Sister Nivedita | |
|---|---|
 Sister Nivedita in India | |
| Personal | |
| Born | Margaret Elizabeth Noble 28 October 1867 |
| Died | 13 October 1911 (aged 43) |
| Religion | |
| Region | Indian philosophy |
| Organization | |
| Founder of | Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Sister Nivedita Girls' School |
| Philosophy | Advaita Vedanta |
| Senior posting | |
| Guru | Swami Vivekananda |
Influenced by | |
| Literary works | Kali the Mother, The Web of Indian Life, Cradle Tales of Hinduism, An Indian Study of Love and Death, The Master as I Saw Him, Notes of some wanderings with the Swami Vivekananda, Select essays of Sister Nivedita, Studies from an Eastern Home, Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists, Footfalls of Indian History, Religion and Dharma |
| Part of a series on | |
| Hindu philosophy | |
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Sister Nivedita (Bengali pronunciation: [bhagini nibedita] born Margaret Elizabeth Noble; 28 October 1867 – 13 October 1911)[1][2] was an Irish teacher, author, social activist, school founder and disciple of Swami Vivekananda.[3][4] She spent her childhood and early youth in Ireland. She was engaged to marry a Welsh youth, but he died soon after their engagement.
Sister Nivedita met Swami Vivekananda in 1895 in London and travelled to Calcutta (present-day Kolkata), India, 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 the Bagbazar area of North Calcutta. She wanted to educate girls who were deprived of even basic education. During the plague epidemic in Calcutta in 1899, Nivedita nursed and took care of the poor patients.[5]
Nivedita had close associations with the newly established Ramakrishna Mission. Because of her active contribution in the field of Indian Nationalism, she had to publicly dissociate herself from the activities of the Ramakrishna Mission under the then president, Swami Brahmananda. This had to be done in order to avoid their persecution at the hands of British Authorities in India. She was very close to Sarada Devi, the wife of Ramakrishna and one of the major influences behind Ramakrishna Mission, and also with all brother disciples of Swami Vivekananda. She died on 13 October 1911 in Darjeeling. Her epitaph reads, "Here lies Sister Nivedita who gave her all to India".[6]
- ^ Constance Jones; James D. Ryan (2007). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Infobase Publishing. pp. 316–317. ISBN 978-0-8160-7564-5.
- ^ "Hindus want national holiday on October 13 to mark Sister Nivedita's 100th death anniversary". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 29 March 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
- ^ Barua, Ankur (January 2020). "The Hindu Cosmopolitanism of Sister Nivedita (Margaret Elizabeth Noble): An Irish Self in Imperial Currents". Harvard Theological Review. 113 (1): 1–23. doi:10.1017/S0017816019000324. ISSN 0017-8160. S2CID 213668994.
- ^ Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy; Whitall N. (INT) Perry (2011). The Wisdom of Ananda Coomaraswamy: Reflections on Indian Art, Life, and Religion. World Wisdom, Inc. pp. 129–. ISBN 978-1-935493-95-2.
- ^ Nivedita, Sister (1 January 2021). Kali the Mother. Prabhat Prakashan.
- ^ Compiled (2008). Awakening Indians to India (Paperback). Chinmaya Mission. pp. 370–. ISBN 978-81-7597-434-0.