Bede Griffiths

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Bede Griffiths (born December 17, 1906 in Walton-on-Thames , United Kingdom ; † May 13, 1993 ; maiden name Alan Richard Griffiths ) was a British Benedictine monk and one of the most famous Christian mystics of the 20th century. He was particularly known for his religious dialogue with Hinduism , for which he received much recognition. From 1968 he took over the Pilergerort Sat-Chit-Ananda Ashram (also known as Shantivanam ) in southern India .

biography

childhood

Alan Richard Griffiths was born in Walton-on-Thames, the youngest of four children. His father's painting business soon went bankrupt, causing the family to lose its reputation. Since then his mother has worked as a cleaning lady and thus ensured the survival of the family. The family belonged to the Anglican Church , so Alan was also baptized in that church. He showed good intellectual talents from an early age. He learned French at the age of four, Latin at seven and Greek at nine .

After a few years at a private preparatory school, Alan joined Christs Hospital School in Sussex when he was twelve . At that time he was particularly interested in English literature . He also learned to play the piano. Alan was strongly influenced by nature poets such as Wordsworth and Keats and developed an enthusiastic relationship with nature. Griffiths was drawn to pacifism and refused to participate in the military groups organized at the school.

At the end of his school days he is said to have had an experience that was decisive for his life: while taking a walk, he claims to have received an inspiration that he later called the golden string ( The golden string ). Through this experience he became aware of how to handle his life. In 1954 he retrospectively wrote a book about his path to the Catholic Church and called it: The golden string .

Studies

Since Griffith was always top of the class at school, he soon got a scholarship. In October 1925 Griffiths went to Oxford , where he studied English literature at Magdalen College . As a teacher he had the researcher and author CS Lewis , who soon became a good friend. On Lewis' advice, Griffiths began studying philosophy as well. In 1929 he left the university and continued his studies at home, which was now in Newbury. There he began to study the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao te Ching .

After his studies he spent the next time with two friends in the country. They secured their income with self-milked cow's milk, which they then sold. The three men wanted to get closer to nature in this attempt.

Monastery existence and India

Around 1930 Griffith visited the Benedictine Abbey of Prinknash near Gloucester for six weeks . After this time, he felt so safe that it to the Catholic Church converted . On December 20, 1932, he was dressed as a Benedictine novice and took the monk's name "Bede", which, from an etymological point of view, is of Germanic-Celtic origin and means: eternal, living, immortal.

From 1947 to 1951 Bede Griffiths was prior in the monasteries Farnborough and Pluscarden . However, he had no pleasure in running a monastery, and so he tried to be able to give up this function. He already had contact with Indian literature and the teachings of Father Benedikt Alapatt moved him. So in 1955, after being exclaustrated , he decided to go to Mumbai , India with Alapatt . After studying Sanskrit and spending 10 years in the Kurisumala Ashram of the Belgian Trappist Francis Mahieu , Bede Griffiths took over the pilgrimage site of Sat-Chit-Ananda Ashram (also known as Shantivanam ) in 1968 .

He died on May 13, 1993.

Prominent voices on Bede Griffiths

"His vision has shown him the way to open people's hearts and minds to the peace and unity that grows from the understanding of the mutual recognition of the great religions."

- Dalai Lama

“Bede Griffiths is an authentic witness to the wisdom of the great religions. He masterfully and wonderfully reveals the presence of God. "

- Yehudi Menuhin

"Bede Griffiths is one of the few spiritual masters of our time, of whom unfortunately there are too few."

- Raimon Panikkar

Works

German

English

  • The Golden String: An Autobiography , (1954), Templegate Publishers, 1980 Edition: ISBN 0-87243-163-0 , Medio Media, 2003: ISBN 0-9725627-3-7
  • Christ in India: Essays Towards a Hindu-Christian Dialogue (1967), Templegate Publishers, 1984, ISBN 0-87243-134-7
  • Return to the Center , (1976), Templegate Publishers, 1982, ISBN 0-87243-112-6
  • Marriage of East and West: A Sequel to The Golden String , Templegate Publishers, 1982, ISBN 0-87243-105-3
  • Cosmic Revelation: The Hindu Way to God , Templegate Publishers, 1983, ISBN 0-87243-119-3
  • A New Vision of Reality: Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith , Templegate Publishers, 1990, ISBN 0-87243-180-0
  • River of Compassion: A Christian Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita , (1987), Element Books, 1995 reprint: ISBN 0-8264-0769-2
  • Bede Griffiths , Templegate Publishers, 1993, ISBN 0-87243-199-1
  • The New Creation in Christ: Christian Meditation and Community , Templegate Publishers, 1994, ISBN 0-87243-209-2
  • (co-editor with Roland R. Ropers), Psalms for Christian Prayer , Harpercollins, 1996, ISBN 0-00-627956-2
  • John Swindells (Editor), A Human Search: Bede Griffiths Reflects on His Life: An Oral History , Triumph Books, 1997, ISBN 0-89243-935-1
  • Bruno Barnhart (editor), The One Light: Bede Griffiths' Principle Writings , Templegate Publishers, 2001, ISBN 0-87243-254-8
  • Thomas Matus (Editor), Bede Griffiths: Essential Writings , Orbis Books, 2004, ISBN 1-57075-200-1
  • Universal Wisdom: A Journey Through the Sacred Wisdom of the World. Bede Griffiths, HarperCollins, 1994.

literature

  • Kathryn Spink, A Sense of the Sacred: A Biography of Bede Griffiths , Orbis Books, 1989, ISBN 0-88344-442-9
  • Beatrice Bruteau (Editor), The Other Half of My Soul: Bede Griffiths and the Hindu-Christian Dialogue , Quest Books, 1996, ISBN 0-8356-0717-8
  • Jesu Rajan, Bede's Journey to the Beyond , Asian Trading Corporation, Bangalore, India, 1997, ISBN 81-7086-211-6
  • Judson B. Trapnell, Bede Griffiths , State University of New York Press, 2001, ISBN 0-7914-4871-1
  • Wayne Teasdale, Bede Griffiths: An Introduction to His Interspiritual Thought , Skylight Paths Publishing, 2003, ISBN 1-893361-77-2
  • Shirley du Boulay, Beyond the Darkness: A Biography of Bede Griffiths , Alresford, UK: O Books, 2003, ISBN 1-903816-16-5 .
  • Albano Fernandes. The Hindu Mystical Experience: A Comparative Study of the Approaches of RC Zaehner and Bede Griffiths . New Delhi: Intercultural Publications, 2004.
  • Dion Forster. Christ at the center: Discovering the Cosmic Christ in the spirituality of Bede Griffiths . AcadSA Publishers. Kempton Park, 2008. ISBN 978-1-920212-24-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Via Bede Griffiths. Retrieved June 7, 2010 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Bede Griffiths: Mozart among the mystics. Archived from the original on November 4, 2013 ; Retrieved June 7, 2010 .
personal data
SURNAME Griffiths, Bede
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Griffiths, Alan Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Benedictine monk
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Walton-on-Thames , United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1993