The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 2/Reports in American Newspapers/Religious Harmony
RELIGIOUS HARMONY
(Saginaw Evening News, March 22, 1894)
Swami Vive Kananda, the much talked of Hindoo monk, spoke to a small but
deeply interested audience last evening at the academy of music on "The
Harmony of Religions". He was dressed in oriental costume and received an
extremely cordial reception. Hon. Rowland Connor gracefully introduced the
speaker, who devoted the first portion of his lecture to an explanation of
the different religions of India and of the theory of transmigration of
souls. The first invaders of India, the Aryans, did not try to exterminate
the population of India as the Christians have done when they went into a
new land, but the endeavour was made to elevate persons of brutish habits.
The Hindoo is disgusted with those people of his own country who do not
bathe and who eat dead animals. The Northern people of India have not tried
to force their customs on the southerns, but the latter gradually adopted
many ways of the former class. In southernmost portions of India there are a
few persons who are Christians and who have been so for thousands [?] of
years. The Spaniards came to Ceylon with Christianity. The Spaniards thought
that their God commanded them to kill and murder and to tear down heathen
temples.
If there were not different religions no one religion would survive. The
Christian needs his selfish religion. The Hindoo needs his own creed. Those
which were founded on a book still stand. Why could not the Christian
convert the Jew? Why could they not make the Persians Christians? Why not so
with the Mohammedans? Why cannot any impression be made upon China or Japan?
The Buddhists, the first missionary religion, have double the number of
converts of any other religion and they did not use the sword. The
Mohammedans used the most force, and they number the least of the three
great missionary, religions. The Mohammedans have had their day. Every day
you read of Christian nations acquiring land by bloodshed. What missionaries
preach against this? Why should the most bloodthirsty nations exalt an
alleged religion which is not the religion of Christ? The Jews and the Arabs
were the fathers of Christianity, and how have they been persecuted by the
Christians! The Christians have been weighed in the balance in India and
found wanting.
The speaker did not wish to be unkind, but he wanted to show Christians how
they looked in other eyes. The Missionaries who preach the burning pit are
regarded with horror. The Mohammedans rolled wave after wave over India,
waving the sword, and today where are they? The farthest that all religions
can see is the existence of a spiritual entity. So no religion can teach
beyond this point. In every religion there is the essential truth and
nonessential casket in which this jewel lies. The believing in the Jewish
book or the Hindoo book is non-essential. Circumstances change, the
receptacle is different; but the central truth remains. The essentials being
the same, the educated people of every community retain the essentials. The
shell of the oyster is not attractive, but the pearls are within. Before a
small fraction of the world is converted Christianity will be divided into
many creeds. That is the law of nature. Why take a single instrument from
the great religious orchestras of the earth? Let the grand symphony go on.
Be pure, urged the speaker, give up superstition and see the wonderful
harmony of nature. Superstition gets the better of religion. All the
religions are good since the essentials are the same. Each man should have
the perfect exercise of his individuality but these individualities form a
perfect whole. This marvellous condition is already in existence. Each creed
has had something to add to the wonderful structure.
The speaker sought throughout to vindicate the religions of his country and
said that it had been proven that the entire system of the Roman Catholic
Church had been taken from the books of Buddhism. He dilated at some length
on the high code of morality and purity of life that the ethics of Buddha
taught but allowed that as far as the belief in the personality of God was
concerned, agnosticism prevailed, the main thing being to follow out
Buddha's precepts which were, "Be good, be moral, be perfect."