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.

In late 20th-century India, Christian-Hindu dialogue was forever transformed following the opening of Shantivanam, the first Christian ashram in the country. Mario I. Aguilar brings together the histories of the five pioneers of Christian-Hindu dialogue and their involvement with the ashram, to explore what they learnt and taught about communion between the two religions, and the wide ranging consequences of their work. The author expertly threads together the lives and friendships between these men, while uncovering the Hindu texts they used and were influenced by, and considers how far some of them became, in their personal practice, Hindu. Ultimately, this book demonstrates the impact of this history on contemporary dialogue between Christians and Hindus, and how both faiths can continue to learn and grow together.

This book provides a biographical account of the remarkable Benedictine monk, Henri Le Saux (1910-1973), who spent the last two-and-a-half decades of his life in India where he immersed himself in Hindu spirituality. It traces the central themes of his prolific writings on religious and mystical topics.

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.

Fairacres Publications 142 Dom Henri Le Saux (1910-73), the Benedictine monk who became known as Abhishiktananda, was a pioneer in inter-faith relations, a French Roman Catholic entirely at home in Hindu India. He believed that mutual recognition and understanding were best furthered at the deeper levels of contemplative prayer, where people of different traditions and beliefs can find common ground from which to enter into dialogue. David Barton’s biographical introduction leads into a conversation with Murray Rogers, whose personal memories of Abhishiktananda bring to life a man of exceptional dedication and vitality. The book also contains edited extracts from Abhishiktananda’s written work.

Swami Abhishiktananda (Henri le Saux, 1910-1973) is one of the most intriguing spiritual figures of the twentieth century. A Breton-born monk who moved to India in 1948, he initially hoped to Christianize India along Benedictine lines. Instead his deep encounter with Hindu spirituality, particularly the experience of "non-duality," led him on an even more challenging and adventurous path, adopting the appearance and life if an Indian holy man. His last years were spent living as a hermit in the Himalayas.