Arnaud Desjardins
Arnaud Desjardins (1925-2011) was one of the first Europeans to introduce the great Eastern teachings in the West, especially in France. He grew up in a narrow-minded and rigid Protestant environment and sought from an early age to escape from this confinement and broaden his horizons. During a month-long stay in a Trappist monastery, he deepened his understanding of the Gospel and the Christian tradition and worked for years on his spiritual development outside a religious context in Gurdjieff groups.
However, his encounter with Eastern spirituality in India, Afghanistan, and Japan shaped him particularly intensely. Professionally, he worked for the ORTF (Office de Radiodiffusion et Télévision Française) and shot documentaries in these countries about Indian saints, Tibetan Rinpoches, Zen masters, and Afghan Sufi masters, some under the patronage of the Dalai Lama. These films were very successful and were made accessible to a large audience through French television, which came into contact with Eastern wisdom for the first time. In 1965, he met the Bengali Advaita teacher Swami Prajnanpad and subsequently followed his training path under direct guidance for many years.
At the suggestion of his master, Arnaud founded an ashram in France in 1974, which steadily grew and had to move several times, where he passed on the Advaita teachings he had received in a very practical and down-to-earth form and offered a training path himself. He also taught regularly in Canada and Mexico for several months a year. Numerous books have emerged from his teaching conversations, but he is also the author of various books in which he explains the doctrine in detail.
