The family name of Swami Trigunatitananda was Sarada Prasanna Mitra. He was born in an aristrocratic family of the 24-Parganas District of West Bengal on 30th January, 1865.

He was admitted to Metropolitan Institution at Shyampukur, Calcutta where Mahendra Nath Gupta or "M", the recorder of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, was the headmaster. Swami Trigunatitananda met Sri Ramakrishna in 1884 through "M".

He entered Metropolitan College and was a bright student but during this time onwards, his visits to Dakshineswar became more frequent. He once set out on foot to Puri and reached there enduring hardships on the way.

He served the Master at Cossipore and took his final vows at Baranagore monastery.

He was the first editor of Udbodhan magazine, which was started by Swami Vivekananda. In 1902, he became the head of the Vedanta Society of San Francisco, and through his efforts the first Hindu temple in the West was built in 1906.

In December 1914, three days after Christmas which was celebrated with wonderful solemnity in the San Francisco Hindu Temple, the Swami was holding a Sunday service when a live bomb was thrown into the pulpit. It was the work of a young man, a former student of the Swami who was in a state of depression and unbalanced mind. The man had himself killed in the explosion and the Swami received severe injuries. He never recovered fully from the same.

The following January (1915) he passed away.