SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
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acceptance, and a brilliant group of enthusiastic young men became his ardent adherents. It was here that his intention to attend the Parliament of Religions took a definite shape. During the months of March and April, 1893, the disciples of the Swami took active steps to raise requisite funds for this purpose. But before leaving for America, the Swami had to visit Khetri at the earnest importunities of the Maharaja, his disciple. It was at the court of the Maharaja of Khetri that the Swami, at the Maharaja’s request, assumed the name of Vivekananda by which he was to be known in future. He sailed from Bombay on May 31, 1893—a memorable day for India.
FROM THE OLD WORLD TO THE NEW Swami Vivekananda went by way of Ceylon, Penang, Singapore, Hongkong, and then visited Canton and Nagasaki. From there he went by land to Yokohama, seeing Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo. The Swami gradually accustomed himself to the life on board the ship. His rich imaginative nature saw beauty, in a thousand forms, in the swelling and