Vedanta Sadhana and Shakti Puja

Swami Swahananda was the minister and spiritual leader of the Vedanta Society of Southern California from 1976 to 2012.

He was born in a village near Habiganj in what is now Bangladesh, and was initiated in 1937 by Swami Vijnanananda, one of Sri Ramakrishna’s direct disciples.

He received his undergraduate degree from Murari Chand College in Sylhet, India and earned an M.A.in English Literature and Language from the University of Calcutta. He joined the Ramakrishna Order in 1947 and received sannyasa, final vows, in 1956.

After joining the Order, he served in Ramakrishna Math, Madras and, later, as editor of the Order’s English journal, the “Vedanta Kesari”. He was the head of the Ramakrishna Mission centre in New Delhi. He came to the United States in 1968 as the Assistant Minister of the San Francisco Vedanta Society and was later appointed head of the Vedanta Society of Berkeley, California. In December of 1976 he was transferred to Hollywood, the headquarters of the Vedanta Society of Southern California.

Swami Swahananda authored many books and articles on religious life and spirituality including: Meditation and Other Spiritual Disciplines; Hindu Symbology and Other Essays, and Service and Spirituality.