First outdoor bust of Swami Vivekananda unveiled abroad

kolkata: The first outdoor statue of Swami Vivekananda sculpted in Portland stone was unveiled at harrow Art Centre London recently to commemorate Swamiji's arrival to England 125 years ago.

The Mayor of Harrow Ghazanfar Ali, deputy mayor Sasikala Suresh, Manmeet Singh Naran, Minister for Coordination at the Indian High Commission and Swami Sarvasthananda, minister in-charge Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre, UK were present at the function.

Swamiji became one of the most popular figure in England in 1895. He was felicitated along with Atul Chatterjee who became first in ICS examination and Ranjitsinhji, who scored the highest run in county cricket in 1895. Swamiji became friends of Fredrick Max Muller who was then teaching at the Oxford University and John Venn, the famous Logician, the founder of Venn Diagram. Swami talked on Vedanta and gave lectures on Yoga. His classes became populat. It was in England where he came in contact with Margaret Elizabeth Noble who later became Sister Nivedita.

The Mayor of harrow said the installation of the statue had met a long standing demand of the people.