Over a century ago, Swami Vivekananda, the prophet of modern India and apostle of Vedanta in the West, strongly emphasized the importance of broadening the scope of education from being merely a book-learning and information-collecting exercise to becoming a man-making and character-building assimilation of life-giving ideas. Further, for an effective system of education, he suggested combining the best elements of ancient spiritual traditions of the East with modern scientific traditions of the West. During his short but intensely active life, Swami Vivekananda (Swamiji) also sowed the seeds for future development along this front, by nurturing a culture of education in the newly-established Ramakrishna Math, facilitating and directly establishing educational initiatives as well as inspiring others to do so, most notably Jamshedji Tata, who went on to establish the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. The Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute (RKMVERI) is a humble initiative started by the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, the worldwide spiritual humanitarian organization established by Swamiji, towards implementing this vision of education more comprehensively.