About Our Authors
Sister Gargi (Marie Louise Burke)
Sister Gargi
Marie Louise Burke became Sister Gargi in 1974 when she took her first vows in India from the Ramakrishna Order. She was honored with the monastic name of Gargi after the renowned Vedic scholar in recognition of her brilliant accomplishments as a researcher and a writer-and later, in 1983, with the first Vivekananda Award given by the Ramakrishna Mission.
She is the well-known author of the monumental six-volume classic Swami Vivekananda in the West: New Discoveries, as well as other works. The New Discoveries books have been highly acclaimed in India and in Vedanta circles worldwide, and the knowledge they have given of Swami Vivekananda’s personality has changed the lives of many readers. “You have become immortal, Gargi, for your colossal and pioneering work on Swamiji,” wrote Bharat Maharaj, a revered senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order.
Ms. Burke met Swami Ashokananda in 1948 when he was in charge of the Vedanta Society of Northern California in San Francisco-with which she became closely associated and where she still lives. He encouraged her to write about Swami Vivekananda, and told her that she could write about Swami Ashokananda himself only when all her other work was finished. Now, at the age of ninety, Sister Gargi has at long last rewarded her many readers with this powerful and wise biography of her own spiritual teacher.
In Rememberance of Sister Gargi
Sister Gargi (Marie Louise Burke) died peacefully in San Francisco on January 20, 2004. Her legacy as a prominent American monastic of the Ramakrishna Order and as a legendary literary figure are honored in the Obituary and in Commemorations from the Ramakrishna Order.
Dr. Shelley Brown
Dr. Shelley Brown began her study of Vedanta philosophy at the age of sixteen with Swami Nikhilananda, the founder of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center in New York City and the famed translator of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. With his encouragement, she left the world of classical ballet to attend Barnard College, where she majored in English literature while completing her premedical courses.
Dr. Brown received her medical degree in 1963, and opened her clinical practice as a consultant Hematologist and Oncologist after seven years of postdoctoral training. She became a senior attending physician and the Director of the Blood Bank at Lenox Hill Hospital, with a teaching professorship at the New York University School of Medicine. She published widely, lectured internationally, and was asked to speak on philosophical as well as medical subjects during her annual visits to India after 1984.
The author’s study of Vedanta philosophy came full circle in 1987 when she became engaged in a spiritual dialogue with Swami Nitya-swarup-ananda that went on unabated until the day he died. Their friendship galvanized her contemplative life, led to her early retirement, and inspired her to write Centred in Truth, her two-volume chronicle of the Swami’s life and work.
Dr. Brown is also the editor and publisher of A Heart Poured Out by Sister Gargi (Marie Louise Burke), and A Disciple’s Journal, Sister Gargi’s forthcoming book.
Dr. Shelley Brown
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