As Sri Krishna enjoined Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita, so did Swami Vivekananda enjoin every Indian to: “Awake from this hypnotism of weakness. None is really weak; the soul is infinite, omnipotent and omniscient. Stand up, assert yourself, proclaim the God in you, do not deny Him.”

“It is a man-making religion we want… it is man-making education all round that we want. It is man-making theories we want.”

Giving shape to his own ideal of patriotism, the Swami said, “It is we who are responsible for all our degradation. Our aristocratic ancestors went on treading the common masses of our country underfoot, till they became helpless . . . the poor people nearly forgot they were human beings.”

“Feel, therefore, my would–be patriots . . . Do you feel that millions and millions of the descendants of gods and of sages have become next-door neighbours to brutes? . . . Does it make you restless? Does it make you sleepless?... Instead of spending your energy in frothy talk, have you found any way out, any practical solution, some help instead of condemnation?”

On reaching Calcutta, Swami Vivekananda’s focus was the monastery at Alambazar. One of his greatest achievements was moulding his brother monks away from an individualistic religious life to a universal brotherhood of religious life in which service to fellow-man occupied a prominent place.

The mission of his life, Swami Vivekananda declared, was to create a new order of sanyasins or monks who would dedicate their lives in the service of their while striving for their own spiritual liberation. The thought was encapsulated in the Ramakrishna Order’s motto:

“Atmano mokhshartham jagad hitaya cha,” (For one’s own salvation and the welfare of the world.)

The band of brother monks heeded Swami Vivekananda’s words knowing his voice to be the Master’s. And we see, Swami Ramakrishnananda who had never left the precincts of the Alambazar Math in twelve years, go to Madras to begin the Master’s work there, just as Swami Saradananda and Abhedananda had done earlier when they went to America to spread the ideals of Vedanta in the West, and Swami Akhandananda began relief work in famine-stricken Murshidabad.

In 1898, the math was transferred from Alambazar to Nilambar Babu’s garden-house in the village of Belur on the western bank of the Ganga.

By this time, a few of Swami Vivekananda’s Western disciples had arrived in India. The Swami began to train this group of disciples among who was Margaret Noble – the future Sister Nivedita who along with Ms. Muller would open Indian’s first school for girls in Calcutta.

The group traveled through India and arrived at Almora in the Himalayas where two other Western disciples – Mr. and Mrs. Sevier – were already established. Swami Vivekananda traveled to holy Amarnath, reaching there on the second of August, 1898. Soon followed a period of solitary austerities so intense that his health was undermined and he was brought back to Belur by Swami Saradananda.

In spite of his failing health, Swami Vivekananda resumed his old vigorous life with the monks. Hours were spent in religious conversation, various scriptures were read and commented on, strict regulations and monastic discipline were instituted. On the ninth of December, 1898, he consecrated the new monastery at Belur. It became the permanent headquarters of the Ramakrishna Order.

With centers forming all over India even in the Himalayas, Swami Vivekananda had the satisfaction of seeing his ideals take root in his motherland. He now announced his intention of going to the West a second time to give the work he had started an impetus. This time, Swami Turiyananda and Sister Nivedita accompanied him.

Arriving in New York in 1898 after a stop in London, Swami Vivekananda found Vedanta had spread. He began to consolidate the work and appeared to be full of merriment. Yet, there was an undertone of seriousness about him. There was a deep yearning for the Absolute. In a letter he writes: ‘I have bundled my things and am waiting for the Great Deliverer . . .I am only the boy who used to listen with rapt wonderment to the wonderful words of Ramakrishna. . Now I again hear his voice. . .Nirvana is before me.’

In 1900, Swam Vivekananda visited Paris and then Egypt via Vienna, Constantinople and Athens. But he was world weary and anxious to get back to India. This visit had shown him the West’s love for lucre and its love for material supremacy had a tragic underside. He said, “ Social life in the West, is like a peal of laughter, but underneath it is a wail of tears. . . Here (in India) it is sad and gloomy on the surface but underneath is carelessness and merriment.”