Six Lighted Windows: Memories of Swamis in the West [Paperback]

Swami Yogeshananda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1998

What is it like to live in a Vedanta (Hindu) monastery in the West? What kinds of teachers, abbots and companions would one find there, and how would their teachings and examples profit the Western mind? What about the social and cultural differences?

This book opens the reader to these and similar questions, and answers them by detailing the life and character of some of the best known swamis (monks) of the Ramakrishna Order of India.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Six Lighted Windows is a profoundly moving and inspirational remembrance of six of the most dedicated teachers and spiritual guides of the Ramakrishna Order who were called to serve in the West.

Following in the wake of Swami Vivekananda in his mission to America and the West, these remarkable men left their native India to help found monasteries and religious communities in cities as diverse as New York, London, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and even Hollywood.

In every instance, their devotion to the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna helped to spread the truth of Vedanta in the Western world.

Having had the rare privilege of serving all these master religious teachers during the course of his own spiritual evolution. Swami Yogeshananda was ideally situated to experience firsthand both the warmth and the profundity of their human presence. His memoirs are an inspiring gift to all followers of Vedanta and a vital document in the history of Vedanta in the West.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

(from the Foreword) I used to think that I knew what spirituality was. At least the books - The Practice of The Presence of God, Tales of the Hasidim, The Buddha-Charita - were in some agreement about it. Living beside the extraordinary souls of whom I speak in this book, I had to revise my conceptions.

Spirituality seems to take many forms and surprising shapes. The temptation to put people on scales in order to gauge their spiritual weight or judge one against another is to be resisted. Applying an illustration used by Sri Ramakrishna may be our best course of action: "In a great chandelier, the lamps are of various shapes and sizes, but the light shining through each one is the same and from the same source."

Whatever spirituality is, or rather whatever I could comprehend of it, has been revealed gradually and continually as I lived with these men.

These accounts are not biographies, but they are more than cameos. The monks discussed here were true pioneers of the work of the Ramakrishna Order in the West, and whatever can be preserved of their words and actions is of value.

Product Details

• Paperback: 299 pages
• Publisher: Vedanta Pr; Revised edition (February 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874814103
• ISBN-13: 978-0874814101
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,764,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear Windows, June 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Six Lighted Windows: Memories of Swamis in the West (Paperback)

Just finished reading this wonderful book for the second time, and once again I am gobbling it up rather than savoring it. We are shown that holiness (wholeness?) comes in very different packages. To see this is inspiring after so many "holy" biographies that leave out much that is human. What great joy it must have been to serve these holy men as Swami Yogeshananda has served them. Beautifully written, I highly recommend this book to all.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent informative book for the Western mind, July 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Six Lighted Windows: Memories of Swamis in the West (Paperback)

Just a comment on another reviwer's observation: the Swamis mentioned in this book are not the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna; however, they were the disciples of the direct disciples. In other words, they were the direct disciples of the Ramakrishna order.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Six Monks of the Ramakrishna Order, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Six Lighted Windows: Memories of Swamis in the West (Paperback)

An interesting insight of six monks who were direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and who came to USA and England to propagate universal philosophy of Vedanta.