The following speech by Kumari Somashekhari, before her concluding dance-performance on Omkarananda Jayanti, was not planned, but a spontaneous expression of her heart.

"I just want to tell you, since this is the last cultural program for today, before Vote of Thanks, prize distribution, Arati and Bhandara, since I am a direct disciple of Swami Omkarananda, I have seen Swami Omkarananda. Dance and singing is our way of adoring Him. He was the greatest Gyani, He was an Advaita-Vedantin just like Adishankaracharya. He was the greatest Scholar and Intellectual I have ever seen in my life. In His young age already He was writing books in such an astonishing way that He got the Honorary Professor and Doctorate title from an American University, when He was still a teenage boy in Shivananda Ashram, a teenage Sannyasi. He wrote so many books about philosophy and all subjects of life extensively and His English was so brilliant, so extraordinary, that people used to call Him lovingly the 'Shakespeare of Shivananda Ashram', but according to my opinion He has far exceeded the genius of Shakespeare. Astonishing in Him was also - He is not only a Mystic, great Scholar and a Gyani, Advaita-Vedantin, but also the greatest Bhakta of Devi, the Divine Mother Shri Lalita Mahatripurasundari. He used to tell us always about Her Beauty, infinite Beauty, which is an immortal beauty, which will not vanish with time and space. He always used to say: 'I perceive Her endless Love and Beauty, Her Tenderness, Her Grace with open eyes. I also perceive Her Beauty with closed eyes. I see it in all human beings. I see it in the space, in the trees, everywhere I see Her unending Beauty.' And He told us very often: 'The Divine Mother's Beauty is so subtle, so divine, so unimaginable, that all the beauty in this world is not tempting me at all. It is just like dust.' He said: 'Even if the most beautiful ladies would appear in front of me, nothing can tempt me in this world, because I always experience the Beauty, the endless, undying Beauty of the Divine Mother.' And His adoration to the Divine Mother went to that extent, that He was always in the state of 'Parabhakti'. 'Parabhakti' is a state in which there is no difference of the Bhakta and the object of Adoration, it is the oneness of Swami Omkarananda and the Divine Mother. He was telling us many times about it. And from His beautiful, brilliant shine in His eyes, I could feel to the core of my being, that what He said is true. His shining eyes I can never forget in my whole life.

"So, this dance is dedicated to the Divine Mother, which is for us one and the same as Swami Omkarananda, there is no difference, because Divine Mother is not a lady, She is also the Absolute, Absolute, beyond time and space - 'bhavatita', 'kalatita', - And Gurudev used to tell us also:

'Don't think that I am the physical body. I am not the physical body. I am a Sadguru, I am a Siddhapurush and I am not subject to the physical body. Whether this body is here or not, I will always be with you. I will always guide you.'

And we can feel that, and I want to express my deepest love and adoration to Sadgurudev Paramahamsa Omkarananda Saraswati. OM."