Margaret Elizabeth Noble, better known as Sister Nivedita, was born in Ireland. Her father, Samuel Richard Noble, was a clergyman in some poor parish in Ireland.
Margaret, the eldest daughter, was devoted to her father’s ideals and dreams; and she caught the spirit of selfless service. At the age of six, she learnt how to read the Bible, and offered to visit the old and sick people and read the holy book aloud to them.
Margaret began writing at the age of twenty. She met Swami Vivekananda in England, and was immensely influenced by his ideals and speeches. She came to India in 1898, and stayed in a house of the Ramakrishan Mission at Baghbazar, Calcutta. Since then, she came to be known as ‘Sister Nivedita’.
Nivedita started a girls’ school in the locality, and began to teach young girls who were in those days not allowed to study in a school. Sister Nivedita used to go personally to the parents, and requested them to allow their daughters to attend the school. Besides, she devoted herself in many other social works and became closely connected with Indian nationalism, as she loved India. ‘
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When Aurobindo Ghosh left for Pondichery, being chased by the British Intelligence Agency for his dangerous terrorist activities, Sister Nivedita took over the charge of editing his popular journal, Karma Yogin, in his absence.
Sister Nivedita loved India as her motherland, and the Indians as her brothers and sisters. She died in Calcutta at the age of forty-four.