Swami Vivekananda
1863 CE–1902 CE · Modern · Calcutta (Kolkata)
1863–1902 CE (born 12 January 1863, Calcutta; died 4 July 1902, Belur)
Narendranāth Datta, an educated young Calcutta man, became the chief disciple of Ramakrishna in the 1880s and, taking the monastic name Vivekananda, emerged as the leading exponent of a modern, reform-minded, Advaita-centered Vedānta. After Ramakrishna's death he wandered across India as a mendicant, an itinerary that ended at Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin) at the southern tip of the subcontinent, where (tradition records) he resolved his mission on a rock offshore. He traveled to the United States and delivered celebrated addresses at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago, then lectured across America and Britain before returning to found the Ramakrishna Mission (1897) and its monastery at Belur. His teaching — that Advaita non-dualism is the essence of all religion and that service to humanity is worship — is enormously influential but is itself a particular modern ('Neo-Vedānta') position, not the neutral whole of Hindu thought, and should be presented as such. He died at Belur Math in 1902, aged 39.
Did you know?
The monk who stopped a Chicago hall with five words
On 11 September 1893, a 30-year-old monk from Calcutta, Swami Vivekananda, took the stage at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. His opening — "Sisters and Brothers of America" — reportedly drew a sustained ovation from the several-thousand-strong audience, and his appearances there made him one of the first widely known Indian teachers in the United States.
How we know
Swami Vivekananda (b. 12 Jan 1863, Calcutta – d. 4 Jul 1902) delivered his opening address at the World's Parliament of Religions, Chicago, on 11 Sep 1893 (aged 30); the "Sisters and brothers of America" greeting reportedly drew a standing ovation from an audience of several thousand.
A Hindu society opened in Manhattan in 1894
After speaking at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago, the Bengali monk Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) stayed on in America and, in November 1894, founded the Vedanta Society of New York in two rented rooms on West 33rd Street. It is documented as the first Hindu organization established in the United States, and it remains active today, more than 130 years later.
How we know
Vedanta Society of New York founded by Swami Vivekananda (b. Jan 12, 1863 - d. July 4, 1902) in Nov. 1894 at 54 West 33rd St., Manhattan, after his Sept. 1893 Chicago Parliament of Religions address; documented as the first Hindu organization in the US, still operating in 2026.
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Calcutta (Kolkata)
What they did here
Birthplace and early life as Narendranāth Datta; born into a well-off, educated family on 12 January 1863.
About Calcutta (Kolkata)
Calcutta (Kolkata) is the capital of West Bengal, on the Hooghly River in eastern India, and was the capital of British India until 1911. It was a focus of the 19th–20th-century Hindu renaissance: Swami Vivekananda was born there, and Sri Aurobindo and A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda were active in the city.
In Calcutta (Kolkata) at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Swami Vivekananda’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Aurobindo, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Swami Vivekananda’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Jewish world
Buddhist world
Christian world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.