VIVEKANANDA

Born Narendranath Datta, Vivekananda (1863-1902) was a Bengali intellectual educated in English schools in Calcutta.  Although an agnostic, he joined the reformist Brahmo Samaj, and was introduced to the Bengali mystic Ramakrishna.

He soon attached himself as a disciple to Ramakrishna.  When Ramakrishna died in 1886, Swami Vivekananda took sannyasa (spiritual withdrawal) and with some disciples spent six years on pilgrimage in India.  

In 1893 he attended the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, soon gaining an American following.  He increased his Western flock of disciples in London, where he spent much time.  

Back in India in 1897, he made a triumphal tour of Colombo (Sri Lanka), Madras, and Calcutta.  In the same year he organized the Ramakrishna Mission, which was to be highly successful in promulgating his version of the saint's teachings.

A second trip to the United States and England brought him more fame and success.  

One of the Swami's early and most important converts was the Irishwoman Margaret E. Noble, who followed him from London to India in 1898.  He called her Nivedita (the Dedicated One), the name by which she has been known since.

Nivedita became his biographer, the collector of his sayings, and the editor of his writings.  Her own works are a reflection of Vivekananda’s ideas. 

The Swami died at Belur, Bengal, at the ashram he founded there in 1898.