A HEART POURED
OUT is an engaging biography that
brings the reader on a powerful journey into the
life story of Swami Ashokananda (1893-1969), a
monk of the Ramakrishna Order who developed the
Vedanta movement in northern California. In 1948,
Sister Gargi, then Marie Louise Burke, met Swami
Ashokananda and became his disciple. It is through
her vivid insider's account that we learn about
the relationship of this extraordinary teacher to
his students in their day-to-day spiritual
training.
From
the very beginning, as a God-absorbed boy in
village India, to his life as a young monk
dedicated to the highest ideals of Vedanta and of
Swami Vivekananda, the Order's first leader, we
see the commitment and passion of Swami
Ashokananda. Later, his courage becomes evident as
the editor of the Order's English-language journal
when he speaks out against some of the political
views of Mahatma Gandhi—and again in the 1930s
when he brings his teachings of Vedanta to
northern California at a time when Eastern
religion was considered
suspicious.
A Heart Poured
Out is the first time telling of
the life of Swami Ashokananda as a brilliant
pioneer of Vedanta in the West. In this current
climate of daily fears and obstacles, we have the
opportunity to use the teachings of Swami
Ashokananda to strengthen our lives with purpose,
courage, and wisdom.
SISTER
GARGI (MARIE LOUISE BURKE) is the
award-winning author of the six-volume classic
Swami Vivekananda in the West: New
Discoveries—sourcebooks admired by writers
such as J.D. Salinger, valued by scholars
worldwide, and considered indispensable to those
interested in Eastern religion. Her other works
include Swami Trigunatita: His Life and Work,
Vedantic Tales, and Hari the Lion.
EXCERPTS
(from the Dust
Jacket)
| "Who was this man that one word of his
could bore its way to the very heart of my being
and resound there for years like a rousing gong?
This is his story as I know
it." |
Thus Sister Gargi introduces her biography
of Swami Ashokananda (1893-1969), a monk of the
Ramakrishna Order who spent most of his life
developing the Vedanta Society in San Francisco,
where Sister Gargi—then Marie Louise Burke—met him
in 1948 and became his
disciple.
As a
spiritual teacher Swami Ashokananda was a powerful
guide. An adherent of Advaita Vedanta, he was
aware of the divinity of all life and saw in his
students their potential perfection. His
personality was like a flame that could change the
darkest chasms of one's mind into fields of light,
and his teachings brought courage and strength to
hundreds of lives. . .
A Heart
Poured Out is the extraordinary saga of an
authentic spiritual teacher. Swami Ashokananda's
compelling personality and his training of
disciples, here brought to life for the first
time, will help readers of all faiths surmount the
obstacles of daily life.
(from the
Prologue)
Drawn by that holiness, I came to more
lectures and became familiar with the thought of
Vedanta; I became more and more certain,
intellectually, that this was the philosophy that
had always been mine. Cloudy and confused though
my idea of God and the world and myself had been,
it was nevertheless Vedantic through and through.
To learn for the first time that these thoughts
were a part of an age-old philosophy, known to
millions of people, was an enormous relief to me.
I had believed for years that no one in the world
thought as I did and that that was because what I
thought was entirely wrong—in which case, life was
not worth living. But here, spoken by someone who
clearly spoke from the very heart of truth was my
philosophy; everything he said was my own,
clarified and immensely, infinitely enriched. I
needed only to change my life in accordance with
it, and that, I knew, was not going to be easy. I
also knew that Swami Ashokananda, through whom
truth flowed unhindered, straight, was the only
person on earth who could help me.
Copyright © 2005 Sister Gargi (Marie Louise
Burke)
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