Swami Abhishiktananda began life as Henri le Saux, born in 1910 in Brittany, France, where he spent his first 38 years as a student, a sergeant in the French army during World War II, and a Benedictine monk and then Catholic priest. In 1948, he left for India, seeking something more.
A year earlier, in May 1947, he wrote to a Catholic bishop in India, asking for help in transferring to that land where he might pursue a more contemplative religious life, “living in some hermitage ... in the closest possible conformity with the traditions of Indian sannyasa.”
He found this in great abundance, especially in the form of his new guru in India, Ramana Maharshi (Le Saux went on to write a book for Christians explaining the guru relationship), who was 30 years his elder; and Jules Monchanin, a French Catholic priest already living in that part of India — who is actually the person who responded to that letter written to the bishop. Monchanin, together with Le Saux and Bede Griffiths, are sometimes referred to as the “Trinity from Tannirpalli” — three Christians who found the other half of their soul in India.
What is most interesting about Le Saux — who soon took the name Abhishiktananda, meaning “Bliss of the Anointed Lord” — is that the blending of Christian and Hindu life in him was so complete that advaitic teaching — no separation between me and you, and between we and the Divine (often called “non-duality” in the West) explains his life by the end.
This big book beautifully tells a vast story through letters and short commentary on those letters by James D.M. Stuart, with abundant help from the swami who now guides the spiritual and literary legacy of Abhishiktananda from India.
