On May 29th, a prayer vigil began at Ananda Village, inspired by the two that were recently held at Ananda Assisi.

The reason behind these has been Swami Kriyananda’s health, which is affected by traveling – and he’s been doing a fair amount of traveling, to give talks and spend time with devotees in Italy and, very soon, in America.

Nothing is life-threatening, but he has to go through a lot of tapasya, or sacrifice, simply to make any public appearance.

The vigil will last nearly 100 hours in all, continuing until June 2nd, when Swamiji is scheduled to arrive in America. During this time, Ananda Village residents are taking one-hour shifts, praying for his health and sending him love.*

I participated in the vigil yesterday for an hour and a half, with more time scheduled tomorrow. It was a joy. Like a flame, which, kept burning, can heat up an entire building, a vigil draws to the object of its prayers an intense spiritual fire. We’re doing this to help bring God’s light to Swami Kriyananda, but I feel it is also blessing us, deeply.

It is an honor to pray for someone so selfless. He is always giving, simply by his presence and friendship – and his gift to all of us, right now, is the opportunity to pray for him.

The vigil is held at the Crystal Hermitage, left, near Swami Kriyananda’s house at Ananda Village.

* We use the healing prayer techniques taught by Yogananda.

3 of us monks founded Ananda’s new monastery in America in August of 2005, but we didn’t have any buildings to go with it. For the first year, we were loosely distributed around the Ananda Meditation Retreat.

Narayan inside the monastery-in-construction

Eventually it became clear that we needed buildings of our own. I was asked to move from my own tent when we had large crowds, and Narayan (a monk slightly older than myself), though he avoided this difficulty, was able to do so only because his own home was incredibly small – so small, no one else would have wanted to stay in it!

Sometime around the spring of 2006, Nitai, probably the wisest among us, set the ball rolling, and we began planning the building process. We built the monastery in the summer of 2006.

Ingredients:

• 3 monks
• 2 high school boys
• 1 foreman, the only one who really knows what he is doing
• Lots of tools
• Styrofoam, wood, electric wires, and a lot of other supplies
• Divine grace

Building Begins

Wyatt (left) and Nitai during construction

Nitai had some building experience, but I think this was the first time on a construction crew for Narayan and myself. I don’t know if this is most people’s experience with Ananda, but I’ve often been asked to do something that I had no training, knowledge, or experience in. It keeps things interesting, and invites one to seek new ways to do things. It can also, I think, encourage one to be more reliant on God.

Wyatt, the foreman, was essential: so much so that, by the time we were nearly finished, Nitai was calling us the “Kripa Construction Company.” (Kripa means “Divine Grace.”)

Because we built during the summer, Nitai, a high school teacher at Ananda Village, didn’t have to work and was able to commit the most time to the project. Narayan and I joined on the mornings we could take off from our jobs in the Village.

My initial hopes for wheels (a portable bungalow!) and a sunroof had to be scratched in favor of reality.

What Are Those Things?

Swami Kriyananda recommends for monks to live in separate buildings, and for women monastics to live together. These bungalows were the cheapest (less than $3,000 each), most reliable structures we knew of that could retain heat during winter and provide a comfortable lifestyle. They were also easy to build.

We have electricity. We have propane heat. The walls are insulated, and the floors are wood. A nylon tarp stretches over the roof, and at 12′ x 12′, the bungalows are spacious: plenty of room for any monk I know.

Without all that, the bungalows are essentially canvas tents on stilts. So it is, how shall I say, somewhat drafty. Yet, I find winters in them to be enjoyable. The bungalow is small, so it starts off cold and heats up quickly, and stays at a comfortable temperature without trouble.

What Is It Like to Live in a Monastery?

I think it is a help, if it is right for you. Really, all members of Ananda are monastics: we practice inner renunciation to the extent we are able. Above all this means renouncing the ego, and offering all that we are to Divine Mother, to God.

In this spirit it seems helpful to be a monk (a formal renunciate) if it focuses one’s life on this kind of self-offering, which is the only truly important kind of renunciation.

Narayan and I with the monks in India

Our monastery is not a traditional one, as you’ve probably realized! We live at the Ananda Meditation Retreat with a small band of high school students, “yoga university” students, retreat staff members, and others, and work at Ananda Village during the week. We don’t have a lifestyle of seclusion or separation from society at large. In fact, I didn’t notice a big difference in the outward way I lived when I became a monk.

I was still meditating, and serving, and living in spiritual community, like before. None of that has changed. But: my spiritual life has deepened. And it has deepened more, the more committed I have become to this lifestyle. I can only say that this means to me that I am meant to be a monk.

I’ve seen the same thing happen in others who have become formal renunciates since I’ve known them – this includes many of Ananda’s monks in India, as well as Narayan and myself in America. There’s a level of peace that we didn’t have before. Monks tend toward silence and seclusion, and this is a big help in developing inner communion.

But is it necessary to be a monk or a nun? Ananda, with its mostly-householder communities, shows clearly that it is not! What is most wonderful in any life is love for God, and no rule or outward path can circumscribe this simple fact.

(Left to right) Myself, Narayan, and Nitai in front of the monastery

Last weekend, Vanamali Devi, internationally known author and speaker, stayed at the Ananda Meditation Retreat and led an inspiring retreat focusing on the Divine Mother.

“Divine Mother,” she said, “is the easiest way to God. As any child knows, you can make demands of the Mother than you can’t make of the Father. It is the same with Divine Mother. So, this way of worshipping God has become very popular in India.”

The concept of Divine Mother is one of the most important things that Paramhansa Yogananda and other yogis have brought to the West. It is a beautiful way of relating to God.

The whole weekend, much more than anything she said, was characterized by a beautiful energy. It was very sweet as well as intense.

For example, when I opened one of her books for the first time, I almost started crying. I couldn’t even manage to read the foreword. Strong energy, even strong devotion from a Divine source, is not always easy to handle.

Someone once told me, speaking specifically about Swami Kriyananda, how powerful spiritual energy can be challenging: Divine light exposes your faults as well as your strengths, and living around a very spiritual person is like living around a Divine light. It “increases the voltage.” Not everyone can take what they see, but those who can take it are the ones that grow.

Accepting ugliness as a necessary part of Divine Mother’s creation was a major theme of Vanamali Devi’s Saturday morning talk.

“The beautiful and disgusting parts of life,” she said, “are two sides of one coin. You cannot have one without the other. The person who always lives in daylight can’t know what night is. Think of it! Divine Mother gives us the horrid things so that we can enjoy her beauty. Without those, we couldn’t enjoy it.”

Many paths to one goal

For years I’d been avoiding the teachings of spiritual teachers outside our path (Yogananda’s path) because I didn’t want to get sidetracked or confused.

This is not unwarranted: I think it is a great precaution to take, especially in the first years of one’s discipleship, when one’s footing is less sure. That focus must be there, for one who has chosen a guru.

The effects of reading teachings of many paths can be mental indigestion and confusion; at its worst, it can pull a devotee off their path to God, as once happened (it seems) to a friend of mine.

I want to say all this because it’s important–and of course also because this is a blog dedicated to Paramhansa Yogananda and here I am writing about Vanamali Devi! Yet it seemed right that I should share her visit, which I feel has blessed Ananda.

During the weekend, I kept wanting to think of her as “Miss Vanamali,” out of respect. (The normal way to show respect in India is to add a “-ji” at the end of someone’s name.) It was a surprisingly strong thought! But when someone expresses Divine qualities in a strong way, well, what can you do but feel devotion and respect? The way that she unifies wisdom and devotion may be one of the most valuable things that she has to offer the West.

Just to give one more example: I learned today that Vanamaliji was in pain the entire weekend, owing to back trouble. Yet she didn’t complain – certainly I didn’t hear her mention it.

On the contrary, she was joyful, sharing her love and energy for the length of the retreat. As Mangala, a staff member, commented, she was a model for Divine Mother: giving to God’s children without thought of herself.

Every year the first weekend in May, Ananda village residents and devotees gather together and beautify the community in remembrance and dedication to the life of Rajarsi Janakananda, Yogananda’s foremost disciple. We work on projects suitable for every age and talent, such as landscaping, land clearing, deep cleaning temples, fixing roofs of common buildings, preparing a delicious lunch, delivering refreshments to workers, removing tamas, etc, etc. It is always a great blessing to participate on this day, as everyone joins their energy to the group energy and as we lift the community up to its next level of beauty, we also get uplifted in the process.

During the opening circle, Peter Goering (our community manager), reminded us of the exemplary life and discipleship of Rajarsi Janakananda (James Jesse Lynn) who was born to a poor farmer family in Louisiana but through hard work he had become a self-made millionaire. His four rules of success were:

1. Work hard.
2. Be honest.
3. Whatever you do, do well.
4. Prepare yourself for the future.

However, material success didn’t bring him happiness. Before he met his Guru, he had short temper and nervous problems. His life changed after he attended a series of classes given by Paramhansa Yogananda in January 1932. In later years, Rajarsi would say of his relationship with Yogananda:

One of the blessings I have received in my friendship with Paramhansa Yogananda has been permanent relief from a state of nervousness, a state of strain, an inward state of uncertainty. I have gained calmness, peace, joy, and a sense of security that cannot come to anyone until he has found the true security of the soul.

After becoming a disciple, he was able to balance his material success and hard work with his spiritual life, where he dedicated himself more and more fully to God and his Guru. In a way, the life of Rajarsi Janakananda provides many of us a blueprint for our own lives: balancing hard work (including serving others) with spiritual quest. This is not much different than what Yogananda had said to Swami Kriyananda, founder of Ananda: “Your life is one of intense activity, and meditation.”