Swāmi Abhedānanda (Bengali: স্বামী অভেদানন্দ), born Kaliprasad Chandra (Bengali: কালীপ্রসাদ চন্দ্র) was a sanyasin associated with the Bengali Rennaisance of Vaisnavite Vedanta. Swami Vivekananda encouraged him to head the Vedanta Society, New York in 1897, and spread the message of Vedanta, a theme on which he authored several books. In 1921 he returned to India, and the next year he traveled to Tibet to study with the lamas there. He later founded the Ramakrishna Vedanta Math in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Darjeeling, India. At the time of his death, he was last surviving direct disciple of the 19th century mystic Sri Ramakrishna.
Since taking yoga for a year, I wanted to learn more about the history and different branches of the practice. Found this book cheap at Half Price Books and thought it might enlighten me. It did, but not wholly in the way I was looking for. Still, I learned some things I didn't know. It read a little funny to me and after looking it up on Good Reads and seeing it was originally published in 1940, it kind of explains it. My book is from an Australian publisher, copyright 2006.
Only an enlightened soul could have explained it so well. The history hasn't been interpreted correctly and illuminated beings like Swami Abhedananda have rightly fulfilled the task of elaborating and deciphering the metaphorical historical texts.