There is a considerable ambivalence about not just the contributions made by Sister Nivedita but even whether she was true to what her discipleship after being chosen and initiated by Swami Vivekananda entailed. Some say she was not single-minded, some perhaps do not see the role model of nun in her, some think, that she left the movement started by her Master to join larger public affairs in India (often the word ‘politics’ is employed here.) Clearly there are questions in minds of even devoted admirers of her Master with regard to her which have made her a complicated figure, as complicated as some others would say as Vivekananda himself.
The most common of the discordant views is that Nivedita diverted from what her Master expected her to do – which was work for uplift of girls and womenfolk primarily through education and thus she did not quite fulfil this mandate and instead busied herself with public affairs and nationalist politics. This is not an uncommon opinion in the appraisal of this quite an extraordinary woman even many among the ardent admirers of her Master. This question warrants a deeper enquiry.
To begin with one cannot be certain that Vivekananda talked and travelled with her for months together, both in India, and later during their voyage to the West, merely for training her for one specific field. In fact it appears that in her he saw the intellectual prowess and cosmopolitan moorings to whom he could reveal his ideas on a plethora of questions pertaining to both his own country and humanity at large. Even a glimpse of titles of chapters in the ‘The Master as I saw him’ is indicative of the range of themes that engaged Vivekananda’s brilliant mind. He talked to her about the history, civilizational cross-currents of India in such a way that he enlivened ‘Bharatvarsha’ to her.
Reading her published works (collected in five volumes) which perhaps very few people have read, one is in awe of how she could capture the essence of what India is, and the way she articulated that few Indians have ever been able to do so eloquently. It is almost miraculous that a foreign-born, who for first three decades had never stepped into this land, could in such a short span of a few years capture the soul of India – something not easily given evem to Indians. A person like her possessing such a brilliant mind, bubbling with energy and an extroverted personality steeled with supreme conviction could never have been pinned down to a single line of work however worthy whether it was education of girls or women’s empowerment. Like her Master, her personality too needed expression in multifarious areas of human endeavour.
In all her varied contributions – whether it was her role in awakening of Indian Art Movement, promotion of Indian Science, Women’s Education and Empowerment, ideas towards writing of a proper Indian History, or most importantly the ideas of the ‘nationhood and civilisational unity of India’ she carried forward, better than how anyone else could have been ever capable of, Swamiji’s vision in all these spheres. Only a highly gifted stalwart like her could have done that.
As far as running the Calcutta school she founded, Nivedita had soon realised that there were others better suited for that task, like Christine or, later Sudhira (who being a Bengali herself had a definite advantage over anyone else as far as directly engaging with the girls and their guardians and local women was concerned). Nivedita herself felt deeply grateful to Christine and always said she (Christine) was the one who was doing Swamiji’s work – such was her humility – she always thought she had fallen short on how she could have served Swamiji. But that only shows her nature of probing her own self and is itself a supremely worthy trait not commonly found in lesser persons.
It was as early as 1900-02 when Nivedita was in her western sojourn (she had come there with Vivekananda but stayed on for more than a year after her Master had returned) when she began to realise that what India needed most immediately for its overall regeneration was freedom from the oppressive foreign rule. She also felt that her Master’s teachings were so vast and so sweeping that she needed a definite reference point in or order to put them into action. For her the cause of Nationalism was to be the line of her work. She felt she had something definite to contribute in this sphere.
After her return she hardly got a few months in company of her Master. He diary entry on 4th July 1902 just had these words : Swami died.
The one, banking on whom, she had left her home, family, future, and her country to live in a culture vastly different from hers, was no more. Only a person made of immense grit could have continued to live under such changed circumstances. And Nivedita was indubitably made of such stuff.
She felt the presence of her Master, to an even greater extent, after he passed away. This sentiment, she described in a letter to her friend and a close associate of Vivekananda, Josephine Macleod:
“He went out – as one drops a loose garment. Without a struggle. “Conqueror of death”. But He has not left us. For my part, He has been with me far more since that night than 2 years before – and I trust and pray that this may not cease to be – for, Oh! I have only one desire really, and that is to act so that, were He back again in the toils of human ignorance He would have no right to feel anxiety or distress. But I do not know – I feel so much power inside. But I do nothing. Bless me that He may indeed be pleased with us all ! One must so live that one justifies Him.”
It would not be wrong to say that Nivedita’s chief work all throughout her life was in the intellectual space – her huge corpus of books and articles in newspapers and journals occupied bulk of her labour and time. Producing such works of deep insight call for a steadfastness of no ordinary level, and that a person incapable of holding on to a single thought for long, would be least likely to come anywhere near her accomplishments in this field let alone match her prolific output and high intellectual rigour. There is a presence of an undeniable power emanating from her writings; not dissimilar to what one would experience from those of her Master.
It was the power of selflessness and purity that Nivedita embodied all her life. And in her dynamism, and capacity of immense sacrifice – almost being in love with death perpetually – was, one is inclined to think, the manifestation of ‘Kali-power’ which her Master himself had bestowed on her – the key instance being that of the time at Ridgeley Manor when to her and Mrs Bull he said what ‘came from a Woman must go to a woman’. It was a supreme blessing and charge at once.
Indeed, no less a person than Swami Ramakrishnananda (Shashi Maharajl), a great disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, who at Vivekananda’s behest was largely responsible for strengthening the foundations of the Ramakrishna Movement in South India, had said that no one had understood Swamiji more deeply or more comprehensively than Nivedita. Much later Subhaschandra Bose would say that he came to understand Vivekananda through Nivedita’s writings.
Because of her works, most particularly ‘The Master as I saw Him’ we get to see the universal vision of Vivekananda expressed in a multitude of ways – how the Swami connected every aspect of individual as well social life like art, religion, culture, science, history, polity etc with the Infinite, he himself being ever rooted in the Infinite. Whatever aspect he touched was given a touch of that Infinite. We largely come to know of this sweeping vision of the great Swami on matters spiritual as well as those hitherto considered secular through Nivedita recording and interpreting them. Only a brilliant mind like that of Nivedita could have acted as fitting receptacle of such lofty ideas as that required not only deep purity and spirituality but also a keen intellect with a truly cosmopolitan worldview. Indeed Nivedita herself wrote that she always got a feeling that ‘The Master was looking for someone to whom He could pour his mind’ and she knew she was the Chosen One.
How brilliantly in a few words she captured the singularly great features of her Master. The four page Introduction section in ‘The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda’ are an abiding testimony of this. Or several other remarks in different places like : here him as an heir to the spiritual discoveries and religious struggles of innumerable teachers and saints in the past of India and the world, and at that time the pioneer and prophet of a new and future order of development.”
She summarises what he saw was the greatest feeling that moved the great prophet whose disciple she was : “Our Master has come and gone, and in the priceless memory he has left with us who knew him, there is no other thing so great, as this his love of man.”
And with her unique insight she captured the intertwined nature of the lives of Sri Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, the brother-disciples together informing the character and mission of the Ramakrishna Movement.
“Meaningless would have been “the Order od Ramakrishna without Vivekananda, even so futile would have been the life and labours of Vivekananda, without behind him, his brothers of the Order of Ramakrishna. It was said to me lately by one of the older generation that ‘Ramakrishna had lived for the making of Vivekananda.’ Is it indeed so? Or is it not rather impossible to distinguish with such fixity between one part and another, in a single mighty utterance of the Divine Mother-heart? Often it appears to me, in studying all these lives, that there has been with us a soul named Ramakrishna-Vivekananda, and in the penumbra of his being, appear any forms, some of which are with us still, and of none of whom it could be said with entire truth that her ends, in relation to him, the sphere of those others, or that there begins his own.”
Those who say she left the Rk-V Movement have no idea what they are saying. Let alone contributing to Prabuddha Bharata, Nivedita even took its charge and edited this journal around 1906 after the death od Swami Swarupannada. She collected and edited the Letters of Swami Vivekananda and was a major collaborator in the grand collective exercise of writing and publishing of The Life of Dwami Vivekananda (By His Easter and Western Disciples) – though it came out after her death.
That she gave her gifts and labours away freely and fully to anything she thought would be beneficial to India is seen throughout her life. In fact in one poignant letter Mrs Bull wrote to JC Bose, she requested him to have Nivedita formally as a Secretary and set aside a minimum sum for her, as Nivedita, though herself living in almost bare minimum conditions at Bosepara, would never seek anything in return for her selfless labours in assisting the work of the scientist. Such was the spartan life lived by Nivedita (and Christine) that Ms Macleod and others used to send their used dresses to them which they gladly and gratefully accepted and used. What could be great heights of renunciation and dedication to their mission.
As far as food is concerned she often went without any proper diet living only on bananas that hung in her room and a little milk. After she fell gravely ill in 1905-06 it was at the behest of Swani Brahmananda, and after the arrangements made by him, that she took more nutritious food at that time.
It is difficult to imagine how much hardships and even humiliation Nivedita underwent in Even during the time of starting and running of the school, when she visited the homes of the orthodox families she was often not even asked inside the house, and in cases she was, Ganga-jal was sprinkled after she left. She was denied entry into temples and pilgrim-sites she visited. Even at Badrinath, where she managed to reach after severely taxing journey including strenuous stretches of climbing on the hills for days, she was not allowed inside but she wrote a marvelous book on Badrinath and Kedarnath, and in no place has she mentioned that she was not allowed access there. One wonders at the extent o herf capacity to swallow humiliation without any reaction or bitterness. How many of those born in Hindu faith can possibly match such reverence that she had even for ordinary customs and traditions of the Hindu society and India at large?
It is also highly noteworthy as to know how Holy Morher Sarada Devi viewed Nivedita. The Mother wept inconsolably when her beloved ‘Khuki’ passed away. She used to say ‘E meye-r jemon baire sada temoni bhetareo sada’ (she is luminuous and pure from within too, just as she is from without – referring to her skin’s light colour).
Nivedita had lost her father at the age of ten and lived her early life in deprivation – studying in Halifax Orphan Home. She had started working at the age of seventeen in order to support her mother and younger siblings. Because of her special abilities she rose from her humble background to a fairly respectable position in the social and intellectual circles of London of the day. By twenty-five she was running her own School known for innovative teaching and learning methodologies and her views on many subjects, particularly education, sought and listened to with interest by her peers.
A person, who with such difficulty climbed to such a position after years of struggle and deprivation, would be normally expected to guard that position with care and try with all might to advance on the same trajectory to taste and possess so-called ‘good things of life’ for oneself and one’s immediate family. But what did this young woman do? Upon meeting a great spiritual teacher who charged her with fiery words : ‘Awake, awake, O Great One! The world is burning with misery. Can you sleep!’ she threw everything and jumped into an arena of complete unfamiliarity and uncertainty. Surely this cannot be done without remarkable courage, faith in one’s destiny, deep devotion to one’s Guru, and detachment with respect to normal worldly goods. What tremendous cultural reorientation Nivedita had to undergo when she took the decision is something one can only try to imagine.
It is very important to keep in mind, a fact not often readily remembered even by those who are familiar with the history of the Rk-V Movement, that unlike many of the Swami’s disciples from the West who were from upper-middle classes or at any rate from middle classes, Nivedita (and even Christine), came from backgrounds that had no such resources or even personal networks among the wealthy. She had offered herself completely to the Swami’s cause, much like Sister Christine, without anything to fall back upon, in fact closing all the doors, as it were, of any possibility of upward social mobility in their respective homelands and in the process even sacrificing their own families’ interests, that were not on too solid grounds in any case.
When Nivedita is seen keeping this in mind her sacrifice becomes all the more remarkable, awe-inspiring and capable of stirring one’s heart quite profoundly.
A few other westerners whom Swami Vivekananda had initiated into monastic vows while he was in the West like Kripananda and Abhayananda did not stick to the path he had probably envisaged for them. Among those whom Vivekananda wanted to bring as life-dedicated workers Nivedita was the first person to completely hold fort throughout her life in vows as well as work. Indeed she became the prototype for many Western woman of later times to consider Vedanta and the Rk-V tradition as their refuge for life.
It should not be a hyperbole to state that Nivedita represented the highest and the bravest – possessing a strength of character that knew never to cower down at adamantine walls of difficulties and privations.
The faith in the Guru was ever the sheet anchor and even Vivekananda had cautioned others with regard to interfering with her work. “You do not know what I have given her”, was what the Swami said.
Nivedita keeps shining with ever increasing brilliance with passage of time. Though her centenary in 1967 did not quite attract attention, the sesquicentennial year in 2017 saw a much greater interest and acknowledgement of her devoted service to the country she gave her life to. Of course it is still much less than how it should be but the signs are clear that she cannot be forgotten in a hurry. How else does one account for the fact that letters she had written, for long scattered here and there – first with Ms MacLeod, then with Sri Anirvana and later with Shri Sankari Prasad Basu saw their full publication after more than a century.
Nivedita’s light can never be suppressed, let alone extinguished. It will shine brilliantly for centuries to come. The name of Nivedita will ever be connected with that of her Master. Her name and power of her inspiration will remain as long as Swamiji’s do.
Hers was truly an extension of Vivekananda’s own life and mission. An inscription at her cremation-spot in Darjeeling says: “Here Reposes Sister Nivedita Who Gave Her All To India’. Few would ever deserve the description more befittingly.
Nivedita spent her whole life as an attestation, as it were, of this faith her Master had reposed in her. She carefully nurtured this trust and hoped that she does justice to what he might have expected of her. She expressed this in a letter: “God grant me to speak brave true words in His Name before I die—words with His life flowing through them untainted, unimpaired— that I may see that last confidence shining in His face once more—and go away into eternity, feeling that I have not disappointed him.”
The Swami had once told Nivedita about his Master, Sri Ramakrishna, “He was contented to live that great life and leave it to others to find the explanation.” And that he (Vivekananda) had read its meaning. Without knowing any books, Sri Ramakrishna had been a living epitome of Vedanta, and similarly Nivedita claimed “was Vivekananda of national life. But of the theory of this he was unconscious.”
It was given to Nivedita to read its meaning and thereby be her Master’s voice.