Friday, April 15, 2005

Swami Vivekananda's speech from 1893: audio

April 14th

forwarded by a friend.

the transcript is also available in the link, as the recording is a little noisy. but the swamiji sounds awesome! to think the phonograph was only invented in 1887 and this was recording was made only six years after that. it's amazing that the recording still exists.

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Subject: UNBELIEVABLE : Original voice recording of Swami Vivekananda
fromhis famous speech in Chicago in 1893- more than 110 years ago!


Dear All:
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Swami Vivekananda's own
voice has been preserved from his renowned speech at Chicago First
World Congress of Religions in 1893 !!!

Here is his speech so nicely preserved. THis is the most inspiring
voice and discourse I have ever heard in my entire life, not
surprisingly from the greatest child India has ever produced in its
6000 years of modern existence.

The speech is in finest English. It is highly spiritual and
metaphysical. I have never heard anyone with such brilliance anywhere
in thsi world! Please listen to it in your leisure time -not when you
are hurrying in and out. It is about 30 minutes.

Bikash

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http://www.ceet.niu.edu/faculty/gupta/MEE321/vivek.html


It takes some time to download.. I heard it, it is great, if you are
too lazy to read vivekananda's talk...Script of these lectures.
http://www.hindunet.org/vivekananda/

Reddy

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Rajeev! Thanks a lot!

Anonymous said...

That link is dead but you can download it from http://www.hssus.org/content/view/48/69/

Anonymous said...

I also heard the most inpiring speech of Swamiji. It is really very very inspiring speech which shows the depth of his understanding. Prof Gupta's link is not working now, but the good things is that the link of HSS page is working. THere is a small difference between the two recordings as there are some disturbances in the later version

Anonymous said...

Its good to hear the speech. I heard there was a hoax sometime back- a cassette of Swamiji's speech was going around, and Ramakrishna mutt said it was fake! Is there any proof these recordings are original?

Anonymous said...

Hi Rajeev, thanks a lot for this audio. Could you please tell how to access the transcript? Am not able to find the transcript on the link provided?

nizhal yoddha said...

i have the fear that this recording is not authentic. for one, it is too much to expect that the conference, coming just 6 years after the phonograph was invented by edison, would have bothered to record the proceedings (or been able to afford it). for another, the woman emcee sounds far too contemporary american: i wonder if this is how yankee women talked a 110 years ago, and i have my doubts; besides yankee/white women were a lot less visible in public life at that time. they were like jane austen or 'little women'. so i have my doubts about the recording.

nevertheless, that is not a problem. other religions have managed to survive on grand hoaxes (i mean, truly gigantic lies, fabrications and inventions of the first order, which they have made 'truth by repeated assertion'.) so even if this is a fake, it's all right with me.

the transcript is somewhere on that page, just keep looking. it's not the most obvious, but it's there.

Girish said...

Unfortunately, I do not think this is Swami Vivekananda's voice:
It sounds like the voice of Subir Ghosh as heard at http://tinyurl.com/46xrm

The complete works of Swami Vivekanada is available at
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/

-Girish

hUmDiNgEr said...

I think you very well know that Audio Recording was not invented by then.

This is a hoax.

Anonymous said...

Some transcripts available here:
http://www.hindunet.org/vivekananda/

Anonymous said...

Surya recording equipments were indeed invented much before the Conference. It seems very likely that they would have recorded such an important event like the World Conference on Religion.

It doesn't matter whether it is authentic or not, all it matters it that it provides an excellent opportunity for us to listen to message of Swami Vivekananda.

Incidentally his "Brothers and Sisters" speech was given on September 11th, 1893.

Muse (# 01429798200730556938) said...

Rajeev,

You are correct. The tape is fake. When I sent the information to my friend, he enquired in the circles that can validate the authenticity of the tape. The following is what we got as reply:

Dear Udayshankar

We are 'pretty sure' that this audio clip is not of Swami Vivekananda.
There
is no record that his talk was recorded at the parliament of religions.
It
is a pity that someone thought it necessary to produce such bogus
material.

jay
Vivekananda Centre London

Vijayakrishnan said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Vijayakrishnan said...

Hi everybody...
I myself has been a little confused all these days and approached several persons in this regard, to get a clarification. No where in any book on swami vivekananda(I admit I haven't read every book that is published on swami vivekananda)it is mentioned that his voice has been recorded. I have come to the conclusion that the voice you people are talking about, unfortunately, is not that of swamiji. The voice is that of a person named Subir Ghosh. You may check it out at http://www.hamaracd.com/hcdinternational/asp/HistoricalRecordings

Anonymous said...

B T MORADIA from Rajkot India,

The Blackbird and the Beautiful Apple
The birds of the world realized that there was too much fighting, so they decided to hold a peace conference on the top floor of a large office block in London. Many species came from all parts of the world to discuss how they could leam to live together. At one o'clock on the first day, the group stopped to have their lunch. One of them pointed to a large object in the centre of the table.
'What is that?' he asked.
'Une pomme,' said the French partridge.
'Una manzana said the Spanish Imperial eagle.
'Ein Apfel,' shouted the bird who represented Germany.
Soon every delegate was shouting out the name of the object in the centre of the table. Of course, all the names were different. Suddenly, an English blackbird flew in through the window, landed on the table and began to eat the object.
'What are you doing?' the others cried angrily.
'I am eating this beautiful apple,' replied the blackbird between mouthfuls.
'What did you call it?' they all asked in one voice.
'I called it an apple.'
'Why?' they asked, astounded.
'Because that is what it is,' replied the blackbird, continuing to eat contentedly.
Moral: Eat first, and ask questions afterwards.

Anonymous said...

great speech!!!

sandeeparya said...

Does it matters that tape is authentic or not?

Does the one who has created has mentioned it to be original speech?

I guess that it was in downward chain people who came across this tape started forwarding it to be as original one -- chec it out, stuff like that

What actually matters it that it is such a pleasant experience to litsen the complete writings in the audio format.

Very nice audio link. I liked that.

Apart from this also thanks to all who gave link to Mr Ghosh. He did a god job.

Ram said...

You can also visit the following youtube link to see the video of the transcript and his audio simultaneously.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxUzKoIt5aM

Also click on "More from this user" link to hear all his speeches.

al said...

I am an ardent admirer of Swami Vivekanada. I have read his speeches with deepest zeal.
When I listened to the first word of the audio recording, it was so obvious to me that it was not his voice at all. Any fool would have guessed that! Why? It's so obvious. When Swamiji made a speech he was mere 31 years old. Very young. The voice in audio sounds much older than 31.
Also, I know fact Vivekanada voice was not deep like the one in audio. His voice sounded like music; so beautiful! --That's what the people who have actually heard him say that. Plus the Chicago address was spontaneous. The audio recording doesn't show that.
Anyway nice try. It's better to try to focus on and mimic Swami Vivekanad's addresses than to emulate dogs' barkings!
Thank you
Anil

Unknown said...

how i describe malayalam translation of swami vivekanandas speech in chicago

Unknown said...

WHY DO PEOPLE CHEAT IN NAME OF DHARMA. THIS HAPPENS IN INDIA ONLY.THERE IS NO DOCUMENTRY PROFF THAT SWAMIJI'S SPEECH WAS RECORDED.I HAVE MET MANY SWAMIJIS OF THE MISSION, ALL DEVOTED TO MISSION. NO ONE CONFIRMED THAT THIS IS THE SPEECH OF SWAMI VIVEKANADAJI, THE GREAT. PLEASE STOP FRAUDS, CHEATING AND MISLEADING INNOCENT DEVOTEES. THERE ARE OTHER WAYS OF MINTING MONEY.


Prof. Sudhir V.Thakur

nizhal yoddha said...

don't get excited, sudhir.

1. do not SHOUT. all CAPITALS is considered shouting

2. falsehoods about religion are not confined to india. in fact several other religions are GIGANTIC (see, i am shouting) HOAXES.

3. if you look at the comment trail, i said several years ago that i doubted this was authentic, but that it didn't matter. is the 'shroud of turin' authentic? is the 'hair of mohammed' authentic? is the 'tooth of buddha' authentic? no. it's what people choose to believe.

so do take a deep breath, relax and lower your blood pressure.

jeez! professors need to be less excitable.