After the Parliament of Religions in 1893, in Chicago,
Vivekananda spent nearly two whole years lecturing in various parts of
eastern and central United States. By the spring of 1895, he was weary
and in poor health, because of his continuous exertion. After suspending
his lecture tour, the Swami started giving free and private classes on
Vedanta and Yoga. In June 1895, for two months he conducted private
lectures to a dozen of his disciples at the Thousand Island Park.
Vivekananda considered this to be the happiest part of his first visit
to America. He later founded the "Vedanta Society of New York”.
During
his first visit to America, he traveled to England twice. His lectures
were successful there. Here he met Ms. Margaret Noble, an Irish lady,
who later became Sister Nivedita. During his second visit in May 1896,
while living at a house in Pimlico, the Swami met Max Müller a renowned
Indologist at Oxford University who wrote Ramakrishna's first biography
in the West. From England, he also visited other European countries. In
Germany he met Paul Deussen, another famous Indologist. He also received
two academic offers, the chair of Eastern Philosophy at Harvard
University and a similar position at Columbia University. He declined
both, saying that, as a wandering monk, he could not settle down to work
of this kind.
Swami
Vivekananda's ideas were admired by several scholars and famous
thinkers—William James, Josiah Royce, C. C. Everett, Dean of the Harvard
School of Divinity, Robert G. Ingersoll, Nikola Tesla, Lord Kelvin, and
Professor Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz. From the West, he
also set his Indian work in motion. Vivekananda wrote a stream of
letters to India, giving advice and sending money to his followers and
brother monks. His letters from the West in these days laid down the
motive of his campaign for social service. He constantly tried to
inspire his close disciples in India to do something big. In one such
letter, he wrote to Swami Akhandananda, "Go from door to door amongst
the poor and lower classes of the town of Khetri and teach them
religion. Also, let them have oral lessons on geography and such other
subjects. No good will come of sitting idle and having princely dishes,
and saying "Ramakrishna, O Lord!"—unless you can do some good to the
poor." Eventually in 1895, the periodical called Brahmavadin was started
in Madras, with the money supplied by Vivekananda, for the purpose of
teaching the Vedanta. Subsequenly, Vivekananda's translation of first
six chapters of The Imitation of Christ was published in Brahmavadin.
Vivekananda
left for India on December 16, 1896 from England with his disciples,
Captain and Mrs. Sevier, and J.J. Goodwin. On the way they visited
France, Italy, seeing Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, and set sail
for India from the Port of Naples. Later, he was followed to India by
Max Müller and Sister Nivedita. Sister Nivedita devoted the rest of her
life to the education of Indian women and the cause of India's
independence.
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