Born in Kolkata in 12 January, 1863 as Narendra Nath Dutta to Viswanath Dutta and Bhuvaneshwari Devi....
Enters Presidency College in 1879 and later, transfers to General Assembly institution,.. Passes BA examination in 1884..
During this period {1881-84}, Narendra became a member of Brahmo Samaj ...
He was first introduced to his Guru , Ramakrishna,
in a literature class in General Assembly's Institution, when he heard
William Hastie, principal of General Assembly Institution, lecturing on William Wordsworth's poem
The Excursion.
While explaining the word "trance" in the poem, Hastie suggested his students to visit Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar to know the real meaning of trance. This prompted some of his students, including Narendra, to visit Ramakrishna.
He initially, looked at Ramakrishna's teachings with scepticism but later, became his favourite disipline and staunch follower..
Ramakrishna developed throat cancer and
died in Aug 16, 1886
After
his death, in 1887, Narendra and his other disciples established Baranagar
Math in Belur.. The math became the first building of Ramakrishna Math - the monastery of the first
monastic order of Ramakrishna. and there he and 8 other disciples took their monastic
vows and Narendra took the name
Swami Bibidishananda..
From, 1888-1893, he travelled across India as a wandering monk..In 1891 , while visiting the Rajputana,
he was given the name Vivekananda by Ajit Singh, Maharaja of Khetri..
.Meanwhile, Vivekananda came to hear about the Parliament of Religion at Chicago.. His followers urged him to participate in it.. With the aid of funds collected by his Madras disciples and Rajas of
Mysore, Ramnad, Khetri, Dewans and other followers, Vivekananda left for
Chicago on 31 May 1893 from Bombay assuming the name
Vivekananda—the name suggested by the Maharaja of Khetri, Ajit Singh...
He addressed the Parliament of Religions at Chicago in September 11, 1893...
The next two years, he spent on lecturing in various parts of USA..
In 1894, he established Vedanta Society of New York..
Leaves for India on 30 Dec , 1896
On 1 May, 1897, he founded
Ramakrishna Mission - an organ of social service.. He founded two other monastries -
one Advaita Ashrama at Mayavati in the Himalayas and the other in Madras.. Two journals were also started-
Prabhuddha Bharata in English and Udbhodan in Bengali..
Second visit to the West in 1900. During this visit, he established the Vedanta societies at San Francisco and New York. He also founded "
Shanti Ashrama" (peace retreat) at California.
He attended the Congress of Religions in Paris in 1900. He returned to Calcutta on 9 December 1900..
He returned to Belur Math and in
July 1902, MAHASAMDHI
