Swami Paramananda, the brother of Labanya (wife of Ajit Kumar Chakraborty), was reluctant to let Rabindranath and his Party off without offering their lunch. (Swami Paramananda (1884-1940)was sent to America in 1906 at the age of twenty-two to assist at the previously established New York Vedanta Society. He lived and taught there until 1909, when Paramananda established the Vedanta Centre of Boston. He lectured throughout the United States, Europe and Asia for thirty-four years, until his death in 1940. He founded four centers still thriving today, two in the United States and two in Calcutta, India. The American ashramas are in Cohasset, Massachusetts and La Crescenta, California. Like his teacher, Swami Vivekananda, Paramananda believed in equality between men and women. He established disciplined communities of nuns under the supervision of Sister Devamata (1867–1942) his American first disciple, whom he ordained to teach Vedanta from the platform in 1910. Throughout the entire history of the community, women were accorded positions of leadership in all areas of the work. The first Indian woman to join the community was Gayatri Devi (1906–1995), who was brought by Paramananda in 1926 to be trained as one of his assistants. Srimata Gayatri Devi became the spiritual leader of the centers upon Swami Paramananda's death in 1940 and the first Indian woman to be ordained a teacher in America.Swami Paramananda founded the "Message of the East" in 1909, the first Vedanta periodical published in the United States which continued for 55 years, offering articles, poetry and commentary on all religions in its monthly, and later quarterly, magazine. He authored translations of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita and The Upanishads as well as four volumes of mystical poetry, “The Vigil”, “Rhythm of Life”, “Soul’s Secret Door” and “My Creed” and many other books and publications)
Rabindranath was to meet Mrs Jack Gardener residing opposite to Vedanta Society and hence he accepted the invitation of Swami Paramananda.
In the year 1912 when Rabindranath came for the first time in America, Okakura made him introduced with Gardner and the main object of this meeting was to collect money for Viswa Bharati. But Mrs Gardner was very old and her wealth too was almost exhausted.As a result Rabindranath had to go back to Harvard University for his second lecture on "The meeting of the East and West".
(Isabella Stewart Gardner (April 14, 1840 – July 17, 1924) – founder of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston – was an American art collector, philanthropist, and one of the foremost female patrons of the arts.
Isabella Stewart, daughter of David and Adelia (Smith) Stewart, was born in New York City. Her Stewart ancestry, by tradition, has a descent from King Fergus. Isabella Stewart Gardner had a zest for life, an energetic intellectual curiosity and a love of travel. She was a friend of noted artists and writers of the day, including John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, Anders Zorn, Henry James, Okakura Kakuzo and Francis Marion Crawford.
The Boston society pages called her by many names, including "Belle," "Donna Isabella," "Isabella of Boston," and "Mrs. Jack." Gardner .)
