Amrita Salm

After his epochal speeches at the World Parliament of Religions, Chicago in 1893, Swami Vivekananda spent more than three years in the United States and Europe sowing the seeds of Vedanta through illuminating his talks. These talks have come down to us through Sarah Ellen Waldo and J. J. Goodwin.

Ellen, as Sarah Ellen Waldo was known by Swami Vivekananda became his staunch follower after she attended his talks. Swami Vivekananda initiated her into Brahmacharya with the name Sister Haridasi. A dedicated and intelligent woman in whom Swami Vivekananda reposed great faith, she was the transcriber of the Inspired Talks of Swami Vivekananda, as well as the editor of most of his talks, including Raja Yoga, a seminal work that has become a textbook for the students of Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Apart from these works, she has contributed numerous articles on Vedanta on the lines of Vivekananda. She was the first Western woman requested by Swami Vivekananda to teach Vedanta in America.

For this reason, this book on Sarah Ellen Waldo’s life and her contributions is a valuable addition to the existing literature dealing with the history of the Vedanta movement in the West.

Charlotte Sevier, inspired by Swami Vivekananda, played a crucial role in the early history of the Ramakrishna movement. Founder, with her husband, of the Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, she spent the remainder of her life guiding it and writing extensively on advaita Vedanta for the journal Prabuddha Bharata.

An English translation of Sri Sri Ramakrishna Punthi, a biography of Sri Ramakrishna written in 1895 in the Bengali language. Originally a long poem of over 600 pages written in the style of Indian epics, it is a work of fervent devotion filled with vivid descriptions of the events of the Master's life. Like the original, the present book is divided into five parts and contains ninety-one chapters.