SWAMIJI'S 'PAPER ON HINDUISM', 19 SEPTEMBER, 1893, CHICAGO PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS -- A REVELATION BEFORE THE MODERN WORLD

SWAMIJI'S 'PAPER ON HINDUISM', 19 SEPTEMBER, 1893, CHICAGO PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS -- A REVELATION BEFORE THE MODERN WORLD 

This 'Paper on Hinduism' read out by Swamiji at the Chicago Parliament of Religions on 19 September, 1893 is a landmark statement on the Sanatan Dharma. It is an encapsulation of the evolution of the 5000 year long spiritual tradition of the Hindus 🕉 and the explanation of its essential features in the light of modern science. This singular treatise recreated Hinduism in the modern age in a coherent manner out of the labyrinth of ideas and thoughts strewn about throughout the vast mass of Vedic and post-Vedic literature of the Hindus. To collect, connect and coalesce ideas from the past five millenia and present them in a foreign tongue coherently and in the light of modern science was a task that only a superman could do and when Swamiji did it, he was accepted as such.

Chakravarty Rajagopalachari has on record said that 'but for him (Swamiji) we would have lost our religion.' Swamiji stood before the New World just as the Svetashvatar Upanishadic Rishi had stood before the sages in the forest of yore and declared the glad tidings of the divinity of man. The 7000 strong audience at the Columbus Hall of the Art Institute, Chicago, listened in hushed silence and were transported to a different realm, their senses benumbed, their minds lifted and their souls made aware of their deeper divinity. Sister Nivedita has said that when Swamiji ascended the rostrum, he was set to outline the special features of Hinduism but when he had finished, Hinduism had been created. And this was the paper that did it that auspicious autumn morn. 🕉 

Written by Sugata Bose