Narendranath started his work by assembling his brother-disciples, a band of young men, in a rented house, later on known as Baranagore Math, where they took formal Sannyasa and new names. Narendranath assumed the name Vivekananda: I assumed. He said, as it is customary with all Sannyasins-on my renunciation of the world; it signifies literally the bliss of discrimination. Narendranath toured Northern India up to Hardwar thrice in 1888, 1889 and 1890 from Baranagore Math, meeting Pawhari Baba during the second tour. On his third tour he did not come back to Baranagore and travelled alone through Central and Southern India and reached the Temple of Kanyakumari in the last week of December 1892. During this period he met Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the Maharajas of Alwar, Khetri, Mysore and Ramnad, came in close contact with the masses of India and thus acquired intimate experience of the degraded social, economic and spiritual condition of the nation; all the while he tried in vain to find out a way to uplift the nation.
At last sitting on the last rock of India(now known as Vivekananda-Shila), he hit upon a plan-he visualised that religion is the blood of the nation's body, the impurities of this blood are responsible for all our present maladies; the nation can rise again if this blood is purified, and the first step in this direction it to make it conscious of the greatness of its age-old religion and civilisation. This idea inspired him to join the Parliament of Religions to be held in Chicago the following September and to preach there the universal ideas of Vedanta.
His disciples, Alasinga Perumal and others of Madras and the Raja of Khetri, collected the money necessary for the voyage, and on 31 May 1893 Vivekananda now left with little money faced the danger of death due to cold and starvation. A man of destiny, he overcame all obstacles and at last was accepted as a delegate to the Parliament on the recommendation of Professor J. H. Wright of Harvard University and the motherly help of Mrs. G. W. Hale of Chicago.
On 11 September 1893, the opening day of the Parliament of Religions, a short speech beginning with 'Sisters and brothers of America' made Vivekananda the most popular speaker there and a world-figure. He spoke at least 11 times on different occasions in the Parliament. These speeches impressed deeply the modern Western mind as to what true religion is, and along with it the greatness of Hindu civilisation and Hindu religion. This appreciation of the West aroused the Indian nation, as expected by Vivekananda, and made it conscious of its own greatness, removing completely the inferiority complex which the pioneering movements of the century initiated by Raja Rammohun Roy, Dayananda Saraswati, Annie Besant and others could not do.
After the Parliament of Religions was over on 27 September, Vivekananda in a hurricane tour lectured in different cities of the United States, fearlessly preaching his ideas and ignoring false propagandas directed against him. Then in February 1895, he settled in New York, opened a centre there for regular classes and also paid attention to the building of spiritual lives of his Western disciples, initiating some of them in Brahmacharya and Sannyasa also.
From America Vivekananda went to England via Paris in 1895 and came back towards the end of the year. From this time his lectures were taken down by his disciple and stenographer Mr. J. J. Goodwin. Vivekananda went to London again in 1896. This time he toured the Continent. During these two visits to Europe Vivekananda became acquainted with Professor Max Muller, Paul Deussen, A. Sturdy, Miss Margaret Noble and Mr. And Mrs. Sevier. The last three became his disciples and sacrificed their lives for serving him through serving India.
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