Swami Ashokananda

Yogeshchandra Dutta (1893 – December 1969), known as Swami Ashokananda from 1923, was a disciple of Vivekananda of India and a monk of the Ramakrishna Math. From 1932 until his death in December 1969 at the age of 76 he was in charge of the Vedanta Society of Northern California, San Francisco (founded by Vivekananda in 1900).

Dutta was born in the village of Bekitaka. He spent his childhood days in Durgapur, a village seven or eight miles west of the town of Habibganj in the Sylhet district of Assam (now part of Bangladesh).

He joined the Ramakrishna Order in 1921 and was ordained into Sannyasa in 1923 by Swami Shivananda, second President of the Order. He served as an editor of the Prabuddha Bharata, English monthly organ of the Ramakrishna Order, from 1926 to 1930, during which time he refuted some of Mahatma Gandhi's political and economic views.

His story continued in California, starting in the early 1930s, when the Eastern Religions were still looked upon with suspicion in the Western world. Under his leadership the Vedanta Society of Northern California built three temples (in San Francisco, Berkeley and Sacramento) and bought two thousand acres of land in Olema that became the largest Vedanta Retreat in America.

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. A pioneer on the Vedanta frontier, he established new Vedanta Centres in Berkeley and Sacramento, developed the 2000-acre Vedanta Retreat at Olema (still the largest in the western hemisphere), and built the large New Temple in San Francisco to accommodate the Society's growing membership and activities. His contributions to the Vedanta Movement in America are well known, as are his lectures in print, which have become a popular source of inspiration since the first collection was published in 1970.

As her spiritual teacher, Gargi saw Ashokananda as a compassionate guide. An adherent of Advaita (non-dual) Vedanta, he was aware of the divinity of all life and he saw in his disciples their potential perfection. Beyond their human quirks and ego-bound foibles, she says, he beheld the pure Spirit, and his role as a teacher was to polish the mirror of each disciple's perception to reflect this inner light.

From 1953 onward his lectures were recorded on tape. Some of them have been transcribed and published.

• Meditate while you work – a new path for a new age
• When the many become One
• Spiritualising everyday life
• Swami Vivekananda in San Francisco
• Swami Brahmananda
• Swami Premananda
• Memoirs of Swami Shivananda
• The Teacher-Prophets of Vedanta
• The Theory and Practice of Monism
• The Razor's Edge
• Ritualism : Its place in Spiritual Life
• When the heart cries for God
• God and God-men in Vedanta
• Meditation, Ecstasy and Illumination
• Avadhuta Gita is his translation of that ancient treatise on Advaita philosophy by Dattatreya avadhuta.
• Shafts of Light is a compilation of over 800 of his directives to his disciples.
• His disciple Sister Gargi has written his biography – A Heart Poured Out

• ^ Sister Gargi; Shelley Brown, eds. (2004). Shafts of light : selected teachings of Swami Ashokananda for spiritual practice (1st ed.). New York: Kalpa Tree Press. ISBN 978-0-9706368-3-6. 

"Swami Ashokananda's words emanated from the depths of his direct, illumined perception of the highest truths of Vedanta, and ignited in his listeners the longing for realization on their own." – American Vedantist

"Who was this man that one word of his could bore its way to the very heart of my being and resound there for years like a rousing gong?" – Sister Gargi

"Swami Ashokananda saw in his students their potential perfection. he brought courage and strength to hundreds of lives." – The Beacon

"Swami Ashokananda was a brilliant and accomplished spiritual teacher in the West." – Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions and Why Religion Matters.

"His personality was like a flame that could change the darkest chasms of one's mind into fields of light." – Sister Gargi

"Swami Ashokananda was a dynamic speaker, one of the best, and he attracted a steady stream of congregants to the Vedanta Society of Northern California." – Dr. Shelly Brown

"Swamiji (Swami Vivekananda) liked Swami Sadananda so much because he could write a little. He thought highly of him. But if he had known Ashokananda he would have always kept him close in his heart." – Swami Shivananda

"For almost twenty years I sat at the feet of Swami Ashokananda. I learned from him, was amazed by him, enchanted by him—and often left in profound awe." – Sister Gargi

"We are all thrashing about in a dark and hurtful world, and all the while we can light our own indistinguishable lamp of strength and wisdom by which we can see our way. This was Swami Ashokananda's faith, indeed, his knowledge, and so sure was that knowledge that he gave his life to showing us how to light our own lamps." – Sister Gargi