It was when these ideas were taking shape in his mind in the course of his wanderings that Swami Vivekananda heard about the WORLD'S PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS to be held in CHICAGO in 1893. His friends and admirers in India wanted him to attend the Parliament. He too felt that the Parliament would provide the right forum to present his Master's message to the world, and so he decided to go to America. Another reason which prompted Swamiji to go to America was to seek financial help for his project of uplifting the masses. 

     Swamiji, however, wanted to have an inner certitude and divine call regarding his mission. Both of these he got while he sat in deep meditation on the rock-island at KANYAKUMARI. With the funds partly collected by his CHENNAI disciples and partly provided by the RAJA OF KHETRI, Swami Vivekananda left for America from Mumbai on 31 MAY 1893.

    His speeches at WORLD PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS held in September 1893 made him famous as an 'orator by divine right' and as a 'Messenger of Indian wisdom to the Western world'. After the Parliament, Swamiji spent nearly three and a half years spreading Vedanta as lived and taught by Sri Ramakrishna, mostly in the eastern parts of USA ans also in London.

    He returned to India in January 1897. In response to the enthusiastic welcome that he received everywhere, he delivered a series of lectures in different parts of India, which created a great stir all over the country. Through theses inspiring and profoundly significant lectures Swamiji attempted to do the following:

• to rouse the religious consciousness of the people and create in them pride in their pride in their cultural heritage;
• to bring about unification of HINDUISM by pointing out the common bases of its sects;
• to focus the attention of educated people on the plight for their uplift by the application of the principles of Practical Vedanta.

     Soon after his return to Kolkata, Swami Vivekananda accomplished another important task of his mission on earth. He founded on 1 MAY 1897  a unique type of organization know an RAMAKRISHNA MISSION, in which monks and lay people would jointly undertake propagation of PRACTICAL VEDANTA, and various forms of social service, such as running hospitals, schools, colleges, hostels, rural developments centers etc, and conducting massive relief and rehabilitation work for victims of earthquakes , cyclones, and other calamities, in different parts of India and other countries.

   In early 1898 Swami Vivekananda acquired a big plot of land on the western bank of the Ganga at a place called BELUR to have a permanent abode for the monastery and monastic Order originally started at Baranagar, and got it registered as RAMAKRISHNA MATH after a couple of years. Here Swamiji established a new, universal pattern of monastic life which adapts ancient monastic ideals to the conditions of modern life, which gives equal importance to personal illumination and social service, and which is open to all men without any distinction of religion, race or caste.

   It may be mentioned here that in the West many people were influenced by Swami Vivekanand's life and message. Some of them became his disciples or devoted friends. Among them the names of MARGARET NOBLE (later known as Sis. Nivedita), Captain and Mrs. Sevier, Josephine McLeod and Sara Ole Bull, deserve special mention. Nivedita dedicated her life to educating girls in Kolkata. Swamiji had many Indian disciples also, some of who, joined Ramakrishna Math and became sannyasins.

    In June 1899 he went to the West on a second visit. This time he spent most of his time in the West coast of USA. After delivering many lectures there, he returned to Belur Math in Deccember 1900. The rest of hid life was spent in India, inspiring and guiding people, both monastic and lay. Incessant work, especially giving lectures and inspiring people, told upon Swamiji's health. His health deteriorated and the end came quietly on the night of 4 July 1902. Before his Mahasamadhi he had written to a Western follower: "It may be that I shall find it good to get outside my body, to cast it off like a worn out garment. But I shall not cease to work. I shall inspire men everywhere until the whole world shall know that it is one with GOD."