Swamiji’s lectures shook the world, but failed to spur India
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Swami Vivekananda-September 8, 2013, 8:59 pm
By Saibal Gupta
It was 11 September, 1893 in Chicago. The Parliament of Religions was in session. It was not the 9/11 of destruction in USA, but the 9/11 of creation. Among the delegates was a young monk, handsome and resplendent in his saffron attire and turban, unknown, uninvited and penniless, who spent his first night in America in a wooden crate on the roadside. Rescued and invited to her home by a kind-hearted lady, he met people who arranged his participation as a delegate. Twice his name had been called to come to the podium, but he did not rise. The third call and he heard the loving voice of his Master Sri Ramakrishna: "Will you not rise? Will you not speak?" And he rose and delivered.