Presented to Prapatti-Moorti H. H. Sri Swami Verkatesanandaji Maharaj on the Occasion of his 34th Birthday celebrations, 26th December, 1954, by the Students of the Yoga-Vedanta Forest University.

Glorious and Beloved Gurubhai,

Namo Namah Shri Guru-Padukabhyam.

Our worshipful adorations and silent prostrations to your holy lotus-feet.
Indescribable is our extreme good fortune in getting this unique opportunity of offering our deep reverence and heartfelt homage to your sweet self, due to the auspicious occasion of your joyous Birthday Celebrations. Rare is our blessedness that we are thus enabled to give expression to some little part at least of the affection, admiration, the reverence and love that we cherish for thee, who art one of the foremost among our group of seeker-disciples at Divine Master Siva's Sacred Feet. More is our elation from the knowledge that this felicitation offered unto your revered self will fill Sri Gurudev's heart with overflowing joy, for thou art the apple of his eye and the darling of his divine heart. Well merited indeed is this unique and peerless place that you have obtained in his heart, for by the magnitude of your all-absorbing love and devotion to him and your superlative, whole-soul dedication at his feet, you have forged an unseverable link of eternal spiritual love with Gurudev. In the completeness of your self dedication, you have totally lost yourself and gained the living light and radiance of Gurudev Siva's Spirit within the inwardness of your consciousness. You are now perfectly in tune with our blessed Master through a marvel of spiritual attunement, whose harmony is complete and the like of which cannot be seen in any other person besides your adorable self.

Venerable Vibhuti of Sadguru Siva! We salute thee as an embodiment of Guru-Bhakti and the highest exemplar of lofty Guru Seva. To you, Divine Gurudeva is your life's all-in-all. You have no other interest in your resplendent life than Guru Bhagavan and the furtherance of his world-awakening spiritual mission. More than any one else, you are over intent constantly on finding out ways and means and ever new methods for furthering the life-transforming Divine Work of Sri Swamiji Maharaj. In this work you have succeeded most wonderfully and thus it is without the least exaggeration that Gurudev has spontaneously referred to you as, 'The Crest-Jewel of my Mission, the resplendence of my work', adding, 'Will I ever see any one shining brighter than he? Surely none have I seen so far.' Thus it is that our deep reverence and love for your noble self has in it an element closely akin to the holy sentiment than we bear towards Sri Gurudev Himself.

Beloved Venkatesananda! Amongst us, Sadhaks, gathered at the divine feet of our Lord and Master, you have revealed yourself to be a true saint and a godly being. Thou art verily the rose and the lotus, as it were, amongst the fragrant spiritual flowers that have been made to blossom in the Divine Garden which Sivas Abode of Bliss verily is. Fully absorbing the radiant rays of the highest Realisation from Sadguru Siva's constant contact, thou hast now become thyself a resplendent Jivanmukta, sporting by Bhagirathi's bank as a carefree child whom the Divine Mother Maha-Maya has left free from nescience-net. Thus the world beholds you as a free spirit of pure, childlike nature, ever full of fun, frolic and mischief.

Laughter and pranks are ever flashing forth from your sparkling, vivacious personality, which is clear as crystal in innocence, simple as a flower and filled with fragrance of divine virtue. You have a tender heart overflowing with compassion. Your humility and simplicity are almost divine in their perfection. Equal vision and the spirit of loving brotherhood spontaneously well forth from within thee, and shower upon all, great as well as small, in a nectarine rain of pure Vishwa Prem. You literally live Sri Gurudev's divine dictum, 'See God in all faces,' and constantly practise his teaching, 'Work is worship. Serve the Lord in all.'

Thrice Blessed Gurubhai Saint that thou art, the bonds of Samsara no longer exist for you, for thou hasn't obtained inward experience of the highest Truth through thy unparalleled Guru Bhakti.

Your life is, therefore, transfigured with the knowledge of Truth; hence it conforms to the classical scriptural description. You laugh as a child, or play the clown and appear filled with humour and full of fun. You can see no evil in the world. To you everything is good. Nay, everything is God. And your perception is as if through a spiritual magnifying glass, which sees each speck of good magnified into mountains of sheer godliness.

The Divine Life Society and the entire aspirant world owe you a debt of gratitude which can never be repaid. You have been a veritable Power-House of perennial, inexhaustible energy to Sri Gurudev's Loka-Sangraha through spiritual dissemination. By your initiative and original thought, you have opened up numerous channels and avenues of conveying in more and more effective manner the Divine Wisdom Nectar of Sadguru Bhagavan. The Jnana Yajna Library and the Yoga-Vedanta Forest University Weekly owe their origin to you. The publication Department is, to a very great extent, kept up by your ceaseless, silent work by day and by night. The world has witnessed your miraculous hand of dynamic service, whereby you immortalised the epoch-making All India Tour of Swamiji Maharaj in 1950 when Bharatavarsha was stirred up into a new wave of spirituality from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin.

Blessed is the mother and blessed the father to have thee as their child. Blessed are we all to have thee as our worthy Gurubhai, for in you we have an ideal to emulate and thus elevate ourselves. We find words are too inadequate. With love and joy in our hearts, we bow low in silent reverence at your holy feet and feel blessed by this act. We pray that your saintly hand of blessing may ever be upon us in Ashirvad, that we may strive with success to be worthy servants of our Great Master, whose unremitting service is thy very life-breath.

Upon this most auspicious and blessed occasion of your Birthday, we most earnestly pray that the grace of God and Gurudev may ever be upon thee in abundance and bestow upon thee health, long life, joy, blessedness and the Supreme Bliss of the highest Divine Perfection – Kaivalya.

Prostrating ourselves again and again at your holy feet,
Ananda Kutir,
P.O. Sivananda Nagar, 26th Dec., 1954.
We remain,
Thy humble Gurubhais.
The Students of the Y. V. F. University