It is a matter of great delight for thousands of seekers, Yogins and saints of all over the world that Amrit Mahotsava (75th Birthday Anniversary) Celebrations of our Pujya Sri Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj, General Secretary, The Divine Life Society Rishikesh is being organised befitting to this memorable event of the spiritual history of Bharatavarsha. It is really a very noble endeavour to publish a souvenir on the life and teachings of Sri Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj - a great saint of the modern times on this auspicious occasion. I congratulate Revered H.H. Sri Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj, President, the Divine Life Society, Rishikesh and other organisers of these celebrations who have taken up this worthy venture.

Swami Krishnanandaji is considered to be a concise walking encyclopaedia of secular and spiritual information due to his vast and intense knowledge of multifarious fields. In his morning Darbar you may talk to him on any subject but at the end you feel that Sri Swamiji knows better than even the specialists of that subject. Though saturated so much in Jnana, yet like Ulysses of Greek mythology he has always a great thirst of new knowledge and respects the learned ones.

He is a renowned author who is read with great interest and wonder in whole of the world, not only by the spiritual seekers but also by the students of Philosophy and Spiritualism.

Swami Krishnanandaji is an alloy of Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga. As the result of his many years of tapas, austerity and meditation, in pursuit of Self-realisation he may be termed as a great spiritual master of the day, in whom the spiritual Indian culture pulsates and finds manifestation in his each action and every breath. People from every nook and corner of the world come and sit near his feet to quench their spiritual quest. Thus anyone who comes near him feels that Swami Krishnananda is his mentor.

He is of the view that work and worship are not contradictory but complimentary to each other. That is why when Sri Swamiji sits in his morning audience one wonders how this Sannyasin caters to so many diverse spiritual and secular matters. At one time he is talking to a foreigner on the intricacies of Dhyana, the other moment he attends to the accounts clerk and asks him the details of the cash vouchers and just at that time someone asks Swamiji for the extension of his stay in the Ashram. Sri Swamiji rings up the Reception office. But this is not the end of the story, just at that very moment some needy person comes for donation and Swamiji passes orders to help him and cracks jokes with him, and then and there somebody wants his blessings for his newly married son. Sri Swamiji does all these things like the Great Videha King Janaka. The people who see this feat of Swamiji for the first time feel bewildered and say jokingly, "not two in one, not three in one but he is so many in one."

Sri Swami Krishnanandaji is basically an exponent of Sanatana Dharma and is proud of this heritage from Rishis of Bharatavarsha. But he is a firm believer of "open door" spiritual society based on the universal truth. Like his master Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, he does not profess to be a founder of any new thought. He has simply interpreted for us and the world, the Indian religious treasures of the past. His speeches and writings are thus fortified by quotations from the Indian scriptures, sayings of his great master and his own Anubhavas.

The greatest contribution of Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj to the spiritual realm is that he has tried to bring our spiritualism from the shelf of dogmas. According to him, "An educated mind cannot accept the canons of faith without rational evidence, whatever we are called upon to accept, must be justified by reason otherwise religious beliefs will be reduced to wishful thinkings."

The most obvious aspect of life is that everything in the world passes away. The vast mountains, the beautiful palaces, the strong castles, the great civilisations, all these are subject to decay and become the part of hoary history, but according to Sri Swami Krishnanandaji there is something beyond this time and space, which no doubt is inspiring and unifying this universe but this great power is in it but is beyond it. In his views, "there is that being before this "becoming" and that being is the eternal truth."

Sri Swami Krishnananda is a man of universal approach to religion without subjugation to any type of barriers. According to him, "Intolerance is an expression of religious conceit and not a spiritual spark. He believes in the freedom of conscience. Each soul has a right to choose its own path and see God in its own way. Secularism does not merely require us to tolerate but to understand and love other religions. That is why praying in the mosque of Mohammedans, kneeling before the cross of the Christians, worshipping before the fire of Zoroastrians or performing Puja in a temple are equally important for Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj.

Let us pray to God and Sri Gurudev to bless this spiritual son of mother India with a very long life and a radiant health so that he may continue to carry on the torch of the Divine Life for many decades of the twenty first century also which is knocking at the doors of humanity."