What do you think makes for success? Is it an end result? Or is it the way we do something?

This blog post is simple: it’s the story of a photo shoot done by a group of young adults living at Ananda Village. There’s a burgeoning youth movement within Ananda now, which I wrote about when it first started, and which Lisa Clark also wrote about recently from India.

The photo shoot had a clearly defined goal: get some good photos to publicize Living With Spirit, a summer program at Ananda Village for young adults age 18 – 30, that combines yoga and meditation with organic agriculture.

The photo shoot went very well—but it might have been worth doing even if our cameras had magically erased themselves immediately after the shoot.

What I’d like to communicate is a couple of things: one, the joyful, exuberant quality of the group, whose youthful energy is a unique expression in Ananda; and two, how the morning’s photo shoot showed us that the energy which goes into a thing is more important than the thing itself. Because we were serving, and having fun, it felt like we had a success in the doing as well as in the results.

We started in the “experimental orchard,” most of us posing, trimming, or digging, and several of us taking photographs. Ananta and Maria McSweeney, the coordinators of the program, are long-time and very experienced organic gardeners.

Swami Kriyananda recently asked them to move from Ananda Sacramento, where they were the spiritual directors for over 20 years, to Ananda Village, where they now farm and work with the young adults. In about a week, they and a number of young adults will move into a group house specifically for young adults, near the center of Ananda Village.

At the photo shoot, there were 11 or 12 of us. Some of us grew up here, others have come from elsewhere in America (like me), and still others have come from other continents and countries.

This was the photo of the morning—the one that we needed to get. It gives a clear idea of half of what the program offers: friendship, community, and organic gardening; and because there’s a face looking directly at the viewer, it’s a good one for getting people’s attention.

Please note Greg Traymar in the background, pointing off into the distance. (I had to throw out a couple of photos because people started imitating him!) Greg lives at Ananda Village and is working closely with Bharat Cornell, a minister at Ananda and the founder of the extremely successful Sharing Nature Foundation. (Greg directs its USA branch.)

After 10 to 20 minutes of taking photos in the garden, we walked over to where the actual summer program is going to take place…

… which provided a perfect opportunity for some tree climbing. Rachel (above) is one of the program leaders.

Rose led a devotional chant, which gave us time to take a number of photos and to record video. The chanting ended with a prayer.

This is one of my favorite photos of us. It has both good composition and a nice feeling behind it. It was a blessing to be there, taking photos; a service opportunity that I’m very grateful for.

Next we moved uphill to take some photos of yoga postures. Some of them were amusing.

Above, Melody is setting up another shot for the video recording. A talented member of our group, currently taking film courses at a liberal arts college near Los Angeles, is working on turning this footage into a video that we can share.

We have people cooperating from many locations and also cultural backgrounds. (For example, the flyer was designed by a young woman from South India.) One of the things I enjoy about publicizing this program is that it’s a team effort. Together, we accomplish much more than any one of us could on our own.

To end our photo shoot, Ananta led a 10-minute meditation. For me, though I was still taking photos, it grounded me in the sense that what we are doing with this program, with this photo shoot, and through all our marketing, is a form of service—to God above all, but also to everyone who will benefit from learning about the program, and who could be blessed by being a part of it.

Perhaps you could call this desire to serve our “ulterior motive.” I’ve never so clearly felt that doing publicity can be a service, as when working on the publicity for this program. I suspect it is because my attitude is beginning to change from one of “What can I get?” to one of “What can I give? What is the right next step for this person, or this group of people, that I’m trying to reach?” Marketing of this kind is expansive, and a joy.

Our second meditation closed with a prayer that we draw the right people to the program: the people who are seeking it, and who can benefit from it.

The photo shoot was simple, and photo shoots happen all over the world many times a day, but how many include periods of meditation and prayer?

For one reason or another, it was joyful. Perhaps it was because of our meditation, but also, I often feel a sense of joy and blessing when this group of young adults together.

Melody wrote,

Well, to begin with, it was such a joy to have us all together. Even if it was for a “fake” workday. I loved how everybody just got in there and helped, whether it was shoveling or pulling scotchbroom, or zooming in with the cameras and taking great shots.

My favorite part was when everyone was chanting underneath that huge oak tree. It was so magical. I knew Paramhansa Yogananda was watching us, flowing through us, and literally contacting those who will come to our program this summer.

There was so much fun energy and good ideas within our group. I just kept thinking and saying, isn’t this so great!?

During the photo shoot, we weren’t focused on the outcome; we were focused on the energy. In fact, I think we were more interested in having joy, in having fun, than in taking great photos. And it was all in service. Surely God blesses this kind of attitude.

Swami Kriyananda has often said the things we do don’t matter so much; what is important is how we do them. This photo shoot was an experience for me in why, though the things we do may be normal, the way we do them can make them deeply meaningful.

Related

This group here at Ananda Village is just one part of the worldwide youth movement within Ananda, which is also taking place in Europe and India.

Living With Spirit, the program we were taking photos for, is taking place for the 3rd year this summer, June 28 – July 12. It’s an immersion in spiritual living, based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda. You can click here to learn more about the summer program, or to share it with some young adult you know who is looking for deeper meaning in their life.

Ananda Velo, our bicycling club at Ananda Village, is planning a special retreat for the first time at the Expanding Light. The “Yoga for Cyclists” program, held the weekend of June 4-7, will be hosted by Dr. Craig Roberts DC, Panduranga Heater, Bob Stolzman and yours truly. We have been preparing for this retreat for the past couple of months. We created flyers, a detailed schedule for the weekend, sent announcements to local bike shops and launched the anandavelo website. Sign-ups started a few weeks ago.

The program will combine our two passions, yoga and cycling, in a fun-filled and inspiring weekend. We will integrate yoga and cycling by focusing on hatha yoga postures that help improve cyclists’ abilities and flexibility, by emphasizing the attitudes in yoga that help the cyclist achieve their performance goals and carry the effects of their yoga practice into their cycling. Participants will also have the opportunity to learn a simple meditation technique and Paramhansa Yogananda’s Energization Exercises. These techniques can help induce a relaxed state of body and mind. Energization Exercises warm up the body, relax the muscles and banish unneeded tension.

Tell your cycling friends about this event. For info or to register, go to the Expanding Light website. If you have a favorite bike shop, drop me a note and I will send you or them a stack of flyers for this event.

Lisa is a long-time member of Ananda India, and recently moved from Gurgaon, near Delhi, to help start the Ananda community near Pune.

Recently, Ananda Sangha in Pune held the first Youth Campout and Retreat on the land where the future Ananda Community will be, an hour outside the city.

We defined “youth” as being “anyone willing to sleep in a tent.” Indeed, the participants ranged in age from pre-school to a youthful gentleman in his seventies.

The weekend included group meditation, service projects, free time to enjoy the peace of country life, and a group discussion lead by Jaya Helin, who has been a member of Ananda Sangha for 40 years.

The topic of the discussion was “When To Sprint and When To Be a Long-Distance Runner on the Spiritual Path.” Jaya said, “When you enter the spiritual path, you will awaken seeds of past good karma. These can help you with your spiritual practices, and bring comfort and security in these troublesome times.”

There was also a great deal of enthusiasm for the service projects which included beginning a “test garden;” painting a small house where the land’s caretaker currently lives; digging terraces and swales to recover rainwater; and starting a greywater recovery system, in order to use water more efficiently.

When asked why they chose to participate in the retreat, two young men from India’s high-tech world said that they came to get away from the stresses of daily life, and to enjoy the company of other like-minded people. They also wanted to have time to meditate with others in order to deepen their own meditation practices.

A young mother of two, who, along with her husband, is a dedicated member of Ananda Sangha, said that the retreat was “an opportunity to get away from the harsh crowds, noise, and traffic of the city, and to recharge myself with time in the countryside in order to go back to daily life with more gusto.” She and her husband open their home in the city every week to host group meditations.

It was an amazing weekend with devotees of varying ages, countries and backgrounds coming together and finding joy in uplifting company, simple service, and, most satisfying of all, meditation with like-minded souls. We are all looking forward to the next opportunity to take a break from daily responsibilities, recharge with service and satsang, and then return to daily life “with more gusto.”

Related

• Ananda India Community Dedication, a post by Jaya Helin
• Living With Spirit summer program for 18 – 30 year olds; a two-week immersion in the spiritual life at Ananda Village

Jaya Helin is a founding member of Ananda. In November 2008, he and his wife Sadhana Devi moved to Pune, India, to lead the development of Ananda’s new land there as a spiritual community.

My first assignment upon arrival in Pune was “to do the needful” regarding our newly purchased land and prepare the site by March 1st for our inauguration ceremony, known in India as a “Bhoomi Puja.” That date had been set months before, and plans were in motion for a hundred guests to arrive for a major weekend retreat. To get everything ready in time, we needed to get busy.

Our land is a one-hour drive outside the city of Pune, in Watunde Village. A group of us began to make the drive most mornings to start on various projects, using local village labor where needed. We cleared brush, smoothed roads and building sites, developed a preliminary water system, built a shade pavilion, fixed up the house that was already on the property and built a toilet/shower facility to serve visitors.

Most days found us in the nearby town of Pirangut, buying supplies and learning hard lessons in the art of business in India. Thank God for our friend Hari Sharma, a carpenter from Gurgaon, who moved to Pune with us. Without him, we stood little chance of negotiating fair prices. Doing business in a foreign land is an education, and I learned, “When going to school, you must pay tuition.”

While us guys were working on the land, others of our group were coordinating logistics and organizing parts of the Bhoomi Puja Celebration taking place within Pune. Most of the retreat activities were held within the city, and only a few hours of the weekend were scheduled to be on the land itself.

For some mysterious reason, everything we planned seemed to go wrong at one time or another, and we ended up scrambling until the last minute to plug the gaps.

The venues for some of the events had to be changed four times, the last time just one week before the retreat. We had reserved a major hall for Swami Kriyananda’s presentation months  ahead of time, only to be “bumped” a week before the event!

We had to scramble, finally reserving the original hall for a few hours in the evening instead of all day as planned.

The hall “secured,” we rented a pandal (big tent), and set it up on the courtyard of our apartment complex, booked a caterer, and completely rearranged the weekend’s schedule.

The monks [editor’s note: Ananda India has a monastery] rented buses to ferry retreat guests between hotels to our ever-changing venues and in the end, it all turned out beautifully. I suspect that to the guests it seemed like it was all planned that way.

Over 150 came to the dedication of our land on Sunday, March 1st. Most were ferried from Pune by bus, arriving early to tour the property and join in kirtan (devotional chanting) while they awaited Swami Kriyananda’s arrival. Fortunately, the day was not too hot.

An altar was set up under a large mango tree in the vicinity of where our future temple will be located. There we had leveled the ground, erected a shade tarp, and created a spot for the Vedic fire ceremony.

Swami Kriyananda arrived, and after a prayer and invocation to God and Ananda Gurus, led the crowd in recitation of the Gayatri Mantra (ancient Vedic prayer), while offering ghee (clarified butter) and rice into the fire before him. Many of the locals, who were invited to join us, at  spontaneously began to chant traditional mantras (invocations) associated with a Bhoomi Puja. I found it very touching.

Dharmadas Schuppe, one of the Yogacharyas (Spiritual Directors) of Ananda Sangha India, used a powda (small shovel – see photo) to turn a bit of earth, after which Swami Kriyananda, he and I mortared into place a brick to symbolize the creation of our new community and the temple we hope build one day.

Swami Kriyananda followed with a short discourse addressing the local villagers, which was translated into the local language of Marathi, explaining our hopes for the community, then ended with a final prayer and blessings to all. As usual, many came up to him for his blessings, which he kindly gave to all.

When it was all over, I admit to being tired, simply because so much effort had gone into preparing for the weekend. Underneath the physical tiredness, however, I felt greatly blessed to have been a part of something special. On the surface, this was but one of many other dedication ceremonies I have participated, but somehow I felt this one  to be extra special. It wasn’t just about starting a community in the little village of Watunde near Pune. I think something more was involved.

Whether this particular venture succeeds or fails seemed to me immaterial. Rather, larger currents of energy were at play in the dedication, putting into motion Paramhansa Yogananda’s vision for communities, in India and in the world that transcends Ananda and Pune.

We are planting seeds that will spring forth and bear fruit far into the future. I hope and pray that others be drawn to carry forward this vision.

Slideshow of the ongoing the community being built: