Some dates in history continue to remind us of their relevance today. September 11 carries deep historical significance and brings a profound reminder.
On September 11, 1893, an unknown Indian monk stood before an international gathering and began his historic address at the World Parliament of Religions. His attire, mannerisms and intellectual depth were certainly unique to the audience. The gathering initially appeared to hold an understated view of the Indian monk, whom it perhaps expected to be intellectually overwhelmed by Western spiritual thought. But what mattered most was the extraordinary impact he eventually made.
The monk Vivekananda, in his ochre robes, shattered many prevailing notions the Western intelligentsia held about him and, more broadly, about a colonised India. To them, India was an ancient but impoverished landscape, known for its poverty and backwardness. Vivekananda’s mission was to compel the West to see India’s spiritual wealth without denying its material poverty.
His address, beginning with the most inclusive and humble of salutations “Sisters and Brothers of America” had an earth-shattering impact on Western intellectual perceptions. The young monk from India urged the Western world to recognise the importance of inclusiveness and acceptance. He urged the Western world to recognise, admire, and accept different paths toward the realisation of truth.
Initially, he was viewed with scepticism, but the Western minds assembled at the World Parliament of Religions had to reconsider their approach as Vivekananda’s opening address shattered their assumptions about India and its spiritual wealth. Vivekananda was the first among many spiritual masters who travelled to America and other Western shores with a mission to propagate what India, through its eternal religious doctrine and practice, Sanatana Dharma, stood for.
Though Vivekananda and other masters carried the spiritual philosophy of inclusion, they did not find an easy path. They had to navigate intellectual terrains marked by critical examination and Western institutional dominance, and winning over those minds was a formidable exercise. Vivekananda’s attempt was both intellectual and spiritual. His effort helped the West view India with a refreshed mindset. Because he was among the first to undertake such an engagement on that platform, his intervention became unique and historic.
India thus began to commemorate the monk’s visit to America in 1893 as a moment in the propagation of Universal Brotherhood.
For Vivekananda, within Hinduism, it was clear that people could hold different belief systems and follow different practices. There was nothing to fight against or fight for. He believed people needed to accept others as they are and respect their faith for what it is.
His task was to tell the world that an underlying truth manifests itself behind everything visible to the human mind. All religions, he declared, were moving in this direction, seeking to reach the same ultimate goal through different paths. Once this was understood, he believed, differences would begin to dissolve.
To declare that my faith is superior and that the faith followed by my neighbour, simply because it differs from mine in principle or practice, is inferior is fundamentally wrong. Vivekananda, drawing confidence from his understanding of the Hindu civilisation and its spiritual depth, further declared that all faiths, though they may appear different externally, are like rivers carrying water from different sources to the same ocean.
Vivekananda thus successfully drew the connecting links of a fundamental spiritual kinship that existed long before people began to fight in the name of religion. In modern times, India took the lead in this direction, and the monk unequivocally declared that a non-discriminatory approach towards faith across the spectrum could help peace materialise in its entirety. It helps embrace diversity, and that alone, in his words, can lead us towards prosperity.
Metaphorically, his expressions at the World Parliament of Religions underlined the universal necessity for reform in all religions, which he believed could bring about a more consistent, sensible and accepting view of faith across the world.
Almost 108 years later, on September 11, 2001, America witnessed a horrific incident in which two hijacked aircraft were flown into the World Trade Centre, killing hundreds of innocent people. Though the two incidents share no historical connection, both hold profound significance.
While Vivekananda’s appearance at the religious conference accentuated the need for inclusiveness and acceptance of different faiths, delving deeper into the idea of universal acceptance and tolerance, the second event exposed the most horrific face of fanaticism, intolerance and violence in the name of an absolutist ideology. An underlying reality continues to suffocate the world with its brutal imprint of religious indoctrination. Conflicts and wars in various parts of the world are often rooted in faith-based hostilities or sectarian strife.
The most remarkable part of Vivekananda’s speech was his warning against religious fanaticism, which certain religions had carried with them through the passage of time. His words against sectarianism, bigotry and fanaticism hold relevance even today. They became even more realistic and prophetic when the deadliest attack on the Twin Towers shattered lives and the aspirations of generations.
The terror attack of September 11, a century later, transformed the monk’s historic call for acceptance and inclusion into an even more pertinent question: how and when will we learn to accept the other who practices a faith that does not belong to us or move in tandem with our own?
Interfaith dialogue, even today, remains insufficient to bring about a genuine transformation in attitudes toward inclusiveness and acceptance. The conflicts that continue to emerge from religious differences show how difficult it is to translate the principle of acceptance into practice.
What Vivekananda spoke about was not for momentary gain. He presented Indian civilisation as a distinctive channel through which, he believed, the world could discover solutions to conflicts that had led humanity to wage wars and shed blood. September 11 was when the terrorists chose to demonstrate what their ideology was supposed to represent to the world and the recognition they believed would be gained by bringing down some of the most recognisable symbols of America.
No religion, for that matter, should be equated with the most violent acts carried out by extremist sections claiming to act in its name. But the fundamental conflict naturally stems from basic differences and the denial that often accompanies them.
The two September 11s therefore stand as profoundly contrasting reminders. One introduced the world to a message of universal brotherhood, acceptance and religious tolerance; the other exposed the devastating consequences of fanaticism, intolerance and ideological absolutism.
Between these two historical moments lies a question that remains unresolved: whether humanity can learn to accept difference without turning it into division and faith without allowing it to become a source of conflict.
