Our Institute had the privilege of adding, in 1971, a new serial to its publications, called Ananda Acharya Universal Series, intended to issue the writings of Sri Ananda Acharya, a saint-philosopher of Bengal, who spent the best part of his life in Norway propagating to the western world the universal teachings of love and peace. In my Foreword to Volume One of the Series, being Lectures on Yoga, I had an occasion to dwell briefly on the life and work of Sri Ananda Acharya and also make a mention of our project of gradually issuing his other writings through the said Series which, as mentioned above, had been started, specially, for this purpose. According to this programme, we issued, in the same year, another work of his, entitled Yoga of Conquest. This was followed, in the next year, by a collection of his poetical pieces under the title Snow-birds and other poems. The said collection contained 291 poems of the saint which had been first published, in four books, viz., Snow-birds (1919), Cakrasakha or Companion of God (1921), Usarika or Dawn hymns (1921) and Saki or Comrade (1921), all of which had long gone out of print. The present publication is a continuation of the above and brings together 384 more poems of the saint as contain-ed in six other works of his, viz., Arctic Swallows, Girirani, B ddha Poems, Samadhi Poems, Autumn Rains, and She of the Pearl and Ruby Roses. Outpourings, as these poems are, of an enlightened soul, steeped in Indian philosophy and culture, they have been sung in sweet and significant words against the background of Indian idealism as having a special message for the modern man in the throes of a new birth. I have great pleasure in also mentioning here that the above-mentioned project has been taken up by our Institute at the instance of and with the financial help so lovingly extended by Einar Beer (Norway) who is a most. devoted disciple of the late saint.
Shri K. V. Sarma of our Institute has put strenuous labour in editing this work, even as he has done in the case of the other volumes of this Series. He has checked up the entire matter, added diacritical marks to Sanskrit words, supplied suitable titles to poems which did not have them and made uniform the presentation of the poems, which, on account of their having originally issued under different agencies, had exhibited divergences in presentation. He has also added a useful Subject Index to the volume towards facilitating reference to the various matters touched upon in these poems. It is to be hoped that the 'Biographical Sketch of Sri Ananda Acharya', prefixed to the Volume by Shri Sarma, would be helpful in acquainting the readers with the life and work of the saint.
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