The Problems of Spiritual Life

Worshipful Sri Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj took birth on the 25th of April, 1922, in Puttur, Karnataka, as the eldest child in a highly religious and orthodox Brahmin family well versed in Sanskrit, and was named Subbaraya. Reading from the Srimad Bhagavata that Lord Narayana lives in sacred Badrinath Dham, the young boy believed it literally and entertained a secret pious wish to go to the Himalayas, where Badrinath is located, and see the Lord there.

Swamiji arrived in Rishikesh in the summer of 1944. When he met Swami Sivananda and fell prostrate before him, the saint said: "Stay here till death. I will make kings and ministers fall at your feet." Swami Sivananda initiated young Subbaraya into the holy order of Sannyasa on the sacred day of Makar Sankranti, the 14th of January, 1946, and he was named Swami Krishnananda.

In 1957 Swamiji became the Secretary especially concerned with the management of finance, which continued until 1961 when Sri Gurudev nominated him as General Secretary of the Divine Life Society, which position he held until 2001.

Swami Krishnananda was a master of practically every system of Indian thought and Western philosophy. "Many Sankaras are rolled into one Krishnananda," said Sri Gurudev. Swami Krishnananda, the embodiment of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, lived in the state of God-consciousness and guided countless seekers along the path of Self-realisation. Swamiji attained Mahasamadhi on the 23rd of November, 2001.

This book constitute a series of questions and answers, being the conversations of a Canadian lawyer, Larry Krauss, and his wife Sarah, with Swami Krishnananda, General Secretary of The Divine Life Society.

These devotees, who are seekers of Truth, have an incisive understanding of the subtleties of the philosophical and spiritual implications of the search involved, and raised a series of queries on the subject for their personal clarification, to all which the Swamiji, with his usual comprehensive approach to everything, furnished apt replies, which will certainly be of immense utility and benefit to everyone on the path of the experience of the ultimate values of life.

**Contents and Sample Pages**