A Tribute To Sister Nivedita ||157th Birth Anniversary || An Irish Disciple Of Swami Vivekananda
Sister Nivedita; Margaret Elizabeth Noble (born on 28 October 1867 - died on 13 October 1911) was a Scots-Irish social worker, author, teacher and a disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She was famously inspired after hearing Swami Vivekananda's lecture in London, and at the age of 30 she decided to make India her home. Noble met Vivekananda when he visited England in 1895, and she was attracted to the universal principles of Vedanta and to Vivekananda’s humanistic teachings. Accepting him as her guru (spiritual teacher) before he left England in 1896, she worked for the Vedanta movement in England until she went to India in 1898. She travelled to Calcutta, India (present-day Kolkata) in 1898. Swami Vivekananda gave her the name Nivedita (meaning "Dedicated to God") when he initiated her into the vow of Brahmacharya on 25 March 1898. In November 1898, she opened a girls' school in Bagbazar area of Calcutta. She wanted to educate those girls who were deprived of even basic education.
Nivedita came to India primarily to help Vivekananda realize his plans to educate women, and she opened a small school at Calcutta (now Kolkata) in Bengal, where she tried to blend Indian traditions with Western ideas. Nivedita also made notable efforts to serve the poor of Calcutta and Bengal during times of plague, famine, and floods there. Following Vivekananda’s death in 1902, Nivedita turned her attention more toward India’s political emancipation. She objected strongly to the partition of Bengal in 1905 and, as part of her deep involvement in the revival of Indian art, supported the swadeshi (“our own country”) movement that called for the boycott of imported British goods in favour of domestically produced handmade goods.
During her close contact with the Indian people, they came to love their “sister” with devoted admiration bordering on veneration. The poet Rabindranath Tagore, one of her close friends, summed up that sentiment when, after her death, he referred to her as the “mother of the people.” Her school continued in operation in the early 21st century in present-day Kolkata under the management of the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission (a sister organization to the Ramakrishna Mission founded by Vivekananda in 1897).
She was very intimate with "Sarada Devi" the spiritual consort of Ramakrishna and one of the major influences behind Ramakrishna Mission and also with all brother disciples of Swami Vivekananda. Sister Nivedita, was the centre of veneration of both Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore. She was instrumental in inspiring all of India's scientists (e.g, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, Basiswar Sen), artists (like Abanindra Nath Tagore, Nandalal Bose), educationist (like Brajendra Nath Sil, Ramananda Chattopadhyay, Kumud Bandhu Sen), and above all freedom fighters (like Mahatma Gandhi, Rasbihari Ghosh, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Arabinda Ghosh, Barin Chandra Ghosh, Bipin Chandra Pal). Rabindranath Tagore too had great regard for this versatile genius. Sister Nivedita was held in high regard by Rabindranath Tagore, who felt Nivedita to be an exceptional soul.
The Master as I Saw Him: Being pages of the life of the Swami Vivekananda is a 1910 book written by Sister Nivedita. The book covers Nivedita's experiences with Swami Vivekananda, whom she met in London during November 1895. The book was simultaneously published from England and India, and The Master as I Saw Him is now considered to be a classic text. Disregard for her own welfare eventually caused her health to fail, and she died at the age of 44.
[Vandemataram ||Song Credited to-Sneha Ganguly; A presentation from R.K.S.M. Sister Nivedita Girls' School,15 Aug 2020]
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15 сен 2024
