Swami Paramananda: Mystic, Poet and Teacher

Swami Paramananda: Mystic, Poet and Teacher is an outstanding biography of a pioneer teacher iin the West. The book provides a first-person account of his life and teachings. A large collection of photographs adds richness and meaning.

Originally published in 1926 (while the swami was still alive) as Swami Paramananda and His Work, the book has been updated with eleven new chapters—approximately 200 pages. Swami Paramananda’s closing years as well as his passing are well documented.

Swami Paramananda was a senior monk in the Ramakrishna Order for 34 years until his passing in 1940. The youngest monastic disciple of Swami Vivekananda, he founded the Vedanta Centre in Boston, Massachusetts in 1909 and later Ananda Ashrama in La Crescenta, California. In the same year, he established a women's monastic community and ordained an American woman, Sister Devamata, to teach Vedanta from the platform. His ashramas continue to flourish to this day, although they have become independent of the Ramakrishna Order.

Swami Paramananda translated the Bhagavad-Gita and the Upanishads, and has authored numerous books such as The Path of Devotion, Concentration and Meditation, Self Mastery and many others.