His Holiness Swami Swahananda

Swami Swahananda, a senior monk of the Ramakrishna order in India, is the minister and spiritual leader of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. He was born in a village near Habiganj in what is now Bangladesh. 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 was personally initiated in 1937 by one of Sri Ramakrishna's direct disciples, Swami Vijnanananda.In 1947 he joined the Ramakrishna Order and in 1956 received sannyasa, or final vows. After joining the order he served in the Madras Math and later as editor of the order's scholarly publication, the Vedanta Kesari. Before his journey to the US, he served as head of the Delhi Center, the first center of the Ramakrishna Order, in the capital of India.
 

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 1976 he was transferred to Hollywood, the headquarters of the Vedanta Society of Southern California, where he remains the minister today. In the late 1980s he was invited to lecture in Moscow and offer spiritual guidance. The swami gives lectures regularly at the Vedanta branch centers in Southern California. He also lectures in many places throughout North America.
 

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

Swami Swahananda gave very important spiritual guidance to Swami Ramakrishnananda, and in 2007 he accepted him officially as his disciple and initiated him in the holy spiritual line of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the Holy Mother Sharada Devi, offering “diksha” officially. 
 

His Holiness Swami Swahananda is very dear to Swami Ramakrishnananda, and one of the most important siksha gurus or "instructing spiritual masters" in his life.