Om Sri Ganeshaya Namah!
Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya!
Om Namo Bhagavate Chidanandaya!
Om Namo Bhagavate Krishnanandaya!

Namaste!

The Voice of Truth
by Sri Swami Venkatesanandaji Maharaj

Gurudev Swami Sivananda called him “Vedanta Kesari” and also “Dakshinamurti” on different occasions. On several occasions, Sri Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj vindicates the Master's intuitive understanding of the true nature of his illustrious disciple. Krishnananda Swamiji's silence is as eloquent as his spoken word, and his spoken word is as wise and unfathomable as his silence. When he speaks, one is reminded of Lord Buddha's Simhanada (lion's roar) and one appreciates why Gurudev called him the Lion of Vedanta. When one is enveloped by Swamiji's silence which stirs one's own innermost depths, one understands Dakshinamurti's secret of stupendous silence.

Between the Lion's roar and the grat silence is Swamiji's eloquence whose uniqueness was pointed out by the world-renowned Rukmini Devi during her visit to Sivananda Ashram in the 1950s: “Krishnananda Swamiji uses the right word to convey the exact sense in the most appropriate manner.” This ability of Swamiji obviously flows from a direct experience of the truth that he expounds. That the exposition is often based on the Bhagavad Gita ad the Upanishads is a sure indication that these scriptures are authentic, because it is the sage of Self-knowledge that authenticates the scriptures.

What is even more interesting in the divine life of Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj is the way in which this austere and holy recluse could effortlessly slip into the role of a dynamic administrator. These two, to the ordinary human mind, are contradictory with totally different values. But not to him. In him the universe blends indistinguishably with Brahman, meditation and service are non-different, and service is worship or Samadhi.

Yet, he is able to understand and appreciate the difficulties and problems of lesser mortals to whom differences are the absolutes! One morning, a young man approached Swamiji with the usual and universal problem of sorrow and frustration. Swamiji spoke to him at length about the social, economic and psychological causes and cures of such sorrow and frustration. In brief, poverty and lack of affection are the basic causes today of sorrow and frustration in the human being. Fair enough. After some interval, Swamiji turned to the same young man and continued: “What I am now going to tell you may not be understood by you right now, but you can take it with you and you may realise its truth in due time. The truth is that there is no affection or love in this world. All that passes by these names is hypocrisy. In truth, God is the centre of love. From this higher point of view, all the loves that we are familiar with—a man's love for his wife, a businessman's love of wealth, a dictator's love of power and so on—are all perversions of this God's love of Himself, the centre's love of itself. The distorted love is false. What is popularly known as selfishness is an affirmation of the false sense of individuality. When this is directly realised as the truth, selfishness is denied and one rises to the state in which one does not experience any joy and there is no sorrow. To the worldly mind, this higher spiritual approach to the problem of sorrow and frustration is difficult, if not impossible, to understand. But this is the truth, though for the present, only the economic and social aspects are intelligible to you. So, I suggest you take all this with you and contemplate the truth and I am sure you will leave this Ashram in a very much better state than the one in which you entered it.”

The sage of transcendental consciousness that he is, Swamiji is able to appreciate the difficulties of spiritual toddlers and offer them solutions to their problems at their own levels. Gurudev used to point out that in recent times, Shankaracharya embodied in himself the highest perfection of a Karma Yogi, Bhakta and Vedantin. This could with equal validity be said of Sri Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj also. He is a great Vedantin, an ardent devotee of the Lord (and God-in-Man), and an able administrator of the vast organisation known as the Divine Life Society and the complex world-in-miniature known as the Sivananda Ashram.

If you wish to witness the truth of this, please spend a couple of hours or a couple of days at the Sivananda Ashram, and see for yourself what goes on during the morning Darshan of Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj.

Source

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Today, 25th April 2022, marks the auspicious 100th birthday anniversary of Revered Sri Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj. There are several new uploads to Sri Swamiji's website:

1. eBook: The Brahma Sutra on the Final Salvation of the Soul is being serialised.
2.      Publishers' Note
3.      Inauguration: Learning the Art of Being Always Happy
4.      Chapter 1: An Overview of the Brahma Sutra
5. Discourse: Prophets, Incarnations, Gurus
6. Discourse: Man's Aspiration for God
7. Video: Darshan with Swami Krishnananda in 1984
8. Swami Krishnananda Shashtyabdapurti Mahotsava Commemoration Volume: A Souvenir released on Swami Krishnananda's 60th Birthday
9. Text-to-Speech Audios of A Short History of Religious and Philosophic Thought in India
10. Yoga, Meditation and Japa Sadhana has been translated into German
11. The Psychology of Religion and the Spiritual Attitude in Life has been translated into Spanish
12. The Four Conflicts of Life has been translated into Japanese
13. The Incarnation of Christ has been translated into Japanese
14. The programme of the Spiritual Conference for Swami Krishnananda's Birth Centenary Celebrations
15. Darshan with Swami Krishnananda: Choosing the Mantra

 

On the occasion of Sri Ramanavami, four booklets were released in print for free distribution:

1.     Religion as the Perfection of Life
2.     Knowledge as a Means to Freedom
3.     The Path of Divine Devotion
4.     Rama—The Apotheosis of Human Perfection
5. Darshan with Swami Krishnananda: Harmony Among People
6. Photos of Swami Krishnananda's Birth Centenary Celebrations
7. Darshan with Swami Krishnananda: The Subject and the Object

Yours in the service of Gurudev,

Pannirselvam

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