PUBLISHER'S NOTE

More than fifteen years ago our esteemed friend, Sri David MacIver, drew our attention to a slim book in unpretentious get-up published in Madras a few years earlier. It was entitled “From the Master’s Lips”. We found the book to be a feast of reason and a flow of soul. The conversations of the sage, inspite of their varied contents, had a unity throughout created by his spiritual and tolerant outlook on life. We felt that the work deserved a much wider readership than it had received till then. We lost no time in obtaining the permission of the learned author for publishing the book ourselves under the title Dialogues with the Guru. And our expectations about the book were not belied as this is the third edition after we took up its publication.

The conversations recorded in Dialogues with the Guru are not reported verbatim. The author happened to be the interpreter in the conversation reported in chapter I and he was an interested listener whenever he was not an actual participant. There can be no doubt about the authenticity of the contents.

As it was not possible to obtain His Holiness’ assent to the publication, the au hor did the next best thing. He obtained the approval of His Holiness’ Sarvadhikari, Sri N. Srikanta Sastry, who was managing the Mutt for over forty years and had been in close contact with His Holiness during all this period. The approval was given in the form of a foreword in Sanskrit which was prefixed to the Madras edition of the book and also the Tamil edition. We include it in this edition along with its translation in English.

Sri R. Krishnaswami Aiyar, who has compiled in this book the conversations with His Holiness, is a devoted disciple of Sringeri Mutt and has had frequent opportunities of listening to and profiting by the teachings of His Holiness. He was born on the 26th October, 1889, as the eldest son of Sri G. Ramachandra Aiyar, a leading lawyer of the Tirunelveli Bar, who later took Sanyasa and was known as Sri Ramananda Saraswati Swaminah. Sri R. Krishnaswami Aiyar had his education in the Hindu College at Tirunelveli and in the Presidency College and the Law College at Madras. He joined the Tirunelveli Bar in 1912.

He retired from the legal profession in 1948 and in 1966 he obtained the gracious permission of His Holiness the present Acharya Swaminah of Sringeri, to become a Sanyasi. In November of that year, at Vrindavana on the banks of Yamuna and in the immediate presence of His Holiness, he had his initiation from Sri Sadasivendra Saraswati Swaminah of Vijaywada.

Sri R. Krishnaswami Aiyar, now known as Sri Jnanananda Bharati Swaminah, has written many books in Sanskrit, Tamil and English. Cogency of thought and clarity of expression have been his chief characteristics. Apart from Dialogues with the Guru we have published two more books written by him. These are “Outlines of Vedanta” and “The Great Equation”. Paul Masson-Oursel describes Dialogues with the Guru as ‘a two-voiced meditation’. The other two books show how the equation of the Self with the Brahman can be established. S. DIKSHIT, Publisher