In plain words
Only when you say ‘welcome’ do you give a ‘send-off’, don't you! So I am not saying ‘welcome’ to the new Vice-Chancellor, and I am not giving a ‘send-off’ to the old Vice-Chancellor. Because both are our very own. Just now Venkatraman said, did he not, that whatever service Swami gives him, he will do it. So we are not sending him anywhere. Keeping him right here, we are entrusting him with a project connected with the Super Speciality Hospital here. Posts may change, but the people are not going anywhere.
Vice-Chancellors Devoted to Service
The very first Vice-Chancellor, Gokak, was a great scholar, a jñānī. A great sādhaka, he was like a great yogi. He served here free, without touching a single naya paisa. Toiling night and day, he looked after our institution as his own home. Under government rules no one may serve as Vice-Chancellor for more than three years after retirement. So after Gokak, Saraf came. He too was a very great man indeed. He had worked as a member of the U.G.C. After he came here and worked for three years, Sampath came. He too was a very great man; he had worked as Director of the Kanpur I.I.T. He was very well known in computer science. He too worked here with great care. After that Hanumanthappa came. Not one of these men looked for even a single naya paisa. Even when I gave, they would not take it. ‘We need nothing but Your grace,’ they said. After that this Venkatraman came. He too worked night and day with great śraddhā and Bhakti. He is a disciple of Sir C.V. Raman, one who has received the title ‘Padmaśrī’. But to look at, the man seems very simple. However great they may be, in this Prasanthi Nilayam they appear simple, and nothing more. In the same way Venkatraman too has gone on living very simply in our Prasanthi Nilayam. After him, Giri has now come as Vice-Chancellor. He worked as Central Vigilance Commissioner. He still has five years of service left. But he left that work and came here. To tell the truth, his colleagues told him not to go, and Prime Minister Vajpayee was at first unwilling to sign his letter of resignation.