Pioneer Women of Vedanta - Miss Phianna Sutten

1901- 2005

Phianna Sutton

Miss Phianna Sutten was a long time Vedantin. She met her spiritual teacher, Swami Ashokananda, the head of the Vedanta Society of Northern California, in 1929 at the age of 28. She commented, "In my heart was Vedanta....My life has been bound all around with Sri Ramakrishna."

Phianna graduated from Des Moines University in 1924 and later completed a library sciences degree at the University of Illinois Library School in Urbana. During her professional years as a librarian at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, she drove alone each year to San Francisco to spend her vacation and experience holy company with her teacher and spiritual companions. She ordered each volume of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda and studied them carefully before ordering the next volume.

Miss Sutten had already learned Latin, when Swami Ashokananda told her that Sanskrit is the language of God. She took this comment to heart and began to study the ancient Sanskrit language on her own while in Wyoming so that she could speak God's language.

When she later moved to Sacramento, she worked at the University of California Library at Davis and thereafter at the Sacramento City-County Library. She joined the Vedanta Society of Sacramento, which was established by Swami Ashokananda. She also served as a gardener at the Vedanta Society and worked tirelessly in the hot summer sun and the cold rains of winter. When asked how she could bear the severe extremes of weather, she commented, "I did repeat my mantram. It was highly uplifting. I never felt the heat."

Miss Sutten was fearless, fiercely independent, and self-reliant. She graciously opened her home to many women devotees who lived far away and wanted to be close to the Vedanta Society. Some described her as the mother of our Vedanta community; her home was Mother's house.

Miss Sutten was a vegetarian for most of her life of 103 years. Around the time of her birth in 1901, the Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi, was spending most of her time in Jayrambati and Kolkata. Swami Vivekananda had just stirred the souls of thousands at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions. And he chose to leave his body on July 4th, 1902 in conjunction with the American Independence Day. Miss Sutten's life bridged not only two centuries but also two millennia. She witnessed the transformation of a primarily rural, agricultural economy in the United States to a technological, information-based society in a world economy. She was clear-minded and well-spoken until the end of her dedicated life.

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