Accolades to the author, Shirley Du Boulay, who took on the overwhelming task of writing the life of one who described himself as being “scorched” by the encounter of the “blazing Presence” and lived a life of such variegated blessings, mid peaks and pits. It had to take enormous courage, commitment and creativity, time and dedication to undertake and complete The Cave of the Heart: The Life of Swami Abhishiktananda. By drawing wisely and richly from all Abhishiktananda’s journals, letters, books, and conferences, by traveling to and acquainting herself with his birthplace, and by speaking with his relatives, community, and friends, Shirley Du Boulay offers the reader a magnificently readable synthesis of this unique monk’s life that spans his “peaks of enthusiasm” to his “near despair.”

Within the enormity of the task, the author is insightful even to small details, catching and considering various angles one might question or wonder at from Abhishik’s written thoughts and journal or letters. The work truly captures the heart of this monk insofar as that is possible in this life.

Born in 1910 in Briac, Brittany, Henri Le Saux entered the minor seminary at the age of eleven, the major seminary at sixteen, and then the monastery of Sainte-Anne de Kergonan at nineteen, making final profession and receiving ordination six years later. In 1939 World War II interrupted his monastic life. He was called into service for a time, was captured, and eventually escaped back to his monastery. In 1948 Fr. Henri Le Saux left his monastery and his beloved country of France to journey to India, where he joined Fr. Jules Monchanin in Kulittalai. He visited Sri Ramana Maharshi for the first time in 1949, and then was at Shantivanam Ashram for its inauguration on the feast of St. Benedict, March 2l, 1950. At that point he took the name of Abhishiktananda, accepting Hindu sannyasa (vows as a renunciate monk) as an end in itself, not merely as a means of proclaiming the Christian Gospel.

This “God-intoxicated” man, as Raimon Panikkar loved to refer to his friend, had prayed before his final profession that he might be a “sacrifice continually offered.” Abhishik embraced poverty fully, the call to total dispossession with absolutely nothing he would call his own. Earlier he had endured vacillation from others, hesitancies, and the changing of ecclesiastical minds, but after his arrival in India vacillations within his own “stubborn existence” and profoundly unique vocation surfaced.

The author spells out some of his paradoxes, or contradictions, as she calls them: Abhishiktananda was passionately French, though he wholeheartedly embraced India; he was very devoted to his family, though never returned to them again; he was constantly longing for silence, though he loved to talk and was in demand for such; while rejoicing in solitude, he traveled much and had an abundance of friends; he reveled in books and writing yet preferred direct experience; he intensely loved the priesthood while suffering from his irresistible attraction to Advaita, the nondual experience of Hinduism

Abhishik wrote eighteen books plus an unpublished manuscript and many articles during his life in India. He was invited to speak even by Hindus and was a key player in the East/West interfaith-dialogue movement in India. But his crowning achievement in this regard was his role in the National Seminar on the Church in India that took place after Vatican II in Bangalore in 1969. He not only helped prepare and structure the seminar but also contributed admirably during its sessions. He was delighted that Cardinal Pignedoli endorsed practically everything he had stood for since arriving in India.

After Fr. Monchanin died, Abhishik took charge at Shantivanam off and on, torn between long hours of solitude in the Himalayas, Arunachala, and other places. His “growing spiritual stature and the influence he was coming to have on people were born of his lifestyle and closely integrated with it.” He insisted on learning from experience rather than from theory. In his advaitic retreat he wrote in his diary that the “solitude of the Alone” is the royal road that leads to the real face-to-face with the Father. Jesus was alone in his death; Eloi, Eloi. . . .

Several people approached Abhishik in order to become his disciples, but none remained until Marc, a seminarian from France whom many described as radiating the divine, brought to Abhishiktananda the fullness of the guru–disciple relationship. After weeks of sharing, “grace erupted” and Abhishik told Marc that the one who receives this light is paralyzed, torn asunder, unable to speak or think. . . . with the sudden eruption of the “column of Fire.” Several other similar experiences were shared by the two before Abhishik sent Marc off into silence for a time.

The final chapter of the book is appropriately entitled “The Final Explosion.” On July 12, 1973, Abhishik had been with Marc and left him to get more provisions, intending to return. While running for a bus, he had a heart attack on the streets of Rishikesh. While recuperating, he wrote the following to Marc: “Siva’s column of Fire brushed against me Saturday midday in the bazaar at Rishikesh. . . . ” Marc traveled immediately to the ashram where his guru was “simply transformed into the radiance of the Lord.” Abhishik finally passed to the Other Shore on December 7, 1973. In 1977 Marc mysteriously disappeared and was never heard from again.

Just as movies are rated today, this biography is truly for “spiritual adults” only. Abhishiktananda, Fr. Jules Monchanin, and Fr. Bede Griffiths, the three founders of Shantivanam Ashram, were all referred to at one time or another as “bridges” between Eastern and Western religions. This volume is uniquely and eloquently written about one of these unique “bridges.” It calls us all to the real awakening that awaits us now if we would but “open our eyes.”