Introduction
Behind the Cosmic Curtain
At the time of his death, Rudi (Swami Rudrananda) had completed his first published manuscript, Spiritual Cannibalism. This work was drawn from a regular series of dictations that he undertook during the last few years of his life. It also incorporated material that he had written at an earlier time. When the book was republished in 1978, new material was added from this pool of dictations. But there remained many pages of unpublished manuscript.
The present work brings together much of this unpublished material. Since it had not been previously organized by Rudi or anyone else, the editor has had to put the manuscript together according to its intrinsic character, and make the necessary editorial corrections to bring it from a dictated to a publishable form. Whatever the risks and difficulties in such an undertaking, the importance of making this material available to a wider audience justified the effort.
It is my hope that Rudi would approve of the result. But whatever changes he might have wished, the spirit of his being speaks through his words as they come to life in the reader and generate a fiery awareness. And it is this which constitutes the essence of his action.
John Mann, Ph.D.
Director,Rudi’s Big Indian Center