Ascent to the Depth of the Heart: The Spiritual Diary (1948 - 73) of Swami Abhishiktananda (Dom Henri Le Saux) translated by David Fleming and James Stuart. Inroduction by Raimon Panikkar, Delhi, ISPCK, 1998, pp 410. ISBN 2 86839 076 5.

This book is an English edition of the French original, published eleven years earlier. Henry Le Saux went to India in 1948 as a Benedictine missionary, arriving not only in a recently independent and partitioned nation but during a time of uncertainty for Indian Christians, caught between their Indianness and 'Christian identity, more or less tied to the West' (p xxiv). As Panikkar points out, the theological content of the dairies has already appeared in Le Saux's own publications (listed p xxxiii). Nor do they contain much biographical detail. What they offer is a privileged look at Le Saux's spiritual quest. 'Privililege' here derives from the fact that the diaries were not written with a view to publication. Their entries trace for us Le Saux's development of a Christian-Indian contemplative life in tune with Indian, indeed with Hindu, spirituality. Where he went, Bede Griffiths and others would follow. Le Saux handed on leadership of the Saccidananda Ashram, which he co-founded in 1950, to Griffiths in 1969 when he retired to his Himalayan hermitage.

Interesting that non-Indians have so completely immersed themselves in Hindu thought and concepts that they have chosen to live and to dress as hermits (sunyassin), while many Indian Christians remain skeptical, suspicious that this represents theological compromise. In passing, the diaries refer to other Westerners whose admiration for Hinduism has led them to adopt a Hindu lifestyle, such as Murray Rogers (pictured, p 196). Incidentally, as the book progresses, it has several interesting side observations. For example, p 197, on the more conservative, introspective North Indian Church, compared with the South. Throughout, too, anxiety is expressed about conversion: 'the word is detested by Hindus' (p 26).

After early wrestling with the problem of appearing at all sympathetic towards Hinduism, Le Saux came to see Christ within as well as oustide of Hinduism. Vatican Two was a release for him. An early visit to Shri Ramana Maharashi was a turning point in his quest. Not only did he conclude that Ramana's experience of God was genuine (p 10) but he encountered an Englishman who had assumed Hindu identity. He wrote, 'If a Ramana is what he seems to have been, the Church has no power over him' (p 289). He did not find everything Hindu acceptable, 'there can be undoubtedly … in Hinduism some things absolutely bad' (p 29) but he found it easy to apply many Hindu terms to God and Christ. Christ is 'Sad-Guru', or true master (p 31). The universal self 'manifests in every consciousness of being' while Christ is the 'Purusha', the archetype, the 'embodiment of the unity of created being', in whom we are all made complete (pp 283 - 4).

His thinking reminds this reviewer of Vivekanand's, especially his concern to 'satisfy the demands of science'. Teilhard de Chardin's 'viewpoint', he wrote, 'is the only way to save humanity'(p 283). When he says, 'It is not the historicity of Christianity' but 'the timeless values expressed in it'(p 360) that matter, Le Saux sounds very much like Vivekananda, Gandhi and other Hindu writers. On p 361, though, he rejects using Buddhism or the Upanishads to elucidate St John's Gospel, which is exactly the opposite for many Hindu writers who tend to see many similarities between John and Upanishadic thought. The book is not easy to read, and those unfamiliar with Sanskrit terms will find it especially difficult. However, there is much in this book of value to anyone interested in the relationship between Christ and culture, in the challenge of planting 'gospel' within a specific religio-cultural context, in this instance that of India, and in the spiritual biography of a remarkable pioneer set against the backdrop of post-colonial and pre and post Vatican Two Catholic missions.

Clinton Bennett

Baylor University, TX

© 2000 Clinton Bennett