Yann Vagneux's" Indian Portraits" is a seminal book depicting the lives of eight Christians who have experienced a deep encounter with Hinduism through a bold spiritual quest. Each of them has become the seed of a reconciled world. This may be through a luminous service of the poor as with Mother Teresa, the Jesuit Pierre Ceyrac, Jean Vanier and the L'Arche communities, or through the silence of a hidden contemplative life as with Swami Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux) and his two disciples Ajatananda and Sister Thérèse, Vandana Mataji or the hermit Prasanna Devi. Known or unknown, these deep voices are an inexhaustible source of inspiration leading us to discover our own spiritual path in a world signed by plurality and a desire for a greater communion.
Spun out of Yann Vagneux's deeply lived experiences earned during his travels on the paths of his devotional sojourn in the holy city of Banaras and mystic heights of Himalayas, the book is a must read for all those interested in understanding the unique mosaic of faiths that forms the very basis of spirituality in India.
I and their transformative encounter with India, Yann Vagneux in a way traces his own spiritual journey as a Catholic priest in love with the Indian tradition. He has chosen four men and four women who have travelled a path moving from their Christian identity to a much vaster spiritual landscape which they have found in Hinduism. Each of them has a different personality and a different vocation, but the invisible thread connecting these extraordinary lives is precisely the transformative power of India as a spiritual bond: below the surface of poverty
and social problems, and at its height embodied in the sages and saints, past and present. True, most of the lives described in this account started from a missionary ideal, but ultimately they were all led into a deep relationship with the country, its people and its high spirituality. This process is ultimately one leading from a duality of 'we' and 'they', to a non-duality and non-separation.
This collection includes universally known saints, like Mother Teresa, and totally unknown and hidden solitary hermits like Prasanna Devi. The author has given equal importance to contemplatives and their silent message, as to socially engaged priests like Father Ceyrac. While the majority of the lives described in great depth came from the West (especially France), what is the place of two Indian nuns in this context? In fact, the criterion is the transformative power of the Indian tradition. Vandana Mataji was born in a Parsi family in Bombay, but she was attracted to Christianity and become a Catholic nun of the Sacred Heart. However, there was a second step of spiritual conversion when she came close to Hinduism and took guidance from a Hindu sannyasi, Swami Chidananda of Shivananda Ashram. She started ashrams which would serve such a spiritual dialogue. Prasanna Devi (whom I had known in 1963 as Sister Anna) was a Kerala Christian who was in search of a contemplative life and finally, under the guidance of a Belgian Benedictine monk and hermit, lived her spirituality as a hermit on Mount Girnar in Gujarat and was recognized by Hindus, Jains and others as a saint who felt inspired by her very presence.
The reason why I accepted to write this foreword as requested by my dear friend Yann is that I have been very close to the 'trinity' of Swami Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux) and his two French disciples, Marc Chaduc and Sister Thérèse Lemoine. In fact, my coming to India at the first instance in 1963 was motivated by meeting Swami Abhishiktananda in his Shantivanam Ashram, and going on pilgrimage to the sacred mountain Arunachala, and thus entering in contact with the sage Ramana Maharshi.
This first meeting with Abhishiktananda was decisive for my own life's journey.
Therefore, in a way I am closely associated to most of the personalities presented in this collection. But there is also both a historical and theological development where I have moved away from an initial 'fulfilment theology' (influenced by Raimon Panikkar and Abhishiktananda in their early phase) and found a way which is both, pluralistic and non-dual, in my relationship between the traditions. But probably that would not have been possible without having gone through a phase which has been practiced by the great spiritual persons described in the present volume.
Hindu (1765)
Philosophers (2327)
Aesthetics (317)
Comparative (66)
Dictionary (12)
Ethics (44)
Language (350)
Logic (80)
Mimamsa (58)
Nyaya (134)
Psychology (497)
Samkhya (60)
Shaivism (66)
Shankaracharya (233)
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