The Pathway of Non-Duality: Advaita-vada. By Raphael. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1992. Hardback, xi + 88 pages. ISBN. 81-208-09297
This book takes the form of a series of questions and answers regarding some aspects of Non-duality (Advaita). Raphael is a Philosopher-Mystic, a master of traditional metaphysics, who has achieved Asparsa-vada (i.e., the pathway of no support) and who is keeping alive the Advaita Tradition whose most important representatives, both from the point of view of Realization and Doctrine, have been Gaudapada and Shankara.
The best source of information about Raphael will be found at his Non-duality website, the Asram Vidya Order (www.vidya-ashramvidyaorder.org), which was founded by him as a channel for the Primordial Metaphysical Tradition.
There, we learn that: "Raphael is a Practising Asparsin and at present, after over 40 years of oral and written teaching, he lives at the Hermitage in retirement and silence." Asparsa-yoga is the yoga of Non-Duality.
To an interviewer, who once asked who he was, he replied disconcertingly: "I am you."
For Raphael, it would seem that biographical details, since they can refer only to wholly fictive entities, are quite without meaning.
See my Listmania list on Raphael for information about 'The Path of Non-Duality' and his other works.
