Swami Abhedananda
Abhedananda, c. 1910
Personal
Born	Kaliprasad Chandra (1866-10-02)2 October 1866 Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India
Died	8 September 1939(1939-09-08) (aged 72) Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India
Religion	Hindu
Philosophy	Advaita Vedanta
Senior posting
Guru	Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Swami Abhedananda (2 October 1866 – 8 September 1939), born Kaliprasad Chandra, was a direct disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of Ramakrishna Vedanta Math. Swami Vivekananda sent him to the West to head the Vedanta Society of New York in 1897, and spread the message of Vedanta, a theme on which he authored several books through his life, and subsequently founded the Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Darjeeling.

Early life and education

He was born in north Calcutta on 2 October 1866 and was named Kaliprasad Chandra.^[1] His father was Rasiklal Chandra and his mother was Nayantara Devi. In 1884, at the age of 18, while studying for the school final examination under the University of Calcutta, he went to Dakshineswar and met Sri Ramakrishna. Thereafter, in April 1885, he left home to be with him, during his final illness, first at Shyampukur and then at Cossipur Garden-house near Calcutta.

Monastic life

After his Master's death in 1886, he plunged into intense sadhana (meditations), by shutting himself up in a room at the Baranagar matha, this gave him the name "Kali Tapaswi" amongst his fellow disciples.^[1] After the death of Ramakrishna, he formally became a Sanyasi along with Vivekananda and others, and came to be known as "Swami Abhedananda Puri".^[2]

For the next ten years, of his life as a monk, he travelled extensively throughout India, depending entirely on alms. During this time he met several famous sages like Pavhari Baba, Trailanga Swami and Swami Bhaskaranand. He went to the sources of the Ganges and the Yamuna, and meditated in the Himalayas. He was a forceful orator, prolific writer, yogi and intellectual with devotional fervour.^{[citation needed]}

In 1896, Vivekananda was in London, when he asked Abhedananda to join him, and propagate the message of Vedanta in the West, which he did with great success. He went to the US in 1897, when Vivekananda asked him to take charge of the Vedanta Society in New York, here he preached messages of Vedanta and teachings of his Guru^[3] for about 25 years, travelling far and wide to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Hong Kong. Finally, he returned to India in 1921, after attending the Pan-Pacific Education Conference at Honolulu.^[4] Abhedananda was a strict vegetarian who lectured on the subject. In 1898, he gave a speech on "Why a Hindu is a Vegetarian" to the Vegetarian Society of New York.^[5]

In 1922, he crossed the Himalayas on foot and reached Tibet, where he studied Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan Buddhism. In Hemis Monastery, he claimed to have discovered a manuscript on the lost years of Jesus,^[6] which has been incorporated in the book Swami Abhedananda's Journey into Kashmir & Tibet published by the Ramakrishna Vedanta Math. Years earlier, writer Nicolas Notovitch claimed to have found the same manuscript in the same place; however, when philologist Max Müller wrote to the monastery to ask for further details, the lama confirmed that no Westerner had visited the monastery in the fifteen years prior, and that no such manuscript existed. Müller concluded that the story was a hoax; other historians agree.^{[7][8][9][10]}

He formed the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society in Kolkata in 1923, which is now known as Ramakrishna Vedanta Math. In 1924, he established Ramakrishna Vedanta Math in Darjeeling in Bengal Presidency (now West Bengal). In 1927, he started publishing Visvavani, the monthly magazine of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society, which he edited from 1927 to 1938,^[6] and which is still published today. In 1936, he presided over the Parliament of Religions at the Town Hall, Calcutta, as a part the birth centenary celebrations of Ramakrishna.^[1]

He died on 8 September 1939 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math. At the time of his death, he was the last surviving direct disciple of Ramakrishna.^[4]

Works