Breakfast with the Sisters: A Meeting of Great Minds -6

Nandalal once drew a picture of himself and Suren Ganguly sitting with Sister Nivedita and Sister Christine at the 'Sister's house at Bosepara—1908 or 1909'. Years later he said about Nivedita, 'When she died, it was like being deprived of the presence of a guiding angel.'

Nandalal Bose, Abanindranath Tagore, and Asit Haldar were among the artists who did the illustrations for Myths and Legends of the Hindus and Buddhists, by Sister Nivedita and Ananda K Coomaraswamy. These exquisite drawings were included in the first edition of the book, published in London in 1913, after Nivedita's death. As Nivedita did not finish the book, it was edited and completed after her death by Coomaraswamy. The present edition of the book, published by Advaita Ashrama, also includes these drawings.

Though Nivedita was a prolific writer herself, she probably spent more time working with other writers on their works. First and foremost of these was Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, the famous botanist. It is well known that Nivedita did much to bring J C Bose to prominence in the field of science. She not only helped him write several books—Living and Non-Living, Plant Response, Comparative Electro-Physiology, and Irritability of Plants—but also wrote about him in newspapers and journals at a time when British scientists were dismissing his work, or sometimes even obstructing and thwarting it. Thus Bose was a daily visitor to The House of the Sisters.

From : Pravrajika Shuddhatmaprana :  Pravrajika Shuddhatmaprana is a senior Sanyasini of the Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission...to be continued