Strong is he who can live in harmony with many people and heed opinions other than his own.. Swami Turiyananda or "Hari Maharaj" as he was popularly known as, was a direct monastic disciple of Ramakrishna, the 19th-century Hindu mystic from Bengal.

He was one of the earliest missionary to be sent by his leader and brother disciple Swami Vivekananda to the United States of America to preach the message of Vedanta to the western audience from 1899 to 1902.

Turiyananda was born as Harinath Chattopadhyay, the youngest of six children, in an affluent Bengali middle-class family in Calcutta on 3 January 1863.

His father, Chandranath Chattopadhay, an orthodox Brahmin who lived in the Bagbazar area of Calcutta, was well respected by the people.

In school, Hari paid close attention to all his studies, but his special interest lay in religion and athletics.

At a very young age he was inclined towards the study of philosophy and scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and works of Adi Shankaracharya.

[2]: 255  Hari Maharaj's opinion about his Guru was that the bliss he received in the company of his master more than compensated for all the sufferings in his life.

Early in this period he met Narendranath Dutta (more familiarly called Naren), who later became Swami Vivekananda who was his close friend and who from the very beginning had made a very deep impression on his mind.

Swami Vivekananda wrote in a letter from America in 1895, Whenever I think of the wonderful renunciation of Hari, his steadiness of intellect and forbearance, I get a new access to strength.

After Swami Vivekananda left his brother monks, Turiyananda and Brahmananda travelled further north into the Himalayas.

He visited the holy shrines of Kedarnath and Badrinath and stayed for some time in Srinagar (Garhwal).

At "Alambazar Math" Swami Turiyananda took up the task of training young recruits to the Ramakrishna order, and began taking classes in Vedanta in Calcutta.

In 1899 when Vivekananda started for America the second time, he requested Turiyananda to accompany him to preach the universal message of Vedanta.

His main interest was in character building based upon principles of Vedanta and this he strived to achieve with a group of young students in Shanti Ashrama, a Vedanta retreat in the San Antonio valley of California, which was set up in an isolated area, far away from any human habitation.

In Shanti Ashrama the group had to face many hardships and hurdles because of the remote and uninhabited nature of the place.

After the death of Vivekananda, Turiyananda left the newly built Belur Math and went to Vrindaban and Uttarkashi.

The last three years of his life were spent at the Ramakrishna Mission Sevashram in Varanasi, where he died on 21 July 1922.

Turiyananda spent the next several years practicing intense contemplation in Vrindavan, in different places in the Himalayas, in Dehra Dun, Kankhal, Almora, etc.

This was radically different from the orthodox 'Brahma Satyam Jagad Mithya' meaning God is Truth and the World is false.

These unorthodox last words, which were spoken impromptu, has generally been taken as the vision seen by an illumined sage who sees God everywhere.