10 Facts About Swami Ashokananda

Swami Ashokananda, born as Yogeshchandra Dutta, was a disciple of Swami Vivekananda of India and a monk of the Ramakrishna Math.

Swami Ashokananda spent his childhood days in Durgapur, a village seven or eight miles west of the town of Habibganj in the Sylhet district of Assam.

Swami Ashokananda attended Murari Chand College in Sylhet, for two years, followed by two years at City College of the University of Calcutta where he won a gold medal for English literature.

Swami Ashokananda joined the Ramakrishna Order in 1920, at the Madras center.

Swami Ashokananda served as an editor of the Prabuddha Bharata, English monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order, from 1926 to December 1930, during which time he refuted some of Mahatma Gandhi's political and economic views.

Swami Ashokananda in his turn was an idealist, a man of religion, but spirituality did not obstruct him to see and understand the material needs of the millions.

Swami Ashokananda took over as the editor of the Prabuddha Bharata in June 1926.

In 1931, Swami Ashokananda left India for serving in the Vedanta Society of Northern California.

Swami Ashokananda reached San Francisco on the 4th of July 1931 and would spend the rest of his life there.

Swami Ashokananda rendered great service to the cause of the Vedanta movement in the West by his clear and thorough expositions of Vedantic teachings through lectures and classes for nearly four decades.