#MUMBAYDARPAN 11TH SEPTEMBER, 1893 - CHICAGO PARLIAMENT OF RELIGION
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 encient order of monks in the world, I thank you in the name of the mother of the religions; and I thank you in the name of the millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects. My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, reffering to the deligates from the orient, have told you that these men from far-off nation's may well claim the honor 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 tolerance, 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 the 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 Zoroastrianism.
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 leas 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 it's 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 civilization, and sent whole nation's 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 honor of this convention may be the death kneel of all fanaticism, of all percecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all unchantable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.
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