Swami Ashokananda

Swami Ashokananda (1893-1969) was a much-venerated monk of the Ramakrishna Order. He was ordained into sannyasa by Swami Shivananda, and was the editor of Prabuddha Bharata, an English monthly of the Ramakrishna Order brought out from the Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati in Uttaranchal. He was an outstanding writer and speaker and the leader of the Vedanta Society of Northern California (San Fransisco) from 1931 until his passing away in 1969.

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

Swami Ashokananda was the guru of Sister Gargi (Marie Louise Burke) - the great author of Swami Vivekananda in the West - New Discoveries. Her biography of her Guru (A Heart Poured Out) and her journal (A Disciple's Journal) are very inspiring reading.

Just one of innumerable experiences of his life: (I plan to add more later)

1. When he (Swami Ashokananda) was near trees, his mind would sometimes grow very quiet, and his ordinary consciousness, human consciousness, would be obliterated, as it were, and tree consciousness would take its place, a consciousness entirely unlike our own—a different time sense, a different way of knowing and feeling, indescribable in terms of human consciousness. He felt at one with trees, just as we feel at one with human beings. He knew trees to be very happy, peaceful beings. He could almost hear their laughter. It was, he said, like the laughter of young girls around sixteen or seventeen years old, and yet restrained.

-- A Heart Poured out, the biography of the Swami, by Sister Gargi, Page 63