Father Bede Griffiths Remembered

In addition to his own credentials as a writer, poet, teacher and mystic, Andrew Harvey became a dedicated friend and follower of the late Father Bede Griffiths, a scholarly, saintly Benedictine monk who founded and lived for decades in a Hindu-Christian ashram in South India. This unusual dialogue eloquently communicates the blessings of this extraordinary man. Father Bede, says Harvey, was "the simplest and most eloquent spokesman of the Holy Spirit that our time has seen . . . one of the most important people of this century, an authentic prophet, someone who lived out the life of Christ." Listen in to a thoughtful, inspiring explanation of why this is so, illustrated by audio excerpts of Father Bede himself, plus a devotional Indian song by Russill and Asha Paul. Harvey is the author of The Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi (North Atlantic Books 1994), and co-author of Dialogues with a Modern Mystic (Quest 1994).

Topics explored in this dialogue include: why Bede was "one of the most important people of this century, a religious community that embodies a Christian-Hindu symbiosis, the foundation of Father Bede's lucid optimism, the lessons of Father Bede's last years and days, Bede's own description of his ashram, the value of meditation, in Bede's words, honoring the divine darkness in our selves and our experience, what the Black Madonna represents, Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri as an Indian counterpart of Bede, the poetic and mythical aspects of Ireland.

©1994 New Dimensions Foundation (P)2008 New Dimensions Foundation