Ashram Diary takes the reader to Shantivanam, an ashram in India by the sacred river Kaveri. Shantivanam began in 1950 when two French priests put on the orange robes of Hindu renunciates. In 1968, an English monk, Bede Griffiths, became the ashram's guru and taught there until his passing in 1993. During the last nine years of Griffith's life, Thomas Matus listened to his teachings and shared in the life of the ashram. In this book, Matus recounts his experience of Shantivinam and of India, its people and its spiritual culture.