Nivedita of India

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About the Book Nivedita was this: 'Be thou to India's future sons, the mistress, servant, friend in one.' She followed this instruction of her Guru in letter and spirit. India's pride and shame became her personal pride and shame. No other foreign lady could accept India's religion and culture, her sufferings and dreams as her own as Nivedita did. No other foreign lady could realize the hopes and aspirations of the Indian people, or recognize the eternal unblemished image of India's soul so truly as she did. In fact her sacrifice for the cause of India is so total, that we feel guilty to call her a foreigner. Never did she utter 'India's need', 'India's women', she always said 'Our need' and 'Our women'. Any reference to India would overwhelm her with emotion. Taking rosary in hand, she would recite to herself, 'Bharatvarsha', 'Bhäratvarsha', 'Ma'. This humble offering of us in memory of Nivedita's service to India is therefore named 'NIVEDITA OF INDIA'. Indeed, that was how the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi used to feel. She said: 'Nivedita belongs to this land. Only to propagate his (Sri Ramakrishna's) ideas and messages in that country (West), she was born there."

Foreword Sister Nivedita loved India as her own land and served Indians as her own people, but we are yet to comprehend the magnitude of her contribution to this country. If ever we are able to do so, we would certainly wonder whether such a person really existed. In response to Swami Vivekananda's call, she came to India in 1898 and began to work for the education of girls following the lines of India's national ideals. To commemorate the centenary of this historic event we published in 1998 a booklet in Bengali entitled Bharater Nivedita. The present booklet is the English translation of the same. Several persons have contributed to the translation of this volume. We acknowledge our indebtedness to them and also to those who helped bring out the Bengali original.

We hope the story of Nivedita's dedication and self-sacrifice will instil a spirit of patriotism and a sense of dedication in the hearts of our people- especially in the youth.

**Contents and Sample Pages**