In December 1905, he attended the All India Congress session held in Benaras. On his journey back home, he met Sister Nivedita, Swami Vivekananda's spiritual heir. She inspired Bharati to recognise the privileges of women and the emancipation of women exercised Bharati's mind. He visualised the new woman as an emanation of Shakti, a willing helpmate of man to build a new earth through co-operative endeavour. He considered Nivedita as his Guru and penned a couple of lyrics praising her.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subramanya_Bharathi
http://www.india-intro.com/history/historical-places/736-bharathiyar-illam-subramanya-bharathis-house-a-legacy-in-chennai.html
Memorials
Memorials for Swami Vivekananda and nationalist poet Subramania Bharathi in the crowded Triplicane area are examples of how concerted efforts by devoted followers will pay off handsomely.
Vivekanandar Illam, popularly known as Ice House as shiploads of ice brought from America were stored here 150 years ago, is a landmark on Kamarajar Salai. When Swami Vivekananda returned to Chennai in 1897 after his tour of the West he was accommodated in Castle Kernan in Ice House, which had been transformed into a residential building with cavernous walls.
The place where Vivekananda stayed between February 6 and 15 in 1897 was renamed as Vivekanandar Illam. When Ice House became a Government property, it was named Vivekananda House in 1963.
On the occasion of the celebration of the 100th anniversary in 1997 it was leased to the Ramakrishna Math for setting up a permanent exhibition on Swami Vivekananda and Indian cultural heritage.
Forty-three paintings tracing the evolution of Indian culture to the advent of Sri Ramakrishna and around 120 laminated photographs, with English and Tamil footnotes, associated with Swami Vivekananda from his days as an itinerant monk are exhibited in the circular verandah.
The walls are embellished with aesthetically handcrafted plaques with floral motifs and Swami Vivekananda’s messages.
The room where the leader stayed has been converted into a room for meditation.
The conversion of Bharathiar Illam located in Triplicane into a memorial in 1993 makes for interesting reading. In the early 1970s, Bharathiar Ilakiya Mandram members could not hold festivals at the Illam during poet Subramania Bharathi’s birth anniversary as it became a private property. The members of the Bharathiar Ilakiya Mandram took the matter to court before the Government took over the building.
Vanavil Cultural Centre continues to celebrate his birth anniversaries grandly by taking out a procession of the poet’s portrait from Parthasarathy temple to the memorial in a palanquin, fulfilling his wish for a ‘jadi pallakku’.
The memorial houses a collection of rare pictures of Bharathiar, his house and family, manuscripts of his poems and covers of some of his books such as ‘Panchali Sabadham’ and ‘Pudhiya Athichudi’.
Mahatma Gandhi’s handwritten wishes in Tamil for the inauguration of a Bharathiar memorial in Ettayapuram in 1948 comes as a surprise to many.
Pasupathi and his wife from Mylapore, who spent time reading the legends on the exhibits, said: “We regularly visit such memorials as they not only educate us about the great persons but are also inspirational.”
The hall constructed adjacent to the house is rented for public and literary meetings at a nominal rate.
Research scholars regularly visit the library in the memorial to read books of the Tamil poet Bharathi, a government staff at the memorial said.
