In 1896, a French play was being showcased on the life of Gautam Buddha. When the lead actress, Sarah Bernhardt, saw Swami Vivekananda in the audience, she immediately arranged a meeting with him. Nikola Tesla was also invited to this meeting. By that time, Swami Vivekananda had already gained popularity in the West because of his immense knowledge of Western culture and his interpretation of the Vedas. At the same time, Nikola Tesla had already invented the AC motor, along with many other electrical innovations, and had established the Nikola Tesla Company. Their conversation flowed naturally from one topic to another, and before long, Tesla found answers to many of his questions—insights that later contributed to several of his discoveries in the years to come.

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Among the many profound concepts in the Vedas, the tenets of prana, akasha, and kalpas—the elementary precepts of Vedic philosophy—coincided with Tesla's principles of vital energy, the ether, and the aeon. By the end of the meeting, Tesla assured Swami Vivekananda that there was a remarkable resonance between Western science and the traditions of Hinduism. Along with this realization, Tesla made a firm resolve to mathematically prove that force and matter could be expressed in terms of energy.

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This marked the beginning of a friendship and a lifelong search for the connection between Vedic doctrines and scientific research on the concepts of frequency, energy, and vibration. So strong was Swami Vivekananda’s influence on Tesla that he became a vegetarian and chose never to marry. The Samkhya cosmology of the Vedas left such a deep impression on Tesla that he saw an echo of it in the “matter and energy” of modern physics.

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As Tesla gained more insights into force and matter, he recognized the bond of prana and akasha in the vast study of the universe. He established the concept of energy on the tenets of frequency and vibration—the very foundations on which the world functions. In “Man’s Greatest Achievement”, an article published in 1907, Tesla even mentioned the terms prana and akasha.

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Swami Vivekananda, eager to see Tesla’s progress and discoveries, wrote about him in one of his letters. A disciple of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Vivekananda was groomed to become a beacon of Vedantic philosophy. He mastered the Vedas and applied their wisdom to modern contexts, building a philosophy that resonated with people who placed greater faith in science than in traditional belief systems. Vivekananda traveled across India and abroad, seeking to connect science and engineering with the spiritual world, thereby expounding what he called spiritual engineering.

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With both a modern English university education and seamless knowledge of the Vedas, Swami Vivekananda became one of the greatest spiritual leaders of all time. His worldly perspective, enriched by extensive travels and his early training as a disciple, gave depth to his teachings. He propagated a vision of spiritualism deeply connected with science—a vision that makes his ideas relevant and approachable even today.

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Science and philosophy are often considered worlds apart. Yet Swami Vivekananda understood that they are not separate. One cannot truly grasp either without knowledge of the other. According to him, science helps us find answers about the outer world, while religion paves the way to explore the inner world of the heart. Modern societies, he observed, are failing because they cannot maintain a balance between practical living and the depth of philosophy. This imbalance leads to frustration and dissatisfaction. The right balance, Vivekananda believed, can only be achieved by applying science to reason everything, and spiritualism to understand everything.

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In his biography, we find references to Swami Vivekananda’s correspondence with Nikola Tesla, which reveal his deep fondness for the inventor. Historical accounts also suggest the great lengths Tesla went to attend Swamiji’s lectures. Tesla was profoundly impressed by Vivekananda’s Vedantic philosophy and absorbed many of these concepts into his theories and research.