New Delhi, September 11, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday remembered Swami Vivekananda’s historic address at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago on September 11, 1893, saying the spiritual leader’s inspiring words continue to reverberate across the world.
Marking the anniversary of the landmark speech, Modi said on social media platform X that Vivekananda’s address offered a glimpse of India’s civilisational ethos. He also shared a publication by Belur Math containing the text of the historic speech.
Vivekananda delivered his famous “Response to Welcome” address at the Chicago gathering, beginning with the words, “Sisters and Brothers of America,” and expressing gratitude for the welcome extended to him and the Indian spiritual tradition he represented.
In his speech, Vivekananda said he was proud to belong to a religion that taught both tolerance and universal acceptance. He also highlighted India’s tradition of providing shelter to persecuted communities and refugees belonging to different religions and nations.
Recalling India’s history of sheltering Jewish and Zoroastrian communities, he cited these examples as manifestations of the country’s ethos of acceptance and coexistence.
Vivekananda also referred to a hymn he had heard in his childhood, comparing different paths followed by people to streams that ultimately merge into the same sea. He connected this idea with the Bhagavad Gita’s teaching that people following different paths ultimately reach the same divine goal.
He strongly criticised sectarianism, bigotry and fanaticism, blaming them for violence, bloodshed, destruction of civilisations and despair among nations.
Concluding his address, Vivekananda expressed hope that the Chicago convention would signal the beginning of the end of fanaticism, persecution and hostility among people following different spiritual paths.
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