Yesterday devotees around the world celebrated the anniversary of the mahasamadhi of Paramhansa Yogananda. Peter Goering gave the talk at Sunday Service and read God’s Boatman from Whisper’s from Eternity, by Paramhansa Yogananda. An excerpt from that poem is on the photo of the stars at the end of this post. I am always deeply moved when I hear or read that poem. To imagine a love so great that the guru would return for us if need be a trillion times…
The day was lovely here. We have been having alot of rain and a little snow. But, it was sunny so walking across the meadow to and from The Expanding Light was a real treat. The meadow is green and the light was very pleasing and warm. Peter’s talk focused on the life of Yogananda, but he began with the story of the miracles that surrounded Master’s conscious exit from his body. There were stories of his meeting with his first disciple in America, Dr. Lewis, and of his mission to bring the practical and timeless teachings of the East to the West. The whole talk was delightful and I hope you can listen to it.
After service there was an Indian Banquet hosted by The Expanding Light and created by Julius Dass and Jyoti Spearin. They were assisted by some very happy helpers. And the food? Amazing!! I want the recipe. Everyone seemed to completely enjoy visiting and lingering over the satisfying meal.
Later in the evening, again at The Expanding Light, we prayed and chanted: Sri Guru Deva Aum, Sri Guru Deva Amen. The chant has been in my head the whole day.
Swami Kriyananda’s play, Jewel in the Lotus, was performed and the temple walls seemed to melt away as we were transported to the future. The play is set 200 years from now at the time Master said he would return to the Himalayas and gather up his disciples to meditate and find liberation in the mountains. I was not alone in wiping away tears as the actors brought their roles to life and were transformed by the main character, The Storyteller. Swamiji wrote this play with a perfect blend of humor, timeless wisdom and depth and made the journey we are all on toward liberation seem so real. The vibration of the room at the end of the play is always so high - I am pretty sure everyone there was ready to leave everything to go live on Lotus Mountain with the Master.
When I got home, I noticed that the stars were so brilliant in the sky. I set up my camera to take a photo. I had to leave the shutter open for about a minute or two to get the stars to register, and even in that amount of time you can see that the “stars moved” and appeared as little streaks. It was very quiet while I waited and I thought back over the day.
Peter talked about the yugas. And I tried to feel that even in the amount of time it took me to take my star picture the earth was rotating very steadily toward a new dawn, and also within our solar system the earth is moving steadily toward the center of the universe and a higher age. Yogananda’s life coincided with the transition of a lower age toward a higher age. And guess what? We are all a part of this steady progression toward higher consciousness and light. It is not always easy. But, we have the great good fortune to have a God Realized guru to lead the way, and he will never give up on us. He will come back for us a trillion times, but we have been blessed with teachings that will help us to quicken our journey. We have the great good fortune to be here and part of this great adventure that will take us toward liberation.
Jai Guru! May the Master Bless us all. I am posting a teeny video with an excerpt from one of my favorite songs, O Master. It was sung at Sunday Service.
Many inspired and dedicated souls are, for many reasons, unable to live in Ananda communities. So they read the website and books by Paramhansa Yogananda, Swami Kriyananda and others. They meditate. When possible many visit our communities worldwide for inspiration, renewal and spiritual satsang fellowship.
Yogananda said that “Environment is stronger than will”. In order to create an environment around them more conducive to spiritual practice, some feel inspired to sponsor or attend a local meditation group where souls of like mind and aspiration can gather in support of each other and meditate together. These groups often sprout other meditation groups nearby and so it goes. As Jesus said, “When 2 or 3 are gathered together”. Some groups even go further and found small centers where they can gather in a more centralized location for larger and varied activities.
Such is Ananda Tucson.
For many years here in Tucson, Arizona, a small group of dedicated individuals met in each others homes to meditate and discuss Yogananda’s spiritual principles. Many have visited and some have lived at Ananda village at one time or another. The greater Tucson area is very geographically widespread with 2 current active meditation groups thriving through weekly meditations, one on the East side and one on the West with travel time being over an hour between. And now, thanks to some very committed souls, the Ananda community in Tucson is growing with a real physical center closer to the middle on the north side.
Countless hours of selfless effort and numerous weekend work parties has resulted in the creation of a beautiful, peaceful harbor and spiritual center for those Tucsonians and their friends. This small unassuming house in middle an older neighborhood on a relatively busy street, was purchased and has been remodeled in order to provide a large meeting area with open kitchen for gatherings, a small meditation room and even guest quarters. The house also came with a prized second lot in the back, which can be used for off street parking. Landscaping is just being added to provide garden areas in both front and back for everyone.
It is easily identified from the street by a spiritual eye painted on the mailbox out front.
Now they can call themselves “Ananda Tucson” with a center that can support many additional activities such as study groups and special events can be held for larger groups. Last weekend, Sraddha and I led Sunday Service followed by a satsang with everyone complete with a feast provided by volunteers.
It’s not just the physical place, but the spirit of all involved who create this blessed experience for all in the coming years. This can happen anywhere and has in many locations. All it takes a vision along with dedicated group of cooperative individuals willing say, “God is the Doer here” then channel their time and energy into making it happen.
As every Ananda community worldwide has experienced early in their lives, this is a humble beginning for Ananda Tucson. Who knows what Divine Mother has in store for its future.
Thank you Ananda Tucson for your deep commitment and love of God!
This week I became an Ananda minister. I’ve played the role of assistant minister for some time so this step was a natural one, but I still found myself a bit surprised.
Ananda doesn’t have a seminary or a list of requirements that must be met before one can serve as a minister. There is no diploma that is issued, a test that must be passed, or any outward achievement that puts one on the minister role call. Yoga is about inward unfoldment and discovery. It is also about directional energy – meaning: What step will help us move toward greater expansion, conscious awareness and self-forgetfulness? The invitation to serve as a minister in the Ananda Portland Sangha was a recognition of commitment and attunement; but even more importantly, it was a loving challenge to keep moving in the right direction.
We are beings of energy and energy is movement. You can’t stay in one place if you are a sincere seeker on the spiritual path; energy is always flowing in some direction. It may look like the place you are standing is a really nice place to be for a while. To just stand and look out at the scenery and be comfortable is a sweet temptation. But very soon the waves of the world are washing the sand out from under your feet and you have to move or get sucked under.
So now I am a minister and I realize that I was a little too comfortable where I was. Now there is a new mirror to look into and check myself for wrong thinking. The title “minister” is just a minor part in the play of life, but I want to play it sincerely and wholeheartedly, so I thought memorizing the Prayer for Ordination of Ministers would be a good idea. It is simple:
I offer my life in service, to be a channel for Thy ray, Thy love.
May my body express Your energy.
May my hands express Your servicefulness to all men.
May my eyes express Thy joy.
May my heart express Thy love.
May my voice be rich with the harmony of Your presence.
Use me as your instrument,
always in the awareness,
that Thou art the Doer, not I.
You may notice that there is nothing passive about the prayers at Ananda; Self-Realization comes with very intense activity for God! But it’s the inward movement of energy that is important, not the outward activity or label. This prayer could be used by anyone who seeks to forget the little self and move toward greater freedom and joy.
Minister is not just a role at church; it is an attitude and self-offering for all the circumstances of our lives. As I helped hold squealing guinea pigs this afternoon so my daughter could clip their claws, I had to laugh as the thought came across my mind, “Is this what Ananda ministers do?” Yes, that’s what they do – whatever it takes to move the energy in the right direction and be an instrument for God’s presence.
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to travel to Mexico and Venezuela to lead Kriya Yoga initiations. Even though it’s a struggle to communicate due to my lack of Spanish (fortunately, I had a very good translator!), there is a lingua franca (common language) shared by sincere Kriya Yogis — the language of divine joy.
When we live for God, and regularly practice meditation and Kriya Yoga, we naturally grow into what the yogis describe as our true nature: “Satchitananda,” ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever new bliss.
In Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, we stayed at the brand “new” Ananda ashram begun by our dear friend Medardo (see his blog post about the ashram, Building Ananda in Mexico). It is an extraordinary testimony to the creativity and will of the devotees there, that they made a beautiful ashram out of a ruined and abandoned building — one which had graffiti on all the walls inside and out, and a foot of waste on all the floors!
Ananda Ashram in Mexico
We were given a wonderful opportunity to experience divine cooperation and joy. There were about twenty of us staying there as part of our Kriya retreat. We shared two bathrooms that didn’t have doors yet. The flimsy curtains covering the doorways were frequently blown aside with the breeze, sometimes at very inconvenient moments!
There was no dimming of anyone’s joy — it only increased throughout the retreat. A group of us were talking on the last day, and one of the new Kriyabans received a phone call, which reduced him to tears. At first concerned that there was a tragedy in his family, we eventually learned he had just found out that he won a money lottery at the factory where he worked.
He had prayed to Babaji for help in winning it, with the intention of paying for bathroom doors for the new ashram! Praying for winning a lottery is typically not recommended, but we were all utterly charmed by the man’s simple devotion and sincerity. Our joy turned to laughter when someone suggested that Babaji must have earnestly wanted those bathroom doors installed in the ashram! It’s obvious that the Ananda Ashram will grow into a beautiful home for the Kriya Yogis in Lazaro Cardenas.
Anaashani, Blanca, and Devarshi
In Venezuela we had a delightful and inspiring meeting with Blanca, a 95-year old Kriya Yogi who received Kriya over fifty years ago from Senor Cuaron, a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda.
Blanca has continued her Kriya practice and devotion to Yogananda all these years, with very little support from other disciples. The divine joy in her eyes and overall demeanor were a powerful testimonial to the benefits of Kriya, and steadfast discipleship to Yogananda.
Blanca’s parents were also Kriya Yogis, as well as Blanca’s daughter Nancy, who recounted a very interesting story about the birth of her own child.
Kriya Initiates in Venezuela
A friend of Nancy’s was visiting India while Nancy was expecting a child. Her friend met a Swami there who, in so many words said, “You have a friend back home who is about to have a child. This child is the soul of my former disciple Ganesh. Your friend’s child will be a boy, and will be born on such-and-such date and hour. Ganesh and I won’t be together in this lifetime, but we will see each other next lifetime.”
When Nancy heard this, she had difficulty believing it because the birth date given by the Swami would mean a a premature birth by many weeks. But, sure enough, a boy was born on the very date and hour predicted by the Swami, and Nancy named her son Ganesh.
When he was six years old, Ganesh wrote to the Swami in India. The letter was returned, with a note that the Swami had just passed away. Certainly a strange story! And a beautiful confirmation of reincarnation and the eternal nature of the Guru-Disciple relationship.
During our trip we not only had the opportunity to meet Ganesh, now an adult, but to perform a baptism for his young son. Now five generations of that one family in Venezuela are blessed by the teachings of India and Kriya Yoga!
I would like to thank everyone who donates so generously to help spread the teachings of Kriya Yoga throughout the world. There are many, many souls who are receiving the blessings of Kriya, and the divine friendship and support that we could not otherwise share.
Finally, I would like to share a wonderful practice suggested by Paramhansa Yogananda. He once told some disciples, “Memorize my poem ‘Samadhi,’ and repeat it daily. It will help to awaken within you that lost memory of what you are in reality: sons of Infinity.”
During a weekly three-hour men’s Kriya meditation at Ananda Village, we listen to a recording of Swami Kriyananda reading the poem.
If you can’t memorize or read the entire poem every day, you can learn one line that Yogananda repeats over and over in a talk he gave one Christmas day. It describes and helps us affirm our own true nature. Try repeating the following line in your meditation, as you go to sleep, and during other times:
A tiny bubble of laughter,
I am become the Sea of Mirth Itself!
A tiny bubble of laughter,
I am become the Sea of Mirth Itself!
A tiny bubble of laughter,
I am become the Sea of Mirth Itself!
Listen to Swami Kriyananda reading the poem “Samadhi”:
My inspiration in writing this was Swami Kriyananda’snew book on renunciation, A Renunciate Order for the New Age. Also my own desire to be a monk… but also to be married.
The old cloistered form of monasticism says you need to renounce and “get away from the world” to find God. One might say that monastics living a reclusive life are selfish in the sense they are not being a service to society. Others might say they are doing more for society since they are trying to live in accordance with the Divine, and that their prayers are doing more than social works could ever do.
On the opposite side of the spectrum you have the worldly person trying to live his life, primarily driven by what he or she can do to find happiness: good job, family, career, etc. But as we see, most worldly people aren’t truly happy in comparison to the saints who are immersed in the consciousness of God.
Now let’s say you have a non-monastic person who is religious in the sense that they attend Mass every Sunday, pray ever day, and do their best to live a God-Centered life. While this way of life is indeed admirable, unfortunatelythe “idols” of the world are able to pull us into delusion much too easily.
As Yogananda said, “environment is stronger than will power.” Thus, wouldn’t the practical solution be to bring both environments together, the monastic and non-monastic lives? At Ananda, instead of trying to run away from the delusions of the world to find God, we try to see God in every life experience.
And most importantly, as Yogananda advised, we try to make our hearts our “hermitage,” so that wherever we go, there is our church, there is our God. At Ananda we have cloistered our hearts and have tried to bring that light into our service to society. As St. Francis said, “Preach the Gospel, use words only if you must.”
From my own experience I have foundit truly is much easier to live in the presence of Godwhere everyone is trying to do the same.
I came to Ananda with a deep desire for God and to share his joy with everyone, a desire that “typical” life did not fulfill for me. Being here a year and a half I am able to see how Ananda’smodel of living can’t help but spread in time throughout society.
While things here aren’t perfect, there is an underlying spirit in the people, an underlying attitude of cooperation, harmony and peace, that is saturated all over the land. It is born not of pretense, butrather of the deeper inner joy found in the stillness of meditation, and in serving everyone as images of the Divine.
As I walk the forests and meadows, and see the houses and people that live here, I can’t help but imagining God speaking through every part of this community, every person, tree and building, this holy phrase: “Be still and know that I am God.”
Ananda’s founder, Swami Kriyananda, spends his time primarily in 3 countries: America, Italy, and India. As he recently quipped, “Well I have these [8] communities that I’ve started, and I have to check in every now and then.”
Today Swamiji arrived safely and soundly in Gurgaon, India. As he stepped out of the car, he said, “So nice to see you all! Wow! You’re all looking well.”
Mr. Bij–who met Swamiji in India in 1959 and received kriya initiation from him then–said, “We’re glad you are looking so fine.”
“Yes, you know it’s a miracle,” Swamiji said. “When I left here, I nearly died. I had a mini-stroke the day before I left. Everything went black. Anyway, suddenly [in Italy] I had a miracle and I was well.” Smilingly, he added, “Maybe you’ll be stuck with me for a few more years now.”
The devotees in India are thrilled to have Swamiji back in India after 8 months. On January 4th he has a large lecture in Delhi, “A Celebration of Paramhansa Yogananda’s Life and His Mission”. On this evening he will launch his 100th book, The New Path: My Life with Paramhansa Yogananda, and another book, A Renunciate Order for the New Age.
And on the next day, January 5th–Yogananda’s birthday–Swamiji will conduct the first initiation in India into this new order (the third initiation worldwide).
Please keep Swamiji in your thoughts and prayers during these two historic events.
My name is Medardo Vargas Muñoz. I am an architect in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, Mexico. I am a Bramachari (1) at heart.
“Truth simply is, it cannot be created. Everyone has to perceive it in the Self within.” These are the words by my Guruji Yogananda, which stir my mind, a mind that is avid and likes to question everything.
Gardens outside Ananda Center in Lazaro Cardenas
Since my early childhood I had always wanted to be an architect. In my mind I had built a big white structure. It was divided into seven parts: a beautiful home for my mother, and one for each of my five brothers and myself. It was situated on a farm, and had beautiful gardens. In the center there was a big living room to celebrate Christmas.
That is how I grew up: thinking about giving to others, and how to change everything from darkness into light. In this way God prepared me to receive my Guru, whose soul is all-inclusive, and who achieves everything he has set out to do.
My soul rejoices with the mere mention of His name. I’m committed to his service, in the same way I serve Jesus, God, and you all.
And what can I do with that joy? Serve, love unconditionally, and share with others. The Ananda Center in my young city (Lazaro Cardenas is only 60 years old) was born from these principles.
Lazaro Cardenas is located in the Rio Balsas delta, and is bathed by the Pacific Ocean. Our busy city is not just any city anymore. Now it is blessed by God, our Guru, and the Yoga Masters.
Ananda Center
I have very vivid memories of the day I found the Center building. It was a dusty, forgotten, “full of nothing” yet joyful, day. That was the day God gave us a place to dedicate to Him and His service. Nothing was easy, but it was very inspiring.
Now it is a beautiful place where you can breathe calmness, hope, and peace. Many devotees have come here. I know Guruji will bring many more. Children have also arrived (2). They are my hope, my promise, and inspiration.
The luminescent inner star follows its course, always leading ahead. Right behind it, I follow its steps. I hear its voice and feel its warmth and love. Now it has taken me to another beautiful place, forgotten and marked by the imprint of time.
Ananda Ashram
The area, at its peak, was one of the most desired places to live in the city. The building had been abandoned, but it looked like it was waiting for a better future. We have rescued it and brought back its splendor. We are creating a better destiny for it: the path of prayer, chanting, and meditation.
Meditation room
Now you can visualize a beautiful Ashram (3). It’s like a diamond in the mud that is reclaiming its shining light. It won’t be easy. It’s going to be a challenge, but at the same time, it will be a place for inspiration.
I can see it full of joy, with flowers and wonderful magic, crowned with a high blue dome. Not just any dome — it will be a large beacon for peace, harmony, and divine union. I can hear a deep bell: it’s the sound of Ananda, uniting people and countries, sowing magic and love.
I always dream of a world without borders: riding on our camels of love, bringing gifts in our hearts to the Christ-child within. There is nothing better we can offer Him than following the star of our inner heart. One day we will arrive at the city of Bethlehem of Self-realization. I too, will see my King!
Medardo
Footnotes
1. Bramachari: Sanskrit for a dedicated spiritual seeker who practices celibacy
2. Medardo teaches yoga to children whose parents attend Ananda Center.
3. Ashram: Sanskrit for a place where devotees live and worship together.
Editor’s note:
Medardo organized a Kriya Yoga retreat in Lazaro Cardenas this fall with Anaashini Alzate and Dave Warner from Ananda Village.
