Sister Nivedita

Margaret Elizabeth Noble was an Anglo-Irish social worker, author, teacher and a disciple of Swami Vivekananda. It was Swami Vivekananda who named her as Nivedita meaning “dedicated to God” when he led her into Brahmacharya in 1898.

She was born in Ireland in 1867 and worked as a teacher for ten years. She was influenced by Swami Vivekananda’s teachings and principles while she was in London in 1895. She then travelled to India in 1898 to continue teaching and helping the poor.
 
Swami Vivekananda was a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and he was the first Indian guru to travel to the West to teach the ancient teachings of Vedanta. Vivekananda believed that mankind is in suffering because of ignorance and selfishness, so he decided to serve the community by founding the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897.

Sister Nivedita started a school for girls in 1898 in a time when girls are deprived of basic education. She sought to improve women’s education especially for Hindu widows who were often shunned by the society to live a life of poverty. She was known to Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore and Jagadish Chandra Bose because of her social work. She also took active participation during the Indian war of independence in which she decided to break up the official linkage of Ramakrishna Mission from the British monastic order. She served the Indian community and lived a Hindu life. She continued the noble work of Ramakrishna Mission after the death of Vivekananda to help the poor and needy.

Sister Nivedita was able to contribute to the society at large because of her western decent and a disciple of Swami Vivekananda had helped her in her mission during the British regime. Her speech helped people change their lives while motivating and awakening them in the path of liberation and wisdom. She also wrote many books like Kali the Mother, The Web of Indian Life, The Cradle tales of Hinduism etc which reflected her pan-Indian nationalist views. She died in October 1911 in Darjeeling India.

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