Abstract
Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) made several speeches as the representative of Hinduism on the occasion of the World Parliament of Religions held in the city of Chicago in the USA in 1893. This article seeks to examine the motives behind his speeches from both religious and social viewpoints. Vivekananda endorsed Hinduism as a religion of tolerance and universal acceptance, a religion that enabled the realization of the divinity in man. He also appealed to the audience to recognize the circumstances of the poor in India. These speeches present him as a new type of sannyasin (one who had renounced all), an individual who focused not merely on personal salvation but on the social and material liberation of others. His audience comprised a diversity of Christian sects, including Unitarians. For Vivekananda himself, the speeches at the World Parliament of Religions served as a turning point, both for his Vedantic mission in the West and the establishment of the Ramakrishna Mission in Calcutta in 1897.
