¹ This paper is dedicated to the memory of Judson B. Trapnell (1954–2003). His scholarly work on Bede Griffiths has done much to advance Hindu-Christian studies. He was also a source of support to this author.

² Abhishiktananda, , The Secret of Arunāchala (Delhi: ISPCK, 1979), 9.Google Scholar

³ This is Stuarts, James analysis in Swāmī Abhishiktānanda: His Life Told through His Letters (Delhi: ISPCK, 1989), 34.Google Scholar

⁴ Abhishiktananda, , Secret, 22.Google Scholar

⁵ Clooney, Francis X., Theology after Vedānta: An Experiment in Comparative Theology (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 194.Google Scholar

⁶ Clooney, Francis X., The Study of Non-Christian Religions in the Post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church, Journal of Ecumenical Studies 28/3 (1991): 483.Google Scholar

⁷ Clooney, , Theology after Vedānta, 5.Google Scholar

⁸ Fredericks, James L., Faith among Faiths: Christian Theology and Non-Christian Religions (New York: Paulist, 1999), 170.Google Scholar

⁹ Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 5 April 1952, Ascent to the Depth of the Heart: The Spiritual Diary (1948–1973) of Swami Abhishiktananda (Dom H. Le Saux), trans. Fleming, David and Stuart, James, ed. Panikkar, Raimon (Delhi: ISPCK, 1998), 35.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Maharshi, Ramana, The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, ed. Osborne, Arthur, 3d ed. (London: Rider, 1968), 5.Google Scholar

¹¹ Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 5 April 1952, Ascent, 35.Google Scholar

¹² Ramana, , Collected Works, 41.Google Scholar

¹³ Ibid., 120.

¹⁴ Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 16 November 1955, Ascent, 130.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Ibid., 27 July 1955, p. 106. See also ibid., 1 June 1952, p. 39; ibid., 8 June 1952, p. 43; ibid., 2 December 1953, p. 78; ibid., 28 July 1955, pp. 108–09; ibid., 13 August 1955, p. 115; ibid., 14 August 1955; ibid., 12 June 1960, p. 233.

¹⁶ “Le regard du Fils sur Soi, c'est la contemplation même de sa Source éternelle, le Père, source de la Divinité, source de l'être; c'est le passage et le retour essentiel en Sa Source, depuis laquelle et en laquelle seulement il se connaît, il est, il rentre, en Son propre Soi” (Saux, Henri Le, Intériorité et Révélation: Essais théologiques, Le Soleil dans le Cœur, ed. Davy, M.-M. [Sisteron, France: Presence, 1982], 73Google Scholar).

¹⁷ “L'unité du Fils et du Père n'empêchent [sic] point leur distinction. Au sein du sat, dans la transcendance du sat, l'a-dvaita et l'an-neka, la non-dualité et la distinction ne sont point contradictoires” (ibid., 72).

¹⁸ Abhishiktananda, diary entry, 5 June 1955, p. 103. See also ibid., 8 June 1952, p. 43; see ibid., 12 June 1960, p. 233.

¹⁹ E.g., “Which one cannot grasp with one's mind, / by which, they say, the mind itself is grasped–/Learn that that alone is brahman, / and not what they here venerate.” Kena Upanishad (trans. Olivelle, Patrick in Upaniṣads, Oxford World's Classics [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996]), 1.5.Google Scholar

²⁰ Abhishiktananda, “Total Isolation, Solitude (Esseulement),” trans. James Stuart, typewritten document, Abhishiktananda Archives, Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi, 8. (For the French original see Saux, Le, Intériorité et Révélation, 136Google Scholar).

²¹ Abhishiktananda, , “Esseulement,” 6Google Scholar (Saux, Le, Intériorité et Révélation, 134Google Scholar). For an earlier description of this desire see Saux, Le, Intériorité et Révélation, 74–75.Google Scholar

²² Abhishiktananda, , “Total Isolation, Solitude (Esseulement),” 1–2Google Scholar (Saux, Le, Intériorité et Révélation, 128).Google Scholar

²³ Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 16 May 1958, Ascent, 213–14.Google Scholar

²⁴ Ibid., 10 June 1958, p. 218. See also ibid., 12 April 1957, p. 204; ibid., 25 May 1958, p. 215.

²⁵ Abhishiktananda, , Saccidānanda: A Christian Approach to Advaitic Experience (Delhi: ISPCK, 1974), 115Google Scholar (Saux, Le, Sagesse Hindoue Mystique Chrétienne: du védanta à la Trinité, L'Église en son temps-études, ed. Le Guillou, M.J. [Paris: Centurion, 1965], 166).Google Scholar See also Abhishiktananda, , Saccidānanda, 197Google Scholar (Saux, Le, Sagesse, 260).Google Scholar

²⁶ Abhishiktananda, , Saccidānanda, 199Google Scholar (Saux, Le, Sagesse, 263).Google Scholar

²⁷ Abhishiktananda to Odette Baumer-Despeigne, 23 December 1970, in Stuart, , Swāmī Abhishiktānanda, 270.Google Scholar (Interpolations are the editors.) The tension between Vedanta and Christianity is insoluble. I tried to go beyond it in Sagesse [Saccidānanda]. The last chapter [on faith] shows that I was unable to do so. Above all, because we try to judge experiences conceptually, from outside. ‘Who is asking the question?’ Ramana would say” (ibid., 23 January 1969, p. 234). See also ibid., Abhishiktananda to Raimundo Panikkar, 10 July 1969, p. 243; ibid., Abhishiktananda to Joseph Lemarié, 26 August 1969, p. 245; ibid, Abhishiktananda to Sara Grant, 5 April 1971, p. 276; Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 20 May 1971, Ascent, 326–27Google Scholar; Abhishiktananda, , Saccidānanda, xv.Google Scholar

For examples of Abhishiktanandas theological efforts to express classic Christian doctrines from an Advaitic perspective, see Expérience spirituelle et dogmes, Theologoumenon Upsâna sur la Trinité, and Notes de théologie trinitaire,” in Saux, Le, Intériorité et Révélation, 209–47.Google Scholar

²⁸ Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 11 December 1971, Ascent, 333.Google Scholar

²⁹ Ibid., 21 December 1971, p. 335. See also ibid., 7 September 1970, p. 319; ibid., 23 October 1970, p. 322; ibid., 18 November; ibid., 20 May 1971, pp. 326–27; Abhishiktananda to Anne-Marie Stokes, 24 August 1969, in Stuart, 244; ibid., Abhishiktananda to Marc Chaduc, 21 January 1973, p. 318.

It was undoubtedly the mental and spiritual strain of the synthetic task, spread out over so many years, which led Abhishiktananda to these conclusions. The intuition which was worked out in Sagesse [Saccidānanda] came to me towards 1960; but the further I went, the more impossible it became to bear the strain of maintaining this insight (nothing physical or psychological, but rather like a ‘count-down’ of an extreme tension)” (ibid., Abhishiktananda to Odette Baumer-Despeigne, 23 December 1970, p. 271).

³⁰ Abhishiktananda, letter, 2 September 1972, in Dupuis, Jacques, Jesus Christ at the Encounter of World Religions, trans. Barr, Robert R. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1991), 75.Google Scholar “The best course is still, I think, to hold on even under extreme tension to these two forms of a unique ‘faith’ until the dawn appears” (Abhishiktananda to Odette Baumer-Despeigne, 5 December 1970, in Stuart, 268). See also [James Stuart], J.D.M.S., editors note to Saccidānanda, rev. ed., by Abhishiktananda, (Delhi: ISPCK, 1984), viiiGoogle Scholar; Dupuis, , Jesus Christ, 81–82.Google Scholar

³¹ Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 16 April 1973, Ascent, 375.Google Scholar See also ibid., 10 April 1972, p. 342; ibid., 11 May 1972, p. 348; ibid., 20 May 1972, pp. 350–51; ibid., 11 June 1972, p. 356; ibid., 3 August 1972, p. 358; ibid., 1 November 1972, p. 361; ibid., 8 July 1973, p. 385; Abhishiktananda to Marc Chaduc, 16 June 1972, in Stuart, 305.

³² Knitter, Paul F., Preface to The Myth of Christian Uniqueness: Toward a Pluralistic Theology of Religions, ed. Hick, John and Knitter, Paul F. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1987), viii.Google Scholar

³³ Knitter, Paul F., Jesus and the Other Names: Christian Mission and Global Responsibility (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996), 7–8.Google Scholar

³⁴ Knitter, , Preface to The Myth of Christian Uniqueness, viii.Google Scholar

³⁵ “Les formes de révélation divine que l'on trouve dans les religions et humanismes n'ont pas seulement valeur en fonction de leur relation actuelle ou possible à cette plénitude historique de révélation, mais sont déjà en elles-mêmes de véritables moyens de communication entre Dieu et les hommes” (Saux, Le, Intériorité et Révélation, 267Google Scholar). See also “Archétypes religieux, expérience du soi et théologie chrétienne,” which was written a few months later. For a discussion of these essays see Stuart, 257, 261.

³⁶ “Rien, dans l'évolution religieuse présente de l'humanité, n'autorise à penser que cette convergence de tout vers l'Eglise, et, réciproquement, cette totale catholicisation de l'Eglise puissent se réaliser un jour, du moins dans un avenir tant soit peu prévisible” (Saux, Le, Intériorité et Révélation, 200Google Scholar). “Not only is it necessary to grant the actual existence of religious pluralism here and now, but it is also impossible to foresee a time in the historical future when Christianity might become for mankind as a whole even the predominantlet alone the onlyway of realizing their transcendent vocation (Abhishiktananda, , Saccidānanda, rev. ed., xiGoogle Scholar). See also ibid., xii–xv.

³⁷ Saux, Le, Intériorité et Révélation, 251.Google Scholar

³⁸ “La présence du Christ dans les religions et l'humanisme se réalisera sous des noms et des notions très différentes de ceux du vocabulaire standard de la chrétienté traditionnelle. Cela revient à dire que le mystère du Christ est avant tout une réalité supra-mentale qui réside dans le tréfonds du cœur de l'homme, antérieurement et au-delà de toute expression au niveau de la psyché” (ibid., 267–68).

³⁹ It was Michael F. Stoeber who suggested that Abhishiktananda's position is best described by this term. For other examples of such approaches see Stoeber, Michael F., Theo-Monistic Mysticism: A Hindu-Christian Comparison (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), 40–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Minore, R. N., “The Response of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother,” in Modern Indian Responses to Religious Pluralism, ed. Coward, Harold G. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), 90–92.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ “C'est au contact du message de Jésus et de l'expérience de foi des disciples de Jésus que chaque croyant et chaque homme sincère dans le monde trouverait l'aide nécessaire pour purifier et approfondir sa propre vie de foi selon les lignes de sa tradition particulière. Ce contact lui permettrait de découvrir le chemin le plus sûr vers cette expérience qui se manifesta au cœur de Jésus” (Saux, Le, Intériorité et Révélation, 198Google Scholar).

⁴¹ Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 2 February 1973, Ascent, 368.Google Scholar

⁴² Abhishiktananda to Marc Chaduc, 30 January 1973, in Stuart, 320 (Stuart's interpolation). See also ibid., Abhishiktananda to Raimundo Panikkar, 30 January 1973, p. 321.

⁴³ Maharshi, Ramana, The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words, ed. Osborne, Arthur, 2d ed. (London: Rider, 1965), 12.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 2 February 1973, Ascent, 369.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ “La religion chrétienne est seulement une manifestation spatio-temporelle—même si privilégiée—du mystère humano-divin, theandrique … Ce mystère théandrique avait déjà été approché dans d'autres aires culturelles et religieuses sous la forme de l'Eveillé (buddha), du Prophète, … de Nārāyana, de Nārāyani, … d'Ishvara (Saux, Le, Intériorité et Révélation, 268Google Scholar). See also ibid., 201–02, 271–73. See also Abhishiktananda, diary entry, 3 July 1970, Ascent, 314–15; ibid., 9 July 1970, p. 315; ibid., 2 July 1971, p. 330; ibid., 24 July 1971, p. 331–32; ibid., 12 December 1971, p. 334; ibid., 24 April 1972, pp. 343–47; ibid., 25 October 1972, p. 360; ibid., 27 December 1972, p. 364.

⁴⁶ Stuart, 232, 294–300, 302–03, 308, 311–12, 324, 334.

⁴⁷ Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 11 May 1972, Ascent, 348.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Ibid., 28 May 1972, p. 351.

⁴⁹ Rogers, C. Murray, “Swamiji the Friend,” in Swami Abhishiktānanda: The Man and His Message, ed. Vandana, , 2d ed. (Delhi: ISPCK, 1993), 31.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 17 February 1973, Ascent, 373.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Ibid., 19 April 1973, p. 376. See also ibid., 16 April 1973, pp. 374–75; ibid., 20 April 1973, p. 378; ibid., 28 April 1973, p. 379; ibid., 30 April 1973, pp. 379–80; ibid., 11 May 1973, p. 381; ibid., 8 July 1973, p. 384; Abhishiktananda to Marc Chaduc, 4 February 1973, in Stuart, 322; ibid., 21 April 1973, pp. 331–32; ibid., Abhishiktananda to Murry Rogers, 2 September 1973, p. 348.

⁵² “The Christian does not understand us [Advaitins] when we refuse to consider Christ as the Only Incarnation. It is because we know that what is created can nowhere and in no single being comprehendere [grasp, understand] God. It is not to defend our position that we refuse to accept the uniqueness of a deva-mārga [way of the gods]; it follows from one of the deepest demands of our philosophical and religious thought.

How can we believe in the absoluteness of a dogmatic formula? of a rite? hence, of a Church? Could God then be shut up in what is created? We too believe in Christ as a Son of God. But how could Christ exhaust God?” (Abhishiktananda, diary entry, 8 March 1953, Ascent, 62). (Here Abhishiktananda is speaking as an Advaitin. “[Grasp, understand]” and “[way of the gods]” are the editor's interpolations. “[Advaitins]” is mine.) See also ibid., 7 January 1954, p. 88; ibid., 9 January 1954, p. 89.

⁵³ Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 11 September 1973, Ascent, 385–87.Google Scholar This experience bears close resemblance to one reported by Ramana Maharshi. See Osborne, Arthur, Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge (London: Rider, 1954), 18–19.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ See Stuart, 344–62.

⁵⁵ Abhishiktananda to Murry Rogers, 2 September 1973, in Stuart, 348–49. See also ibid., 4 October 1973, p. 350; ibid., Abhishiktananda to Marc Chaduc, 4 October 1973, p. 353.

⁵⁶ Abhishiktananda to Marc Chaduc, 16 January 1973, in Stuart, 318. See also ibid., Abhishiktananda to Térèse de Jésus, 16 January 1973, p. 317; ibid., Abhishiktananda to Marc Chaduc, 21 January 1973, pp. 318–19; Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 11 January 1969, Ascent, 305Google Scholar; ibid., 15 January 1971, p. 326; ibid., 2 July 1971, pp. 328–29; ibid., 24 July 1971, pp. 331–32; ibid., 14 December 1971, p. 334; ibid., 24 April 1972, p. 346–47; ibid., 3 August 1972, p. 359; ibid., 23 September 1972, p. 360; ibid., 25 December 1972, pp. 363–64; ibid., 2 January 1973, p. 367; ibid., 17 February 1973, pp. 372–73; ibid., 28 April 1973, p. 379; ibid., 30 April 1973, pp. 379–80; ibid., 11 May 1973, p. 381.

⁵⁷ See, for instance, Donald Nicholl, Foreword to Stuart, , Swāmi Abhishiktānanda, ix–x.Google Scholar Trapnell also offers a sympathetic analysis. Trapnell, Judson B., Two Models of Christian Dialogue with Hinduism. III: Bede Griffiths and Abhishiktananda,” Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection 60 (1996): 249–54.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Dupuis, , Jesus Christ, 85.Google Scholar (Although Dupuis expresses this reservation, he believes that Abhishiktananda found a solid balance in the end. See ibid. 85–86.) For Bede Griffiths' view see Trapnell, , “Two Models of Christian Dialogue,” 244–45.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Irenaeus, Against Heresies (Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James, eds., in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, vol. 1, The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenæus [New York: Scribner's, 1926]), 6.36.1.Google Scholar (Interpolations are the translator's.)

⁶⁰ Abhishiktananda was aware of the relativistic attitudes which his theory of religion might generate and attempted to protect against it. For instance, although religious structures are not relevant to the final awakening, he believed that they have their place: “The man who is awake marvels at the dream; in it he grasps the symbolism of the mystery. He knows that every detail has its significance” (Abhishiktananda to Marc Chaduc, 30 January 1973, in Stuart, 320). See also ibid., Abhishiktananda to Odette Baumer-Despeigne, 1 October 1968, p. 231; ibid., Abhishiktananda to J. Lemarié, 12 September 1970, p. 263; ibid., Abhishiktananda to Marc Chaduc, 20/21 October 1973, p. 356; Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 18 November 1970, Ascent, pp. 322–23Google Scholar; ibid., 28 May 1972, p. 351.

⁶¹ Glenn Friesen develops a position parallel to mine: “Abhishiktānanda‥‥ initially tried to interpret the advaitic experience in Christian terms. But he ended by accepting the authenticity of the experience and trying instead to reconcile and to interpret his previous Christian beliefs in relation to that experience (Friesen, J. Glenn, Abhishiktānanda, : Hindu Advaitic Experience and Christian Beliefs, Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin 11 [1998]: 36).Google Scholar

⁶² Panikkar, , introduction to Ascent, by Abhishiktananda, , xviii.Google Scholar

⁶³ [James Stuart], J. D. M. S., editors note to Saccidānanda, rev. ed., by Abhishiktananda, , viii.Google Scholar See also Dupuis, , Jesus Christ, 81.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 2 February 1973, Ascent, p. 367.Google Scholar See also Abhishiktananda to Marc Chaduc, 30 January 1973, in Stuart, p. 320.

⁶⁵ Samartha, Stanley J., “The Cross and the Rainbow: Christ in a Multireligious Culture,” in The Myth of Christian Uniqueness, ed. Hick, and Knitter, , pp. 75–76.Google Scholar (Sanskrit terms which appear in the text were dropped in this quotation.)

⁶⁶ Clooney, Francis X., “Reading the World in Christ: From Comparison to Inclusivism,” in Christian Uniqueness Reconsidered: The Myth of a Pluralistic Theology of Religions, ed. D'Costa, Gavin (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1990), 78.Google Scholar “I am not impressed by this kind of claim for the diminishment of religious and theological language and reason in the face of Mystery, in part because I am not sure what is left to theology as an activity (distinct from contemplation)” (ibid, 77). See also Fredericks, , Faith among Faiths, 113–16.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Abhishiktananda, , diary entry, 8 July 1973, Ascent, 385.Google Scholar See also ibid., 2 February 1973, p. 370; ibid., 16 April 1973, p. 375; ibid., 17 April 1973, p. 375–76; ibid., 30 April 1973, p. 380; ibid., 5 July 1973, p. 384; ibid., 12 September 1973, p. 388; Abhishiktananda to Marc Chaduc, 23 November 1973, in Stuart, 359.

⁶⁸ [Marc Chaduc] Foreword to The Further Shore: Two Essays by Abhishiktananda, : “Sannyasa” and “The Upanishads–An Introduction” (Delhi: ISPCK, 1975)Google Scholar, by Abhishiktananda, ix. See also Panikkar, Raimundo, “Letter to Abhishiktananda on Eastern-Western Monasticism,” Studies in Formative Spirituality 3/3 (1982): 447–48.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Fredericks, , Faith among Faiths, 167–68.Google Scholar See also Clooney, , Theology after Vedānta, 193–94.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Duffy, Stephen J., A Theology of the Religions and/or A Comparative Theology?, Horizons 26/1 (1999): 112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Clooney and Knitter both present responses similar to Duffys. Clooney, , Theology after Vedānta, 195Google Scholar; Knitter, Paul F., “Review Symposium: Paul F. Knitter's Introducing Theology of Religions,” Horizons 30/1 (2003): 127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Fredericks addresses the need for a coherent approach to other religions by discussing Jesus' commandment to love (“Faith among Faiths,” 173–77).

⁷¹ Though critical of theology of religions as a whole, Clooney, argues that inclusivist models offer, at present, the most balanced approach (Theology after Vedānta, 194–95).Google Scholar