Hindu Advaitic Experience and Christian Beliefs

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Volume 11 Article 9

January 1998

Abishiktananda: Hindu Advaitic Experience and Christian Beliefs

J. Glenn Friesen

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Recommended Citation Friesen, J. Glenn (1998) "Abishiktananda: Hindu Advaitic Experience and Christian Beliefs," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 11, Article 9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1182

The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Friesen: Abishiktananda: Hindu Advaitic Experience and Christian Beliefs

Abishiktananda: Hindu Advaitic Experience and Christian Beliefs I

J. Glenn Friesen University of Calgary

DOM HENRI LE SAUX (AbhishikHinanda) experience is not monistic, but communion, was a Roman Catholic priest who attempted koinonia. If Being were not communion, to integrate the Hindu advaitic experience of nothing would exist, and there would be no the Self with his beliefs as a Christian. 1 subject, no "I" to speak about it. From the time he arrived in India in 1948 to At the very Source of Being, the one I • his death in 1973, there was a radical without a second of the Chandogya change in Abhishiktananda's religious Upanishad (6,2), there is koinonia, co beliefs. This change in beliefs was as a esse, "being-with", "being together", result of his advaitic experiences. His community of being, mutual Jove and certainty in the truth of the experiences communication of life, an eternal call to increased over time. In an early Journal each other, an eternal rest in each other. entry2 he speaks of his anguish and fear, a In its most impenetrable core of non fear of risking his eternity for an experience duality Being is threefold movement that might be only a mirage. By 1972, within Itself towards Itself, the triple ! , achievement of Itself in Itself. 6 . however, Abhishiktananda was absolutely I . convinced of the truth of his experience. He Later, in 1970, Abhishiktananda spoke wrote in his journal, "The experience of the not of complementarity, but of a tension Upanishads is true. I know it!,,3 between advaita and Christianity: In his earlier writings, Abhishiktananda Will the Christian experience .. . be referred to the complementarity of Hindu capable of being expressed without and Christian beliefs. Advaita reminds us dilution when approached from the that God can,never be contained in concepts. advaitin experience? In Sagesse I It delivers us from our tendency to attempted a meditative approach within transform the mystery of the Trinity into the framework of classical theology. tritheism or at the other extreme, simple The last chapter shows that the problem rrtodalism. 4 Similarly, in Sagesse hindou is unresolved. The best course is still, L mystique chretienne, which was published in think, to hold on under extreme tension 1965 [subsequently translated in English as to these two forms of a unique 'faith' SaccidanandaJ, he said that the doctrine of until the dawn appears. For advaita and the Trinity helps us to avoid a monistic theology are on two levels.? conception of advaita: But in a letter of September 1972, Abhishiktananda said that in writing If the Word is God, we cannot say two (in a numerical sense) of him and the . Sagesse, he had been too much a slave to 8 Father; there is no place left for any Greek concepts. Concepts, dogmas, and division, duality, dvaita of any kind. rituals are all on the phenomenal level, the But if the Word is with God, then God level of namarupa (names and forms, the is not a mere monad either. 5 level of myth and logos). In February 1973, Abhishiktananda said that the whole The Being disclosed by the advaitic

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Trinitarian structure that he had set out in headings: Sagesse had collapsed.9 At that time he was working on the English translation of 1. God Sagesse, and he said that the whole thesis in Abhishiktananda's beliefs changed from the book was "outmoded". seeing God as Transcendent Other to God as But it is hard to have to check the immanent in everything and especially in the translation of a book whose thesis one Self. In the West, he said, we begin with a no longer accepts ... Of all that I have distinction between God and humanity. The written, Gniiniinanda is almost the only awe and the fear of the sacred which we feel thing that remains afloat. All the rest is projected as an "Other".12 We do not consists of niimarilpa amusing itself dare to accept our self as absolute. So the with the 'theology of fulfilment' . 10 absolute is "reported", or projected, as God. It is not only Christian concepts which In India, the experience of the Self is so full are on the level of nama-rupa. Abhishik of the mystery of God that it is not possible Hinanda says that this applies as well to to project God.13 God is that depth of us Sankara's monistic interpretation of reality which is outside of· time and outside of in Vedanta; not even his formulation of contingency. 14 And when we use the word advaita can be considered to be absolute. "other" in reference to God, it must be We must awaken to the pure advaitic remembered that we are using it in a very different sense than when we use it to refer experience revealed in the Upanishads, 15 beyond all theology whether Vedantic or to distinctions in the created world. Judeo-Christian: Abhishiktananda experienced a sense of loss with respect to this projected sense of There is neither opposition nor God, and he compared this sense of loss incompatibility between Christianity and with the dark night of the soul reported by advaita, but rather two different levels. Christian mystics: Advaita is not in opposition to anything; it is not a philosophy, but rather an The God of my projection is dead. This anubhava - existential experience. All disappearance of God is considered as Christian thought is valid in its order, night by St. John of the Cross. I have the order of manifested reality lost God, and in searching for him, it is (vyavahdhara) but not on the absolute my self that I have found, but what a level (paramiirtha). Undoubtedly the Self! 16 Christian darshana (system, point of The Self includes God, for Spirit is the view) is opposed to the Vedantic interior presence of God in everything, darshana, but that is purely on the doctrinal level. No formulation, even especially in us. Because the Spirit of God is that of advaita can claim to be absolute. in everything, the mystery of God is It is another matter whether Christianity expressed equally well by a "polytheistic" has . historically gone beyond those myth as by a "monotheistic" myth. They are lirnits.ll all manifestations of God. 17 And all these myths point beyond themselves to God. . From his writings, it is clear that he thought that Christianity had in fact gone 2. The Uniqueness of Jesus beyond its limits. It is even questionable Abhishiktananda's beliefs regarding Jesus whether he continued to believe that "All changed from seeing Jesus as the unique Christian thought is valid in ... the order of incarnation of God to seeing Jesus as a manifested reality". He seemed in fact in human like us who is a paradigm for our creasingly to prefer the formulations of lives, in showing us the advaitic experience. Vedanta to those of Christianity. Let us look The fundamental experience for Jesus was at the changes in his beliefs, under several his baptism. Abhishiktananda compares this

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with the experience of Ramana Maharshi only begotten. For the Father, everyone who also had the experience of bein~ is as unique as is Jesus. The distinction possessed by the Spirit of God. 18 Baptism between Jesus and other persons is the did not give anything to Jesus, but revealed same distinction as between each person 30 who he was. Jesus had discovered that the with respect to others. 19 "I am" of Jahweh belonged to him. "Uniqueness" then means only that Jesus Abhishiktananda says that for Jesus to call was an individual within the manifested God "Abba" was the Semitic equivalent of reality of this world. As one such individual , the advaitic experience. 20 This is a he showed us how to recognize our divine 21 revelation which belongs to everyone. sonship and oneness with God. Every person may become a "son" or child All that the Christ said or thought about of God. When we become sons of God, we 22 himself, is true of every man. It is the pass from non-Being to Being. theologians who - to escape being As a paradigm for us, Jesus is not burnt, the devouring fire - have project unique. Jesus was not the only epiphany of ed (rejected) into a divine loka.[sphere] God. So was the Buddha, and so was the true mystery of the Self. 31 RamaJ?a Maharshi. But if Jesus is not a The projection of the experience into the unique paradigm, what is the significance of divine sphere occurs even in the Biblical Jesus in history? It is not its historicity that record of Jesus' experience: gives Christianity its value, but the intemporal values expressed in it. 23 What To save itself from this depth are these values? Only the attitude of Jesus experience which annihilates everything during his life has universal validity: the of which the human ego knows of itself, sermon on the mount, the commissioning of Biblical thought (New Testament) has the disciples, his freedom,24 and his rejected in the divine sphere ... this teaching of dispossession-insecurity.25 identity with Brahman which it had discovered - for without an identity in Initially, Abhishiktananda tried to this sense, how could the identity of preserve the uniqueness of Jesus by saying Jesus as human and as God be even that it is only as we "participate" in Him thought? Biblical thought has as well that we become sons of God. Weare "sons projected into this same divine sphere in the Son" .26 the I-THOU of his relation with God - Jesus, as the perfect son of Man, sat equally to save it - leaviJ)g to purusa, was the first to receive this [full theologians the job of saving the revelation of glory], and did so in the mystery by their abstractions while lay name of all men. No one can ever reach persons try to cope with these it, unless he participates in the unique approximations which .falsify the sense

of the revelation itself. 32 . :1 experience of Jesus.27 But by 1972 Abhishiktananda had Salvation is shown by Jesus, but it is not concluded that the problem of the dependent on any particular acts in history uniqueness of Christ is a false problem, one involving Jesus. The Christian doctrine of which arises only in the context of atonement through the death of Christ can no longer be maintained. It is a juridical phe nomena. 28J'esus IS as umque.. as IS every consciousness. All are incomparable. view that is based on a dualism, where God ~.. Whoever awakens to the mystery of and humans are two partners, the latter of Brahman under the name of the Father is the which has sinned against the former. 33 But only Son.29 salvation takes place in the human heart, at the centre of our being, where such a notion God is unique for Jesus, and God is of partnership is impossible: unique for me. Jesus is the only begotten (monogenes) , and I am the And here [in the heart] it is absolutely

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impossible to regard God as a partner, given in creation, and special, or biblical and still less to regard oneself as a revelation. Hinduism belongs to cosmic partner of God. Even the most intense revelation, which is the religious experience humility of the repentant sinner is of all those outside of the biblical surpassed, because in order for humility tradition. 39 The Christian has been given and repentance to exist, one _must of special revelation of doctrines such as the necessity project at least oneself before Trinity. God. The depth experience (of being) does not permit this; all is burned away; For the Christian the Bible must always the sinner doesn't even find place to be the point of departure and the point recognize himself or herself as a sinner. of return; it is not a mere reference One is uncovered in one's being, as a book, to be consulted now and then being, and in this ex-istence one has left simply to illuminate or confirm the everything that so to speak constituted discoveries of reason or spiritual oneself. 34 experience. 40 Abhishiktananda says that salvation is And yet in his later writings, not to be found in the realm of namartlpa, Abhishiktananda does precisely this: he uses whether death, sacrifice, redemption, or the Bible to illuminate the spiritual resurrection. There is only one act by which experience. The experience is primary, and ;!Iill' Jesus - and anyone - passes to the Father: It is known from the revelation in creation. Il,i is the act of awakening to the Presence of There is no revelation, whether cosmic or . ,I 35 , , God. This "I am", this awakening to biblical, apart from what is given in creation one's Self, is also the awakening of God to in being. Revelation is not something that Himself. 36 Rites, formulas, myths all have occurs after creation.41 He says that any only symbolic value, in pointing to this act theological discussion of the Trinity must of aWakening. But we must obstinately corinnence not with definitions or creeds or oppose giving absolute value to these rites, even statements -from the New Testament, formulas, and myths, or finding our but rather with the experience that Jesus, as salvation in terms of anything in the realm a human, had of God.42 His experience of of namarilpa. Jesus opposed the absolute divine sonship is the same as the advaitic value given to -them in his day; his claim of experience of tat tvam ,asi.... If we begin freedom to be himself led to the cross.37 with creeds and definitions of the Trinity, it becomes the most abstract thing we can 3. The Trinity think of, with no influence on our lives, Already in Saccidananda, Abhishiktananda whereas for Jesus this was his most concrete expressed doubts as to whether the belief in , experience.43 the Trinity is necessary: The doctrine of the Trinity is in the phenomenal realm of namarilpa. Neither the Within this blinding intuition of Being, how can the Christian be sure that what term "Trinity" nor the theology concerning he believes he has discovered about it has been revealed in the New Testament. himself and the world in God through It is a reflection of faith within a Greek 44 the biblical revelation of the Trinity is framework. In a letter dated 23 true? It seems rather that all this is December 1970, Abhishiktananda said he merely a last-minute attempt to salvage should have to start all over again, what he cannot bear to abandon when beginning with the Vedantin experience, he comes to make the final plunge into instead of with his Christian beliefs. the abyss that attracts him so powerfully. 38 I thought I had said much more in my letter than you seem to have taken in, I In his earlier writings, Abhishiktananda mean, my feeling that I am incapable of distinguished between cosmic revelation going beyond the thoughts already

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expressed (in books and letters) without 4. The Superiority of Advaita Christianity exploding ... The whole If all theologies are on the phenomenal subject should be taken up again, plane, on the level of ntimarupa, how do we starting from the Vedantin experience, choose between them? Abhishiktananda says and not - as I have so far done, or rather written - starting from the we should stay with the tradition we were "Christian' faith" and its brought up with. 50 He said he continued to "symbolization" [in Creeds] by the have a "visceral" attachment to Christian [Ecumenical] Councils; like a kind of doctrines and concepts. 51 It was in Christ hypothesis which is followed through to Jesus that he discovered the mystery in the end ... What are we to do? In the himself, and it was in the image and symbol blinding light which blots out every of Christ Jesus that he came to know God. outline, what place remains for a Since his awakening, this symbol has been "symbolic" [creed] of any kind "marvellously amplified". But whatever?45 Abhishiktananda recognized the same The idea of the Trinity arises from our mystery in Shiva, Purusha, Krishna, Rama existential experience of Being itself. The and others. 52 Trinity is the projection in God of the And yet Abhishiktananda himself did not reciprocity of being (parasparam)46 stay within the Christian forms of thinking. There are many passages in his writings Rightly understood, the experience of which indicate that he viewed the Vedantic the Trinity is the experience of my way as superior. He says that the spirituality relation with each of my fellow-men and with every creature. 47 of the East surpasses both Judaism and Christianity, and that Vedantic experience The experience of the Trinity is that of can purify Christian ideas: finding ourselves as individuals in the manifested world, and then relating this Before seeking to impose in Hindus their own ideas of God, sin and experience to the Source of our being, which redemption, Christians should first of is the unmanifested reality. The Son, or the all allow these to be refined and manifested, proceeds from the unmanifested. purified in the pitiless light which is And this divine sonship is also ours. And thrown by the Vedantic experience on Spirit is the force, energy or shakti, which every attempt to conceptualize the is another manifestation of the unmanifest. divine Mystery. 53 We do not have experience or true Christianity is only a "view" of the knowledge of the Trinity except in the advaitic mystery. 54 In the Indian form of mystery of our being.48 But the doctrine the message there is a universality which no of the Trinity is just one culturally Jewish or Greek thought can equal. 55 conditioned expression for this experience of When it became a religion, Christianity lost this relation between unmanifested being and its mystery and its force. 56 Christian manifested being. institutions and formulations only find their By 1973 Abhishiktananda explicitly true value when read in the framework of rejected the possibility of the development of the experience of atman-brahman, and not a new Trinitarian theology - that would be through that of Greek philosophy or Hebrew to remain enchanted in the world of myths metaphysics. and logos. It would be replacing Theos by theo-Iogia. The awakening to the mystery The Jews have reduced Jesus Ben Adam has nothing to do with the dogmas of the [the Son of Man] to the Messiah of their Trinity, Incarnation, Redemption, or finding history of salvation; the Greeks have equivalences to the mystery of Jesus in made of him a divine descent, the descent to earth of their Logos. India, Indian terms like avatars or Purusha. 49 free of history and especially of historic

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11 ;1 ! particularity - this impossible "People third person as the disciple "Vanya" .61 In ,:1' of God" - is also free of logos and of his journals, he did not have to be as Iii eidos, and grasped immediately the cautious in revealing the change in his ill universal mystery, the Purusha which, beliefs. I! outside of all history and all eidos, appeared agre: at the origin of every Conclusion thing, at the origin of the whole cosmos, at the origin of human con Abhishiktananda's advaitic experience had a sciousness as well. 57 profound change on his beliefs as a Christian. He initially tried to interpret the The Hindu myth of Purusha is "more advaitic experience in Christian terms. But extensive" than that of Christ. Unlike the he ended by accepting the authenticity of the myth of Christ, it is not attached to time. It experience and trying instead to reconcile acknowledges all the symbolic value and to interpret his previous Christian contained in the mystery of time, but refuses beliefs in relation to that experience. 62 to condense the Absolute to one particular What was primary for Abhishiktananda was point in time. 58 his advaitic experience, and that experience These changes in Abhishiktananda's resulted in a change in his beliefs. beliefs are surprising, especially considering that he remained a Roman Catholic priest until his death. It has been argued that we Notes should not place too much weight on his journal entries or his posthumously 1. The advaitic experience is that the Self and published works, since they were not Brahman are "not two". As interpreted by intended for publication or at least not ready Abhishiktananda, this advaitic experience. for publication, or that Abhishiktananda was need not necessarily be understood in a not really a theologian, and therefore did not monistic sense as in Sankara's system. really intend what he said. 59 But why 2. La montee au fond du ClEur: Le journal should we suppose that Abhishiktananda's intime du moine chretien-sannyasi hindou. views as expressed in his journals are more 1948-1973 (O.E.I.L., Paris, 1986) (Journal provisional thim the works published in his entry, 27 November 1956),' p. 222. This lifetime? In fact, these journals seem to book is a· selection by R. Pannikar from express his real views. We know that by Abhishiktananda's journal, published to date only in French. The translations in this 1973 he no longer accepted most of what he paper are my own. had published. And he also had not been 3. La montee au fond du c(£ur, (Journal entry, permitted to publish many of his ideas. May 1972), p. 425. Guhtintara, the first book he proposed to 4. La rencontre de l'hindouisme et du publish under his own name, was severely christianisme (Paris: Le Seuil, 1966), criticized in 1954 by the Paris censor, who translated in English as Hindu-Christian found heresies on every page.60 Abhishik Meeting Point (Delhi: ISPCK, 1976) tananda tried again to publish it in 1956, and 5. Saccidananda, (Delhi: ISPCK, 1974), p. 84. again it received heavy criticism. Guhantara 6. Saccidananda, p. 109 was written in 1953-54 but was never 7. Stuart, James: Swami Abhishiktananda: His published in Abhishiktananda's lifetime, life told through his letters (Delhi: SPCK, even though he considered it his most 1989), Letter dated 5 December 1970, p. ', I 268. II, creative work. (Some of it was published 11':1, 8. Cited by Dupuis, introduction to Interiorite I posthumously in Interiorite et Revelation.) et Revelation: Essais theologiques (Henri His book on his experiences up to 1956 with Vaud, France, 1982), p. 22. This book is a Sri Gnanananda Giri of Tirukoyiliir was not collection of essays which was published published until 1970; even then, after Abhishiktananda's death. The Abhishiktananda referred to himself in the

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translations in this paper are my own. December 1972), p. 442 9. La montee au/ond du C(Eur (Journal entry, 29; "Sat-Purusha" (1973), Interiorite et Feb. 1973), p. 450. Revelation, p. 299 10. Stuart, James: Swami Abhishiktananda: His 30. La montee au/ond du C(Eur, (Journal entry, life told through his letters (Delhi: SPCK, Dec. 1971), p. 409 1989), Letter dated 2 April 1973 to his 31. Stuart, James: Swami Abhishiktananda: His disciple Marc Chaduc, p. 321. life told through his letters (Letter, 2 April 11. La montee au/ond du C(Eur, (Journal entry, 1973), p.322. Oct. 1970), p. 393. 32. "Theologoumenon upasana: meditation sur 12. "Theologoumenon upasana: meditation sur la Trinite" (1970), Interiorite et Revelation, la Trinite" (1970), Interiorite et Revelation, p. 220 p.230 33. "Jesus Ie sauveur" (1971), Interiorite et 13. Letter 2.9.72, cited by Dupuis, Interiorite et Revelation, p. 275 Revelation, p. 20. 34. "Jesus Ie sauveur" (1971), Interiorite et 14. La montee au/ond du C(Eur, (Journal entry, Revelation, p. 279 January 1967), p. 354. 35. "Jesus Ie Sauveur" (1971), Interiorite et 15. "Cheminements Interieurs" , Interiorite et Revelation, p. 279 Revelation, p. 45, footnote 13. And p. 92: 36. "In principio erat verbum" (1971), "Car Dieu est tout autre qu'un autre." Interiorite et Revelation, p. 307 16. La montee au/ond du C(Eur, (Journal entry, 37. La montee au/ond du C(Eur, (Journal entry, April 1973), pp. 461, 462 Feb. 1973), p. 450 and Stuart, James: 17. La montee au/ond du C(Eur (Journal entry, Swami Abhishiktananda: His life told Sept. 1967) , p. 359 through his letters (Letter, 2 April 1973), 18. La montee au/ond du C(Eur, (Journal entry, p.322. October 1966), p. 345 and see also 38. Saccidananda, p. 195 "Sannyasa", The Funher Shore, (ISPCK, 39. Saccidananda, p. 52 Delhi, 1975), p. 52. 40: Hindu-Christian Meeting Point, p. 83 19. "Theologoumenon upasana: meditation sur 41. "Revelation cosmique et revelation dans Ie la Trinite" (1970), Interiorite et Revelation, Christ" (1970), Interiorite et Revelation, p. p. 226, where John 8:58 is cited: "Before 253 Abraham existed, I am." 42. "Notes de theologie trinitaire" (1973) 20. Letter dated 16.1.73, cited by Dupuis, intro Interiorite et Revelation. duction to Interiorite et Revelation, p. 24. 43. "Notes de theologie trinitaire" (1973), 21. La montee au/ond du C(Eur, (Journal entry, Interiorite et Revelation, p. 243 October 1966), p. 346 44. "Theologoumenon upasana: meditation sur 22. Hindu-Christian Meeting Point, (ISPCK, la Trinite" (1970), Interiorite et Revelation, Delhi, 1976), p. 91. p.229 23. La montee au/ond du C(Eur, (Journal entry, 45. Stuart, James: Swami Abhishiktananda: His October 1972), p. 438. life told through his letters (Delhi: SPCK, I: 24. "Sat-Purusha" (1973), Interiorite et 1989), Letter dated 23 December 1970, p. I Revelation, p. 300 270. 25. La montee au/ond du C(Eur, (Journal entry, 46. "In principio erat verbum" (1971), May 1967), p. 357. Abhishiktananda takes Interiorite et Revelation, p. 310. many Biblical passages literally: "Go sell 47. "Approach to the Upanishads", The Funher what you have", "Take nothing for your Shore, p. 77 journey - no staff, bag, bread, money, no 48. "Theologoumenon upasana: meditation sur change of clothes", "Sannyasa", The Funher la Trinite" (1970), Interiorite et Revelation, Shore, p. 50: p.231 26. Hindu-Christian Meeting Point, p. 118. 49. La montee au/ond du C(Eur, (Journal entry, 27. Saccidananda: A Christian approach to Feb., 73), p. 450. advaitic experience, (ISPCK, Delhi, 1974), 50. "Sannyasa", The Funher Shore, p. 43. p.84 "As long as we remain at the level of signs, 28. La monteeau/ond du C(Eur, (Journal entry, the best signs for us are normally those

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among which we first awoke as men, and as 59. Dupuis, J., Introduction to Interiorite et men devoted to God, even if later on those Revelation, p.28. Dupuis questions whether signs have to be purified and freed from the advaitic experience can truly be their limitations and particularity. " compared with Christian mysticism, and 51. La montee aufond du c(£ur, (Journal entry, whether it properly describes the experience Sept. 1970), p. 390 of Jesus at his baptism. Dupuis is especially 52. La montee au fond du c(£ur, (Journal entry, concerned at the radical relativity given by Aug. 1971). Thus, Dupuis is incorrect when the advaitic experience to history. And yet he states that Abhishiktananda did not Dupuis acknowledges that Abhishiktananda hesitate to recognize the superiority of did have a good knowledge of theology; he Christianity on the phenomenal level. had participated in theological conferences. (Introduction to Interiorite et Revelation, p. He was aware of changes in Roman Catholic 22). theology since the Vatican Council, and he 53. Hindu-Christian Meeting Point, p. 115 was current in his knowledge of Western 54. La montee au fond du c(£ur, (Journal entry, debates concerning Christology. April 1956), p. 188. 60. Stuart, James: Swami Abhishiktananda: His 55. La montee au fond du c(£ur, (Journal entry, life told through his letters (Delhi: SPCK, July 1971) , p. 403 1989), p.83. 56. La montee au fond du c(£ur, (Journal entry, 61. Gnanananda, un maitre spirituel du pays Jan. 1973), p. 447 tamoul (Ed. Presence, 1970); English 57. La montee au fond du c(£ur, (Journal entry, translation Guru and Disciple (S.P.C.K., Dec. 1972) , p. 442. 1974) 58. "Sat-Purusha" (1973), Interiorite et 62. According to R. Panikkar, Abhishiktananda Revelation, p. 304; also La montee aufond arrived in India to testify about Christ, but du c(£ur (Journal entry, Feb. 1973), p. 453; ended by being converted by those he had also "Approach to the Upanishads", The wanted to convert. (Preface to La montee au Further Shore, p. 100. fond du c(£ur, p. V).

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