Swami Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux, 1910-1973) was one of the most fascinating spiritual figures of the 20th century and a bridge-builder between East and West. In his extraordinary book Guru and Disciple, Swami Abhishiktananda gives a vivid and magnificent account of his meeting with Sri Gnanananda Giri, an Advaitic sage whom he met at his ashram in Tamil Nadu. He regarded this encounter as one of the high points of his life in India, for it was at that time that he recognized him as his guru. Through the intense upadesha (teaching) and unreserved grace of Sri Gnanananda, Swami Abhishiktananda was led closer to the heart of Advaita. He spoke of his retreat with him as days of grace, "days of peace and fulfilment... when one was conscious of living at a spiritual depth in which the whole world of outward appearance has been left behind and one has come close to what is Real." Indeed, he received from his guru the purest teaching of a jnani (realized sage)-which was none other than the timeless message of the Upanishads: Behind the appearance of the phenomenal ego is the Ultimate Reality, the eternal Self of All, which can be directly realized. Guru and Disciple has been praised by many as a classic and as being one of the most remarkable introductions in recent times to the importance of meditation (dhyana) and the essential nature of the spiritual master-the guru tattva-of which Sri Gnanananda Giri was the perfect embodiment.

Swami Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux OSB) was a French Benedictine monk who went to India in 1948 and devoted his life to becoming a bridge between East and West, between Hinduism and Christianity. To mark the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of this great pioneer of interreligious dialogue, Monastic Interreligious Dialogue sponsored a symposium in January 2010 at Shantivanam, the ashram he and Abb Jules Monchanin founded in 1950. This book charts the influence that Abhishiktananda had on Christianity in India, on other spiritual seekers engaging with Hinduism and Christianity, and the continuing importance of his work today.

Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux) was a French Benedictine monk who went to India to establish a true Indian Christian monasticism. Together with Jules Monchanin, he founded the Christian ashram Shantivanam. Abhishiktananda tried to emulate the advaitic (nondual) experience of the Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi. Abhishiktananda is inconsistent in how he interprets his experience. This reflects inconsistencies in Ramana's own interpretation of advaita. Ramana was not the traditional advaitin that Abhishiktananda believed him to be. He relied on many non-traditional sources, including yoga, tantra, neo-Hinduism, theosophy and even Christianity. Furthermore, the story of Ramana's enlightenment is not as simple as Abhishiktananda assumed. This book explores Abhishiktananda's Hindu/Christian experience and how it changed his Christian beliefs. Using comparative philosophy, this book also analyzes what nondual experience means for our perception, our thinking, our ethics, our experience of reality, and our relation to God.

Drawn from the world's religions, this work takes the reader on a pilgrimage to the heart of prayer and reveals why prayer is the essence of the human condition.

With rare exceptions, serious intentional, reflective and sustained interfaith encounter is a novel and recent enterprise. This book looks in detail at one such encounter--the intentional recent Hindu-Christian dialog in India--and asks why and how the practice of dialog came to replace previous attitudes of confrontation and monologue (especially on the part of Christians). Part I sets the encounter in its global context. Part II offers a comprehensive and critical analysis of the actual encounter. Part III draws on aspects of the Christian tradition as it critically examines the ways in which the dialog has been justified in Christological categories. A final chapter discusses the future of the encounter. Unlike many other works in the area of interfaith studies, this work combines both descriptive detail of the actual encounter and critical theological analysis of the strengths and weakness of the dialog model.