One of the beauties of Ananda Village is its super-abundance of deer.

The baby deer are the cutest. They have spots in summer; by mid-fall, the spots have gone, and the boys are developing antlers.

Deer are kind, innocent, and uplifting to see. For many people who visit the Village and have some kind of encounter with them, they are a highlight.

Deer are a year-round phenomenon – now, in late fall, you can still see them more days than not. In warmer seasons, they are even more common: last summer, counts went as high as 58. Popular hangouts include “downtown” Ananda Village as well as the apple orchard.

Click on any of the photos to see a larger version.

These deer are at Rajarsi Park, the group of office buildings which are the home to Crystal Clarity Publishers, Ananda’s outreach ministry, and several Ananda-member-owned businesses. (I work in the building on the left and help develop websites like this one.)

This photo is called “Deer in the Infinite.”

These two young ones are at the apple orchard that I mentioned. The recently-improved orchard provides an easy source of food. (I can imagine the adults saying to the children, “Back in our day, we didn’t have these newfangled orchards. We had to eat grass all summer! etc.”)

Another day, while driving past the market and the orchard, I saw 36 deer within the space of about 30 seconds. You can check my calculations, but if they are correct, I was driving at nearly 4500 deer per hour (dph). 

This buck is at Ananda’s Meditation Retreat, 7 miles from Ananda Village. (The retreat is where I live – it’s also a place where people often come for quiet retreat and seclusion, and the home of Ananda’s university, the Ananda Institute of Alternative Living.)

Deer are not an unmitigated blessing; they carry ticks, eat plants out of gardens, and can even attract mountain lions, a natural predator. (Though I haven’t seen a mountain lion in my 3 years here, there are occasional sightings.)

A mother deer cleaning one of her children.

I came to work early one day and found this final group of deer nearby. I walked with them for over an hour, while they became more comfortable with me. When I left, I felt that we had developed a living relationship.

In no other place have I seen deer so accepting and unafraid of people, as if they sensed that, around people dedicated to inner peace and high ideals, they were safe.

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

As I went back into the community center to pick up the last of my things after the concert, I could tangibly feel the beauty that the students created with their music. I stood for a moment in the now empty hall, and tried to imprint the feeling and vibration of this beautiful evening into my memory.

Last Friday night, Dec 7th, was our annual Living Wisdom School Christmas Concert, presenting the entire K-12 classes in an hour long program. I am so blessed to be working with such a talented group of young singers and instrumentalists. We have around 50 students, with a few hours each week to rehearse, and it is remarkable what these kids can do! We have the 21 high schoolers singing 4 part songs, including Handel’s Halleluiah Chorus this year, which is quite an undertaking! They rose to the challenge beautifully, and have learned to sing not only beautifully, but from a deeper place of inspiration than ever before.

Here is an excerpt from one of the pieces they did by themselves, without me conducting, entitled “Ave Verum Corpus” by Mozart. See if you can feel how beautifully they can present the music not only with sound, but with their feeling and channeling of inspiration.

There were many many singers who wanted to do solos, but of course there aren’t enough places to fit them all in! Here is “The Christmas Mystery,” written by Swami Kriyananda, featuring Balarama’s 2 – 3 grade class singing the first verse, a quartet of High School boys singing the second, and Sam, a second grader, beginning the fourth. (I’ve edited the recording for these highlights).

The auditorium was packed to capacity, and many felt the great blessings that these incredible kids shone forth through their music that night. My job is to keep them busy with the most inspired songs I can possibly find, and challenge them to feel as deeply as they can the Divine Presence within each one.

This past Sunday, December 2nd, was the 24th World Brotherhood Day at The Expanding Light at Ananda Village. It is a day set aside at the beginning of the Christmas holiday season where we consciously stop and remember the beauty of this season.

World Brotherhood Day has been one of my favorite Ananda observances for years. I remember many years ago (yikes - almost 20 years ago) sending for the cassette tape so that I could listen to and then participate in the event from a distance.

The evening began and ends with the choir singing beautiful songs, including my favorite, Christmas Mystery. This song plus others from the Christ Lives Oratrio fill me with awe.

It has been our custom on this day to contribute a day’s wage to an aspect of the outreach ministry. We place this offering at the beautiful Christmas altar then recieve a blessing by Jyotish and Devi and a small gift. This year it was a copy of a profound article Swami Kriyananda recently wrote.

In the past we have given support for the Ananda groups in Russia. We created a fund in Assisi which they could use as scholarship money for Russians and eastern Europeans who wanted to come for training programs. We have also in the past dedicated our offerings to reprinting “spiritually precious” books written by Swamiji which had gone out of print. After 24 years, you can imagine that the benificiaries of this special day are many.

This year our donations will go toward sharing Master’s light in a coordinated effort to spread the word about Ananda Village’s 40th year and Swamiji’s 60th year of discipleship. 2008 will be a special year indeed.

The evening also featured brief talks by Jyotish and Devi, Catherine Van Houten and Tim and Corinne Hickey. Tim and Corinne will be in charge of pulling all the strings together and coordinating our efforts to share the news.

The dedicated Expanding Light cooking staff and Karma yogis prepared and served a delicious banquet after the program. It was so nice to see everyone dressed up and enjoying the delightful food and pretty decorations.

This weekend was special for another reason. As many of you know Swamiji had surgery last week and after a brief stay in ICU is now again at his home in Gurgaon, India. He has inspired all of us with his courage and amazing joy. Swamiji said at the close of a letter he wrote to everyone, “You all have my deep, heartfelt love. Thank you again and again for your loving (and blissful) prayers. And, yes, I tried to share my own bliss with all of you. Let us all work together to bring Master’s wonderful message to the whole world.”

So our World Brotherhood Day gift is dedicated to try and share Yogananda’s message of inner joy with the world.