欢迎词之回应
本译文由人工智能辅助工具生成，可能存在不准确之处。如需查阅权威文本，请参考英文原文。
AI-translated. May contain errors. For accurate text, refer to the original English.
中文
美国的姐妹们与兄弟们，
能够起身回应你们给予我们如此热情而真诚的欢迎，我心中充满了难以言说的喜悦。我以世界上历史最为悠久的出家修行传统的名义感谢你们；我以众宗教之母的名义感谢你们；我以数百万印度教各阶层、各宗派的民众的名义感谢你们。
我也要感谢在这讲台上发言的几位演讲者——他们谈及来自东方的代表时，曾告诉你们：这些从遥远国度而来的人，完全有资格以宽容精神的传播者自居。我为自己所属的宗教感到自豪，因为它教导了世人宽容与普遍接纳的精神。我们不仅相信普遍的宽容，更接纳一切宗教为真理。我为自己所属的民族感到自豪，因为它庇护了大地上一切宗教、一切民族中遭受迫害与流离的人。我自豪地告诉你们，我们曾将以色列人中最纯粹的遗民迎入怀抱——他们来到印度南部，在他们神圣的圣殿被罗马暴政摧毁的那一年，向我们寻求庇护。我为自己所属的宗教感到自豪，因为它庇护并至今仍哺育着伟大的琐罗亚斯德民族的遗民。兄弟们，我要引用一首赞歌中的几行，这是我从幼年起便日日诵念、如今仍有数百万人每天诵念的诗句："正如发源于不同地方的各条河流，都将各自的水汇入大海，如此，主啊，人们循着不同的性情所走的各条道路，尽管千差万别，或曲或直，终究都归向于你。"
此次大会，乃是迄今召开过的最庄严的集会之一，它本身便是对《薄伽梵歌》（Bhagavad Gita）中那一奇妙教义的有力印证与宣示："无论何人前来归依于我，无论以何种形式，我皆接纳他；一切人都在跋涉于最终引向我的道路之上。"宗派主义、偏执与其可怖的后裔——狂热主义，长久以来已将这美好的大地占据。它们使大地充斥着暴力，一次又一次地用人血浸透它，摧毁了文明，使整个民族陷入绝望。若非这些可怖的恶魔，人类社会早已远比如今更为进步。然而它们的时代已经到来了终结的时刻；我热切地希望，今晨为这次大会而敲响的那口钟声，将成为一切狂热主义、一切以刀剑或笔墨行使的迫害、以及一切在奔向同一目标的人们之间那不宽容情感的丧钟。
English
Sisters and Brothers of America,
It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions; and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.
My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honour of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: “As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.”
The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: “Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me.” Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilisation and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honour of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。