Swami Abhishiktananda: His Life Told through His Letters (Revised and Updated Edition)

by Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux), James D.M. Stuart (Editor), Swami Atmananda Udasin (Revised by)

Overview

Epistolary biography of a bridge-building 20th century Christian-Hindu spiritual leader

This fascinating biography of Swāmī Abhishiktānanda (Henri Le Saux) is based on a vast collection of letters written to friends and family over his twenty-five years in India.

Swāmī Abhishiktānanda (1910-1973)—a French Catholic monk, who came to India in 1948 and settled there till the end of his life in 1973—was one of the most fascinating spiritual figures of the twentieth century and a bridge-builder between Christian and Hindu traditions. After nineteen years of living in a Benedictine monastery in France, his passionate longing to realize the Truth brought him face-to-face with Indian spirituality and paved the way for him to meet one of the greatest contemporary sages of India, Shri Ramana Maharshi.

This book illustrates the spiritual trajectory of an extraordinary pioneer of interreligious dialogue and a bridge-builder between Christian and Hindu traditions, from his first arrival in South India in 1948 towards his spiritual Awakening in Rishikesh on July 14, 1973.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781958972571
Publisher:	Monkfish Book Publishing Company
Publication date:	12/10/2024
Pages:	506
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Rev. Dr. James D.M. Stuart (1915-2003) went to India in 1949 to join the Brotherhood of the Ascended Christ (established by the Anglicans in Delhi, in 1877). He became the first Editorial Secretary for ISPCK, a Christian publishing house which he helped develop in India. A close friend of Swāmī Abhishiktānanda, as well as translator and editor of most of his books in English, was the Founder Secretary of the Abhishiktānanda Society, Delhi.

Swāmī Ātmānanda Udāsīn has served as President of the Abhishiktananda Society (2007-2008). He is the Director of the Abhishiktananda Centre for Interreligious Dialogue (Delhi) since 2008 and the spiritual head of Ajatananda Ashram, Rishikesh (North India). Originally from Belgium, he has been living in India since 1997. He teaches about the Direct Path of Non-Duality in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta, and offers Satsangs and retreats in India and internationally. His public teachings on Advaita are available on his YouTube channel which is highly appreciated by spiritual seekers worldwide.

He is also the co-author of the forthcoming title The Call of the Self: Swāmī Abhishiktānanda’s Selected Writings in the Light of his Ultimate Awakening (2025).

Read an Excerpt

Swāmī Abhishiktānanda realized that Truth lies beyond all religions and conceptualizations, which are merely nāmarūpa-s (names and forms of the phenomenal world) and which point to the unspeakable Reality without ever being able to express or encapsulate it.

“What is horrifying in theology and Canon Law is the treatment of nāmarūpa-s as absolutes, whereas they are a game, a līlā, the sparkle of māyā…” (letter to Marc Chaduc, June 26, 1972),

he wrote to his disciple, more than a year before his Enlightenment. The theme of liberation from philosophical and theological concepts as nāmarūpa-s, recurs again and again in his diary and letters during the last two years of his life.

The gradual emancipation from heavy concepts brought about spiritual rejuvenation and eventually led to a profound release from countless hidden tensions, about which he wrote to his disciple in January 1973:

What a purification from all attachment is this meeting with the East, which compels us to recognize as nāmarūpa all that previously we considered being most sacred, to be the very Truth contained in “words.” Later we have to be able to recognize the value of the nāmarūpa, not less than we did “before,” but we have discovered another level of truth—the blinding sun of high noon.

Editorial Reviews

Monkfish has done a great service in re-presenting the collected letters of one of the twentieth century's great masters of the spiritual life. The existential path of Swami Abhishiktananda (Dom Henri Le Saux) took place in very particular religious and historical circumstances, but the laying bare of Swamiji’s heart in these letters lets the very personal open out to the universal search for meaning, purpose, peace. It is an inspiring chronicle of the search for the Self, the Absolute, or—as Swamiji himself calls it in his final letters—the Grail. Readers will find much to puzzle over, to smile upon, and to hasten them on their own path.” —Jacob Riyeff, OblSB, teaching associate professor at Marquette University, and translator of the poems of Abhishiktananda in In the Bosom of the Father

“Rare it is that someone will have the spiritual and intellectual creativity and courage to embark on a comparable journey to the holy darkness of the cave of the heart as Abhishiktananda did. The experience and thought of this prescient French monk and other pioneers in the realm of interreligious dialogue in Christianity of the mid-20th century remains precious to those who continue to be inspired by his legacy and spirit. What a gift it is that this voice is not muffled by the passage of time; what a treasure it is to have this new expanded version of what some consider a classic of the spiritual life.” —Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam, author of The God Who Gave You Birth and Rediscovering the Divine

“The letters published in the original edition of this book gave a very personal glimpse into the sometimes anguished thought of Abhishiktananda, and this greatly enlarged new edition offers an even more thorough insight into the way he continues to challenge us all.” —Abbot James Wiseman, OSB, St. Anselm’s Abbey, Washington DC

From the Publisher