Ishwar Sharan is the pen name of author Swami Devananda Saraswati, a Canadian sannyasi who took his Vedic initiation from a renowned Dasanami mahamandaleswar at Prayag in 1977. In his purvasrama he had belonged to a family of middle class professionals who were practicing Christians. He does not have a formal education but is well-read in history and religion and has travelled extensively in Canada, Europe, North Africa and West Asia. He had meditated in a Franciscan hermitage at Assisi and worked on a Communist kibbutz in Israel.
The author's experience of these institutions helped turn him against all monolithic creeds and he came to India in 1967 in search of spiritual direction, choosing India because it gave an honourable place to the Goddess and because it had the only great pagan civilization to have successfully survived centuries of repressive Islamic and Christian imperialism. He is a great lover of Hindu culture and religion and holds the view that although the sannyasi stands outside of society he does not stand above Hinduism that is Sanatana Dharma. He says that as long as Christianity wages an ideological war on Hinduism its curious theories and unique claims must be thoroughly investigated and vigorously replied to by informed Hindus of integrity and conviction.
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