Swami Ashokananda (1893 – December 1969) was a monk of a Ramakrishna Math and Mission. He was the Swami-in-charge of the Vedanta Society of Northern California, San Francisco (founded by Swami Vivekananda in 1900) from 1932 till his death in December 1969 at the age of 76.
“Swami Ashokananda was a brilliant and accomplished spiritual teacher in the West.” – Huston Smith, author of ‘The World’s Religions’ & ‘Why Religion Matters’.
Life
He was born Yogeshchandra Datta was born on September 23 of 1893, in the village of Durgapur, East Bengal, India (Presently Bangladesh).
He joined the Ramakrishna Order in 1921 and took the vow of Sannyasa in 1923 from Swami Shivananda, second President of the Order. He served as the editor of the Prabuddha Bharata, English monthly organ of the Ramakrishna Order, from 1926 to 1930.
Works
The Swami rendered great service to the cause of the Vedanta movement in the West by his clear and thorough expositions of Vedantic teachings through lectures and classes for nearly four decades. During his ministry the Vedanta Society expanded its activities greatly, adding to it two sub-centres and two forest retreats and a new temple at San Francisco. He also promoted Swami Vivekananda’s view of active humanitarian service.
From 1953 onward the Swami’s lectures were recorded on tape. Some of them have been transcribed and published.
- Meditate while you work – a new path for a new age.
- When the many become One
- spiritualizing everyday life
- Swami Vivekananda in San Francisco
- Memoirs of Swami Shivananda
- The Teacher-Prophets of Vedanta
- The Theory and Practice of Monism
- The Razor’s Edge
- Ritualism : Its place in Spiritual Life
- When the heart cries for God
- God and God-men in Vedanta
- Meditation, Ecstasy and Illumination
- Avadhuta Gita is his translation of Avadhuta Gita, an ancient treatise on Advaita philosophy by Dattatreya avadhuta.
- Shafts of Light ISBN 978-0970636836 is a compilation of over 800 directives of the Swami to his disciples.
- His disciple Sister Gargi has written the Swami’s biography – A Heart poured Out ISBN 978-0970636812.
Courtesy: Wikipedia
Swami Ashokananda 
Thank you for providing this information.
Please continue this. This is like an oasis in the desert.
Hello. I am a great fan of Ashokananda and Ramakrishna Math and Mission in general, and I have been a member of our Centers on the East Coast for 13 years. I have several Ashokananda lectures on cassette tape. If I can figure a way to get them uploaded on my computer, would you be interested in posting them on this site? I also have a PDF of the Swami’s study group’s discussion on Vivekananda’s lecture is “Vedanta the Religion of the Future?” I could send that to you for posting also. I have signed up for email subscription. Hopefully you can obtain my email address from that or this comment and contact me directly so that I can send you these materials.
I don’t know if this blog is active any longer, but let me know your thoughts about the above. Om.
Will email you…
Regards