The Self is neither born, nor will it ever die. He comes from nowhere and nothing emanates from it. Unborn, eternal, ever present, primordial, it doesn’t perish even when the body is destroyed.
— Katha Upanishad I.2.18
The Spiritual Encounter with India
Born in France on 10 May 1944, Marc had always felt an intense attraction to the spiritual life. In January 1969, a common friend introduced him to H.H. Swami Chidananda Saraswati, the President of the Divine Life Society, who was visiting Lyon (France) at the time. Marc wrote in his journal that the darshan [1] of Swami Chidananda was his first living spiritual encounter with India.
That same year, Marc wrote a letter to Swami Abhishiktananda, in what would prove to be the beginning of a correspondence which would lead to their eventual meeting. After having served for two years as a teacher in Niger, Marc came to India in October 1971 and met Swami Abhishiktananda in Delhi. The following month he met Swami Chidananda for the second time. Both swamis were to have a profound effect on Marc’s spiritual journey.
The Meeting with Swami Abhishiktananda
Immediately upon Marc and Swami Abhishiktananda meeting, both recognised the profound nature of their relationship as guru and disciple. Their consequent relationship was to have a tremendous effect upon the lives of both men. For Swami Abhishiktananda, the meeting was to plunge him into the incomparable experience of being a guru to a true and perfect disciple; this in turn would lead him to reflect deeply upon the meaning and mystery of sannyasa, and ultimately lead to his own Awakening. For Marc, the meeting would lead him upon the sacred and “irreversible journey” of sannyasa and a life of intense seclusion.
The Meeting with Swami Chidananda Saraswati
Whilst Swami Abhishiktananda was Marc’s ultimate guru, Swami Chidananda was the other spiritual master to have a crucial impact in Marc’s life and who would come to be his diksha-guru [2]. Swami Chidananda encouraged Marc in his vocation to search for the Absolute through silence and solitude; shortly after his arrival in India, Marc confided in Swami Chidananda his deep desire for solitude:
I… told him (Swami Chidananda) about the compelling urge that I had been feeling to practice sadhana in total silence for an entire month in the heart of the forest. He consented, ‘Indeed, God cannot but be found in silence and in a state of non-doing’…When I confided to him my intention…the Holy Man promptly replied, ‘Why not doing it now? Now is the right time to do it!’ …How mysterious it all seems to me! Is it really a life of total silence what the Lord has in store for me? … – it’s becoming increasingly obvious to me that it is the Lord’s will that, from now on, I shall lead a life of seclusion and in total silence…
— Swami Ajatananda, Spiritual Diary, November 1971
The Eternal Light
For the two last years of Swami Abhishiktananda’s life, Marc spent intensive and extended periods of time with his guru (October 1971 – December 1973). Swamiji dedicated himself to initiating Marc into the essence of the Upanishads and other sacred scriptures. It was during one such period of intense study that Marc had a profound spiritual experience, in the presence of Swami Abhishiktananda. This took place on 10 May 1972 while the guru and disciple were in retreat together in Phul Chatti Ashram, near Rishikesh. Marc described the event in his diary:
…I find myself unable to start describing the ecstatic experience… – this infinite, non-dual Light… At the same time it is the eternal Truth underlying the very existence of my ultimate being, the non-dual ‘I’ that I AM, beyond all ‘I-ness’… I AM PURE LIGHT INFINITE: Paramjyotilina (ever-dwelling in the unutterable Light Supreme).
— Spiritual Diary, May 1972
Swami Magni Ram Shastri, who was present at Phul Chatti in 1972, recalls the presence of the guru and disciple:
…I met Swamis Abhishiktananda and Ajatananda at Phul Chatti Ashram when they stayed with us in 1972…They could be found involved in serious studies by the banks of the Ganges. In a way, this pair reminded us of Adi Shankaracharya and his times. Though they did not communicate much with the ashram members, their lives were an expression of fellowship and love. Their manner of adaptation to our lifestyle was praiseworthy. They looked as though they were born with the qualities of discernment and equanimity. They set us an example of interreligious fellowship by breaking the boundaries of religion and going beyond them. They silently showed us a path which roots out religious fundamentalism that is often found in religions today.
Sannyasa Diksha – The Irreversible Journey
Sannyasa…the call to total renunciation, which is beyond all names, all forms, even all dharma.
— Swami Ajatananda, 1975 [3]
On 30 June 1973, Marc received sannyasa diksha [4] on the bank of Holy Ganges, in Rishikesh, by H.H. Swami Chidananda Ji Maharaj, who represented the tradition of the Upanishads and the monastic lineage of Sri Adi Shankar