Hinduism In America [To the Editor of the "Pioneer"]
Mazdeism had no personal delegate, being represented only by a couple of papers, sent by prominent Parses of the Bombay Presidency. Shintoism, Confucianism and Mahomedanism had but one representative apiece, and took relatively small part in the proceedings. Judaism sent a large corps of delegates, who read many papers, furnished the presiding officers of several sessions, and in general took a conspicuous part, but its influence was unquestionably less than that of the three great religions, indigenous to India, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
The Jaina community was very ably represented by Mr. Virchand N. Gandhi, of Bombay, who made an exceedingly favourable impression and continues to do so in the lecture courses which he is still delivering in various parts of the country. The numerous Buddhist delegates from Ceylon and Japan also took a very prominent part, presenting a number of papers, and holding classes in Buddhist doctrine to which hundreds of persons were attracted daily. But no religious body made so profound an impression upon the Parliament, and the American people at large as did Hinduism. Among the Hindus of various schools who took part personally in the Parliament were Prof. Chakaravarti of Allahabad, and Messrs. Narasimaeari, of Madras, and Lakshmi Narain, of Lahore. Manilal No. Dived, though not present in person furnished several papers which were read and discussed, as was also a treatise on the Ten aloi Sri Vaishanava theology sent by S. Parchasarathy Ayangar, of Madras. The Brahmo Samaj was represented by Messrs. M. zumdar and Nagarkar, who were particularly welcomed by the American Unitarians, with whom they are in close doctrinal accord.
But by far the most important and typical representative of Hinduism was Swami Vivekananda, who in fact, was beyond question, the most popular and influential man in the parliament. He frequently spoke both on the floor of the Parliament itself and in the meetings of the Scientific Section, over which I had the honor to preside, and on all occasions he was received with greater enthusiasm than any other speaker, Christian or "Pagan." The people thronged him whenever he went and hung with eagerness on his every word. Since the Parliament he has been lecturing before large audiences in the principal cities of the United States, and has received an ovation wherever he went. He has often been invited to preach in Christian pulpits and has by all who have heard him on any occasion, and still more by those who have made his personal acquaintance, been always spoken of in terms of the highest admiration. The most rigid or orthodox Christian say of him: "He is indeed a prince among men," even when they find it necessary, for the sake of their time-honoured prejudices, to add, "but he must be altogether an exception; of course there are no other Hindus like him."
As intense is the aston shed admiration which the personal presence and bearing and language of Paramahansa Vivekananda have wrung from a public accustomed to think of Hindus- thanks to the fables and half-truths of the missionaries- as ignorant and degraded "heathen"; there is no doubt that the continued interest is largely due to a genuine hunger for the spiritual truths which India through him has proffered to the American people.
America is starving for spiritual nourishment in spite of the ignorance and provincialism of its upper classes and the savagery of its lower, there are many souls scattered everywhere throughout its great population who are thirsting for higher things. Europe has always been indebted to India for its spiritual inspirations. There is little, very little of high thought and aspiration in Christendom which cannot be traced to one or another of the successive influxes of Hindu ideas: either to the Hinduised Hellenism of Pythagoras and Pluto, to the Hinduism Mazdeism of the Gnostics, to the Hinduised Judaism of the Kabbalists, or to the Hinduised Mahomedanism of the Moorish philosophers, to nothing of the Hinduised Occultism of the Theosophists, the Hinduised Socialism of the new England Transcendentalists and the many other streams of Orientalising influence which are fertilising the soil of contemporary Christendom.
The most illuminated men and women therefore in Europe and America have a natural drawing towards Hinduism, the chief historic source of their light and life as soon as they are brought into close contact with it under circumstances at all favourable to its just appreciation. In the United States particularly there are several widespread and influential movements which are distinctly Hindu in their character and tendencies. Not only is all the scientific and liberal thought monistic in its trend, but the so-called "Christian Science" movement (most egregiously misnamed), is admittedly based upon the Vedanta philosophy. America is well-sprinkled with Advailins, of all three schools, even though they would no always, in the absence of any direct knowledge of Hindu thought, know how to define their position. Even Christian mythology is no so very different from the Hindu, and the latter is gradually becoming familiar to the American people, through the medium of translations, books and articles by scientists and dilettanti, and the writings and personal labours of the Theosophists and some other liberal sects.
All the Hinduising forces hitherto at work have received a notable impulse from the labors of Swami Vivekananda. Never before has so authoritative a representative of genuine Hinduism- as opposed to the emasculated and and Anglicized version of it so common in these days-been accessible to American inquirers; and it is certain beyond peradventure, that the American people at large will, when he is gone, look forward with eagerness to his return, or the advent of some of his confreres of the institute of Sankaracharya.
A few, and only a few, representatives of the extreme orthodox wing of the Protestant Christian community have been provoked into hostile criticism by jealousy of his successes. But this has come exclusively from religionists of an abnormal and adolescent type, and, as a rule, jealousy and a sectarian animosity even from this quarter have been silenced by the uniform kindliness and goodwill, as well as the learning and dignity and personal charm, of the orange robed monk from the Land of Bharatas.
America thanks India for sending him, if such there are, to teach by their example those of her own children who have not yet learned the lessons of universal fraternity and openness of mind and heart, and by their precepts those who have not yet come to see Divinity in all things and a Oneness transcending all.
--Merwin-Marie Snell.
Chicago, Ill. U.S.A. January 30th
From Supplement to the Amrita Bazar Patrika. March 11. 1894.Page 1.