Wow. What a week! Spiritual Renewal Week 2008 was probably the biggest event we have ever had.

We had hundreds of guests at the village and The Expanding Light and we must have had hundreds of people helping put on the events. It was quite amazing how everything came together, it is true: Many Hands Make a Miracle.

I don’t think it is at all possible to list everyone that deserves thanks for contributing toward this week of bliss because it would include everyone!

The week concluded with an Indian Banquet in The Expanding Light Piazza. We got to dress up in our Indian outfits and relax and visit with our friends.

We we served delicious Indian food and beverages. We had a few songs from the choir and soloists that left most of us in tears. Dambara from Palo Alto sang the first song Swamiji wrote, Farther Away than the Stars. Aaron sang Swamiji’s latest song, Love is a Magician.

It got dark, so I wasn’t able get a photo of Swamiji speaking. He spoke briefly but, very sincerely about his life of discipleship. Just before that Sri Kaarthikeyan spoke. He is a close friend of Swamiji’s and spent the week visiting our homes and businesses. Everyone who had the pleasure of spending time with Sri Kaarthikeyan this week felt honored by is visit and his friendship. During his talk he stated that Ananda, with its joy and harmony, is a true miracle….

The week concluded with Sunday Service. Unfortunately, Swamiji wasn’t feeling well and could not give the service.

Jyotish and Devi gave the service which was so beautiful. At this moment, I can’t even remember what they said (it will be on the web soon) but it was such a fitting end to the week. My husband and I looked at each other and we both admitted to feeling transformed.

The service ended with sending out waves of blessing into the world. There were lots of hugs afterward as we all prepared to head out and back into our daily life. And even here, (as Jyotish said) we have to return to daily life and the challenge is how to keep the inspiration of this week with us always.

Bharat quoted someone’s prayer in his talk. It was “Lord, bless me that if I forget you, you won’t forget me.” It is so simple and humble and sweet.

The devotion and inspiration that we have all shared this week, whether we were here or tuning in from around the world, will bless us over and over. And if we forget God in our daily life all we have to do is to stop and remember that our Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, loves us and he won’t forget us.

Celebrations at Ananda will continue through September when we honor Swami Kriyananda’s 60th year as a disciple of our Guru.

Please pray for Swamiji, visualize him in light, see him strong and vital as he continues to share his bliss with all of us.

Bless you all!

P.S. To see more photos click here.

On August 9 2008, the day before the Spiritual Renewal Week, eighteen great souls gathered at Ananda Village to honor Ananda’s 40th anniversary and Swami Kriyananda’s 60th anniversary of discipleship by doing a bicycle ride. They had options of starting or ending the ride at different points along the planned route, thanks to the great sag wagon support by my wife Suzanne and JT’s wife Gitabai. Our combined mileage was 723 bicycling miles over about 8 hours.

The day started with a light breakfast at our house and a prayer for joy and protection. We loaded some of the bikes on the sag wagons (or upliftment wagons as my wife would like to call them) for their riders to start at a later point and the rest of us got on the road at 8am to meet with them around 9:30 at their starting point. The 66-mile route started at Ananda Village, followed Tyler Foote Road down to Oak Tree Road to North San Juan. A right turn on Route 49 took us to Oregon Creek with a 2.5 mile descent. This was followed by a beautiful, relatively easy 10 mile climb. Before this climb was over, the sag wagons dropped off a group of riders before the top of the hill and we all descended for 4 miles into the North Yuba River valley. The 12 miles in this valley heading to Downieville is one of my favorite stretches of road for bicycling. Downieville was the mid-point for our ride so we stopped there for pizza and rest. We returned to the village following the same route back.

All throughout the day we were blessed with great weather and wonderful satsang. Suzanne and Gitabai drove the sag wagons along the entire route to provide ongoing support for all the riders, while Kent rode his scooter as club’s official photographer and videographer.

Based on the amount of joy that was generated, we hope to repeat this fun-raising(!) event annually. We hope you can join us for next year’s ride. In the mean time, if you know you’ll be in the area and would like to join us for a ride, just drop me an email.

This year’s production of the Peace Treaty was magical. The newly renovated amphitheater was very welcoming, the costumes were better than ever, and the lighting highlighted the beauty of the backdrop and the commitment of the actors.

Each of the actors has made the part they played their own. It has been very fun to watch their characters evolve over the years.

Contained within the plot of the play are the teachings of this path. Every year I hear something new. Devaki, the director said that this was the 10th year in a row that it has been performed. Boy, time flies. It is quite a feat to keep the spirit of the play so fresh and expansive over the years.

Swamiji was very pleased with everything about the performance as you can guess from the photos I am posting.

Swamiji gave a great class Friday and last night was a Kriya initiation.

There were three levels of initiation offered: First Kriya (at Hansa Temple), second Kriya (at the Meditation Retreat), and third Kriya (at the amphitheater). Dave Warner gave the second Kriya initiation. He said that 350 people last night were attending Kriya initiations. What an amazing thought! Paramhansa Yogananda must be pleased to see all of us rededicate ourselves to the path of Kriya yoga.

Driving back from the Meditation Retreat we were treated to a beautiful sunset and huge full moon. It really added to the magic of the evening.

This has been quite a week. I have been getting email from you (which I really appreciate!) so I know that worldwide we are all spreading light by tuning into this event.

Bless you all!

We have been on the run here for Spiritual Renewal week. I was hoping to write about the talks a bit, but I know Dave will post the talks soon. They will be in separate clips so they will be easy to listen too. They are each amazing.

We have such great and inspiring teachers. These photos, too me, are worth if not a 1000 words, worth a few anyway. They show what is happening here. There has been alot of humor and sharing of the history and growth of Ananda. All the talks had their moments of seriousness, but the underlying message was hope, endurance, faith and joy.

There are a few extra photos that I couldn’t resist including in this collection. I will post photos from the Peace Treaty play soon. And at the end of SRW I will create a gallery of all the photos for you to enjoy.

Today is another talk by Swamiji and then tonight is Kriya initiation, tomorrow is the Indian Banquet! Yum.

Blessings to you all from (hot) Ananda Village!

Happy Birthday, Jyotish!

Greetings everyone! Last nights performance was so beautiful. I hope you enjoy the sampling of photos from the evening. Blessings to you. Barbara

Swamiji arriving at the evening concert in The Expanding Light amphitheater

Swamiji rehearsing with musicians just prior to the concert

The World Brotherhood choir singing the Ananda theme song, “Many Hands Make a Miracle”

Jamuna enjoying the beauty of the evening

Timothy and pilgrims from Spain enjoying the children

Some of our beautiful school children singing

Parkle, one of our junior high school students, leading a chant for the dancers. He has a beautiful voice!

A beautiful dance from our very talented and beautiful school children

Peter, Nabha, Anya and Rose sharing their inspiration and lovely voices with us

Swamiji singing God, God, God. (It was wonderful and powerful).

Swamiji singing Peace with the choir and accompanied by Jeanne and Christian on the harp.

Thank you, Swamiji for the beautiful music, thank you David Eby for directing the choir and thank you to all the musicians and dancers for sharing with us!

Swami arriving with Sri Kaarthikeyan

Spiritual Renewal Week 2008 is here!

Ananda Choir singing to an audience of 400+

400+ beautiful people came to The Expanding Light amphitheater on this warm August Day to hear Swami Kriyananda give a talk entitled “World Brotherhood Colonies: Social Pattern for Dwapara Yuga”

It was a great talk, it went out live on the web and will also be available to watch soon as an online video. Dave is preparing to upload the video very soon and will then it will be linked to www.ananda.org.

Sri Kaarthikeyan introducing Swami Kriyananda

This week will honor the 40th anniversary of Ananda. 40 years! When I look around at the great souls who have been part of Ananda’s history for almost the whole forty years I feel such gratitude for their enduring faith, kindness, self-sacrifice and their example of discipleship.

Swami Kriyananda speaking at the Monday morning class at Spiriitual Renewal Week 2008

I am honored to be in their company. This week many of those great souls will be speaking (their talks will also be recorded and uploaded). I will share with you photos of all those talks and the other inspiring events scheduled for this week.

I will try to blog often.



There is alot of joy here. But, I want to say that I am inspired to know how many people are tuning into this event from their homes around the world. You are watching the videos, reading the blogs, watching the updates on ananda.org. I feel your presence, your joy and your dedication to bring light into this world and to tune into the guidance and bliss of our guru Paramhansa Yogananda.

God bless you all!

From Barbara at Ananda Village

I played the part of a Self-realized master last Thursday. A small group of us at Ananda Village had gathered to do theater improv “for fun and spiritual upliftment.”

One improvisation game we played went like this: 4 people got on stage, each inventing a character with a specific level of consciousness. Everyone else watched from the audience.

Their levels of consciousness were chosen from these options:

• Heavy: avoiding effort whenever possible, seeking self-gratification only
• Ego-active: willing to make effort for personal gain
• Ego-light: interested in helping others, primarily in an outward way
• Light: more interested in the energy of a situation than accomplishing any specific thing; and one whose primary goal is serving God

I chose “ego-light.” We were then given a situation: going out to dinner.

It started badly. The “heavy,” playing his role well, suggested we stay home and watch television, but the “ego-active” character put on pressure to go out for a steak. Conflict ensued. The “light” character made a plucky attempt to harmonize the group while I suggested that we carry the television and remote with us while we went to eat. This idea resulted in confusion and opposition, and we reached an impasse.

But – we were saved by the game’s hidden catch. At any point, an audience member could signal our characters to move up a notch in consciousness. As they did so, the “heavy” character became “ego-active,” the “ego-active” character became “ego-light,” and so on, while the “light” character became Self-realized!

The “ego-active” character, originally “heavy,” now said that he could drive if we gave him enough money for gas. Thus we had enough forward moving energy to make it out onto the road.

Before long we stopped at a gas station, and the driver went inside while the rest of us waited and talked. An audience member signaled for us to raise our consciousness again.

The driver, who had started with a “heavy” disposition, was now “ego-light.” Suddenly, with all the characters at least “ego-light” or “light,” it felt like being at Ananda. It was harmonious. Everyone wanted to work together. Everyone felt that people were more important than things.

In his new state of consciousness, the driver thoughtfully returned with water and snacks for the rest of us. It was actually quite sweet.

If there was a downside to this, it was that the drama disappeared from our performance. (This happened in our short improvisation, but I haven’t known it to happen at Ananda! Divine Mother continually finds ways to bring drama into our lives.) There was no longer anything to argue over or have a problem about.

This harmony between our characters peaked when they were finally elevated to the highest level of consciousness possible: Self-realization.

At that point, we each went into a meditative state, and – end of story.