Swami Ashokananda (1893-1969) was born in a small Indian village and grew up a God-intoxicated boy who played worship with his friends. He became a monk of the Ramakrishna order, dedicated to the highest ideals of Vedanta and of the order's first leader, Swami Vivekandanda. This young man distinguished himself as the editor of the order's English-language journal. Then in the 1930s, Swami Ashokananda was sent to northern California to spread the teachings of Vedanta. Under his leadership, three temples were built in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Sacramento, along with the largest Vedanta retreat in America.

Sister Gargi (Marie Louise Burke) is the author of the six-volume classic Swami Vivekananda in the West: New Discoveries. She met Swami Ashokananda in 1948 and became his disciple. Of his gifts as a spiritual teacher, she writes: "Above all — at least, this is what always struck me — his brilliance of thought was never cold, never dry or pedantic. It was somehow suffused with sweetness. He was speaking to his listeners, wanting with his whole heart for them to understand what he was saying, wanting to give to them his own joy." Sister Gargi conveys Swami Ashokananda's spiritual fervor as she discusses how he presented Vedanta as a philosophy and religion of infinite hope with its powerful messages about universality, harmony, and infinite affirmation.