he met Kate
Sanborn, who invited Vivekananda to her
house in the countryside outside Boston where he joined her a couple of weeks
later.[vii]
At her
estate Swami Vivekananda was introduced to a number of Bostonians, including
her cousin, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn. Sanborn was a Transcendentalist, and friend
of both Thoreau and Emerson. He also met such Unitarian luminaries as Jane Addams , Julia Ward Howe and the Reverend Jenkin Lloyd Jones. Many sources
claim that his first real public talk in America was at the Annisquam
Universalist Church, in Gloucester August 25th, 1893. [viii]
Days later he gave his second talk at the East Church, 2nd Congregational, a Unitarian
church in Salem. During his two visits to the West Vivekananda spoke at Unitarian and Universalist congregations some
twenty-seven times. How could our
movement have been unchanged by his visit among us?
One of the
most important connections Vivekananda made during this time was Harvard
Classics professor J.H. Wright (on the 25th). It was at Professor
Wright's invitation, that Vivekananda
delivered his first public lecture at the Unitarian Church. When Vivekananda
mentioned to Prof. Wright that he had no credentials, the professor replied,
'To ask you, Swami, for your credentials is like asking the sun about its right
to shine.' Wright wrote a number of letters concerning Vivekananda to people
connected with the Parliament, including to a friend who worked for the chairman of the
committee on selection of delegates, and said, 'Here is a man more learned than
all our learned professors put together.' It was Professor Wright who bought the Swami a
railroad ticket for Chicago. Regarding Professor Wright, Vivekananda himself wrote
"He urged upon me the necessity of going to the Parliament of Religions,
which he thought would give an introduction to the nation."
Vivekananda
was denounced as well as praised during his time in America. Along with a chronicle
of the many speaking appearances Vivekananda made during this time, the
timeline of his visit to America also contains the entry: “Chased by mob, escaped
in dark passage.” When he arrived back
in Chicago before the Parliament, he did not know how to get from the train
station to the Exposition center. When he went, as he had in India, door to door
asking for help, he was rudely shooed away. Finally he had the good fortune of
knocking on the door of a family who knew of the Parliament, and helped him get
to the Art Institute of Chicago where he needed to be.
The World Parliament of Religions began on September 11, 1893, and lasted until to
September 27. It was attended by over 7000 people from 80
countries and was the first formal gathering of representatives
ofrom Eastern and Western spiritual traditions. The parliament is the place
where Shaku Soen spoke, the first Zen master to travel to the United States. Today
it is recognized as the occasion of the birth of formal interreligious dialogue
worldwide. Many conservative religious opposed the event; for example the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote a letter of
disapproval based on “the fact that the Christian religion is the one religion.
I do not understand how that religion can be regarded as a member of a
Parliament of Religions without assuming the equality of the other intended
members and the parity of their position and claims” (in Barrows 1893, 20-2).[ix]
At the
Parliament, Vivekananda was received with thundering ovations. At the parliament and in his other talks in
America he made three points that were appealing to Unitarians and Universalists
which I want to share with you today. First, he called for a universal religion which, as he
said “would have no place for persecution or intolerance in its polity, and
would recognize a divinity in every man or woman, and whose whole scope, whose
whole force would be centered in aiding humanity to realize its Divine
nature."
Vivekananda
also spoke about the one-ness of God.
There was and still is a common
misconception that Hinduism is polytheistic, and that its followers worship
idols.
Vivekenanda
told the audience at the World Parliament gathering:
“At the very outset, I may tell you that there is no polytheism in India. In every temple, if one stands by and listens, one will find the worshippers applying all the attributes of God, including omnipresence, to the images. It is not polytheism”
So
Vivekananda is saying that the worship of these different attributes of God is
not a worship of many gods. Instead, it is a path that some follow in seeking
God. In fact, the belief in unity extends beyond one unified God, to a
fundamental unity (or non-duality) of all that is.
“This is the common religion of all the sects of India; but,
then, perfection is absolute, and the absolute cannot be two or three. It
cannot have any qualities. It cannot be an individual. And so when a soul
becomes perfect and absolute, it must become one with Brahman…the ultimate of
happiness being reached when it would become a universal consciousness.” [x] He goes on to say: “Science has proved to me that physical
individuality is a delusion, that really my body is one little continuously
changing body in an unbroken ocean of matter; and Advaita, or nonduality, is
the necessary conclusion with my other counterpart, soul.
Science is
nothing but the finding of unity. As soon as science will reach perfect unity,
it will stop from further progress because it will have reached the goal. Thus
Chemistry will not progress farther when it will discover one element out of
which all others can be made. Physics will stop when it will be able to fulfill
its services in discovering one energy of which all the others are but
manifestations. The science of religion became perfect when it discovered the
Being who is the one life in a universe of death, the one who is the constant
basis of an ever-changing world, the one who is the only Soul of which all
souls are but delusive manifestations. Thus is it, through multiplicity and
duality that the ultimate unity is reached. Religion can go no farther. This is
the goal of all science.”
The other
idea that was received so readily by religious liberals, was the idea that
there are many valid religious paths. He
said:
“To the Hindus, then, the whole world of religions is only a traveling, a coming up, of different men and women, through various conditions and circumstances, to the same goal. Every religion is only evolving a God out of the material person, and the same God is the inspirer of all of them. Why, then, are there so many contradictions? They are only apparent, say the Hindus. The contradictions come from the same truth adapting itself to the varying circumstances of different natures.
It is the
same light coming through glasses of different colors. And these little
variations are necessary for purposes of adaptation. But in the heart of
everything the same truth reigns.”[xi]
After the
parliament, Vivekenanda continued to speak across America on Feb. 14, 1894,
Vivekananda spoke to a packed crowd at the Unitarian Church in Detroit.
“His eloquent and graceful manner pleased his listeners … showing approval by outbursts of applause,” the Free Press wrote. “The Eastern brother is most impressive.” The Detroit Journal wrote that if Vivekananda “could be induced to remain for a week longer, the largest hall in Detroit would not hold the crowds which would be anxious to hear him. … Every seat in the Unitarian church was occupied, and many were compelled to stand.”
First
Unitarian Church of Oakland welcomed Swami Vivekananda to their pulpit in 1900.
According to Swami Nikhilananda, “Swami Vivekananda journeyed to Oakland as the
guest of Dr. Benjamin Fay Mills, the minister of the First Unitarian Church,
and there gave eight lectures to crowded audiences which often numbered as high
as two thousand.” Since the Oakland
church was near the seminary I attended, I have often worshiped there, and
can’t imagine how more than a few hundred could fit there even if it was seated
well past its capacity. Reports estimate
that at one event five hundred people were turned away.
According
to the Swami Vivekananda Celebratory Organization, one who attended these
sermons in Oakland reported: “He stood on the platform of the Unitarian Church
pouring forth glorious truths in a voice unlike any voice one had ever heard
before...Those who came to the first lecture came to the second and to the
third, bringing others with them. "Come," they said, "hear this
wonderful man. He is like no one we have ever heard" and they came until
there was no place to hold them.”
Vivekananda died just a
few years later in 1902 at the age of 39, but before that time he founded the Vedanta
society here in the US, which generated centers around the United States. [A footnote here- Vedanta refers to teachings of the
Vedas, the holy writings of this religious tradition. In actuality “Hinduism” is a word coined by the Persians
to refer to residents of India because it was on the other side of the Sindhu
River (also called the Indus)] Vivekananda revitalized Hinduism in India, and many say
his lectures in the United States prepared the way for yoga and Transcendental
Meditation which later spread widely in the West. Given the number of
influential Unitarian and Universalist thinkers Vivekananda met during his time
here, the number of our churches that he
visited, how could our movement have been unchanged by his visit among
us?
[i]
http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Imitating_Rupa_Gosvami
[ii]
Chetananda, Swami (1997), God lived with them: life
stories of sixteen monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, St. Louis,
Missouri: Vedanta Society of St. Louis.
[iii]
Banhatti, G.S. (1995), Life
and Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda, Atlantic
Publishers & Distributors, p. 276,
[iv]
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda_biography/06_trip_to_america.htm
[v]
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda_biography/06_trip_to_america.htm
[vi]
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda_biography/06_trip_to_america.htm
[vii] An extsneive timeline of his
visit to the US can be found at vedanta.org/vs/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/chronology2.pdf
[viii]
http://rbalu.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/swami-vivekanandas-first-public-speech-in-the-usa/
[ix]
http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/bce/worldparliamentofreligions1893.htm
[x] .
(paper on Hinduism) http://www.vivekananda.org/readings.asp
[xi] .
(paper on Hinduism) http://www.vivekananda.org/readings.asp
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