Spiritual Leaders
Swami Swahananda
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 the Madras Math and, later, as editor of the Order’s scholarly publication, the “Vedanta Kesari”. 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. Immediately prior to coming to this country, Swami was head of the Delhi Center, the premier center of the Ramakrishna Order in the capital of India.
In December of 1976 he was transferred to Hollywood, the headquarters of the Vedanta Society of Southern California.
In the late 1980s Swami Swahananda was invited to lecture in Moscow and provide spiritual guidance. The swami gave lectures regularly at the Vedanta branch centers in Southern California. He also lectured in many places throughout North America.
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.
While in America, Swami established seventeen centers and subcenters throughout the country. He was a true ambassador for Vedanta. His clear and profound teachings, exemplary life, and stainless character will continue to be an inspiration to all.
Swami Sarvadevananda
Swami Sarvadevananda, the minister and spiritual leader of the Vedanta Society of Southern California, is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order of India. He lived near Belur Math from 1960 onward, and thus got the opportunity to come into contact with many monks who were initiated by Holy Mother, Swami Brahmananda, Swami Shivananda, and other direct disciples of Ramakrishna.
Swami was initiated by Swami Shankarananda, the 7th President of the Order, in 1961, and joined the monastery at Belur Math, near Kolkata, in 1965. For the next two decades, he served at Saradapitha, a major educational and technical training institution next to Belur Math, managing and imparting spiritual values to the students of the teachers’ training institute, the Vidyamandir college, and the technical training schools. During this time, he also had the privilege to serve at a camp for refugees affected by the Bangladesh war in 1971.
Swami became the head of the Ramakrishna Mission, Sikra, the birthplace of Swami Brahmananda, in 1988. While there, he initiated literacy and health programs for hundreds of underprivileged villagers and performed relief and rehabilitation work for the homeless.
In 1993, Swami Sarvadevananda was posted to the Vedanta Society of Southern California to serve as assistant minister, under Swami Swahananda. He was appointed the minister and spiritual leader of the Vedanta Society in 2012.
In addition to regular lectures and classes, Swami Sarvadevananda addresses schools, colleges, and religious groups throughout Southern California and other parts of the United States whenever called upon. He represented the Vedanta Society as a delegate on the Interreligious Council of Southern California and the Hindu-Catholic and Hindu-Episcopal Dialogue of Los Angeles, serves as one of the directors of the Hindu Students’ Organization at USC, and sits on the Advisory Council of the Guibord Center. Swami frequently visits Vedanta centers throughout the United States.
Swami Atmajnanananda
Swami Atmajnanananda joined the Ramakrishna Order under Swami Swahananda at the Vedanta Society of Southern California in 1981 and spent his first sixteen years at the Ramakrishna Monastery in Trabuco Canyon. He took Brahmacharya vows from Swami Bhuteshananda at Belur Math in 1992 as well as Sannyasa vows in 1996. In 1997 he was transferred to the newly formed Vedanta Center of Greater Washington, DC and has been serving there ever since.