在万国宗教大会上
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中文
在宗教议会
（艾奥瓦州迪比克《时代报》，1893年9月29日）
世博会，9月28日（特电）——宗教议会已发展到尖锐摩擦公开涌现的地步。礼貌的薄薄面纱虽仍勉强维持，然而其后是积怨。约瑟夫·库克牧师对印度教徒进行了严厉批评，随即遭到更为严厉的反批评。他说，谈论一个并非被创造的宇宙几乎是难以原谅的无稽之谈，亚洲人则回驳道，一个有起始的宇宙是不言自明的谬论。俄亥俄河畔远程开炮的J·P·纽曼主教宣称，东方人以对传教士的歪曲报道侮辱了美国所有的基督徒，而东方人则以那令人恼怒的从容而超然的微笑回应，称这不过是主教的无知。
佛教哲学
针对一项直接的提问，三位博学的佛教徒以非常清晰而优美的语言，向我们阐述了他们关于上帝、人与物质的根本信仰。
〔以下是达摩波罗关于"世界对佛陀的亏欠"之论文的摘要，据另一来源所知，他以演唱一首僧伽罗语祝福歌作为开篇。文章随后继续写道：〕
他（达摩波罗）的结语之辞，堪称芝加哥听众所曾聆听过的最美丽的演说。德摩斯梯尼斯也不过如此。
刻薄的言辞
辨喜——这位印度教僧侣——则没有那么幸运。他心情不佳，或很快便变得如此，表面上看来是这样。他身着橘色袍服，头戴淡黄色缠头巾，立即猛烈攻击基督教国家，言道："我们这些来自东方的人，在这里一天又一天地坐着，不断被以一种恩赐施予的口吻告知，我们应当接受基督教，因为基督教国家是最繁荣的。我们环顾四周，看到英国是世界上最繁荣的基督教国家，而她的脚踏在两亿五千万亚洲人的脖颈上。我们回顾历史，看到基督教欧洲的繁荣始于西班牙。西班牙的繁荣始于对墨西哥的入侵。基督教以割断同胞咽喉的方式赢得繁荣。以如此代价换取的繁荣，印度教徒是不要的。"
就这样，他们继续下去，每一位继任的演讲者似乎都愈发地刻薄。
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（《展望》，1893年10月7日）
……基督教在印度的工作这一议题，将身着炫目橘红色祭服的辨喜引上了发言席。他批评了基督教传教工作。显而易见，他并未努力去了解基督教；但正如他所主张的，其神职人员也未曾努力去了解他的宗教——那扎根于数千年之信仰与民族积习中的宗教。在他看来，他们不过是来蔑视他最神圣的信仰，并动摇他被委以教导之任的人民的道德与精神根基的。
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（《评论者》，1893年10月7日）
然而，议会中最令人印象深刻的人物，是来自锡兰的佛教僧侣H·达摩波罗，以及印度教僧侣辨喜。前者斩截地说："若神学与教义在你寻找真理的道路上成为障碍，就将其搁置一旁。学会不带偏见地思考，为爱的缘故爱一切众生，无畏地表达你的信念，过一种纯洁的生活，那么真理的阳光将照耀你。"然而，尽管这次集会上许多简短的演讲都极为雄辩——这次集会以阿波罗俱乐部对《哈利路亚大合唱》的精彩演绎达到胜利的高潮——却没有一个人像这位印度教僧侣那样，将议会的精神、其局限性及其最精华的影响，表达得如此完美。我将他的演讲全文抄录于此，但我只能略述其对听众所产生的效果，因为他是一位凭借天赋的雄辩家，而他那在黄橙色装束映衬下的强健而睿智的面容，几乎与这些充满热诚的言辞及他赋予它们的那种丰富、抑扬顿挫的语调一样引人入胜……〔在引用辨喜大部分《闭幕致辞》之后，文章继续写道：〕
也许这次大会最切实的成果，是它所激起的对海外传教工作的关注。将半路出家的神学生派去教导睿智博学的东方人这一举动的无礼，从未以如此有力的方式呈现给一个说英语的听众。我们只能在宽容与同情的精神中，才有权利触碰他们的信仰，而真正具备这些品质的宣道者是罕见的。我们必须认识到，我们从佛教徒那里所能学到的，与他们从我们这里所能学到的同样多，而唯有通过和谐，才能发挥最高的影响力。
芝加哥，1893年10月3日。
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〔应《纽约世界报》1893年10月1日的请求，要求每位代表就"这次伟大集会的意义"提供"一则感言或声明"，辨喜以《薄伽梵歌》（Bhagavad Gita）及毗耶娑（Vyasa）各一段引文作答：〕
"我即那存于每一种宗教之中者——如同穿过一串珍珠的细线。""圣洁、完美而纯粹的人见于所有信仰之中，因此它们皆通向同一真理——因为毒药的结晶，如何能是甘露？"
English
AT THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS
(The Dubuque, Iowa, Times, September 39, 1893)
WORLD'S FAIR, Sept. 28. — (Special.) — The Parliament of religions reached a point where sharp acerbities develop. The thin veil of courtesy was maintained, of course, but behind it was ill feeling. Rev. Joseph Cook criticised the Hindoos sharply and was more sharply criticised in turn. He said that to speak of a universe that was not created is almost unpardonable nonsense, and the Asiatics retorted that a universe which had a beginning is a self-evident absurdity. Bishop J. P. Newman, firing at long range from the banks of the Ohio, declared that the orientals have insulted all the Christians of the United States by their misrepresentations of the missionaries, and the orientals, with their provokingly calm and supercilious smile, replied that this was simply the bishop's ignorance.
BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY
In response to the question direct, three learned Buddhists gave us in remarkably plain and beautiful language their bed-rock belief about God, man and matter.
[Following this is a summary of Dharmapala's paper on "The World's Debt to Buddha", which he prefaced, as we learn from another source, by singing a Singhalese song of benediction. The article then continues:]
His [Dharmapala's] peroration was as pretty a thing as a Chicago audience ever heard. Demosthenes never exceeded it.
CANTANKEROUS REMARKS
Swami Vivekananda, the Hindoo monk, was not so fortunate. He was out of humor, or soon became so, apparently. He wore an orange robe and a pale yellow turban and dashed at once into a savage attack on Christian nations in these words: "We who have come from the east have sat here day after day and have been told in a patronizing way that we ought to accept Christianity because Christian nations are the most prosperous. We look about us and we see England the most prosperous Christian nation in the world, with her foot on the neck of 250,000,000 Asiatics. We look back into history and see that the prosperity of Christian Europe began with Spain. Spain's prosperity began with the invasion of Mexico. Christianity wins its prosperity by cutting the throats of its fellow men. At such a price the Hindoo will not have prosperity."
And so they went on, each succeeding speaker getting more cantankerous, as it were.
* * *
(Outlook, October 7, 1893)
. . . The subject of Christian work in India calls Vivekananda, in his brilliant priestly orange, to his feet. He criticises the work of Christian missions. It is evident that he has not tried to understand Christianity, but neither, as he claims, have its priests made any effort to understand his religion, with its ingrained faiths and raceprejudices of thousands of years' standing. They have simply come, in his view, to throw scorn on his most sacred beliefs, and to undermine the morals and spiritualist of the people he has been set to teach.
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(Critic, October 7, 1893)
But the most impressive figures of the Parliament were the Buddhist priest, H. Dharmapala of Ceylon, and the Hindoo monk, Suami Vivekananda. "If theology and dogma stand in your way in search of truth," said the former incisively, "put them aside. Learn to think without prejudice, to love all beings for love's sake, to express your convictions fearlessly, to lead a life of purity, and the sunlight of truth will illuminate you." But eloquent as were many of the brief speeches at this meeting, whose triumphant enthusiasm rightly culminated in the superb rendering by the Apollo Club of the Hallelujah chorus, no one expressed so well the spirit of the Parliament, its limitations and its finest influence, as did the Hindoo monk. I copy his address in full, but I can only suggest its effect upon the audience, for he is an orator by divine right, and his strong intelligent face in its picturesque setting of yellow and orange was hardly less interesting than these earnest words and the rich, rhythmical utterance he gave them.... [After quoting the greater part of Swamiji's Final Address, the article continues:]
Perhaps the most tangible result of the congress was the feeling it aroused in regard to foreign missions. The impertinence of sending half-educated theological students to instruct the wise and erudite Orientals was never brought home to an English-speaking audience more forcibly. It is only in the spirit of tolerance and sympathy that we are at liberty to touch their faith, and the exhorters who possess these qualities are rare. It is necessary to realize that we have quite as much to learn from the Buddhists as they from us, and that only through harmony can the highest influence be exerted.
Chicago, 3 Oct., 1893.
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[To a request of the New York World of October 1, 1893, for "a sentiment or expression regarding the significance of the great meeting" from each representative, Swamiji replied with a quotation from the Gita and one from Vyâsa:]
"I am He that am in every religion — like the thread that passes through a string of pearls." "Holy, perfect and pure men are seen in all creeds, therefore they all lead to the same truth — for how can nectar be the outcome of poison?"
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。