Swami Vivekananda was born in 1863 in the Datta family of Calcutta. He embraced the agnostic philosophies of the Western mind along with the worship of science. At the same time, he wanted to know the truth about God. He questioned people of holy reputation, asking them if they had seen God. He found such a person in Sri Ramakrishna, who became his master, allayed his doubts, gave him God vision, and transformed him into sage and prophet with authority to teach.

After his master's death, Vivekananda renounced the world and traveled throughout India as a traveling monk. His compassion for the people of India drove him to seek material help from the West. Accepting an opportunity to represent Hinduism at Chicago's Parliament of Religions in 1893, Vivekananda won instant celebrity in America and a ready forum for his spiritual teaching.

For three years he spread the Vedanta philosophy and religion in America and England and then returned to India to found the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Exhorting his people to spiritual greatness, he awakened India to a new national consciousness. He died July 4, 1902, after a second, much shorter sojourn in the West. His lectures and writings have been gathered into eight volumes.