Swami Vivekananda was a disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Vivekananda believed in a humanist religion in which serving the poor was more important than practicing rituals. In 1895 he went to Chicago to participate in the World Religious Conference. His defense of Hinduism made an impression on the western mind. Yet as a critic of superstitious religion, he put emphasis on the revival of the ancient knowledge of the Hindus in order to restore the greatness of the Indian nation.
Swami Vivekananda believed that for this purpose, besides cultivation of knowledge, physical culture was equally important to strengthen national prowess. It inspired the physical culture movement which became very important in militant nationalism at the turn of the nineteenth century. He felt that the spiritualism of Hindu religion needed to be combined with modern science and technology from the west. To Vivekananda religion was also social service. He imbibed the Christian monastic ideal and laid the foundation of Ramakrishna Mission for this purpose.