Swami Prabhavananda | |
|---|---|
 At the Santa Barbara Vedanta Temple | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | (1893-12-26)26 December 1893 |
| Died | 4 July 1976(1976-07-04) (aged 82) Vedanta Temple, Vedanta Place,Hollywood |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Translator of theBhagavad Gita (withChristopher Isherwood) and theUpanishads (with Fredrick Manchester), author of theSpiritual Heritage of India |
| Occupation | Monk, writer, and teacher |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Founder of | Vedanta Society of Southern California |
| Religious career | |
| Guru | Swami Brahmananda |
Disciples | |
Swami Prabhavananda (26 December 1893 – 4 July 1976) was an Indianphilosopher,monk of theRamakrishna Order, and religious teacher. He moved to America in 1923 to take up the role of assistant minister in the San Francisco Vedanta Society. In 1928 he was the minister of a small group in Portland, OR, but in 1930 he founded theVedanta Society of Southern California. The Swami spent the rest of his life there, writing and collaborating with some of the most distinguished authors and intellectuals of the time, includingAldous Huxley,Christopher Isherwood, andGerald Heard.[1]
Born inIndia, he joined the Ramakrishna Order after graduating fromCalcutta university in 1914. He was initiated bySwami Brahmananda, the spiritual son of Sri Ramakrishna, and the first president of theRamakrishna Order, headquartered in Belur, West Bengal.[2][3]
In 1923, he was sent to the United States of America. Initially, he worked as an assistant minister of the Vedanta Society of San Francisco. After two years, he established the Vedanta Society of Portland. In December 1929, he moved to Los Angeles, where he founded theVedanta Society of Southern California in 1930.[4]
Under his administration, the Vedanta Society of Southern California grew over the years to become the largest Vedanta Society in the West,[5] with monasteries inHollywood andTrabuco Canyon and convents in Hollywood andSanta Barbara.[6][7]
Prabhavananda was a scholar who wrote a number of books on Vedanta and Indian religious scriptures and commentary. He was assisted on several of the projects byChristopher Isherwood and Frederick Manchester. His comprehensive knowledge of philosophy and religion attracted such disciples asAldous Huxley andGerald Heard.[8][9]
Prabhavananda died on the bicentennial of America's independence, 4 July 1976, and on the 74th anniversary of the death, or mahasamadhi, ofSwami Vivekananda, the founder of theRamakrishna Order in India and many of the Vedanta centers in America and Europe.[2]
Prabhavananda's bookThe Spiritual Heritage of India was reviewed in the academic journalPhilosophy. The review stated that "Swami Prabhavananda has written a charming and authoritative book on the spiritual heritage of India, by which he means that heritage in consonance with the Vedic tradition and its culmination in Vedanta" (p. 376).[10] The reviewer stated that "throughout the book breathes an air of relaxed simplicity and conviction.... I was particularly refreshed by the absence of attacks on science, materialism, naturalism, and other such means to spiritual fulfilment" (pp. 376–377).[10]
Prabhavananda and Isherwood's translation of the’’Bhagavad Gita – The Song of God’’ was reviewed byTime Magazine in 1945.[11]Time described the translation as "a distinguished literary work" that was "simpler and freer than other English translations (three of which have been published in the past year).... It may help U.S. readers to understand not only theGita itself, but also its influence on American letters through one of its greatest U.S. admirers,Ralph Waldo Emerson" (pp. 98, 100[11]).
