131 Years Of Swami Vivekananda's Chicago Speech: A Vedantic Declaration Of Universal Fraternity

If an objective history of human species, free from all biases, is to be written, then the speech delivered by a young Hindu, barely 30 years old, at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago on 11 September 1893, would stand out as a significant turning point.

He ended his speech with the following words:

Since then the world has seen two world wars, holocausts and many genocides. Terrorism has become an inseparable reality of modern world.

Yet, there are also stronger drives which make us one, harmonious and united while celebrating all our differences.

Humanity unites in two ways. First, when facing existential threats like asteroids, pandemics, or climate change, we often realise the need to act as one species, interconnected with all life on Earth. This compels us to set aside religious and ideological differences.

Positively, the more we realise our true place in the universe, more we realise the oneness of humanity. If our entire solar system is just a tiny speck within the Milky Way galaxy, then our galaxy — home to 200 billion stars and around 5,200 planets — is equally insignificant compared to the countless other galaxies in the universe. And if the idea of parallel universes or multiverses holds true, our universe might be just one among countless others.

In a moving passage in his 1994 book, Pale Blue Dot, Carl Sagan wrote:

Now let us compare this passage with the words Swami Vivekananda spoke in 1893. They resonate soulfully across the century that separates them. They also speak to all humanity.

Those words of Swami Vivekananda were uttered this day, 131 years ago.

Not only are we, the human species, not even a speck in the eye of the universe, but even on this planet, we the bipedal apes are but a small, relatively young branch in the infinitely branched phylogenetic tree of life. Evolution has shown us that.

We are the centre of a polycentric existence only in this sense, and not physically. Perhaps that is the reason why every religious sect claims its sacred city to be the centre of the universe. It is not a physical truth. It is a spiritual reality and hence true for each and every true seeker, irrespective of what that sacred space is: whether it is Banaras or Jerusalem.

For others it is only a belief. And when pitted as empirical claim the sacred cities being centres of the universe or even this earth is a meaningless superstition.

Here science does not negate the claim of a sacred city being the centre of the universe. Rather it burns the sectarian claim and by bringing out the core, it makes the claim a higher reality. The claim is no more sectarian. It is an inner realisation. Vivekananda wanted this purification to happen to religion through the method of science. He said:

The Vedantic message of Universal Fraternity changed the way India awakened. We fought for freedom against the British but Indian freedom movement was remarkably free from racial hatred against the oppressor.

Compared to the racial narratives that were overflowing both in the left and right politics of the day, the Indian freedom struggle was a Vedantic political movement towards freedom.

The event that unfolded at the World Parliament of Religions on 11 September 1893, stands as a pivotal moment in the spiritual evolution of humanity. As Indians, we have a responsibility to carry forward the vision set forth by those words.