CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Swami Atmajnanananda

Swami

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ7653159 ↗
Source-derived summary

Swami Atmajnanananda (also written Svāmī Ātmajñānānanda, born Stuart Elkman) is a swami (monk) of the Ramakrishna Order, which he joined in 1981. He has a Ph.D. in oriental studies from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently resident minister at the Vedanta Center of Greater Washington, DC, in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA.

He authored Jiva Gosvamin's Tattvasandarbha: A Study on the Philosophical and Sectarian Development of the Gaudiya Vaisnava Movement, published by Motilal Banarsidass in 1986 under his pre-monastic name, Stuart Elkman.

Atmajnanananda was a significant critic of Jeffrey Kripal's book Kali's Child.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Swami Atmajnanananda” is swami. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Swami and Atmajnanananda, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1981, 1986—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Swami and Atmajnanananda is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “swami” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7653159. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1981 and 1986.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Swami Atmajnanananda”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Swami Atmajnanananda primary sources, Swami Atmajnanananda archive and Swami research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Swami Atmajnanananda”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Swami Atmajnanananda” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.