Narendra Modi and other stalwarts recommended this. I tried several times to read it. It does not matter where I start, it seems the same. A few times I started at the beginning. The only thing I could gather was that at one stage, he wanted to stop but the audience wanted more.
Swami Vivekananda’s speech at the Parliament of Religion, Chicago in 1893: Full text
I suspect that this is not one speech but various speeches at the conference put together. From the Wikipedia article Swami Vivekananda:in the section on the 'Parliament of world's religions',
"According to Sailendra Nath Dhar, "[i]t was only a short speech, but it voiced the spirit of the Parliament."[104][105]
....
He spoke several more times "at receptions, the scientific section, and private homes"[101]on topics related to Hinduism, Buddhism and harmony among religions until the parliament ended on 27 September 1893. Vivekananda's speeches at the Parliament had the common theme of universality, emphasising religious tolerance.[109] He soon became known as a "handsome oriental" and made a huge impression as an orator.[110]"
A friend who is a monk in RK Mission confirms:
"yes of course i have read and am familiar with Vivekananda's speeches at Chicago. Actually it is as you suspect-- this is the collection of 6
P.S. A comment from me Om Namit Arora's wall:
Anandaswarup Gadde I write this with some hesitation since I am an atheist and what little I read of SV writings, I could not understand and he seemed to be saying contradictory things. But I generally felt that he felt deeply about the misery in India and his main interest might have been service to Indians. I spent some time in Belur Math, one month each time, visiting the mathematics department of Vivekananda University. I stayed in the same building as some of the monks and interacted with them daily. There were some Moslem, Jewish, Christian monks but the majority were Hindu some of Hindutva type. I also visited their centre in Narendrapur and talked to some people who visited their other centres. It seemed to me that their mission was and is service and this goes back to SV. Though he was charismatic, it seems that he was not a great organiser and from the beginning left the organisational matters to others. My impression is that they are doing tremendous service, lot of which the government should be doing. I think RK Mission once went to court claiming they were not a Hindu organisation but lost the case. There are politics and Hindutva elements but overall, it seemed to have good and long track record of service to the country and the influence comes from SV.From another comment from the same wall "Seriously, if you are looking for role model in a religious figure then you get what you seek for."
Swami Vivekananda’s speech at the Parliament of Religion, Chicago in 1893: Full text
I suspect that this is not one speech but various speeches at the conference put together. From the Wikipedia article Swami Vivekananda:in the section on the 'Parliament of world's religions',
"According to Sailendra Nath Dhar, "[i]t was only a short speech, but it voiced the spirit of the Parliament."[104][105]
....
He spoke several more times "at receptions, the scientific section, and private homes"[101]on topics related to Hinduism, Buddhism and harmony among religions until the parliament ended on 27 September 1893. Vivekananda's speeches at the Parliament had the common theme of universality, emphasising religious tolerance.[109] He soon became known as a "handsome oriental" and made a huge impression as an orator.[110]"
A friend who is a monk in RK Mission confirms:
"yes of course i have read and am familiar with Vivekananda's speeches at Chicago. Actually it is as you suspect-- this is the collection of 6
separate speeches he delivered at Chicago in 1893 (starting 11 september). they are marked as 1, 2,...
their themes are different but have some overlap."P.S. A comment from me Om Namit Arora's wall:
Anandaswarup Gadde I write this with some hesitation since I am an atheist and what little I read of SV writings, I could not understand and he seemed to be saying contradictory things. But I generally felt that he felt deeply about the misery in India and his main interest might have been service to Indians. I spent some time in Belur Math, one month each time, visiting the mathematics department of Vivekananda University. I stayed in the same building as some of the monks and interacted with them daily. There were some Moslem, Jewish, Christian monks but the majority were Hindu some of Hindutva type. I also visited their centre in Narendrapur and talked to some people who visited their other centres. It seemed to me that their mission was and is service and this goes back to SV. Though he was charismatic, it seems that he was not a great organiser and from the beginning left the organisational matters to others. My impression is that they are doing tremendous service, lot of which the government should be doing. I think RK Mission once went to court claiming they were not a Hindu organisation but lost the case. There are politics and Hindutva elements but overall, it seemed to have good and long track record of service to the country and the influence comes from SV.From another comment from the same wall "Seriously, if you are looking for role model in a religious figure then you get what you seek for."
1 comment:
If you have not already read it, I suggest at least looking through Narasingha Sil's research on Vivekananda.
Like most Bengalis, I grew with an unaddressed, uncritical almost deifying reverence for the man. In college, I read some of his thoughts on relativity and found them full of trivial errors. For some reason, possibly youthful arrogance I was sure enough about my understanding that I could think this way and not begin doubting my own understanding. That was a very important moment and precipitated a more critical reading of his other writings. Now, I find his understanding of classical indian philosophy as also full of basic errors (which is partly explained by material in Sil's book) - an opinion shared by many scholars. But in the Bengali milieu any criticism of the man remains unacceptable. I have little doubt that he was an important social reformer. But over time, the idolatory urges of Indians have accumulated in vast quantities in his image.
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