At the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, 125 years ago, Swami Vivekananda delivered his landmark address, about the need for harmony of religions. He spoke not only about universal toleration but of acceptance of all religions as true; he appealed to all religious and spiritual leaders to shun all forms of religious fanaticism, persecution and violence. He will be remembered not only in India but throughout the world as Messiah of Tolerance and India's Prophet of Harmony of Religions.
Swami Vivekananda’s perspective was inspired by his guru, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, who promoted the doctrine of ‘Jato Mat, Tato Path’ which recognises the potential of all religions to act as means of attaining spiritual enlightenment: ‘Ekam sad vipraha bahuda vavanti’. Vivekananda would narrate the story of ‘kupa manduka’, frog-in-the-well, as being illustrative of the closed minds of religious bigots. He believed that holiness, purity and charity are not exclusive domains of any particular religion and that every religion has produced individuals of exalted character. He further said that if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and destruction of the others, "I pity him from the bottom of my heart."
Swami Vivekananda turned the universal philosophy of Vedanta into a driver of social change, for he believed that true religion taught people to recognise the divinity of people and the need to engage in selfless service to the needy: Daridra Narayan seva. He had raised money for the construction of Belur Math to feed the famine-hit in 1897 and again in 1898 served plague victims in Kolkata. Belur Math temple incorporates the architecture associated with places of worship of each religion. There are monks in the Ramakrishna Order who are Muslim, Christian, Jew and Hindu; they live together peacefully and engage in service.
All narrow, limited, conflicting ideas of religion have to go, said the Swami. All sectarian ideas must be given up. There is only one, infinite religion that is eternal. Religious quarrels are always over the husks. When purity and spirituality go, leaving the soul dry, quarrels begin, and not before. Therefore he said, "Follow one and respect all because you may be born into any religion but you cannot die in it." The essence of religion is God-consciousness.
Swami Vivekananda said our watchword should be acceptance and not exclusion. “Toleration means that I think that you are wrong and I am just allowing you to live, that is, I am tolerating you. Is it not a blasphemy to think that you and I are allowing others to live? I accept all religions that were in the past, and worship with them. I worship God with every one of them in whatever form they worship him.”
Let us hope that Swami Vivekananda's call for unity, love and tolerance is given the importance it deserves so that more people can learn to live in harmony with one another. Swamiji did believe that we need to keep our hopes alive — that the end of fanaticism and intolerance may be at hand — that we do have a choice and that we can do better, and thinking these thoughts and practising them give us hope for a better world. A world without hate and conflict, where everyone respects the other, for there is enough room for all.