Sister Nivedita born Margaret Elizabeth Noble; 28
October 1867 – 13 October 1911)was a Scots-Irish social worker, author, teacher
and a disciple of Swami
Vivekananda.She spent her childhood and early days of her youth in Ireland.
From her father, from her college professor etc. she learned many valuable
lessons like – service to mankind is the true service to God. She worked as
school teacher and later also opened a school. She was committed to marry a
Welsh youth who died soon after engagement.
Sister Nivedita met Swami
Vivekananda in 1895 in London and 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. During the plague epidemic in Calcutta in 1899 Nivedita nursed and
took care of the poor patients.
Nivedita had close associations
with the newly established Ramakrishna Mission. However, 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. 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.
She died on 13 October 1911 in Darjeeling. Her
epitaph reads, "Here reposes Sister Nivedita who gave her all to
India".
Margaret Elizabeth Noble was born
on 28 October 1867 in the town of Dungannon in County
Tyrone, Ireland to Mary Isabel (mother) and Samuel Richmond Noble
(father) and was named for her paternal grandmother.The Nobles were of Scottish
descent, settled in Ireland for about five centuries. Her father, who a priest, gave the
valuable lesson that service to mankind is the true service to God. When
Margaret was one year old Samuel moved to Manchester, England and there he enrolled
as a theological student of the Wesleyan Church. Young Margaret at this time
stayed with her maternal grandmother Hamilton in Northern Ireland. When she was
four years old he returned to live with her father.
Margaret's father Samuel died in
1877 when she was only ten years old Then
Margaret was brought up by her maternal grandfather. Hamilton was one of the
first-ranking leaders of the freedom movement of Ireland. Margaret got her education from Church
boarding school in London. She and her sister attended Halifax College, run by
a member of Congregationalist Church. The headmistress of this college taught
her about personal sacrifice. She extensively studied various subjects,
including physics, arts, music, literature. She embraced teaching at the age of
seventeen. She first worked in Keswick as a teacher of children. Subsequently
she established a school in Wimbledon and followed her own unique methods of
teaching. She also participated in Church sponsored activities, being religious
in nature. She was also a prolific writer and wrote in the paper and
periodicals. In this way she soon became a known name among the intellectuals
of London. She was engaged to be married to a Welsh youth who died soon after
engagement. The regulated
religious life could not give her the necessary peace and she began to study
various books on religion.
Meeting with Swami Vivekananda
In November 1895 she met Swami
Vivekananda who had come from America to visit London and stayed there for
three months.[1] On a cold afternoon, Swami Vivekananda, on
an invitation, was explaining Vedanta philosophy in the drawing room of an
aristocratic family in London. Lady Isabel Margesson, a friend of Margaret,
invited her for this meeting. Margaret described her experience on the
occasion. A majestic personage, clad in a saffron gown and wearing a red
waist-band, sat there on the floor, cross-legged. As he spoke to the company,
he recited Sanskrit verses in his deep, sonorous voice. Margaret being
already delved deep into the teachings of the East, found nothing quite new
in what she heard on this occasion. What was new to her was the personality
of the Swamiji himself. She attended several other lectures of Swami
Vivekananda. She raised a lot of questions whose answers dispelled her doubts
and established deep faith and reverence for the speaker.
Nivedita wrote in 1904 to a
friend about her decision to follow Swami Vivekananada as a result of her
meeting him in England in November 1895:
Suppose he had not come to
London that time! Life would have been like a headless dream, for I always
knew that I was waiting for something. I always said that a call would come.
And it did. But if I had known more of life, I doubt whether, when the time
came, I should certainly have recognised it.
Fortunately, I knew little and
was spared that torture ... Always I had this burning voice within, but
nothing to utter. How often and often I sat down, pen in hand, to speak, and
there was no speech! And now there is no end to it! As surely I am fitted to
my world, so surely is my world in need of me, waiting – ready. The arrow has
found its place in the bow. But if he had not come! If he had meditated, on
the Himalayan peaks! ... I, for one, had never been here.
She started taking interest in
the teachings of Gautama Buddha, Swami
Vivekananda as alternate source of peace and benediction.
Vivekananda's principles and
teachings influenced her and this brought about a visible change in her.
Seeing the fire and passion in her, Swami Vivekananda could foresee her future
role in India. Swami Vivekananda narrated to her the pitiable condition of
the women in India prevailing at that time and wrote to her in a letter,
"Let me tell you frankly that I am now convinced that you have a great
future in the work for India. What was wanted was not a man, but a woman—a
real lioness—to work for Indians, women especially. India cannot yet produce
great women, she must borrow them from other nations. Your education,
sincerity, purity, immense love, determination and above all, the Celtic
blood make you just the woman wanted."
Swami Vivekananda felt extreme
pain by the wretchedness and misery of the people of India under the British
rule and his opinion was that education was the panacea for all evils
plaguing the contemporary Indian society especially
that of Indian women. Margaret was chosen for the role of educating Indian
women.
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