SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S SPEECH AT CHICAGO

RESPONSE TO WELCOME

Sisters and Brothers of America,
It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome
which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the
world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions; and I thank you in the name of
millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects. My thanks, also, to some of the
speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that
these men from far-off nations may well claim the honour of bearing to different lands the
idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both
tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept
all religions as true. 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 remnant 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 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."
The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself
a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita:
"Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling
through paths which in the end lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible
descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth
with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilisation and sent
whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be
far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell
that tolled this morning in honour of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism,
of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between
persons wending their way to the same goal.