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Hari Nath
Chattopadhyay or Swami Turiyananda (1863-1922) was born in Calcutta
at Bagbazar. His father was Chandra Nath and mother Prasannamoyee.
By the age of twelve, Hari Nath had lost both his parents. His
childhood friend was Gangadhar Ghatak who later came to be known
as Swami Akhandananda. He met Sri Ramakrishna at Bagbazar when
he was around 13-14 years of age. Within two years, he became
a frent visitor at Dakshineswar. From a young age he used to take
deep interest in Vedanta. During this time he met and became an
intimate friend of Narendra Nath (Swami Vivekananda).
After the
demise of Sri Ramakrishna, he was among the direct disciples who
took the oath of renunciation at Baranagore Math. For 12 years,
he roamed various places of pilgrimage all over India.
In 1899, when
Swami Vivekananda started for America for the second time, he
persuaded Swami Turiyananda to accompany him for the work in America.
They reached New York via England during the end of August 1899.
Swami Turiyananda worked first at the Vedanta Society of New York
and then took up additional work at Mont Clair. He travelled extensively
in America along with Swami Vivekananda to preach Vedanta.
He came back
to India in 1902. After being involved in the work of setting
up the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama at Almora, he spent his last
days at Varanasi before his demise on 21st July, 1922.
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