It is Saturday night, April 19, just past 10:30 in the evening. We are with Swamiji in Rome, Italy. The long-anticipated event, the launch of the just published Italian version of Swamiji’s Revelations of Christ as Proclaimed by Paramhansa Yogananda is now an event recorded in the ether for the ages.

It was a triumph, success on every level. The hall was full. The music was heavenly Swamiji’s health has been very good. He was strong, blissful, and inspired from start to finish. About 700 people came, and 500 copies of the book were sold.

Now here is the long version.

The event was held in Theater Valle, a very prestigious location, right in the heart of old Rome, just a few blocks from the Pantheon. The theater is over 300 years old. (Before there was a United States of America, Romans were attending events in Theater Valle.)

The theater holds about 700 people, and it was full. The “footprint” of the theater is an oval, not that large: only about 20 rows, and 15 seats across. The rest of the seating is in five tiers of boxes, each holding about 4-6 seats that rise up in a curved wall from the ground floor. It was extremely picturesque to see the devotees in each box leaning out from the railing to see the stage below.

The stage was adorned with a very large picture of Master on one side, and an equally large picture of the cover of the book on the other.

The background of the book poster was a lovely shade of apricot-orange, which exactly matched the color of the Indian style shirt that Swamiji wore over Western trousers, personifying in his very appearance the East-West message of the teachings of Jesus proclaimed by an Indian Master.

The event was scheduled for 4:00 in the afternoon. Events of this type are commonly held in the afternoon.

One of the props from a play that is also using the theater now is a set of marble stairs placed right in the center of the stage. They were too heavy to move, which turned out to be no problem, for they made beautiful risers for the choir.

In front of the steps, on the side next to Master’s picture, the musicians were set up — keyboard, harp, flute, violins (2), and cello.

On the other side of the stage, next to the photo of the book cover, there was a large straight-backed upholstered chair for Swamiji. It was a heavy printed tapestry with carved legs. The front edge of the stage was also elaborately carved, so the chair fit well the motif of the theater.

There were huge flower arrangements at each corner of the stage. Not the usual bouquets, but an unusual array of tall exotic flowers. Around the back, behind the risers, there were large green plants, with bright pink flowers at the base.

Swamiji, as I said, was dressed in a soft apricot orange that matched the book cover. The singers and musicians wore the usual Ananda rainbow colors that the choir wears for performances.

Even if the stage had been bare and everyone had dressed in sackcloth, it would still have been a spiritually unforgettable evening. But the exquisite attention to detail, the creativity, the refined expression of beauty all added greatly to the uplifed feeling of the whole program.

Swamiji felt that the message he had to deliver needed to be received first in the heart. So for this reason he decided to open the program with 30 minutes of music from the Oratorio.

Narya (Paolo Tossetto) played the role of host with grace and dignity. After he welcomed everyone, he introduced an official from the City of Rome, the one who, last year, had been instrumental in awarding Swamiji the “Julius Caesar Medal,” the equivalent of the “Keys to the City.”

That man spoke of what a great honor it was to welcome Swamiji, it was a privilege for him, and for the whole city of Rome. There was no further award to give Swamiji as he had already been given the best the city could offer. But Rome did give its official “stamp of approval” to the event as something of cultural benefit to its citizens.

(An important note: Of course, all the proceedings, including Swamiji’s talk took place in Italian. I can follow the general flow of ideas when Swamiji speaks, but I don’t speak Italian. So details will have to come from others. And if someone offers another version of what was said, believe him or her, not me.)

The theater doors opened at 3:00 and about 3:30 the instrumentalists began to play. So by the time the program began, the theater was already vibrating with exquisite music played by angels.

Kirtani was the choir director. With her shoulder length white hair and pale pink dress she was like a beam of astral light moving in harmony with the music.

The choir (about 25 devotees) sang with seemingly effortless perfection many of the choir pieces from the Oratorio. There were a few solos and several ensembles as well.

I thought later how beautifully all the singers, and Ananda speakers, like Narya and others, reflected Swamiji’s own vibration of humility, naturalness, ease of expression, impersonal warmth. It was all the same uplifted vibration.

In the course of the evening, about a dozen individual singers stepped out from the choir, either as soloists or in small groups. Some of the ensembles included devotees from four countries. Master’s ideal of world-brotherhood exemplified in music. Some of the songs were in Italian; most were in English.

Each individual singer was an impressive combination of individuality and impersonality. The performances were original in the true sense of the word: emanating from the origin point of each singer’s being. It was God enjoying Himself through many.

Helmut (from Germany, living at Ananda Assisi now for many years) sang Thy Will with such purity and feeling, you could see it was hard for some of the choir members (and the audience, too!) to master their own feelings enough to go on to the next song.

Zoe (from England, also living at Ananda Assisi) sang I Am Thine, Mary Magdalene’s song about the “joy of redemption” as Swamiji explains it. Again the purity of her voice, her childlike joy in singing it, accompanied by the harp and the crystal clear notes of Bhagavati’s flute communicated perfectly God’s unconditional love for all of us.

Swamiji’s chair was placed a little to the side, where the audience could see his profile and he could see the choir. Watching him watch the choir was as inspiring at times as seeing the musicians and singers themselves.

There was no sense of personal involvement from Swamiji, no sense that he had played any special role in what was happening in front of him, just support and appreciation for all those performing and joy in the music itself.

By the time Swamiji got up to speak, because of the music, the hundreds of people in the theater had already come together in the vibration of Christ and Master. It was a seamless transition. We were with Swamiji from the first word.

Swamiji started with a few beautiful slides of distant galaxies projected on a very large screen on the back wall of the stage. One of the important purposes of this book is to give people a concept of God and Christ that is in harmony with the vastness of creation as science has shown it to be.

From this starting point Swamiji went on to talk of God (online audio of his talk at the end of the article) as an infinite consciousness, not the human figure portrayed on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He explained how Jesus being described as the “son” of God can only be symbolic, not literal.

Later, to illustrate this point, Swamiji sang a verse (in Italian) of the Thunder of AUM song that is part of our weekly Festival of Light. Hearing Swamiji singing this familiar lyric and melody in an entirely different context was an important reminder of how much meaning is embedded in our weekly ritual and how deep it can take us spiritually if we open ourselves to it.

Swamiji spoke of finding the Autobiography and meeting Master.

As often happens when Swamiji repeats the first words he spoke to Master, “I want to be your disciple,” his voice was choked with feeling.

So many things in life become less meaningful with familiarity and repetition. Living with Master, Swamiji explained, was just the opposite. The more he has come to know Master, the deeper the experience has become. “I lived with a Christ,” Swamiji said.

We tend to think of Jesus as someone in the distant past. It was thrilling to hear Swamiji speak not of history, but of his own experience. We often use the words “direct disciple” to describe Swamiji. When Swamiji spoke those words, I had a tiny glimpse of what “direct disciple” actually means.

Swamiji’s message was one of hope for every soul. “A saint is a sinner who never gave up.” When Swamiji said this, I felt he was giving us not only faith in our eventual liberation, but also the strength and courage to persevere until that destiny is realized.

In the days before this program, Swamiji had said several times in the course of various interviews with radio and TV and journalists, that his message, and the message of this book is not an intellectual one. It is from the heart.

What Swamiji gave us in his talk today was not just ideas, but the experience of truth behind those ideas.

Swamiji’s theme was joy. When he spoke of how too much emphasis on yourself as a sinner often becomes an excuse to keep on sinning, the audience broke out first in laughter then in applause. The audience laughed easily and several times applauded when Swamiji made a point they particularly enjoyed.

Christ’s greatness is the divine destiny of all Swamiji said. All suffering ends in joy. Everything in this world is divine. Even the worst criminal is a child of God, equally loved by Him. No matter what we do, we cannot separate ourselves from Him. We belong to Him. He is our Divine Friend.

Swamiji spoke for about 40 minutes. Afterwards, there was more music. Swamiji sang a solo of Children of God. Then he stepped into the choir for Christ is Risen. Then Thy Light Within Us Shining, in English, then in Italian.

Swamiji was presented with a few awards from yoga societies and other spiritual organizations. Professor Lazlo, the founder of The Club of Budapest presented Swamiji with a certificate of special membership.

The Professor is a well-respected scientist, with a deeply spiritual viewpoint. Swamiji has contributed chapters to several of his books, and the Professor has visited Swamiji several times. He is about the same age as Swamiji. Both are slender and perhaps not as stalwart and physically vigorous as they once

The two men stood on the stage together, both heads crowned with white hair that created in the light a bright aureole around their heads. It was profoundly moving to see two men of such accomplishment and devotion to truth, both having spent a lifetime sharing their wisdom and experience with others.

One can only hope that, at that stage in our own lives, we will be able to look back on a lifetime so well spent.

Several notable guests were invited to the stage to receive from Swamiji a copy of the book, a CD of the Oratorio, and a long-stemmed rose.

Then, when all the ceremony was done, Swamiji stood at the microphone and sang Peace. His voice was clear and resonant. The choir (of angels) joined in. Swamiji invited us all to sing the last Amen.

And then it was over.

Swamiji wisely decided to exit out the back door of the theater. If he had gone out through the crowd he might be there still.

Before he could go, however, there was one last interview. One of the major television stations had asked to have a few minutes with him. So the huge poster of the book was brought in as a backdrop and Swamiji sat in front of the cameras for a few minutes answering questions: “What is the message of this book?” “Who is Paramhansa Yogananda?” “Tell us about the communities you have founded.”

There has been a great deal of very good publicity, good questions from sincere journalists. The positive effect of this event will be reflected not only in book sales but in increasing appreciation and understanding of Ananda and Swamiji for a long time to come.

Swamiji spent all day before the program mostly alone, taking his meals in his room. Around 1:00pm, I went to make sure his lunch arrived as ordered.

In the usual way I greeted him, “How are you today?” But the question was entirely superfluous! His aura of joy was tangible as soon as I opened the door, and his beatific smile erased any possible doubt. His eyes were shining with joy.

I thought of those words from The Festival of Light that describe the beginning of this great mission of Self-realization.

“Jesus appeared to the great Master Babaji…..”

And then the call to action, “Let us together, in Christ love, set lights ablaze on that high altar once again.”

Well, today, in Rome, the lights are blazing!

In Master,

Asha

Click the player button below to listen to Swami Kriyananda’s talk, simultaneously translated from Italian into English. MP3, 32MB

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” (Isa. 55:8)

To find God, it will help us to try to see, feel, and think of everything differently from what we are accustomed to doing. That is why, among devotees in India, much is made of the importance of bhav, right spiritual attitude. We must try constantly to rise above seeing everything in reference to our egos, and stop thinking, “My home, my wife or husband, my children, my clothes, my job, my friends, my position in the world, my reputation, my talents, my strengths, my defects, my advantages, my disadvantages.” You can see that the list might be endless. Everything that most people see, even impersonally, they tend to relate back to themselves. Even when they step out under the heavens at night and contemplate that infinite vastness, with its myriad stars and its inconceivable reaches of space, their usual reaction is to think, “How small I feel myself, by comparison!”

An artist sees a beautiful sunset and thinks, “I wonder if I could paint as beautifully?” Someone else contemplates a great deed performed by some other human being, and his first thought is, “Could I ever do that? Well, if not, here’s what I can do, probably better than he.” And so the drama plays itself out, in each scene the hero or heroine being one’s own little self and the parts (s)he plays on the stage. Every actor is the central character, even if only the butler who announces a visitor.

One time, years ago, I made a recording of some chants: traditional Indian and others also by my Guru. A young Indian tabla drummer played the accompaniment. It was very evident, later, in listening to the recording that in his mind he himself was the whole show. Someone asked him afterward, “How did the recording go?”

“Fine!” he replied. “I played such-and-such a tala (rhythm).”

If we want to find God, we must strive from the very beginning of our journey to look at everything very differently from that to which most people are accustomed. New vision will of course come to us automatically as we progress on the path, but it would help us if we tried from the start to adopt those attitudes which will come to us ever-more clearly, as the veils of maya drop, one by one, from before our gaze.

*********

How does the enlightened soul view everything? From the passage I quoted above in Isaiah, we see that there is much we shall have to learn, and much also unlearn.

For one thing—indeed, for much more than that: for everything—we shall no longer think of things egoically. That is, we shall no longer refer everything, or even anything, back to ourselves, unless the reference is part of a completely impersonal view of reality. To give an example: a good singer-saint may know that he has sung well, but he will never think, “I have sung well.” He will think, “God sang His beauty through me.” That is to say, he will be well aware, and perhaps even more so than most people, of the beauty itself. But he will never think he himself produced that beauty. He will see God alone in everything, as the Doer.

For another thing, he will begin to look at everything from the inside, out: to view everything and everyone in terms of the divine consciousness which resides at the center of all things.

I haven’t read these things in a book, and perhaps I should make the fact clear, lest someone wiser than I tell me someday, “You’ve perceived (this or that point) incorrectly. What you’ve said is partly true, but here is another aspect of the matter which you’ve overlooked.” That may happen; I don’t know. All I can say is that this is, so far, the understanding I’ve reached, and I think it worthwhile to share with others.

For when I think of that divine center in all things and in all people, I find that I see everything and everyone quite differently. When I relate to other people from my own center to theirs, instead of from my ego to theirs, I find that I feel toward them in a different way altogether. I understand them better. I also evoke a new reaction in them. Even strangers look upon me more as though I were their own. Somehow, they know me as their friend, someone in whom they can confide their troubles, someone they can depend on to give them support and to help them in their difficulties. I understand them from inside rather than from their mere outward appearance. Perhaps that is why, as Asha noted in her book, though I am usually intensely conscious of color, I never notice the color of people’s eyes.

When I look at things in that way, from my center to theirs, I feel in some way related to them.

Best of all, perhaps, when I ponder the vast drama that is life, I see more clearly, in such a way as to fill me with love and bliss, that it is God Himself who directs the whole show. Through all the ups and downs of life—the joys and the sorrows, the victories and the defeats, the fulfillments and the disappointments—I feel as if life were a great symphony. Marvelous chords emerge. The dissonances resolve in exquisite harmonies. The melodies, from sobbing grief to upward soaring in joy: all of them give expression to the overall wonder of the great story of adventure and love. And I know that, for everyone, it will all end in thrills of ecstatic bliss and undying gratitude for everything that ever happened.

The countless stories, both short and long, of friendship, romance, tenderness, misunderstanding, enmity, revenge, and reconciliation: all—all these work out innumerable tangles, to emerge in a beatifically divine simplicity and delight.

It all seems almost impossibly complex. And yet in fact it is all so completely, so fundamentally simple as to make one, after years of struggling on the path, shake his head in wonder and ask himself, “How could I have failed to understand?” It all becomes so utterly obvious! Of course what we all want is eternally the same, one thing: not money; not power; not the Lethe of alcoholic forgetfulness; not sex; not self-importance; not respect and deference from others. What we all want is Bliss. It was bliss alone we sought in all lesser fulfillments. The reason everything has disappointed us and has proved itself at the end of each episode to have been no fulfillment at all, is due simply to the fact that those denouements were all dancing at our periphery: none of them sprang from our own center; none of them resonated with who we really were and are, inside.

When disappointment or pain come to me, now, from any source whatsoever, I remind myself that my center lies elsewhere—that indeed, since my true center is omnipresent, my reality comprises vastness itself, of which the center is the calmness in my own heart. Thus, I have undergone the sort of pains that make most people shudder—in the dentist’s chair, or in the intensive care unit of a hospital after major surgery—and all I feel is bliss. What happened to my body never happened to me: it was a mere incident in an infinite, timeless reality, like a fleeting ripple on the great sea of life. And though I cannot claim to be conscious yet of my actual oneness with that Divine Sea, yet the mere affirmation of it as my deepest reality has enabled me again and again to be calm in the midst of any turmoil that surrounds me.

I see all life now as a dream. For such is its fundamental “reality.” The entire cosmos is God’s dream. Nothing is real except in His consciousness. Living in that thought, even without the final realization of its truth, helps me to perceive with conviction that this is all I am, and all that life itself is.

I see someone fulfilling some ambition and think, “That is how it will be, when I find God! It will be a surcease, a release and relaxation from all striving—but it will be eternal, and will not last for that mere moment which human fulfillment brings, and which is always followed by boredom, disappointment, failure, or (sometimes) by great sorrow. In God, fulfillment itself is final, complete, and eternal!”

If I see two human lovers joyfully united at last, perhaps after numerous trials, I think, “Yes, that is what it will be like in God: divine unity in the very perfection, for eternity, of all love!”

I remember watching Walt Disney’s cartoon movie, “Cinderella.” Indeed, I have watched it many times, and always my reaction has been the same: soaring devotion to God in the thought of all the trials, sorrows, betrayals, and disappointments of life, and how they must end—not in that ephemeral embrace of human love, but in the perfection of union with God—He who embraces our souls and unites us to Him for eternity!

If I see people exulting in some worldly gain, whether success, or fame, or anything else, I think joyfully, “Oh, how wonderful it is to contemplate that zenith of all longings, knowing that, in having Him, we’ll have everything!”

And if I see people suffering, or weeping with the pain of bereavement or of some other personal disaster, or with some unexpected personal suffering, I think, “How wonderful it will be for them at last, when they realize that all this was a dream!” And I long to help them to see it as such indeed—to show them not merely how to escape their present suffering, which in this world of dwaita (duality) is only temporary—but how to escape every possibility of ever suffering again.

For the more one learns to see things in an impersonal and divine way—and this has to be God’s view, whose consciousness is omnipresent and omniscient, and for Whom time and space don’t even exist because past, present, and future, and also here, there, and everywhere are all one reality—the more one realizes that the greatest service one can render anyone is the knowledge of his own Divine, Inner Self. That alone, through eternity, has been, is, and ever shall be our sole reality.

Trying to see things with divine vision means to view everything, even if only in imagination, as an ever-changing play of light, shadows, and color on the cosmic screen of duality.

It means to contemplate the vastness of the universe and to tell oneself, “At my own deepest center, I am in touch with all that. I am that! Whatever happens in the most distant galaxy happens in some way also to me!”

It means to see the inconveniences of life—the bothersome insects, the excesses of heat and cold, the physical discomforts, the disintegration of everything we love and appreciate in this world—and to think, “I am grateful! These things help me to keep in mind constantly that my home is in Him alone.”

It means to see life’s countless joys and sorrows, and to think, “How wonderful is this drama, that after all the suspense, uncertainty, and tragedy man endures, it all ends in a way so supremely and utterly satisfying! There is no other story even imaginably comparable to the one God has written for each of us!”

Life’s bubble-existence makes us experience either a constant renewal of disappointment, suffering, and pain, or else ever-new joy in the discovery that it has always been Him alone we ever wanted and loved. He alone can—and will, eventually—grant us all that we ever wished for in life.

And so we should view birth, life, death, tearful comings together and partings, laughter and sighs of sadness, and through all of them let our hearts soar upward in song, knowing that all of it has been for a supremely good reason: it all has a wonderful purpose! Life itself should be, therefore, a song of constant gratitude and bliss.

 

Copyright © 2008 Hansa Trust All rights reserved

 

In these pages I aim to show how a spiritual mission, regardless of its name and tenets, can be made to relate to the whole world.

Paramhansa Yogananda prophesied that some day the purpose of all religions would be accepted as being one and the same: Self-realization. Included in that understanding would be a sense of the non-sectarian fellowship of all truth seekers. His own mission as he stated it was, above all, to teach “the original teachings of Jesus Christ, and the original yoga teachings of Krishna.” He stated that he had come, further, to unite all religions in an understanding of their higher purpose. His mission to show the underlying oneness of two great religions, particularly, may therefore be seen as symbolic also, being meant to demonstrate the underlying oneness of all religions, for humanity everywhere is seeking the same eventual fulfillment: bliss in God. Self-realization—the realization of God as the indwelling Self of all beings—is then, in the broadest sense, the true goal of all religions and the deepest desire in every human heart.

The great master, in his teachings, also drew to a focus countless truths that have been expressed diversely through the ages. He showed that the highest wisdom has always been the same essential truths, the first of which is that all men are rays of the one Divine Light, and the second, that man’s ultimate destiny is to merge back of his own free will into that Light.

For this reason, in my book Revelations of Christ, Proclaimed by Paramhansa Yogananda, I proposed that this highest truth be called “Sanaatan Dharma, the Eternal Religion,” for in all the universe this has to be the supreme truth: union with God as the final reality of all beings.

Yogananda presented a way of life that was unitive—one that would make spiritually relevant every aspect of human life: business and the art of self-support generally; marriage; education; the fine arts; self-expansion through service to others; and the supreme art of how to live happily in this world.

Finally, he proposed a life-style designed to enable people everywhere to incorporate their varied pursuits into a harmonious, God-centered existence. Through the years that he taught in the West, he urged his audiences to adopt this life-style by gathering together in what he called “world-brotherhood colonies.” I was blessed to be able to found the first Ananda World-Brotherhood community in 1968 on what are today some 1,000 acres near Nevada City, California. At present there are eight functioning examples of this ideal in various parts of the world.

The sheer breadth of the Master’s vision, and its practical relevance to the needs of our age, demonstrate that he was, in the fullest sense of the word, a World Teacher, and not the guru only of a particular group of disciples. In fact, he’d been sent to be the way-shower for a new age, and savior for the “many millions,” as he put it, who would tune into the divine ray he had brought. For mankind has arrived at the dawn of new awakening into a globally heightened spiritual awareness.

Swami Sri Yukteswar, the guru of Paramhansa Yogananda, stated in his book The Holy Science that the whole of mankind is now, scripturally speaking, in a new age. The earth itself entered this age in the year 1900 after an interim, or bridge (sandhya), of 200 years, during which time the new rays gradually grew in strength. The ancient teachings of India gave this age the name, Dwapara Yuga.

The first of four yugas, Kali (the dark) Yuga, was an age when most people perceived everything narrowly, both in material and in fixed terms. Men needed outer as well as inner forms. Outwardly, the more solid those forms the better; and inwardly they felt comfortable with carefully formulated dogmas and fixed ideas. Organizationally, they were comfortable with firm structures; they liked everything to be established and in its own place. They believed the universe to be geocentric, and God, to them, was a bearded old man seated “somewhere up there” on an eternal throne of judgment. The earth being conceived of as flat made it easier, of course, to visualize heaven as literally high up above them.

Dwapara Yuga is bringing greater fluidity to people’s consciousness. This is an age, above all, of energy-awareness. Many people, aware of some new awareness stirring within and around them, welcome it exuberantly as though it gave unbridled license to indulge to excess in everything they liked. In the fine arts (painting, sculpture, and music), traditional forms have been cast aside in favor of the grotesque, the trivial, and the blasphemous. In children’s education, certain experiments have brought more confusion than enlightenment. The same may be said of people’s understanding of morality, and in their social behavior.

Thus the term, “New Age,” is also viewed with anxiety by those who believe in the old traditions. In fact, what we are witnessing is a struggle between the old ways—ways that once seemed “carved in stone”—and a new, more flexible spirit that is struggling for clear self-expression.

This struggle between the old ways and the new, though still rather amorphous, is in evidence everywhere. We see it in religion also, in the struggle between those who adhere to the traditions of the past and those who reject all tradition as antiquated. To the religious traditionalist, the mere hint of a new age “sets his teeth agrinding.”

For Moslems, the cornerstone of whose religion is the saying, “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet,” no other way is acceptable.

For Christians, time itself is measured from the year of Christ’s birth. Fundamentalists, especially, are convinced that the world is fast approaching the “end times” that were predicted by the Bible with the Second Coming of Christ. Among Moslems also, there are some who believe that something approximating those “end times” is approaching.

Naturally, a world view in which mankind, after centuries of relative darkness, is postulated as poised and ready to soar up into new realities is fiercely rejected by anyone who believes that the past two thousand years virtually defined the term, “Christian enlightenment.”

Much of the present antagonism on the part of orthodoxy toward the “new age” is due, I think, to the arrogance of some who have embraced it mainly for its novelty. For “new age,” as a concept, appeals especially to the young whose tendency in any case is to reject the old. Many scientists, too, have arrogated to themselves the role of “heralds of a new wisdom,” basing the claim not on any suggestion of being better human beings, themselves, nor on any but the thinnest hope that their discoveries will someday make anyone such a human being, but on the simple fact that a few scientists (the very few real pioneers) have discovered unexpected facts about the universe.

Writers since Einstein have had a hey-day with the theory that morality, far from being absolute (“all things being relative”), may even, with a little manipulation, be discarded altogether.

“Avant garde” artists of all kinds, again, having milked the “new age” concept for every ounce of its shock value, offer nothing to replace the rubble created by their iconoclasm, which still litters the countryside.

And self-styled trend-setters, finally, have no clear notion as to where, why, or how to direct people’s attention. They offer only trivia—or, worse still—blasphemy in place of the worthwhile and the meaningful. Indeed, I personally have reached the conclusion that anyone who follows the dictates of “style” shows himself to be without taste.

The public, quite naturally, finds itself bewildered. Nor is it surprising that many today gaze back for comfort to past traditions which, to them, are at least recognizable. The relativity of time which Einstein claimed, has not, after all, thrown any clocks out of kilter. Scientific discoveries have altered no fundamental human reality. Works of art may titillate or outrage a few people, but the meaninglessness they suggest neither inspires nor offers any hope of new insights. Indeed, the most that the dogma, “art for art’s sake,” will ever accomplish will be to inspire a certain smugness on the part of those who accept it, as they consider themselves favored with insights that are unavailable to the “canaille.”

What is most notable about the times we live in is that, in every field of endeavor, human perceptions are expanding and new windows opening onto the vastness and subtlety of the universe. The need is growing everywhere in human hearts to make sense of these insights. We cannot simply reject them. Nor can we merely embrace them, in the exuberant manner of adolescents, for their shock value. We must assess them and do our best to understand what their implications are for human life.

We must accept first, of course, the simple fact that these new waves of insight are, in fact, unprecedented. We must also transcend any fear we may harbor that eternal values are being threatened. Indeed, Truth cannot be a house divided. Self-proclaimed “wisdom,” moreover, that is rooted in neither Truth nor tradition, is almost always mere superstition.

In this essay I propose to explain at some length what Sri Yukteswar said and meant about the new age, and his reasons for claiming that we have entered it already. I will present facts that support his statement, and that he himself could not have presented back in 1894, when he wrote his book, for science had not yet made the discoveries that would justify his claims.

The first part of this paper will present the general basis for Sri Yukteswar’s predictions, and will explain at some length what is implied by the term, “new age.” The last part will focus more specifically on Paramhansa Yogananda’s mission in this age.

One of the results of the new energy that is now flooding our planet is that people are being challenged to assume more personal responsibility for their lives. In a sense, certainly, religious organizations may continue to obstruct the spread of true, inward religion. I shall also show, however, how religious organizations also can be beneficial and expansive, in the spirit of Dwapara Yuga, and how Paramhansa Yogananda himself set the tone for this new type of organization.

Copyright © 2008 Hansa Trust. All rights reserved.

The full text of the essay will appear in a book by Crystal Clarity Publishers later this year. Click here to pre-order.

I wish you all a very happy New Year.

After reading Swami Kriyananda’s recent letters to us relating his bliss in the midst of his surgeries and chemotherapy I realize that the “happy” in our new year greetings is a powerful affirmation to feel inner joy despite any outward circumstances.


I am sharing a collection of photos from Ananda including our snow, and celebration of Yogananda’s birthday. The Western United States has been hit by a storm with high winds and we are experiencing the 3rd day of power outages.

Amazingly, The Expanding Light Retreat had electricity and hosted a lovely service in honor of our Guru.
This is a special day for those of us on this path. It is an opportunity to honor our Guru and to remember God’s love for us, be thankful for these teachings, Ananda, and Swami Kriyananda. The ceremony included a flower ceremony and the reading of an article by Swamiji entitled, Why I Love My Guru. It was a beautiful evening.

A lot has happened since I last blogged about World Brotherhood Day. We celebrated the Christmas holidays with a Living Wisdom School concert, and another musical evening featuring songs from the Christ Lives Oratorio. We honored the birth of Christ at Sunday Service and with a Christmas eve and morning service and meditation. Ananda also observed its traditional 8-hour meditation at The Expanding Light on December 22.

Many would say the holidays would be a bad time to lose a loved one. But, to leave this world during such a holy time seems a blessing. My father had been ill for sometime and passed away on Christmas eve morning. I drew great comfort from the sacredness of this season.

The Sunday Service before Christmas the choir sang the Christ Child’s Asleep (by Swami Kriyananda). The words from that song flowed through me and have stayed with me. Phrases of the song uplift me even now.

I was very involved helping my mother provide for my dad’s care. I have always been close to my dad and this past year and a half was a good time to just be with him and help him and love him. My husband, Dave and I were with my dad during his final moments. We were awed by the very still peace in his room. In my human heart there was a profound wordless comfort. And even though I wasn’t happy to lose my father I was glad for him that he now was free from any pain. In the minutes, hours and days after my father’s passing I felt my consciousness elevated by grace. I felt at peace and I knew I didn’t have to worry about my dad.

So the beginning of this year started off in a blur of change. But, as always, the new year is a good time to contemplate new beginnings and resolutions to improve various aspects of our lives. Dave Warner’s Sunday Service talk last week was so beautiful. He said that in these times when we are so busy—the thought of even adding good resolutions to our list can seem overwhelming and impossible to maintain.

Dave reminded us that doing something simple like adding japa (the repetition of God’s name) or repeating a favorite affirmation can raise our consciousness. That in itself will help us attract the perfect changes into our lives. By raising our consciousness we change from the inside out. Doing these simple things can help us to spiritualize our lives and deepen our meditations.

There have been moments in my life where I felt my consciousness was high. Durng those times, I have always been amazed that any hurts or griefs I may have been feeling were soothed and washed away. Japa, affirmation, meditation and willingness helps open the doorway to higher consciousness which brings right answers, direction, comfort, and peace.

The power of the Christmas season has an underlying devotion and joy. The hope and spirit of recommiting to high ideals during the New Year and the celebration of Yogananda’s birthday makes this time of year very special.

Last year, as a Christmas project, I created a “Samadhi Slideshow”. It is Master’s poem, Samadhi, set to music and photos. We also played it at Masters’s Birthday celebration last year. Many people have seen it, but maybe you haven’t. If you would like to watch it you can click here. Master said it is good to read about higher states of consciousness as another way to try to tune into higher realities.

I think of you often. May the Masters Bless you all with peace and joy.

PS. Please continue to pray for Swami Kriyananda. Pray that he feel God’s presence and grace and bliss always. Pray for his healing. See yourself as an instrument of light. And see yourself blessed by this light.

Here is an excerpt from a note that Lakshman (Swami’s secretary) wrote yesterday: I’ll mention first that Swamiji’ has been feeling much, much better—quite well, in fact—the past couple of days: “Swamiji’s blood work came back perfect!” It looks as if he (along with Miriam, Lila, and me) will be going to Assisi as planned this Friday, for four weeks. Miriam (who, amazingly enough, has had years of experience at this very thing) will administer his next two rounds of chemotherapy there. She and the folks in Assisi have lined up all the doctors and facilities needed, in case she needs to be in touch with them, and she’ll also have ready cellphone access to all the doctors back in India.  But no one’s anticipating any problems, which is why the oncologist is saying it’s fine for Swamiji to go. “It has to be this 24-hour prayer vigil!” Miriam wrote. “Everyone is so amazed at Swamiji’s progress.”

Recently Ananda India celebrated its 4th anniversary.

It was December 2003 when Swami Kriyananda and his “landing party” arrived in Delhi and moved into a house in the Gurgaon, Delhi suburbs. 4 years later, Swamiji, with the staff of Ananda India and some friends, gathered to reflect on our growth and accomplishments, and to look to some of our future directions. The recording of the celebration is available below.

The celebration began with a prayer and a favorite chant, “O God Beautiful”, originally written in Hindi by Guru Nanak (founder of the Sikh faith) and translated into English by Paramhansa Yogananda. It is heart-warming to sing this song to God in 2 languages, uniting all our voices. (You can listen to the chant below).

The united voices continued with songs by the choir. Swamiji’s music conveys truth and joy through beautiful words, melodies, and harmonies. In many ways the spirit of Ananda can be experienced through our music. As Swamiji said in his talk that evening, “It is wonderful to see so many Indians singing–we have launched a choir here.”

Next we turned our attention to the video screen to watch a slideshow: “Scenes from the Early Years”. Not so much a documentary as a string of captured moments, these photos presented many pivotal events in Ananda India’s history.

Especially engaging were the video clips of a talk Swamiji gave one afternoon during his first months here, the opening of The Wishing Tree store in 2004, and Swamiji’s last day of filming his daily television shows in 2005.

Swamiji then stood and told the story of how he came to India. He detailed some of the major accomplishments, adding his personal commentary. He included a few of our future directions, and held up two new publications: The Bhagavad Gita verses published as a small book, and a special edition of Education for Life.

It was inspiring to witness how Ananda India has grown in a short amount of time. Relative to most of Ananda’s other colonies, Ananda India is quite young–this year Ananda Assisi celebrated its 20th anniversary, with most of the west coast colonies not far behind; next year Ananda Village will complete its 40th year.

Video of Swami Kriyananda’s talk:

“Scenes from the Early Years” video:

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

The last weekend of September, Swami Kriyananda, with a dozen Ananda India members traveled to Pune and Mumbai, where Swamiji gave major discourses in each city, speaking to a combined audience of 800.

He also inspected 3 pieces of property that could possibly be purchased for the creation of an Ananda community in India.

For the last 3 years we have been trying, without success, to find land in the New Delhi area to establish an Ananda community, similar to what we have in America and Italy. We’ve investigated dozens of possibilities, but have always encountered roadblocks, usually in the form of extremely high prices.

A few months ago, our Ananda Solar team (an alternative energy business we are developing in India) began to investigate business opportunities in Pune. They came across land parcels that cost far less than in Delhi. This sparked our interest.

Pune, in addition to being a favored location for our solar company and a place where land might be available, is also a place where we met high quality students on our teaching tours. Pune is central to all the major cities we visit, and is close also to Mumbai where we have our most dynamic meditation groups.

For these reasons, Swami Kriyananda became interested in Pune and wanted to see the available land. While there, he also wanted to give a public lecture, both in Pune and in neighboring Mumbai. This would give him an opportunity to judge the temperament of the city and give energy to local devotees, magnetizing them for whatever project might develop.

All of us at the ashram in Gurgaon had to scramble in the few weeks available to arrange all the details. We were fortunate to find venues on short notice, arrange the advertising, notify everyone in our database of Swamiji’s coming, and make travel and housing arrangements for the dozen of us who accompanied him on the trip. It all worked out beautifully in the end.

Swamiji spoke to 250 people in Pune on Thursday night, and another 550 on Sunday night at a beautiful auditorium in Mumbai. We were able to reserve it a couple of weeks before because of an unexpected cancellation. We followed the Pune lecture with 2 how-to-meditate workshops, to which 35 people came. Next weekend we go back to Mumbai for similar follow-up workshops.

In both cities, Swami Kriyananda spoke powerfully, inspiring appreciative audiences with Yogananda’s teachings, and encouraging them to help create a World Brotherhood Community.

People were very touched by his message. In Mumbai, he spoke for over 2 hours, even though he felt somewhat ill beforehand. I recommend you listen to his talk posted on the Ananda website. His entire lecture is going to be broadcast on Indian television.

On Friday, Swamiji and a group went to see available land. Of the 3 parcels he was shown, he liked a 50+ acre parcel in the countryside outside of Pune, in the direction of Mumbai.

At this point it is bare land and very expensive, with a total price of 2 million dollars. However, it is in an area that is most likely to appreciate considerably in the future. If we hope to purchase it, we must raise a considerable down payment within the next month or two.

You will probably be hearing more about it soon, because we’ll need help from our extended spiritual family to make it happen. In the meantime, a committee is working on proposals to show the prospective investors.

Since Ananda’s founding in India, this is the closest we’ve come toward actually purchasing property for a community. There is still a long way to go, especially because of the large sums needed, but whether we succeed with this particular proposal or not, we will keep trying.

If the land purchase goes through, some of us in Gurgaon will move to Pune to create an ashram as a first step toward community. We would create a teaching center there to act as a beachhead for our efforts, and maybe even do something more in Mumbai. Even if this deal falls through, there are other opportunities in the area.

If we purchase the property, we will then need an additional 2 million dollars to do the required infrastructural development, and to begin construction on a few initial buildings. As you can see, it will be some time before we can actually move onto whatever property we buy.

Our local supporters in Pune and Mumbai are very excited about the possibility of Ananda expanding our work in that part of India. Swami Kriyananda is very keen on us doing something soon, so it’s our hope that doors will open for us in Pune and Mumbai. If they do, we will maintain our presence in Delhi and Gurgaon but begin to focus our growth in this new direction. Let’s see what happens!