Sister Nivedita (The Fighter Extraordinary for India)

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About the Book Sister Nivedita arrived in India in January 1898, in response to the call of her Guru, Swami Vivekananda. After initiating her, Swamiji gave her the name Nivedita, "the dedicated". Later he brought out the significance of that name in the following lines he penned for her as his blessings:

The mother's heart, the hero's will, The sweetness of the southern breeze, The sacred charm and strength that dwell On Aryan altars, flaming, free;

All these be yours and many more No ancient soul could dream before-Be thou to India's future son The mistress, servant, friend in one!

Since then, Nivedita embraced her adopted country as her very own. She selflessly gave her all to her beloved country and waged a relentless fight for India and the causes dear to India. Of the numerous instances of Nivedita's Indian struggles in the fields of thought and activity such as religion, education, art, and politics, we analyse in this book a few that show THE EXTRAORDINARY FIGHTER she was.

About the Authors First class first with two gold medals in MA (Political Science) of the University of Burdwan and PhD of the Jadavpur University, Dr Sukanya Ray is presently the Head of the Department of Political Science at Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam Government College, New Town, Kolkata. Prior to her present assignment, she served at the Hooghly Mohsin College, Chinsurah, and Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata, teaching also at the post-graduate branches of these colleges. A specialist in political thought of India, her teaching areas comprise Political Thought, Comparative Government and Politics, and International Relations. Besides the present book, she is the author of Approaches to Human Development: As Shown by Swami Vivekananda.

Prof. Anil Baran Ray is a distinguished alumnus of Visva-Bharati, Presidency College, University of Calcutta, University of Texas, and University of Missouri. First Class first with record marks in MA (Political Science) along with topper position in Arts and Social Sciences of Calcutta University and Fulbright Fellow to the USA for four years, with PhD of the University of Missouri, he taught on his return from the USA at Jadavpur University, and later at the University at Burdwan as Professor from 1982 to 2010. In between he had offers of Readership from North Bengal, Visva-Bharati, and Hyderabad Universities, and offer of Professorship at the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, in the Management Centre for Human Values.

Preface Sister Nivedita, born Margaret Elizabeth Noble in a Protestant Christian family in Ireland, a British colony at that time, was spiritually reborn in India in March 1898 as a brahmacharini of the Ramakrishna Order. She was initiated to that effect by her guru Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramakrishna's chief disciple who shook the world with his Addresses in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago in September 1893, especially with his exposition of religion as realisation of the Divinity inherent in human beings.

Margaret Noble entertained doubts about some aspects of Christianity pertaining to its doctrines of sin and penance. She encountered Swami Vivekananda in London in 1895-96. There the latter's exposition of Vedantic Hinduism, as giving every human being opportunities to develop oneself in one's own way to the best and the noblest in one's nature, appealed to her enormously. Resultantly, before Swamiji left London for America, she addressed him as her Master and expressed to him her desire to fulfil herself through Hinduism and by serving India.

On his part, Swami Vivekananda gave Margaret Noble the green signal to come to India in July 1897. Accordingly, she arrived in India in January 1898 and received her initiation from him in March 1898. Swamiji gave her the name Nivedita, "the dedicated".

Introduction As SWAMI VIVEKANANDA FOUND the key to his life in his guru, Sri Ramakrishna, so Nivedita found the key to her life in her guru, Swami Vivekananda. In the years of her association with her guru, Nivedita grasped in his utterances not only the essence of Hinduism, but also the glimpse of the real deity of her guru's adoration-India herself, the Motherland.' Nivedita combined these two aspects of her guru's teachings in giving an exposition of her religious, educational, artistic, and political ideas and their relevance to nation-making in India. A point worth remembering in this connection is that Nivedita regarded her guru, Swami Vivekananda, as indistinguishable from his guru, Sri Ramakrishna. To her, they represented one single soul named Ramakrishna-Vivekananda, one single mighty utterance of the Divine Mother-heart. She found it impossible to distinguish one part from another, and to say with certainty that here ended the sphere of one and there began the sphere of another.' It is Nivedita's appreciation of the inseparableness of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda that made her sign her name as "Nivedita of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda".3 She was but one lamp within which burned the two flames of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. Having assimilated their teachings and used them to the making of unity in India, which she preferred to designate as "Nationality of India", she observed, "These two lives ARE the Unity of India. All that is necessary is that India should keep them in her heart:'

Book's Contents and Sample Pages