Sisters and Brothers

The hall was enormous, and it was full. Around the platform sat dignified men in robes of every colour: Christian bishops, Buddhist monks, Hindu teachers, Jewish rabbis, Muslim and Parsi scholars. Thousands of people filled the seats in front of them.

One of the speakers, a young Indian monk in a saffron robe and turban, had been waiting all morning for his turn. Each time the chairman looked at him, he quietly asked to wait a little longer. He had never spoken before such a crowd. He had prepared nothing.

It was 11 September 1893, in Chicago. In a few minutes, Swami Vivekananda would stand up.

Narendra

He was born Narendranath Datta on 12 January 1863, in Calcutta, now Kolkata. His family called him Narendra. He was a lively, strong-willed boy who loved music, wrestling and, above all, questions. As a student he read Western philosophy and science, and he asked everyone he met the same question: had they seen God?

The answer that changed his life came from Sri Ramakrishna, a priest at a temple at Dakshineswar, near Calcutta. Ramakrishna taught that all religions are different paths towards the same truth. Narendra argued with him for years, and became his most devoted disciple.

After Ramakrishna died in 1886, Narendra and a small group of young followers became monks.

The wandering monk

For several years he walked across India with almost nothing, carrying only a staff, a water pot and a couple of books. He stayed in palaces and in poor huts, with princes and with labourers. Everywhere, he saw the same thing: terrible poverty, and a great spiritual tradition that seemed to have forgotten the hungry.

At the end of 1892 he reached Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India. He swam out to a rock in the sea and sat there, thinking about his country and what he could do for it. Today a memorial stands on that rock.

Around this time, he heard of a great meeting to be held in America: a Parliament of the World's Religions, part of a world's fair in Chicago. Friends and admirers in India, including the Raja of Khetri and supporters in Madras, helped raise the money for his journey. He took the name by which the world would know him: Vivekananda.

Lost in Chicago

He sailed from Bombay on 31 May 1893, travelling by way of China and Japan to Canada, and then by train to Chicago.

There, everything seemed to go wrong. He discovered that the Parliament would not begin for weeks, that speakers needed proper letters of introduction, and that the date for applying had already passed. Chicago was expensive, and his money was running out fast.

He moved to Boston, where living was cheaper. On the train, by good luck, he met a woman who invited him to stay. Through her, he met John Henry Wright, a professor of Greek at Harvard University. After talking with the young monk for hours, Wright was so impressed that he wrote to the organisers of the Parliament recommending him warmly.

Vivekananda took the train back to Chicago. But he had lost the address of the committee. Night fell, and he did not know where to go. He later wrote that he slept in a large empty box in the railway goods yard.

The next morning, hungry and tired, he walked along a wealthy street asking for help, and was turned away at door after door. At last he sat down by the roadside. A woman from the house opposite, Mrs George W. Hale, came out and asked if he was a delegate to the Parliament. She gave him breakfast, and then took him to the offices herself.

Five words

So it was that, on the opening day of the Parliament, he found himself on the platform of the great hall, waiting.

When at last he rose in the afternoon, he bowed his head for a moment, thinking of the goddess of learning, Saraswati. Then he spoke his first words:

"Sisters and Brothers of America."

Before he could say any more, the hall erupted. People rose from their seats and applauded, and the applause went on for about two minutes. Other speakers had begun with polite, formal greetings. This young stranger had spoken to them as family.

When the noise died down, he gave a short speech. He thanked them in the name of the most ancient order of monks in India. He spoke of a faith that taught both tolerance and the acceptance of all religions as true. He compared the different religions to different streams that rise in different places but all flow into the same sea. And he ended by hoping that the bell that had rung to open the Parliament would also ring the end of fanaticism, of persecution, and of hatred between people of different faiths.

After Chicago

He spoke several more times during the Parliament, and newspapers across America wrote about him. Over the next few years he lectured in the United States and in Britain, and made lifelong friends there.

When he returned to India in 1897, huge crowds welcomed him. That year he founded the Ramakrishna Mission, which still runs schools, hospitals and relief work across India and the world. He believed that serving the poor and the sick was itself a way of serving God.

He died on 4 July 1902, at the age of only thirty-nine. His birthday, 12 January, is celebrated in India as National Youth Day.

Want to read more?

The Life of Swami Vivekananda, by his Eastern and Western disciples, tells his story in detail, and his Chicago addresses are printed in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Marie Louise Burke's Swami Vivekananda in the West uses old American newspapers to describe his time in America.