A highly educated and cultured young woman, Laura Franklin Glenn (Devamata) was born in the Midwest in the nineteenth century. Possessing many talents and practical good sense, she was well prepared for the work which absorbed her. She began serving the cause of Vedanta as an active member of the first Vedanta Society of New York under Swami Abhedananda, Vivekananda's brother monk, for the six years 1901 to 1907.

The Vedanta movement in the West can trace its strong literary roots to its earliest years, due in large part to Sister Devamata. It was her articles that appeared in the early journals of the Ramakrishna Order, the Brahmavadin (1895-1914) and the Prabuddha Bharata, begun in 1896. She also submitted articles to the Vedanta Kesari; begun in 1914 and considered a continuation of the Brahmavadin.

Sister Devamata had a deep inner life whose fruits in the form of wisdom are revealed in her writings and in the lectures she gave at the Vedanta Centre in Boston and at Ananda Ashrama in La Crescenta. More than a hundred of her Sunday lectures were transcribed and published in the Message of the East over five decades. They have been lightly edited and organized to form a wonderfully rich and useful guide for spiritual aspirants who desire to live "the larger life" in their chosen path.