Swami Vivekananda, a great spiritual luminary of India, was motivated by a desire expressed by his guru, Rama Krishnan Paramhans, who once said to him: “I hope that someday you will visit the USA and introduce Indian spirituality to the American people.” Swami Vivekananda took these words to heart and when, in 1893, he came to know that an international religious conference was going to be held in Chicago, he resolved to follow the advice of his guru. With the help of one of his friends, he embarked on a ship setting sail for America and after a long sea voyage, reached Chicago. There, with the help of an American he chanced to meet, he managed to receive an invitation from the conference organizers.
At the conference, he saw that everyone addressed the audience very formally as ‘Ladies and gentlemen’. But when he was invited to speak, he came on to the stage and addressed them as ‘Sisters and Brothers of America’, then delivered his lecture. This kind of address was the first introduction to Indian spirituality that the American people had experienced. The resounding applause he received by calling his audience ‘sisters and brothers’ rather than ‘ladies and gentlemen’ – which is a very formal way of addressing people – showed that he had touched their hearts and instantly won them over.
Everyone is born the same in nature. Since all human beings have the same common ancestor, there can be no difference between an American and an Indian. It is a fact of nature that all men and women are blood brothers and sisters. So, sisterhood and brotherhood is interwoven into the very nature of every man and every woman. When you call people ‘sisters and brothers’, you make a profound psychological impact.
In terms of nature, or in terms of the creation plan of God, the ‘we and they’ concept is unrealistic; it is the obverse of the factual position. So when you address people by saying: ‘ladies and gentlemen’ you fail to touch people’s hearts, but when you address people as ‘sisters and brothers’, you remove the psychological wall between yourself and them. Alienation suddenly disappears. Everyone becomes like a member of your own family.
It is a miracle; there is no doubt about it. But this miracle can be performed only when your ‘sisters and brothers’ is not simply a form of lip service but comes from deep down in your heart. Lip service is mere hypocrisy, while a wholehearted address is like a psychological wake-up call which has the power to rivet your listeners’ attention. True spirituality comes from the heart; it has nothing to do with any mere form of address or religious rites. There is a saying: charity begins at home. The same is true of spirituality. Spirituality begins with one who projects himself as a spiritual person. Only one who can do so will produce a spiritual result.
Although spirituality is a matter of the heart, it does have certain external manifestations, which show that a spiritual person is quite different from others. If one is not truly a spiritual person, the very manner of his utterances will betray the truth about him; while if someone is truly spiritual, his speech, his tone, his way of behaving, will at once confirm his sincerity.
There are natural flowers and there are plastic flowers. Artificial flowers may look very similar to natural flowers, but they have no fragrance whatsoever; a natural flower will not only have the real flower’s look but will also please you with its sweet fragrance. This is true also of spirituality: spirituality which is such only in form is like an artificial flower, while spirituality which has true spirit is like a natural flower. The former cannot bring about the required result, but true spirituality cannot only revolutionize your personality, it can produce a revolutionary change among people at large.
Source: Leading a Spiritual Life
