Glorious Fifty Years of Wisdom and Service

A Souvenir released on Swami Krishnananda's 50th Birthday

The Great Transmitter

by Sivananda-Valentina

Yes, that is how I know Swam Kirishnanandaji. Swamiji is the Master of both—word and silence. Both are the great forces, and he uses them splendidly. Intense and exquisite are his words but there is even more intenseness in that, which he leaves unsaid. Capacity—Intenseness—Control are some of Swamiji's characteristics. One who realized the Absolute has unlimited capacity for the relative.

The enlightened Knower is Swamiji! He lives, acts, works in the world not as much as the worldly man—but much more. But what a difference! The Knower lives and moves with great conscious force and power, without falling from the Supreme Awareness of the Absolute. For the Knower of Truth the Supreme is in the world, in the body, in the work as fully as It is in the most utter state of Samadhi. The sage accepts the world as God.

It is undoubtedly most helpful about one's life to be at home with the high and the low, and this I call capacity. Intenseness of the mystic, the poet, the philosopher is manifested as earnestness and ability to be right and just in the mundane dealings. Control has many ramifications. If one has it within—one certainly is at ease with the outside forces.

Swamiji has perfect skill in action. A savant par excellence, he nevertheless is entirely unaffected by the usual ailments of most learned pandits! He is humility, simplicity and charm personified! His greatest achievement is "the silence of the desire and tongue before God!" I do not think there are many people even amongst highly-evolved Yogins and Vedantins who can surpass Krishnananda in exquisite measure of word. Yet it is not a calculative effort, but rather, true absorption in Silence, which results in the subtle discrimination and Knowledge, as well as in the power to avoid evil.

This quality of freedom from the world, this deep calm and courage, this composure and thoughtfulness, verily radiate from the whole mental atmosphere around Swami Krishnananda. The very existence of such soul force influences and purifies through the whole space, there is no doubt about it. I perceive almost an "audible sound of intenseness" about Swami Krishnananda! Straight, one-pointed, luminous and intensely alive—such is his aura. His mind seems to be always in repose. That is why he reflects the whole Universe in his writings. "The Realisation of the Absolute" is veritable Masterpiece. I have gathered the deepest calm; the purest light from contemplating the immortal Truths of this most enlightening presentation of the Vedantic Teachings. Swamiji, even as Sankaracharya, detests loud speech, profusion of words and exhibitionism. His words are delightfully reaching both the heart and the head.

Spiritual fragrance is limitless! Mountains and oceans separate Me from Swami Krishnananda physically, but no power can forbid or limit the Silent Transmission of Truth. Truth is not of time or space. It is impossible to either transmit or receive true Love or true Wisdom through any conscious effort, speculation, disciplines, etc. For all such attempts are of time. They start and they end. True communion is not even "everlasting", for this is true of time! No, the fragrance of spiritual communication is really above all values and concepts. It is effortless, instantaneous and all-embracing. It just IS. It is the sweetest and the highest communication far beyond the mind, far beyond mental abstract generalizations.

Prostrations thousand times to the Soul who transmits silently the Glory of the Infinite. And may he also be blessed for his powerful Divine Speech which is almost as grand as his Silence!

Swamiji—a Blessed Birthday to you! And my ardent prayer is that this Blessed Birthday may be celebrated for many beautiful years to come!