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Abhishiktananda, Swami (Henri Le Saux) France, India (1910 - 1973) Timeline Christian : Catholic Yoga / Hindu : Advaita / Non-Dualist Poems by Abhishiktananda, Swami (Henri Le Saux) Books - Links |
At the beginning of World War II, in 1939, he was called up for mandatory military service. His unit was captured by German soldiers, Le Saux managed to escape and, with the help of a sympathetic farmer, made his way back to French territory and, eventually, to his monastery, where he resumed his monastic activities.
Early on Fr. Le Saux felt a call to travel to India, and in 1948 he received his chance, leaving France, never to return. For the rest of his life, Fr. Le Saux would seek to combine the Catholic ideal with the purest essence of Hindu spirituality. He adopted the dress and lifestyle of a sanyasin, a Hindu renunciate, and took the name Abhishiktananda which can be translated as "Bliss of the Anointed One (Christ)".
Abhishiktananda helped to found Shantivanam, a Christian ashram in India that sought to embody Christian spiritual ideals of service, community, and simplicity, without forcing converts and the curious to abandon the richness of their native culture. The stable life of a community administrator was not for him, however, and Abhishiktananda soon took up an itinerant life of pilgrimage to many of the great holy sites of India, proclaiming that it was entirely appropriate for a follower of Christ to bring his worship to such places.
One of his most profound early encounters was his meeting with Ramana Maharshi, the famous sage who taught the nondualist path of realizing the Self. Ramana Maharshi was near the end of his life and their few meetings were brief, but transformative for Abhishiktananda. Abhishiktananda would go on extended meditation retreats in the caves near Arunachala Mountain, where Ramana Maharshi lived and taught. Later, Abhishiktananda met another nondualist (Advaita) master, Swami Gnananada, to whom he became deeply devoted.
Outwardly, Abhishiktananda lived as a sincere, humble Hindu sanyasin; inwardly, he continuously sought to reconcile and integrate the two great spiritual traditions of Catholicism and Advaita Vedanta (nondualist Hinduism).
Poems by Abhishiktananda, Swami (Henri Le Saux)
Recommended Books: Abhishiktananda, Swami (Henri Le Saux)
Related Links
Abhishiktananda - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhishiktananda
A good sketch of Abhishiktananda's life and spiritual journey
Swami Abhishiktananda Centre for Interreligious Dialogue
http://www.abhishiktananda.org.in
Biography, photographs, quotes, bibliography - an excellent place to become acquainted with Abhishiktananda and his philosophy.
