“Swami Abhishiktananda: Essential Writings”

Selected with an introduction by  Shirley du Boulay, Orbis Books, 2006
ISBN 13:978-1-57075=695-5 (pbk)

Review by Dom Aldhelm Cameron-Brown, OSB, Prinknash Abbey

Among the pioneers of Hindu-Christian dialogue, the names of Fr Bede Griffiths, originally a monk of Prinknash Abbey, and Fr Henri Le Saux, a monk of Kergonan Abbey in Brittany (better known by his Indian name Abhishiktananda) stand out. Shirley du Boulay has written splendid biographies of both of them and now has edited this anthology of extracts from the writings of Abhishiktananda.

He had entered into Hindu thought and belief to a depth which few other Westerners have managed. Indeed, some readers may wonder whether he was not more Hindu than Christian by the time of his death. To this I would say that his love for the Eucharist remained with him to the end of his life. Indeed even when he and his friend Fr Raimundo Pannikkar made a pilgrimage on foot to the source of the Ganges, they took with them the essentials for celebrating a simple Mass.

            There was a problem, though. It is summed up in the Indian work ‘Advaita’ (non-duality). Though prayer, Abhishiktananda had reached a point where  he had experienced advaita for himself. He could not deny what had been a profound experience, but neither could he renounce the idea of the unity of God and the gulf which lies between God and created beings, in the Christian scheme of things. He had to struggle with this to the end of his life.

            Nevertheless, this reviewer felt that this was a struggle with words, not with his belief and experience. Reading through the book felt like a spiritual journey. At the same time, I was also reading the teaching of Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity. I felt that they were both writing, in rather different words, about the same experience.

There is a lovely photo of Abhishiktananda on the cover, with his somewhat roguish smile. I was a little amused to see that along with his Indian robes, he was wearing on his wrist that indispensable item of Western dress, a wristwatch!