A Disciple's Journal · in the Company of Swami Ashokananda

This is Sister Gargi’s personal account of her spiritual training over two decades by Swami Ashokananda (1893–1969), the illustrious teacher of the Ramakrishna Order who headed the Vedanta Society of Northern California. Her journal starts in 1950 when the Swami started to teach her meditation in the Hindu tradition of Vedanta. Marie Louise Burke, as she was then known, went on to become an award-winning author, a major literary figure in the Vedanta movement, and a respected monastic. In this memoir, she takes readers on a powerful inner journey as she shares the riches of her spiritual quest. She also shares her struggles with self-doubt, writer’s block, and divorce, along with the low points of her journey. Throughout, readers are given intimate glimpses of her development through the loving insights and scoldings of an authentic spiritual guide. Readers eavesdrop on the spontaneous moments of spiritual instruction that lift the author from uncertainty to confident possession of her own being in her joyful spiritual life. A drama unfolds between teacher and disciple that is more poignant than fiction.

“This new book by Sister Gargi is the ideal companion to her notable biography of Swami Ashokananda. Its heartfelt firsthand accounts pass the impact he had on her on to her readers. Sister Gargi is to be thanked for another important entry in the archives of world spiritualityl” —HUSTON SMITH, internationally renowned author of The World’s Religions and Why Religion Matters