“America’s First Guru,” a new documentary on Swami Vivekananda, will premiere on PBS stations across the country for the first time in American television history. Not only is it the first documentary directed by an Indian, but it is also the first of its kind.
The compelling story of how Yoga, Vedanta, and the highest ideals of Indian wisdom first entered the public discourse in 1893 with Swami Vivekananda’s arrival at the first World’s Parliament of Religion in Chicago is told in my new feature-length documentary film America’s First Guru, which will air on Public Television in May 2024. In just six short years, he travelled the nation, transforming American religion, culture, interfaith dialogue, and gender equality. He praised the diversity and universality of all religions. He became America’s First Guru and forever altered the Western world’s perception of India.
Three years ago, our presenter, WTTW PBS Chicago, fell in love with the concept and offered to bring it to the world of public television. With significant support and funding from The Dharma Endowment Foundation (Michael Singer), Sumir Chadha, Surja Bose, and other sources, we started production in the winter of 2022. The incredible New York actor Samrat Chakrabarti embodied Swamiji, and other notable actors who appear in the movie include Swami Sarvapriyananda, Swami Medhananda, Ruth Harris, AL Bardach, Jeffery Long, and Phil Goldberg.
We will screen the movie at special preview screenings at Princeton University, Harvard University, NYC, LA, Chicago, and The Bay Area in advance of our May broadcast. We will stream it on Prime Video and the PBS App after it airs. Then we are off to present it to the entire world.
Growing up, I was introduced to Swami Vivekananda through my father, who had a strong devotion to Sri Ramakrishna and Swamiji. He found great strength in his beliefs and worked as an engineer for the World Health Organisation (WHO) building hospitals in Nigeria, where I was born. He used to often tell us about Vivekananda’s famous speech in America, wherein he exhorted the youth of India to realise their own potential. I went on to study architecture in London and then came to America in 1998. In 1999, I relocated to New York City and began studying under the esteemed Ramakrishna Mission Monk, Swami Adiswarananda.Indian engineers, scientists, immigrants, entrepreneurs, artists, and intellectuals who came to America have always been inspired by Swami Vivekananda’s story. His influence on Americans both then and now, particularly on women, philanthropists, artists, academics, religious thinkers, and even Nikola Tesla, is less well known. I try to tell that story.
We spent 14 years in India after returning in 2007 to have our daughter, and it was there that I began my serious filmmaking career. In 2014, my documentary, The Quantum Indians, was honoured with a National Film Award. After our 2021 return to the United States, I have the opportunity to introduce Swami Vivekananda to a global audience. I believe I have shattering the glass ceiling for Indian storytellers on American public television with America’s First Guru. I hope that this marks the beginning of a fantastic journey that will tell the story of the Indian Americans and demonstrate how our wisdom has shaped and changed the world.
