Arnaud Desjardins (born June 18, 1925; deceased August 10, 2011),
producer at the ORTF from 1952 to 1974, was one of the first
practitioners of Eastern religion to be discovered in France,
working on televised documentaries with many great spiritual
traditions unknown to Europeans: Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, zen,
and soufism (Islamic mysticism) from Afghanistan.
Arnaud Desjardins was part of Gurdjieff groups, his first contact
with mysticism. Educated in a Protestant Christian environment, he
was equally taught of the spiritualist life on a trip to a trappist
Catholic monastery. He then became interested in yoga, and when
asked to direct a film for French television, he chose to make a
series of films on India, for which he gained notoriety for his
first film, Ashrams. It was because of his numerous voyages and his
passion for spirituality that he made many more films and wrote a
number of books.
His thoughts were written in a spiritual traditional book by his
master, Swami Prajnanpad, whom he got to know after filming a
number of mystics from varied backgrounds. He became a follower of
Adhyatma yoga, a branch of Advaita Vedanta. This strand of Hinduism
is based on the Vedas, more particularly, the Upanishads. This open
dialogue about the grand spiritual traditions, both Eastern and
Western, became his major field of study under the encouragement of
his master.
Arnaud Desjardins spoke of his spiritual approach like this: "It's
a way of eroding egocentricity which is compatible with different
creeds and religious convictions" Translator
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