Dear Friends,

The year 2009 was one of great expansion for Ananda Sangha outreach. All of it came through the grace of God, which is reflected in the title of this post.

Here are some of the year’s highlights.

From Swami Kriyananda

He began the year by rewriting two books: The Path, which is now The New Path: My Life with Paramhansa Yogananda; and Do It Well!, which he did because, in his words, “I realized Do It Now! needed to be a lot deeper.” (Editor’s note: Do It Now is available as a free iPhone and iPod Touch application, and Do It Well! appears on the homepage of Ananda.org with a new saying every day).

Swami Kriyananda also worked, in collaboration with Catherine Kairavi, on her upcoming book Two Souls; Four Lives – the Lives and Former Lives of Paramhansa Yogananda and His Disciple Swami Kriyananda. The book is due to be published in February.

In May of 2009, Swamiji had a health crises while traveling from India to Switzerland. However, through the grace of God and Guru, he experienced a miracle revival.

Ever since then, his health has been robust enough to permit him to travel and work extensively on a multitude of projects. In Swamiji’s own words: “In Lugano I’d had to go everywhere in a wheelchair. When I left Italy [a month later] I didn’t even take my cane.”

Right after receiving the miraculous healing, Swami Kriyananda conducted public events to launch his new book Religion in the New Age in Rome and Milan, gave many interviews, and worked on editing Images of Wisdom booklet, presented to him by the devotees of Ananda Assisi. It consists of excerpts from Swami Kriyananda’s lectures over the years.

Upon arriving to U.S. in July, Swamiji conducted the celebration of Ananda Village’s 40th Anniversary. Click here for video and audio of the celebration weekend.

This was followed by weeks of daily video recording of the Bhagavad Gita commentaries, now broadcast now on Ananda’s channel on YouTube and a TV station in India — 160 episodes in all!

Other events with Swami Kriyananda at Ananda Village included the Spiritual Renewal Week in August, and Swamiji’s Spiritual Anniversary in September.

September also saw a big public lecture in Los Angeles, during which he launched The New Path. Click here for the video and audio of the event.

Swamiji departed the U.S. for Italy in October. Upon arriving at Ananda Assisi, he proceeded to film a documentary of his life with the Italian TV station Anima. In Swamiji’s words: “The shows took only three days instead of the scheduled seven. No re-takes were necessary!”

In November Swami Kriyananda went on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, to meet visionaries who communicate with the Virgin Mary. He describes a profoundly inspiring experience of divine love while meditating at the shrines. Click here to read about it.

Also in November he finished writing A Renunciate Order for the New Age, and launched the Nayaswami Order with a deeply inspiring initiation in Assisi.

Around the same time, Swami Kriyananda was giving a public lecture at a peace conference in Assisi. Padre Anthony, another speaker there, saw him in his Nayaswami blue robe, and asked about it.

In Swamiji’s words: “When I explained it to him him, he asked how many members we had. I said, ‘One.’ Then came the Nayaswami ceremony, and since then, we have over 200 in the new Order.” Click here to visit the new website dedicated to the Nayaswami Order.

Christmas activities at Ananda Assisi included Swamiji’s lectures and other public appearances. In the midst of a busy holiday season, he was writing a new screen play The Answer, based on his life as described in The New Path. Along with that, he was also working on a film script for The Wayshower, a story about Yogananda’s life and mission.

Around New Year’s, Swami Kriyananda traveled to New Delhi, India, where he had a public launch of The New Path and The New Renunciate Order books, immediately followed by a Nayaswami Order initiation he conducted for Ananda devotees there.

At the time of this writing, Swami Kriyananda is taking a well-deserved break. This will be followed by travel to Ananda’s new community in Pune, more public events in India, and the filming of more Bhagavad Gita commentaries for a daily TV show in India.

From the Expanding Light Retreat at Ananda Village

Hosted, taught, and inspired over 1500 guests from all over the world in hundreds of classes, programs, and retreats.

From Crystal Clarity Publishers

New books: The New Path: My Life with Paramhansa Yogananda, Religion in the New Age, Crystal Hermitage Gardens, Do It Well!. New audio books, and electronic versions of our existing books for Kindle and Sony eReader.

From Ananda Web Publishing

Completely redesigned our flagship website Ananda.org. Designed and published brand new websites for Ananda Clarity Magazine, Ananda Online Classes, and The Nayaswami Order. Created first-ever Ananda iPhone and iPod Touch application with Swami Kriyananda’s Do It Now!. Launched and expanded Ananda’s presence with the Social Media, counting over 15,000 fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter. In 2009 Ananda.org had almost half a million visitors from 205 countries, and well over a million pageviews.

Kriya Yoga Sangha

Conducted over 30 Kriya Initiations at Ananda Village, Sacramento, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Seattle, Texas, Massachusetts, Virginia, Ohio, Argentina, Venezuela, and Mexico.

Ananda Ministers on the Road

38 ministers from Ananda Village traveled to conduct programs and retreats nationwide.

Ananda Village

Celebrated its 40th Anniversary on July 4! Established Ananda Farms and a Community-Supported Agriculture system. Conducted permaculture class series and planted a Forest Garden. Broke ground on the beautiful new Living Wisdom Center building as a flagship for education, the arts, and community workshops.

Crystal Hermitage Spring Garden Tours attracted over 1200 visitors from as far away as Southern California and Bay Area. Click here for information on this year’s upcoming Spring At Ananda tours.

Ananda Young Adults

Contrary to the popular saying, the youth is NOT wasted on Ananda’s young!

They hosted a Living with Spirit summer program for over 30 participants, established Inspiration House, a young adults ashram at Ananda Village, and planning not one, not two, but three summer programs in 2010!

Read more on our new website section for young adults.

As always, we deeply appreciate your interest, prayers, and financial support as we strive to serve our ever-widening global community of spiritual seekers.

In divine friendship,
Ananda Sangha Worldwide

I recently returned from a trip to the Morni Hills where the Ananda Solar team is installing their first wind turbines and solar panels in India.

Arriving Monday morning, June 16, after a 5-hour drive, I met my husband Tim and Jemal (also on the Solar team) on their way to the town of Chandigarh to run a half dozen errands. The half dozen errands took the predicted amount of time — long. We arrived back at the hotel at 8:30 that night. Granted the drive into town is an hour and a half one way, so 3 of the 10 hours were spent in driving back and forth.

Let me take a moment to clear up some of my misconceptions about this first project. Morni Hills is the “larger village” in the area where the solar team is working. Although they are staying at a hotel there, they are actually providing electricity to two smaller towns within walking distance – Chokli and Ramsar. Both of these villages currently do have electricity, but it is erratic and not always strong. What the solar team is providing will give each home more consistent power, enough for two lights and fan. Why, you ask, are they not providing electricity to some other village which has none at all? Because the project is partly government funded and this is where the team was directed to “show what they can do.” This will be the solar team’s showcase and reference for future jobs.

Daily at 7am, directly after morning meditation, the team eats breakfast at the dhaba (restaurant) down the street where the meals are tasty, if predictable. You get breakfast, lunch and dinner. The family-run dhaba serves whatever is cooking: tea and paranthas (flat bread) for breakfast, with lunch and dinner consisting of paranthas, dal (lentils), a vegetable dish, and yogurt. Occasionally, there is rice. Everyone has been drinking the “simple water” from the tap with no ill effects.

While the family members prepare and serve the meals they also chase off birds, dogs and monkeys looking for tidbits to steal. The birds like the jalebis (a deep-fried sweet), the dogs prefer paranthas and the monkeys will take whatever they can grab!

The team has been prepping, digging, and building for the past six weeks. They often refer to their days there as Groundhog Day (for those of you who saw that movie). Work begins at 8am. They return to Morni Hills for lunch at 12pm and are back at the work site by 1pm. The work day ends at 5 or 5:30 and they have tea, download, and then meditate before dinner, which is at 7:30.

The area around the wind turbines and where the solar panels will go up in July is wonderfully peaceful and green, at least by the time I arrived. On Tuesday, my eyes spent a lot of time framing photographs and taking in the vast vistas.

The tips of the foothills more or less float on a sea of clouds. That afternoon we had one of the frequent showers that descend on the area at this time of year. Rain showers begin with a few drops and quickly manifest as a tremendous downpour. Showers are sometimes brief, but once Tim had to duck into the work shed with two other men for four hours to wait out the chilly rain.

Now the reason that I made plans to go to Morni Hills on Monday was because the engineer from the company that provides the wind turbines was scheduled to arrive that day and guide the team on raising the first of two turbines on Tuesday. Naturally, there was a delay. One learns to expect delay in India as surely as the Ganges flows from the Himalayas into the Bay of Bengal. Aum.

The next expected date of the engineer’s arrival was Thursday. Well, being “Do It Now!” Americans and Ananda members, our team decided not to wait for the engineer. They would erect the first one and receive critiquing upon his arrival.

Wednesday afternoon, after only a couple of delays, the turbine went up under the watchful eyes of many residents of Chokli, amid little fanfare, but with the sense of a job completed and, perhaps, well done (waiting for the engineer’s stamp of approval – or not).

Thursday morning, while the others were getting ready to erect the second turbine, I decided to explore the village of Ramsar “across the way”—meaning I had to traverse fields and rocky paths. I’ve done a lot of hiking and am used to figuring out trails but this one was beyond me at places. Tim started me off before returning to work, but occasionally I would falter. However, lovely souls in Chokli shouted down helpful directions from the top of a building where they were watching my progress.

I never did get to see much of the village of Ramsar. Upon arriving, I followed a short path to a cliff and was blessed with yet another view of the foothills. Naturally, my progress through the village was watched by residents who nodded pleasantly as I passed. Returning along the path I stopped to take photographs of the children who were watching and running alongside me. (One of the best things about having a digital camera is being able to take photos of people and share them right there and then.)

After taking a photograph of two older ladies, a younger girl, and several of the children, the oldest woman invited me into her home. I declined, indicating that I wished to see more of the village and take more photographs. “Ek min, ek min,” she said (“One minute”). I figured my visit would be a cup of chai and I’d be on my way.

I was very pleased to be invited because although I’ve travelled to all points of India over the past four years, this was only my second visit to an Indian home in a small village.

The woman invited me to sit down and went into another room. She returned a few moments later with her husband who, it turns out, speaks English. As a matter of fact, he is a retired teacher and one of the subjects he taught was English. Thank you, Divine Mother. I’ve such a terrible time understanding accents and yet I could understand most of what this lovely gentleman said. He, of course, was happy to have someone to use his English with. Although many in the family speak English, they always like to practice with Americans. (Tim told me of a boy who a few days earlier asked if his [the boy’s] English sounded British or American and was very happy when Tim told him it was more American.)

They did indeed feed me—chai, water, biscuits, and a sweet dish.
Ved, my host, was very sweet and we had a pleasant time talking of religion, spirituality and the race for the American presidency. It turned out that his granddaughter, Tanvi, the girl I had taken photos of, also speaks English, but had been shy about speaking at first. She is 18 years old. While most of her grandfather’s children and grandchildren are teachers, she is studying to be a nurse. She and I spent an hour looking at photographs of her family—some very old photographs and also an elaborate wedding album of her aunt and uncle.

It was a kick listening to her describe her family. She would point to a photo and say, “And this one, he is my auntie.” Or, it was pronounced “moosey,” which is the mother’s sister. Apparently, there is another name for the father’s sister, but I quickly became overwhelmed by the differences. An Indian friend later told me that he gave up a long time ago trying to sort out the different names for different family members. So if he had to give it up, I don’t feel so bad!

Then she would point out her father’s older brother and “short brother” (meaning younger). And it took me awhile to realize that “her” in a photograph was Tanvi herself in younger years. It was really quite charming and, two and half hours later—with an invitation from Ved for Tim & I to return and stay overnight—I was able to take my leave with many sweet blessings seeing me on my way. A final blessing came in the form of a teenage boy that Ved sent to follow me so I didn’t stray from the correct trail. Glancing back from time to time at the outer path of the village of Ramsar I could see Ved watching my progress and we would wave and namaskar to each other.

His watchful eye brought back memories of being on pilgrimage four years ago and having a hotel employee follow me through the streets of Kolkata (without my immediate knowledge) to make sure that I reached my destination for which he had given me directions. I’ve noticed time and again in India that once you make a friend or a connection, even of the casual sort, they will look after you like family.

The engineer did finally arrive Thursday evening around 5pm. Our driver picked up the engineer at the train station. On the ride to Morni Hills our driver pointed out the wind turbine on the hill to the engineer. The engineer later said that he could not believe it was their turbine. How could they have erected it without his guidance?

He immediately wanted to see the site.

Watching them all get in the car at the end of another long day I just prayed that they hadn’t gone too far awry in their work. It was a prayer I am sure that they each carried in their hearts!

In brief, it turns out that after his inspection he stated that he had never seen a better assembly in his 15 years with Unitron, traveling and checking out these sites 52 weeks of the year. Except for a few minor adjustments it was perfect. He simply couldn’t believe it. And it was with relief and joy that they all returned to the hotel and dinner just an hour and a half later.Sad to leave, but needing to return to duties in Gurgaon, I left tranquil Morni Hills Friday morning. On the road from Morni Hills to Chandigarh you can almost imagine that you are in Northern California ~~ and then a monkey will dash across the road!

Arriving in Chandigarh, there was the usual commotion of rickshaws, three-wheelers, buses, trucks, cows, cars, dogs, children, vendors, beggars, and monkeys. Of course, there was also the inevitable road work. As we drove through the chaos in companionable silence (at least within the car), Dharana, commenting on the road work said, “I think India is constantly under construction.”

“On many levels,” I replied.

As this particular Ananda project nears its completion (with many more projects on the horizon), it makes me smile to think how many people’s lives will be enhanced by “two lights and a fan.” It may seem a small thing to those of us accustomed to the material comforts of the west, but to Indian children doing their schoolwork, mothers cooking for their families and fathers providing for the household these basic conveniences are life-changing. And it is a joy to know that as their quality of life is expanded and enhanced not only are lives changed, but the entire country benefits in ways that we cannot even begin to imagine.

It’s been over five years since I moved to Ananda Village. In 2001, when my wife and I had decided to move here, we also had to figure out our job situation.

She was a nurse back then and it wasn’t hard for her to find a similar job in Grass Valley. I was (and still am) a Software Engineer and I knew that there weren’t too many high-tech companies in the area. But, I knew that I could telecommute as long as I managed to get a decent connection to the Internet. When I talked to my boss about six years ago and told her that I was going to move to Northern California, I also told her that I would have understood if the company didn’t want to keep me if it thought the remote arrangement would not work. I told her I wouldn’t have any hard feelings if they had to let me go. Lucky for me, she was very supportive, especially when I mentioned that I was moving into a yogic community. She also told me that she has been meditating for 20 years, which she had not mentioned before.

A few months before our move to Ananda Village, I started exchanging some emails with Kent Williams about my options for connecting to the Internet. Dial-up and satellite were the only two. I knew that the dial-up link would not be sufficient to be able to effectively perform my duties. It would have worked perhaps as a backup if the other link went down. So, I started investigating the satellite option. That wasn’t ideal either, because it wouldn’t have allowed me for a “real-time” connection due to delays of satellite links.

During one of my visits to Expanding Light in late 2001, Kent introduced me to Ric, who runs Ananda Bell. During that visit I found out that Ananda Village operated its own phone company. Apparently, many years ago Ananda Village had purchased a phone switch, much like one that might be used by a large corporation for their office buildings. With the purchase of this switch along with some business arrangements with the phone company, the phone lines within the village boundary had also became the property of Ananda Village. I don’t think anybody (except Master) probably knew that this was a major milestone in Ananda’s broadband Internet history. Without the existence of this switch and the ownership of these landlines, it would not have been possible for us to have DSL service.

During my discussions with Kent and Ric, I realized that the very products that my company sells could also be used to bring DSL service to this community. There were many details to iron out but suffice it to say that in April 2002, with an additional T1 line that was brought to Ananda Village by SBC/PacBell (now AT&T), we were able to start a pilot DSL service to a handful of “beta” customers. During the past five years, that number has grown to over a hundred DSL connections serving not only the entire community of over 200 people, but also some of our neighbors who are able to receive Internet service through Ananda Bell with the use of line-of-sight radios and antennae.

It is not common for a rural community to have this sort of fortune, as high-speed internet access is typically not possible without expensive investment (satellite links and such) for individual homes. Ananda Village residents, however, can enjoy decent Internet access for as little as $15/month.

Looking back and reflecting on the sequence of events that led to this fortune, I can’t help but think that Master must have influenced the minds of the decision makers in the village at the time to steer them toward the direction of purchasing this phone switch knowing that one day the DSL technology would become available and would enable us to provide DSL service through our ownership of the copper lines. I am grateful to Master for giving me the opportunity to serve in this manner and for giving me the ability to play some role in these sequence of events.

I have to say that one of the greatest blessings of my life has been working with Treasures Along the Path talk-of-the- month club, featuring a collection of archival talks by Swami Kriyananda.

It was originally founded in 1998 by Daya Taylor, an Ananda member who since moved to India to help our work there, as a way to make vast amount of archived spiritual material available to our Ananda family.

Literally thousands of hours of recordings from the early years of Ananda – classes, Sunday Services, stories of Swamiji’s life with Paramhansa Yogananda, radio programs, and a great deal of other material, was sitting in storage, with very few people having access to it.

Treasures Along the Path became a way to open those archives and distribute the precious “gems” to many souls. This has proven to be an invaluable resource for many devotees, especially those who don’t live in or near an Ananda community. It has also been extremely beneficial for those who do live in an Ananda community, since it brings to life Yogananda’s teachings.

When I first started at Treasures, I had absolutely no experience with sound recording or digital world. It has been a great learning experience in so many ways and on so many levels: physically, emotionally and spiritually! I learned to accept my limitations and more importantly, to push past them.

Treasures produces cassette tapes, CDs and MP3s. I send the cassettes out to be made elsewhere, but the CDs, MP3s, and all graphic material are made here, by me.

Over the years, Treasures has evolved to include 400 members in U.S. and 14 other countries. All proceeds from it go to fund Ananda’s growing work in India. We were able to send $10,000 in 2004 - 05 each, and in 2006, we sent $14,000.

Basically, my “job” is to listen to tapes of Swamiji’s and decide which one to make into a Treasure. How do I decide? Partly by adding variety to what has been produced so far, and partly by tuning into what’s happening in the world at the time.

I am always amazed that when I listen to the talks, I somehow just know “this is the one.”

One of the recently sent out talks was “Building Spiritual Power in Troubled Times.” It was a lecture given by Swami Kriyananda in 1979, and it is still amazingly relevant to what’s happening in the world today.

He describes how the fear and anxiety prevalent in the world come from people not abiding by the laws of the universe. He then gives valuable counsel on how to live more from our inner center and as a result, naturally radiate love and joy to our troubled planet.

Probably the most challenging parts of my job is writing the description about that month’s talk. And yet, the process of really going deep into the talk in order to do that, has been life-changing for me. I have to really understand what Swamiji is saying in order to describe it to others.

When I am trying to come up with what to write about a particular talk, it seems like Divine Mother always tests me in some way, giving me the opportunity to put these teachings into actual practice. It truly has been a great blessing!

I feel I have grown closer to my true Self, discovering who I really am, through the guidance and inspiration I receive through these talks. As one Treasures member put it, “Treasures has been my salvation.”

Somehow just listening to Swamiji’s voice is comforting and reassuring. There is a powerful vibration that is conveyed through his voice that awakens the higher self and a desire to act more from that place.

It is a joy and great blessing for me to share these “treasures” with anyone who wants them. Please feel free to contact me for more information on these life-changing “gems.”

In Divine Friendship and Love,

Melody Veenhof

Cecilia Patitucci

I would like to tell you something of the businesses we are establishing in India. This is an interview with Cecilia Patitucci, an Ananda member of many years from our center in Assisi, Italy.

She came to India as part of the first wave of Westerners with Swami Kriyananda in 2003-04, and has been part of Ananda India community ever since.

Cecilia is a person of great warmth, sophisticated sense of fashion, and a marvelous Italian charm, difficult to convey in print. Her story is fascinating.

Jaya:
You have started a clothing business in India. How did this come about?

Cecilia:
Swami Kriyananda asked me if I would start a business with “khadi,” a fabric handwoven with the “charkha,” the spinning wheel.

When you see a flag of India, in the center you see the charkha, a great symbol of Indian independence, and one of the tools of revolution used by Gandhi. It was through the silent revolution of the charkha that Gandhi was able to call the people of India back to their historic roots of hand-weaving fabrics rather than having them imported from England.

Cecilia’s Boutique

Khadi holds a big symbol in the hearts of Indians, but it is something that has been forgotten because khadi is now considered a poor fabric, reminding people of past times of poverty.

Swamiji had the idea of using khadi because he has good friends involved in the khadi movement.
I met these people and through them, I began to study.

The word “khadi” has the same roots as “kare,” which means “making.” Khadi is about making — “handmade.” I started studying these fabrics, especially cottons, but also silks, and was inspired to create a line of clothing called the “Ananda India Yoga Line.”

These would be very simple clothes inspired by the Indian dress you see on the street: a simple kurta, which is a shirt with very few buttons and simple trousers, westernized to be more easily worn. I created a line for men and for women, both in cotton and in silk, and started to promote these in Italy through our cooperative at Ananda Assisi where it was well received. Soon after, I began to learn about organic cotton.

When you enter into the khadi world, you not only meet people interested in helping weavers and spinners in the villages but also people interested in the environment.

Organic cottons are those that are grown without the use of pesticides and without the use of chemical fertilizers. I started to meet these kinds of people, and a new world opened up for me. I wanted to work with organic cottons in order to create a yoga collection that would be extremely contemporary.

Organic cotton is grown and dyed without chemicals. The white fabrics are the result of soaking in water, soaps and other natural elements and then exposing them to the sun. The cotton is grown in Madhya Pradesh, in central India, and the fabric is dyed in Gujarat, the land of Gandhi.

I wanted to use vegetable dyes, and learned how to use these in the organic cottons, but found that not every dye is good. Some colors burn the organic cotton, so I am still in the process of learning about this. We have presented these fabrics in Italy and they have been very well received.

Then another world popped up into my life. This was the world of “ahimsa” silk. Ahimsa silk is obtained without killing the worms inside the cocoons so that they can become butterflies. It is a silk traditionally grown for yogis because yogis use silk for its vibration, and ahimsa silk, meaning “non-violence,” is a pure vibration fabric.

Many Jains (a religious sect) cultivate ahimsa silk in India. I met a Jain man who produces this ahimsa silk in a very poor region of India called Jarkhand, a place in Bihar. It is called Jarkhand because 60% of their land is covered with forest and “jarkhand” means “land of the forest.” This land of Jarkhand has many, many trees where this friend of mine started a social work 15 years ago to gather poor women together to harvest silk cocoons.

If you help the village women, you help the trees, because the trees are needed by these women to make their living out of the silk cocoons. They are not boiled, these cocoons, or suffocated by a heating process. They allow the worm to develop naturally into a butterfly. This means you cannot reel a thread out of the cocoon as is normally done in silk production to produce a perfect, unbroken thread. You have to keep the cocoon intact so the thread will be a little thicker, not perfect, but it will have the vibrations of ahimsa.

This story or helping women, helping the trees, and helping the environment, inspired me to make a new product — ahimsa silk-covered cushions for meditation and ahimsa silk-covered cushions for the neck. These two products were marketed successfully in Italy.

I developed a fabric without color, using the color of the silk as it comes out of the cocoon, and for another product I used the blue color of indigo, discovered in India thousands of years ago. Indigo is called this in the West because it was coming from India and it became the first widely used blue dye in the world.

In yoga, blue is symbolic because it is the color of the sky and the color of Krishna, making it perfect for the meditation and yoga. Ananda India now has a business called “Anjali Khadi Clothing.” I gave the company the name“Anjali” because in Sanskrit anjali is the act of offering something to the altar, and this company is an offering to God. “Anjali Khadi Clothing of Ananda Sangha India” develops the different lines of products.

Ananda India Yoga Line is the khadi clothing made of silk and cotton. Lotus Bio is the product line made from organic cotton. The products for meditation using ahimsa silk are called Ahimsa.

Each of these products comes with a beautifully designed tag showing an open lotus and the symbol of Ananda Sangha. We include the story of the product, a history of the fabric and where it is from. Customers see that there are people from several religions working together — Jain people, Muslim people, Hindus all working together.

I also include with each product quotations from Gandhi and Yogananda, because Gandhi saw khadi as a symbol of simplicity, purity, sincerity, calmness, and of love. He wanted to create a symbol of these qualities for everybody through khadi. This is a fabric bridge of love and peace between East and West. A bridge of qualities, the essence of India, passes through the fabric and comes to the West.

Jaya:
It sounds like a great adventure. What have been your obstacles?

Cecilia:
It has been an adventure begun with enormous obstacles, continued with enormous obstacles, and still faces obstacles every hour.

The big thing has been the transformation of my person into the symbolism of these fabrics. The obstacles were many but they showed me how to expand my heart to face them.

I’ve had to do business with people who have a very different way of dealing with other people, a different way of dealing with work, different way of dealing with loyalty, sincerity, commitment, punctuality, and honesty.

All these things made my journey extremely difficult, but I discovered there was only one thing which could be transformed, and that was myself. I realized that just as it was so immensely difficult to have this fabric cleaned, cut the way I wanted, stitched as I wanted, or altered when it had been cut wrong, I understood that it was all just a symbol of what God is doing with each one of us.

I wanted my clothes to fit perfectly, so God wants us to perfectly fit our true nature. He has to cut us many times because we are never perfect the first time. Then He has to stitch us to make the perfect dress out of us. And the stitching is painful and it has to be done many times before becoming a perfect cloth. Then He has to clean us one, two, three times because this perfect fabric, cut and stitched, is full of spots. Then He has to iron us.

The process of making clothes out of fabric is simply a symbol of how we have to become something beautiful for God. Clean but simple, sincere, peaceful.

Jaya:
What have you learned that you didn’t anticipate?

Cecilia:
First of all, you learn about your own mind.

You learn how you thought you were in peace, but discover you were not. I thought I had reached a point of joy and inner peace because I was coming to India every year for two months, going to all the spots of pilgrimage with a big inner joy, doing my sadhana (spiritual practices) and meditation, and loving India to the tips of my fingers

And then one day I began to see how my mind was agitated, how calmness was not there at all, how upset I could become with other people.

Before, I thought I was the biggest lover of people in the world. I had always been able to get through any experience just with love. Now I began to see how peace was not in my heart, how I was attached to events happening in a certain way, and how I was completely dependent on external situations in order to be happy, peaceful, and joyful.

I was completely dependent on how other people behaved in order for me to love them.

I came to see that there was a big work to do in expanding my heart and calming my mind.

Jaya:
So, what did you do?

Cecilia:
I went deeper into meditation, especially becoming regular in the Aum Technique in order to hear the true sound of everything. I had to go back to Aum to get beyond the noise I was hearing every day in those noisy, burning factories with 47C, 50C degrees temperature, no fans working, all kinds of people coming, going, shouting.

I deepened my meditations because I realized that I was many times on the edge of madness, both from the craziness of the situation, of everyday fighting to have things done, and because of the incredible environment of heat.

The heat was impossible. The first time I came was in summer and it was 47 C (117 F) degrees. The external environment was extremely difficult and the internal environment began to burn my mind and my heart. I realized through this experience that I had a big job to do inside.

Jaya:
You mention the Aum Technique. What else did you do?

Cecilia:
Meditation, Kriya Yoga, the Aum technique, prayer, and never giving up.

At the beginning, when I came to India, around Swamiji there was an enormous flow of energy poring out of him. Enormous! There was a wave of Master (Paramhansa Yogananda) coming through him needed to break the ice, or maybe I should say “fire” in such a country as this.

Being with him meant having all this karma coming up for each of us and we couldn’t be indulgent. We could not take care of only ourselves because we had a job to do every day. I could not say “No.” Without affirmations and prayers I couldn’t make it. Everyday was a fight.

It was difficult just getting out of the door. Taxis were constantly late, one hour to an hour and a half, or not coming at all, with drivers not understanding English, and us not speaking their language and getting lost. So many tears and feelings of desperation! You can only make it if it occurs to you that there is only one thing worth it, to liberate yourself. There is only one purpose for which we are here — to get free.

I have given my life to the Kriya Yoga path and I have been able to contribute with money, so this path has been my only purpose and I never gave up. Through the money that has come through this business, we have been able to publish Swamiji’s Essence of the Bhagavad Gita. We were able to do this entirely from India without other money from elsewhere. We paid for all the printing. But it has not been easy.

I learned a big lesson. It was not me that worked. That was a lesson that Swamiji helped me to understand. “Cecilia, here there is a big lesson for you. Ego! You have to learn that it is not you who is doing all this. Master will take it all from you until you understand that it is not you who is doing. God is the Doer.”

My second lesson was when I was extremely, intensely challenged by the people I was meeting every day. It was a world of men, naturally. Not only were they thinking that women are inferior, but a blond, young, single foreigner woman is something completely strange to them. I was constantly alone. I learned that if I wanted to survive, I could not try to transform anyone. The only thing I could do was to transform myself.

But how?

By expanding my heart, so that I could love more. That doesn’t mean being stupid or naive, but loving more with wisdom, so I would not be affected by so many arrogant men, so very proud.

Jaya:
You feel that you had these troubles because you are a woman. Would it have been the same if you were a man?

Even Men Like Shopping With Cecilia!

Cecilia:
It is the same with foreign men, but being a woman is worse. There is a different way in India of dealing with precision, commitment, client service, and time: the crucial things when you produce something. I found myself with a mind extremely agitated, and a heart becoming dryer and dryer.

Jaya:
How did you deal with that?

Cecilia:
I have been praying. I have a very strong faith and I am a very stubborn person. It doesn’t occur to me to stop. Never. If Guru gave me something through Swamiji, I have to do it. Indeed, this has been my biggest blessing. No question.

Here you must learn to be detached. In the end, you understand that it is not those outward things that are important, but rather how your mind reacts to them. When Master throws to you, every day for three years, fifteen examples of non-punctuality or non-precision, maybe there is a lesson in that. It is my daily work to not identify with what I do. It is a high challenge, and I am still praying every day that my life can become sweeter and softer, more peaceful in my mind, and more loving in my heart.

Jaya:
What do you see as the future of the business?

Cecilia:
It is expanding. I want to reach more markets. Now I have one employee where before I was alone. I want to have even more people. I think it is worth it because I see that the organic world is waiting, especially in America where there is a huge, enormous market. I want to explore the production of more organic things.

I would like to start a line of organic cotton bedsheets, cotton bathrobes and towels. I see a beautiful future for the business, with a team.

Jaya:
How would you sum up your experience?

Cecilia:
My experience has been about making a connection with the deep reality of India. It is a reality of 750 million people living in 750 thousand villages, a reality where 75% of the population lives in an environment opposite of the big cities where we live. It is a reality of doing something connected with the soil of India, a soil being destroyed by pesticides and fertilizers, and a reality of farmers forced to take out loans they cannot repay. We have put our finger into the villages with khadi, organic cotton and silk. We are helping poor women have something sustainable by allowing them to harvest cocoons.

Ananda Ladies Beautiful In Cecilia’s Fashions

Ananda Sangha has a connection with the country of India through working with the fabrics produced by these three different realities: khadi from villages, organics without pesticides and fertilizers, and ahimsa silk, helping both the environment and the women of Jarkand.

Click here to purchase Ahimsa Silk products
Visit Cecilia’s website, Anjali Khadi 

Ananda Solar Technologies is a start-up company by the members of Ananda India.

Swami Kriyananda is the inspiration behind the company. He tells a story of when he was a youth, and happened to lay on the pavement one night after he and some friends lost their way in the dark countryside of upstate New York.

Ananda Solar Technologies Team

He noticed that the pavement was still warm from absorbing the sun’s energy during the day. The memory of this experience later gave birth to the idea of solar thermal storage.

Using solar thermal storage to produce electricity is not unique. People make electricity all over the world using this technology. Usually it is done on a big, industrial scale. However, a few of our members researched this concept to produce small, individual units that can be put on rooftops of residential homes, or commercial buildings.

Engineers

There are major daily rolling blackouts all over India to keep the integrity of the power grid intact. Simply put, there is not enough power to meet all of the country’s power needs. This was seen in California during summer of 2000, when the state first de-regulated the power industry.

Right now we are in the development stage of finding a way to store the sun’s energy and turn it into electrical power. It is looking as though it has the potential to work within our parameters, which are:

• low cost
• portable to be used by individuals
• simple to operate

Solar Dish

Our units are hybrid, and use a combination of wind power and solar PV (photo voltaic) panels. The hybrid system has the advantage over a purely solar power system in that it uses wind, so when the sun is not shining you can still produce power.

Harvesting the Solar Energy

Another advantage of the hybrid system is that it comes with a lower price tag. Wind power technology is much cheaper to produce than the silicone-based PV panels. Thus, by combining the two, you can bring down the total cost of an “off–the-grid” system, while producing the same amount of power.

These hybrid units could be taken to Indian villages to give the people there, for the first time, electrical power to help improve their quality of life. To that end, Ananda Solar Technologies has teamed up with the Government of India.

Nuts and Bolts

Statistics show that whenever electrical power is brought to Indian villages, their economy improves. Electrical light gives the villagers additional time not just during the day, but after sunset, for cottage industries.

It also gives them power to run a fan. This can make a big difference in the Indian village on a hot day!

When we visited villages that received government funds for solar power systems, we noticed that they would have a TV set. That TV was the only means of communication with the outside world for a village with no way of transportation other than walking. News of state, country and the world could now reach the villagers, who before would be only aware of a nearby area they could reach by walking. New ideas and ways of doing things come from such expanded knowledge.

The night is lit up by the solar thermal storage unit!

We are also working on bringing these hybrid systems to other clients: a Girls’ School in Varanasi, an organic dairy near Faridabad, and the Ananda Sangha Ashram in Gurgaon.

The Varanasi Girls’ School was started by a trust fund that recognized the limited options girls had in Indian villages. They would marry young and spend their lives taking care of husband and children. An opportunity for good education is changing that, and the hybrid power is an essential part of the change.

The dairy outside Faridabad is a small operation that makes organic milk products, and hosts what is called agro tourism. Agro tourism gives people an experience of what it is like to live on an organic farm.

Swamiji and the engineers

The owners of the farm noticed that the laborers from the local village would bring their children with them to work. The families found this easier than to make the trip to the far-off school.

The owners of the farm then took it upon themselves to start a trade school for the children. They are now taught how to sew, plus carpentry and electrical skills. Ananda Solar Technologies is working with the farm owners on bringing hybrid electrical power to this school, as there is no reliable electrical power there.

Ananda Ashram in Gurgaon is a 3- story building with a large basement. The upstairs houses the staff, and the basement has the Ashram’s temple.

On the Roof of the Ashram in Gurgaon

Ananda Solar Technologies recently turned the basement into a “green” area. We installed a wind turbine and solar panels on the roof, and are using this power to run the temple lights and fans. This also gives us a convenient place to try out new techniques!

One of the funding ideas for our fledgling company is to sell the “green” hybrid systems to affluent people in India, in hopes of reducing the widespread use of diesel power generators during the daily power outages.

Let there be Light!

In Gurgaon alone, for example, the power goes out 8 - 10 hours a day. To cope with this problem, every residential, industrial, and commercial customer uses diesel generators. This creates huge air and noise pollution.

If we can replace these generators with clean and quiet hybrid systems, it would go a lo-o-ong way in reducing the area pollution, as well as the green house effect that is responsible for global warming.