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Marie Louise Burke became Sister Gargi in 1974
when she took her first vows in India from the
Ramakrishna Order. She was honored with the monastic
name of Gargi after the renowned Vedic scholar in
recognition of her brilliant accomplishments as a
researcher and a writer-and later, in 1983, with the
first Vivekananda Award given by the Ramakrishna
Mission.
She is the well-known author of the
monumental six-volume classic Swami
Vivekananda in the West: New Discoveries, as well
as other works. The New
Discoveries books have been highly acclaimed in
India and in Vedanta circles worldwide, and the
knowledge they have given of Swami Vivekananda's
personality has changed the lives of many readers. "You
have become immortal, Gargi, for your colossal and
pioneering work on Swamiji," wrote Bharat Maharaj, a
revered senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order.
Ms. Burke met Swami Ashokananda in 1948 when he
was in charge of the Vedanta Society of Northern
California in San Francisco-with which she became
closely associated and where she still lives. He
encouraged her to write about Swami Vivekananda, and
told her that she could write about Swami Ashokananda
himself only when all her other work was finished. Now,
at the age of ninety, Sister Gargi has at long last
rewarded her many readers with this powerful and wise
biography of her own spiritual teacher.
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