Arnaud Desjardins

Arnaud Desjardins (aʁno deʒaʁdɛ̃; June 18, 1925 in Paris – August 10, 2011 in Grenoble) was a French author. He was a producer at the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française from 1952 to 1974, and was one of the first high-profile practitioners of Eastern religion in France. He worked on television documentaries about spiritual traditions not well known to many Europeans at the time, including Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, Zen, and Sufism from Afghanistan. Arnaud Desjardins was the son of Jacques Guérin-Desjardins. He was part of the George Gurdjieff group, his first contact with mysticism. Educated in a Protestant Christian environment, he was exposed to spiritual aspects of Christianity on a visit 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 attention for his first film, Ashrams. He met a spiritual teacher, Swami Prajnanpad, whom he got to know after filming a number of mystics from various traditions. He became a practitioner of Adhyatma yoga, which is a branch of Advaita Vedanta. Hinduism: Ashrams, 1959 Tibetan Buddhism: Le Message des Tibétains: Le Bouddhisme (première partie), 1966 The Message of the Tibetans: First Part, Buddhism (VHS), Alize Diffusion (1994) Le Message des Tibétains: Le Tantrisme (deuxième partie), 1966 The Message of the Tibetans: Second Part, Tantrism (VHS), Alize Diffusion (1994) In this two-part documentary, Arnaud Desjardins documents the practices and rites of Tibetans, and meets the Dalai Lama and spiritual teachers of Tibetan Buddhism and Tantra.