Ananda Velo, our bicycling club at Ananda Village, is planning a special retreat for the first time at the Expanding Light. The “Yoga for Cyclists” program, held the weekend of June 4-7, will be hosted by Dr. Craig Roberts DC, Panduranga Heater, Bob Stolzman and yours truly. We have been preparing for this retreat for the past couple of months. We created flyers, a detailed schedule for the weekend, sent announcements to local bike shops and launched the anandavelo website. Sign-ups started a few weeks ago.

The program will combine our two passions, yoga and cycling, in a fun-filled and inspiring weekend. We will integrate yoga and cycling by focusing on hatha yoga postures that help improve cyclists’ abilities and flexibility, by emphasizing the attitudes in yoga that help the cyclist achieve their performance goals and carry the effects of their yoga practice into their cycling. Participants will also have the opportunity to learn a simple meditation technique and Paramhansa Yogananda’s Energization Exercises. These techniques can help induce a relaxed state of body and mind. Energization Exercises warm up the body, relax the muscles and banish unneeded tension.

Tell your cycling friends about this event. For info or to register, go to the Expanding Light website. If you have a favorite bike shop, drop me a note and I will send you or them a stack of flyers for this event.

Recently I was doing some routine maintenance on my bicycle. It may be my mechanic karma or something, but more than often after I am done with the maintenance, my bicycle is rendered with more problems than before I started working on it. Looking at the bright side however, each time is a learning experience for me.

This time wasn’t an exception. Something with the shifting wasn’t quite working right. I reviewed every step, every part involved, cleaned everything thoroughly, it was still not working right. Then as I was riding and starting to get annoyed by this problem (and at the same time offering it all to God), I went through all the pieces again in my mind and there was one last thing I hadn’t tried, because I didn’t think that would fix it. The famous saying of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle came to my mind:

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Ah, how many times those words helped me in my profession. Working as a software engineer, I am often faced with software bugs that are so elusive, but more than often, applying Doyle’s wisdom directs me to the right solution. This time too, I decided to follow my hunch and to apply the improbable solution. I pulled to the side of the road and made a quick adjustment to my bicycle, hopped back on my bicycle and heard the sweet sound of smooth shifting. Voila! That was it.

As I was inwardly laughing and reflecting on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s quote, I realized how it also applied to spiritual life and to one’s search for happiness. A spiritual seeker, by carefully eliminating those things that are impossible to give him lasting happiness, finally concentrates on those practices that bring him closer to God-realization, however daunting that task may seem.

People look for happiness in so many wrong places: money, fame, relationships, alcohol, drugs to name a few. In fact, Swami Kriyananda often quotes a study about income levels and happiness, the details of which I was able to find online. People from many different income brackets were asked two questions:

“Do you make enough money to give you financial happiness?”

Out of 1500 people who were polled, not a single one of them answered positively. The second question was:

“How much money would you need in order to make you financially happy?”

The most common response (about 40% of the people) was:

“Well, I’d be happy if I made 50% more than I am making now.”

That 50% my friends, represents the ferret wheel of delusion that money will provide them the happiness they are looking for.

When you eliminate the impossibles, what remains, and what you start realizing is that lasting happiness lies in our love for God and our realization of our Oneness with Him. When we align our thoughts and actions with that realization and serve others in a spirit of self-offering, everything else falls into place (including the chain and all the sprockets).

For the vast majority of people, looking for happiness in God-realization may seem like the “improbable”, if not downright the “impossible”. Yet, happiness is not a final destination, it is the journey itself. It’s not a static state. In Hindu scriptures, it is called “Satchidanandam” and Paramhansa Yogananda translated it as “ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new bliss”. You can see this state of existence in the lives of great Saints and Yoga Masters. Closer to home, I see it everyday in the lives of people around me, who are determinedly headed in that direction (and indeed have come a long way), because they continue to eliminate those diversions from their lives.

We are so fortunate, as disciples of Paramhansa Yogananda, that we are given a precise recipe, a blueprint for Satchidanandam. Not only the impossibles are clearly stated in this recipe, but also a time-honored and proven (not just probable) technique has also been given to us. That technique is called Kriya Yoga. I have seen the positive effects of this technique in the lives of many people who have been practicing it faithfully and regularly, some even for just a few months and some for decades. Their faces are filled with joy, their eyes are filled with light, their hearts are filled with love, their words are filled with kindness.

If you don’t know this technique, it’s never too late to learn and practice it. If you already have the technique, don’t let a day go by without practicing it. If you are already practicing it regularly, then my hat is off to you. You are truly blessed.

May God continue to bless you so that you may find ever deeper expressions of His Love in your life.

Joy to you.

A group of us at Ananda Village are exploring technologies involved in giving the Ananda Sangha, Expanding Light Retreat and Crystal Clarity Publishers an ability to offer online courses for distance learning.

As the economic downturn continues and people’s travel budgets are decreasing, we are looking into ways of bringing Yogananda’s teachings closer to people, so that truth-seeking students can attend classes inexpensively in the comfort of their own homes and at the time of their choosing. This also simplifies the logistics of hosting people, providing accommodations, meals, etc. However, the distance education model has its own challenges.

To begin with, there are a number of different models for providing distance education. Real-time versus on-demand (similar to broadcast TV vs video-on-demand), video vs audio-only, scheduled classes vs self-paced learning, etc. As we look at various combinations of these models, we are evaluating the technologies that will enable us to make this initiative a reality.

One of the techologies we are looking at is an open-source software called Moodle. Moodle looks very promising for our needs as an on-line course development and delivery tool.

As we embark on this new chapter of Ananda’s outreach, we sincerely ask for your prayers, as well as for your support. If you are a person (or know of someone) who has experience in this type of teaching and especially experience with Moodle, and who would like to serve Ananda’s work in this manner, we’d love to hear from you. We need all the help we can get to get this project launched in the shortest time possible.

On Tuesday December 23rd, we had our annual all-day Christmas group meditation, where we inwardly celebrate the birth of Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. Paramhansa Yogananda started this annual tradition at Mt. Washington, where he held an eight-hour group meditation on December 24th (Spiritual Christmas), and followed the next day by a banquet (Social Christmas).

The inspiration and upliftment I felt that day is indescribable. As I sat in the back of the room and gazing at the crowd during the meditation, I thought how desperately the world needs more of this: people uniting together in brotherhood and harmony, honoring the lives of great saints and self-realized Masters in devotional gatherings. It is easy to get discouraged when reading the ever-flowing news of hatred, economic turmoils and environmental problems in the world. Yet, God created this duality (or dwaita) and it is up to us to recognize that and transcend it. As Yogananda said in the East-West magazine of July 1932:

The Spirit alone is perfect. Everything else in Creation is imperfect. Creation started with the law of duality, with the law of division. The Spirit was perfect.

Swami Kriyananda in Chapter 5 of The Art and Science of Raja Yoga states:

In all of life there is an urge, consciously or unconsciously felt, for the Oneness which is our true and natural state. This Oneness can be found, not by going to some far-out extreme in which at last the opposite to that extreme (pain, for example, as opposed to pleasure) is left forever behind, but rather by returning to the central point within our selves; to the horizon line that rests forever between all opposites; to the state of rest at the bottom of the pendulum’s swing.

Meditation is the tool to return to that central point within our selves. In the Festival of Light (an inspirational ceremony which presents the core of Yogananda’s teachings through poetry and music), Swami Kriyananda writes:

God, through the Bhagavad Gita, promises: “Even the worst of sinners, by steadfast meditation on Me, speedily comes to Me.” The same Scripture declares also: “Even a little practice of this inward religion will free one from dire fears and colossal sufferings.”

And whereas suffering, in the past, was the coin of man’s redemption, for us now the payment has been exchanged for joy. Thus may we understand that pain is the fruit of self-love, whereas joy is the fruit of love for God.

And the ancient Hindu sage Patanjali defined the state of divine enlightenment as:

Yogas chitta vritti nirodh — yoga (divine union) is the neutralization of the waves (whirlpools) of feeling” (Yoga Sutra 1:2).

It is up to us whether to allow ourselves to be affected by the ever increasing swing of the pendulum, or to take charge of our lives by meditating regularly and thereby neutralizing the whirlpools of feeling.

When I left the temple early evening after the all-day meditation and walked home, I felt as if my feet were lifted off the ground. My joy level was full to overflowing. Such is the magic of our Christmas Meditation.

I leave you with these words of Christmas Meditation by Paramhansa Yogananda. May the Light of Christ shine upon you.

All my thoughts are decorating the Christmas tree of meditation with the rare gifts of devotion, sealed with golden heart prayers that Christ may come and receive my humble gifts.

I will mentally join in the worship in all mosques, churches, and temples, and perceive the birth of the universal Christ Consciousness as peace on the altar of all devotional hearts.

O Christ, may the birth of Thy love be felt in all hearts this Christmas, and every day.

Christ was always born in me. He came and preached through my consciousness to my rowdy and hypocritical thoughts. By the magic wand of meditative intuition, He stopped the storms in the seas of my life, and of many other lives. I was mentally blind, my will was lame, but I was healed by the awakened Christ in me.

Christ walked on the restless waters of my mind, yet the Judas of restlessness and ignorance, deluded by the Satan of sense lures, betrayed the Christ calmness, the Christ joy, in me, and crucified Him on the cross of forgetfulness.

He commanded my dead wisdom to come forth from its sackcloth of delusion, and raised it to life.

At last my will, faith, hope, intuition, purity, meditation, desires, good habits, self-control sense‑ aboveness, devotion, wisdom — all these disciples obeyed the commandments of the Christ who appeared on the high mountain of my meditation.

On August 9 2008, the day before the Spiritual Renewal Week, eighteen great souls gathered at Ananda Village to honor Ananda’s 40th anniversary and Swami Kriyananda’s 60th anniversary of discipleship by doing a bicycle ride. They had options of starting or ending the ride at different points along the planned route, thanks to the great sag wagon support by my wife Suzanne and JT’s wife Gitabai. Our combined mileage was 723 bicycling miles over about 8 hours.

The day started with a light breakfast at our house and a prayer for joy and protection. We loaded some of the bikes on the sag wagons (or upliftment wagons as my wife would like to call them) for their riders to start at a later point and the rest of us got on the road at 8am to meet with them around 9:30 at their starting point. The 66-mile route started at Ananda Village, followed Tyler Foote Road down to Oak Tree Road to North San Juan. A right turn on Route 49 took us to Oregon Creek with a 2.5 mile descent. This was followed by a beautiful, relatively easy 10 mile climb. Before this climb was over, the sag wagons dropped off a group of riders before the top of the hill and we all descended for 4 miles into the North Yuba River valley. The 12 miles in this valley heading to Downieville is one of my favorite stretches of road for bicycling. Downieville was the mid-point for our ride so we stopped there for pizza and rest. We returned to the village following the same route back.

All throughout the day we were blessed with great weather and wonderful satsang. Suzanne and Gitabai drove the sag wagons along the entire route to provide ongoing support for all the riders, while Kent rode his scooter as club’s official photographer and videographer.

Based on the amount of joy that was generated, we hope to repeat this fun-raising(!) event annually. We hope you can join us for next year’s ride. In the mean time, if you know you’ll be in the area and would like to join us for a ride, just drop me an email.

In one of my previous posts, I had mentioned that Ananda Velo (Ananda Village’s Bicycle Club) is organizing a bicycle ride for Ananda’s 40th anniversary and Swami Kriyananda’s 60th anniversary of discipleship. The date of this ride has been finalized as August 9th (the Saturday before Spiritual Renewal Week).

Yesterday, we sent out an email to prospective riders to further plan this event. Here are some details.

We are offering several rides to suit all abilities. The route starts at Ananda Village, goes down Tyler Foote Road and makes a right on Oak Tree Road for a short climb and descent to North San Juan. The right turn on Route 49 begins with a 2.5 mile descent to Oregon Creek. This is followed by a beautiful, relatively easy 10 mile climb. Next we descend for 4 miles into the North Yuba River valley. The run along the river in this valley is cycling at it’s best.

In the map shown above, A is Ananda Village and D is Downieville.

If you would like to participate in this event, and/or if you would like to have your very own Ananda Velo hat and/or Ananda Velo jersey, please contact me and I will send you further details.

After countless hours spent by the volunteers and staff of Crystal Hermitage, the gardens opened their doors to the public about a month ago. Nevada County’s local newspaper, The Union, featured a wonderful front-page article, titled “Spring glory over the Yuba”, talking about the beauty of the gardens and inviting the public to visit them. After all, I don’t think there are many gardens in the area with 6000 cheerful tulips.

Rather than talking about the beauty of these gardens, I will let you browse through the pictures that were taken recently. If you are in the area, it’s still not too late to visit the gardens and see especially, the tulips.

tulips with the Middle Yuba gorge in the background

more tulips

more joyful tulips

a feast for the eyes and the soul

tulips and pansies by the front door

vibrant colors

beautiful cherry blossoms

You can find out more about Crystal Hermitage here.

Photos courtesy of Suzanne Ilgun.