Quote from Witness to the Fullness of Light

Witness to the Fullness of Life: The Vision and Relevance of the Benedictine Monk Swami Abhishiktananda

Edited by William Skudlarek OSB and Bettina Baumer

Lantern Books, New York, 2011   177 page.

EXILE AND WANDERING: Spiritual Practice and Foundation for Interreligious Dialog

After eighteen years of silence in the Benedictine Monastery of Kergonan, Henri Le Saux went to India, leaving  forever the life of a traditional European monk. This was the beginning of his wandering. After some time in the ashram of Shantivanam, he felt called to more solitude and renunciation and wandered northward to the Himalayas and the banks of the Ganges. His internal wandering brought him closer to Hinduism, where he discovered the depths of advaita. His experience of non-duality was so intense that he entered into an extremely painful identity crisis. Once he took the name of Abhishiktananda, he began to walk unknown paths that took him away from his certainties and the images of God with which he felt at home; he followed such unknown paths while recognizing God in the heart of otherness, as he himself testified: "O my beloved, why are You hidden under the features of Shiva and Arunachala, of Ramana and the Rishi and of Sadasiva the Wandering Naked One, to give me your grace?"  -- from chapter one by Fabrice Blee, page 5-6.

Review submitted by Jennifer Knight

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