As some may have read in the India News Letter being circulated, Sister Gargi passed away this week, the devotee researcher (Marie Louise Burke) who chronicled Swami Viivekananda's time in the West.
Reports from a friend indicate that she left during the night, while sleeping. One imagines a peaceful and blessed passage for this truly dedicated devotee who was called to contribute to our historical understanding of Vedanta and offer insights into Swamijii's work in the West.
Yet, with her passing many of us may feel that a page in Vedanta's history has been forever turned. While we may feel a loss among us, no doubt Swamiji, Mother, and Thakur are rejoicing. Sister Gargi had just completed a third book about her own teacher, Swami Ashokananda. One imagines that after having completed her appointed work here, it is They who have called her home.
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Sister Gargi of Vedanta Society Passes On
News Report
KOLKATA, INDIA, January 21, 2004: The eminent researcher on Swami
Vivekananda, Marie Louise Burke, has died at her residence in the San
Francisco Vedanta Society in the US, the Ramakrishna Mission said.
Burke, age 93, popularly known as Sister Gargi, died on Tuesday and was
single. Initiated into Ramakrishna-Vivekananda movement by Swami
Ashokananda, founder secretary of San Francisco Vedanta Society, Sister
Gargi devoted her life to research on Swami Vivekananda's works in the
West which culminated in the nine-volume Swami Vivekananda in the West:
New Discoveries. Sister Gargi was the first recipient of the
Vivekananda Purashkar award instituted by the Ramakrishna Mission
Institute of Culture in 1984.
