Kaliprasad Chandra
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Swami Abhedananda was born on 2 October 1866 as Kaliprasad Chandra. He was a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and was known as "Kali Tapaswi" to his fellow discipiles. His father was Rasiklal Chandra and his mother was Nayantara Devi. After the passing away of Sri Ramakrishna, he formally became a Sanyasi along with Swami Vivekananda and others, and came to be known as "Swami Abhedananda".
During his life as a monk he travelled extensively throughout India, depending entirely on alms. During this time he met several famous sages like Paohari Baba, Trailanga Swami and Swami Bhaskaranand. He went to the sources of the Ganga and the Yamuna, and meditated in the Himalayas. He was a forceful orator, prolific writer, yogi and intellectual with devotional fervor. Swami Vivekananda asked him to propagate the message of Vedanta in the West, which he did with great success. He went to USA in 1897 and preached messages of Vedanta and teachings of his Guru for about 25 years. In 1921, he returned to India.
In 1922, he transcended the Himalayas on foot and reached Tibet, where he studied Buddhistic philosophy and Lamaism. In Hemis Monastery, he discovered a manuscript on the unknown life of Jesus Christ, which has been incorporated in the book Swami Abhedananda's Journey Into Kashmir & Tibet published by the Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, Kolkata. 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 West Bengal. In 1927, he started publishing Visvavani, the monthly magazine from 'Ramakrishna Vedanta Society', which is published today as well.
He died on 8 September 1939.
[edit] Trivia
- In 1922, he visited the Hemis monastery in Tibet and translated into English the documents relating to Unknown life of Jesus Christ
- Dr. C. V. Raman and Sir Thomas Alva Edison had met with him.
