Preface Poets and composers, in multitudes, since the earliest times of history have enriched our literature and music. Because of such great personalities, our culture and religion has flourished. In the recent times, the great poet Shuddhananda Bharati, a boon of God to our country, contributed substantially to that genre. He was both a poet (Kavi) and a Yogi and fittingly adored as ‘Kaviyogi’. He was an outstanding poet and has left innumerable lyrics; many of them have already been popularized by great singers. Since he was well versed in music, his songs bear both lyrical and musical beauties. They tend to offer much scope for enhancing the musical subtleties for those who wish to tune them. He was equally a scholar in French besides Sanskrit and Tamil. With his spiritual bent of mind from an early age, he lived for some years in Pondicherry. His songs are in praise of many deities, Nature and so on. With lilting poetry, his songs were published by himself. Now, all his works have been compiled once again and published, a very essential service to humanity. I hope that those who are really interested in knowing or practising meritorious songs on religion, Yoga and so on will surely be benefited by this publication of his works by the Editions ASSA (Aum Shudha Shakti Aum) by Christian Piaget in L’Auberson, Switzerland.

Dr. Mangalampalli BalamuraliKrishna

Padma Vibushan

Chennai, 17 July 2011