Swami Chinmayananda's Message To The Parliament Of Religions

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(This was Swamiji's own message to the Parliament reproduced from the "Reflection on Hinduism" Souvenir)

To build a new edifice with fresh materials is comparatively easier than to repair an old, neglected palace, ruined by time and disuse.

The mother of all religions, Hinduism, has a very firm foundation and a strong edifice, built with an extreme sense of beauty with many artistically built-in surprises. But for more than 1,500 years, it has been neglected, abused and misused, so that in spite of its heavily built charms and artistic proportions, today it stands as an ugly, dilapidated Temple of Truth. To repair and rebuild the fallen columns is the work that is now facing the Hindu community.

In this ugly edifice, living together packed in its limited space, the occupants feel no more any pride in their sacred home, nor do they feel any comfort and satisfaction to be under its leaking roofs. It is commodious enough to house all the spiritually minded religious people in the whole world when once it is fully repaired and rebuilt. This should demand the cooperation and the involvement of every Hindu family.

Can we inspire the necessary muscle in the Hindu body politic? No doubt, we cannot. But all that we need now is only small groups of inspired Hindu youth working in every district of the country, with vigour and determination, demonstrating to all onlookers the great vision of a united, awakened Hindu community, determined to discover a total Hindu renaissance.

The tradition of the world is that people come together in a spirit of cooperation only in the political and economic fields, but never in the field of social revival, nurtured by a purely selfless sense of reverence to the past. If we can thus bring about such pockets of inspired activities, the millions of Hindus in India will draw a new inspiration and start their own seva (service) independently, in their own individual environments.

Will the Hindu youth come forward to suffer and strive for rebuilding their own community, and therefore their own nation?

Just because you have accepted me as your President, you cannot sit back and hope that this sick, old man will accomplish any spectacular magic. Every community will have to lift itself by itself.
The necessary inspiration is to bloom forth in the heart of each sincere worker. They must draw inspiration from their clear understanding of the goal towards which they are all putting forth their efforts.

This we must achieve! We can achieve it! No doubt, we will achieve it!