Abhishiktananda

Henry Le Saux

Swami Abhishiktananda was born Henri Le Saux on 30th August, 1910, at St. Briac in Brittany, France. At an early age he felt a calling to the priesthood, and in 1929 entered the contemplative life as a monk of the Benedictine Monastery of St. Anne de Kergonan.

As a monk he was seeking for a more meditative way of life and he felt the call of India. In order to follow his vocation, Le Saux contacted Father Jules Monchanin who had worked in India since 1939 and whose reply was most welcoming: "Learn as much English as you can. You will have no objection to a purely vegetarian diet (essential for the life of a sannyasi). You will need unshakable courage ... complete detachment from the things of the West, and a profound love for India."

Having completed all the necessary formalities in summer 1948, Henri Le Saux set off for India and reached the Indian coast on 15th August, 1948. It took him several months to become adjusted to his new life.

"India reveals Herself to those who are prepared to be still; and, over a long period to listen humbly at close quarters to the beating of Her Heart; only to those who have already entered sufficiently far into themselves, into their own depths, to be able to hear in the Inner chamber of the Heart the 'secret' that India is ceaselessly whispering to them by means of a 'Silence' that transcends words. For, Silence is above all the languages, through which India reveals Herself; imparts her essential message-the message of Interiority, of that which is 'Within'."

At the end of January 1949, Henri Le Saux took darshan of Sri Ramana Maharshi. The meeting with Maharshi left a tremendous impact on Le Saux, who then focussed his spiritual search on a deeper level by starting to realize the truth of advaita. It seems Sri Bhagavan told him, 'Do not meditate-just BE! Do not think you are -just BE! Do not think about being-you ARE!' Some years later Le Saux wrote in his spiritual diary that "Ramana's advaita is my birthplace". During the summer of 1949, Henri Le Saux had another darshan of the Sage.

On 21st March 1950 Henri Le Saux and his fellow monk Fr. Monchanin started Shantivanam Ashram on the banks of the Kaveri. At first, the original purpose was "an ashram, Hindu in form, where Hindus and Christians ... would hold silent communion in the quest of the Unique." The two monks adopted Indian names (Le Saux became Swami Abhishiktananda-"Bliss of the Anointed One") and also the kavi robes prescribed for sannyasis.

Origin of Ashram at Shantivanam

The aim of the ashram, was to "bring into Christian life the riches of Indian spirituality and to share in the profound experience of God which originated in the Vedas, was developed in the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita, and has come down today through a succession of sages and holy ones".

March 21, 1950. Inauguration Saccidananda Ashram, Shantivanam.

Henri Le Saux (right), Bishop James Mendonca (centre), Jules Monchanin (Left)

.By giving the ashram the name "Saccidananda" "Being, Consciousness and Bliss" a Hindu term for the Godhead used as a symbol of the three persons of the Christian Trinity, the founders wanted to show that they sought to identify themselves with the Hindu "search for God", the quest for the Absolute, which has inspired monastic life in India from the earliest times.

Swami Abhishiktananda at Shantivanam

Upon Swami Abhishiktananda's departure in 1968, the Saccidananda Ashram was taken over by a group of monks led by Fr. Bede Griffiths from Kurisutnala Ashram in Kerala. Since 1980 Shantivanam has been part of the Benedictine Order as a community of the Camaldolese Benedictine Congregation

Swami Abhishiktananda Arunachala Retreats

Arunachala continued to attract Swami Abhishiktananda and in March-April 1952 he moved to Vanatti Cave for a ten-day retreat in complete silence.

Swami at Arunachala Cave

There a spiritual experience was followed by further retreats. It was during one such retreat in 1953, that he met Harilal (H.W.L. Poonja), a disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Swami on Arunachala Summit

During his several stays in the caves of Arunachala over a period of three years, Abhishiktananda met a number of people who helped him immerse himself completely in the Direct Teaching of the Maharshi.

Swami with Sri Gnanananda Giri

In December 1955 Swamiji visited another renowned sage, Sri Gnanananda Giri at Tirukoyilur, and immediately accepted him as his guru. Sri Gnanananda's philosophy represented the purest form of Vedanta: "He has nothing to do with any cut-price spirituality. The path which he teaches is basically one of total renunciation, whose final result is that no place is left for the ego to show itself." The only genuine practice that Sri Gnanananda Giri actually recommended was dhyana, meditation.

Sri Gnanananda Giri

Having spent four days with him on his first visit, Swamiji returned to Sadguru Gnanananda in February-March 1956 and had a final encounter in spring 1957. Sadguru Gnanananda became a turning point in his life and Swami Abhishiktananda started realizing that the Truth is beyond all religions and formulas that can be verbalized.

Feeling attracted to North India and the Himalayas, Swami Abhishiktananda undertook several journeys and pilgrimages, of which the first was in 1959. In a letter to his sister he wrote: "The Himalayas have conquered me! It is beside the Ganges that Shantivanam ought to be. I do not know if that will ever happen, but how splendid it would be!" Swamiji finally decided to leave Shantivanam to settle as a hermit in the Himalayas. In 1968 he handed over Shantivanam to Father Bede Griffiths, a British Benedictine, and then relocated to his hermitage in Gyansu, near Uttarkashi.

In autumn 1971 after a two year correspondence, Swami Abhishiktananda met twenty-seven-year-old French student, Marc Chaduc, who soon became his disciple. After his arrival in India, Marc undertook several important pilgrimages (one of which brought him to the foothills of Arunachala where he had a profound advaitic experience), and he also spent time with Swamiji studying the Upanishads. In June 1973 after receiving sannyasa, Marc Chaduc was given the name Swami Ajatananda Saraswati

In the Himalayas

Hermitage at Gyansu, Uttarkashi, Himalayas

Early in July 1973 Swami Abhishiktananda and Swami Ajatananda were spending time in a deserted Shiva temple at Ranagal (several kilometres from Rishikesh), where they both had an intense spiritual experience.

Swami Abhishiktananda 1973

On the 14th, Swamiji travelled to Rishikesh to fetch provisions and suffered a heart-attack on the road. He survived for only five more months.

In the words of his disciple, Swami Ajatananda: "The 'adventure' of the heart-attack, followed by his entry in mahasamadhi, was in truth only the physical expression of his being swallowed up in the great Light, in his Self. The awakening experience was overwhelming. Swamiji spent his last months in a state of profound realization of the Truth. Swami Abhishiktananda's Mahasamadhi took place on the 7th of December, 1973.

Poem to Arunachala

Swami Abhishiktananda

Arunachala is a symbol
and Arunachala is a Reality,
a high-place of the Dravidian land,
all ruddy, aruna, in the rays of the rising sun,
where is worshipped the linga of fire,
the elemental sign of the Living God,
he who appeared to Moses in the burning bush
and on the summit of Mount Horeb,
Fire that burns and Fire that gives light,
Deus Ignis consumens ["God the consuming Fire"]
Lux mundi ["The Light of the world"]
Paramjyoti ["The supreme Light"]
Phos hilaron ["The joyful Light"]
the joyful light of the immortal glory
of the Blessed One,
Bhagavan!

For there at the dawn of lime was standing
the column of fire
of which Brahma could not reach the summit
nor could Vishnu find its foot,
symbol as it was of unfathomable Love--
Anbe Shivam--
which is the very ground of Being.

Later it took the form of a sapphire;
and then, in the evil times of our kaliyuga,
the Linga of fire became stone
for the blessing of mankind,
the sacred Mountain,
achala,
which the Lord set firmly on its foundation
and which is never shaken.

To its caves, age after age, there has come a succession
of those who are hungry for wisdom and renunciation,
whom the Mountain, the divine Magnet,
draws to its bosom,
to teach them in its own silence
the royal path of the supreme Silence,
and how to be established in the Self-
achala, atmanishtha.

From its sides there flow springs
sublimely named-
"The spring of the milk of grace"
"Milk from the breast of the divine Mother" -
where pilgrims come
to bathe and drink.

And finally, from its crest on the great day of Thibam,
when the Sun sinks in the west,
and the full moon of Karttiki
rises above the horizon,
there shoots up the Column of Fire,
which reveals the secret of Light.
hidden in the heart of the Mountain!

From the very Depth of Arunachala's Heart
there sounds a call
to him who speeds towards the Depth
of the Heart of Arunachala;
but he who enters into the Depth
of the Heart of Arunachala,
has lost even his own name
and all that till then he was;
so that henceforth he is only the dweller in the Depth,
the one who lives within the Cave
of the Heart of Arunachala;
he has entered his own Depth,
has been swallowed up in the Self,
having discovered at the deepest centre of himself
the secret of Arunachala.

But for him who at last reaches the Depth
of the Heart of Arunachala,
does there still remain a Depth?
Is there still an Arunachala?
What has become of the Mountain,
rosy-coloured Arunachala?
Where now are the springs
on the sides of Arunachala?
What has happened to the Light,
on the crest of Arunachala?

The caves themselves have vanished,
and with them the hermits of Arunachala;
has not he himself also disappeared,
swallowed up in the Depth
of the Heart of Arunachala,
merged in the Self,
the Unique Arunachala?

[By Swami Abhishiktananda]