There was a time in my life, which ended relatively recently, when I simply couldn’t appreciate why people thought gratitude was so important. At least, I didn’t resonate with the way most people expressed it.
When I came onto the spiritual path, however, I found that there are actually different kinds of gratitude. The normal kind is gratitude for things — good people, good surroundings, and good food — but the Divine kind is gratitude for everything, good and bad.
Pancakes vs. the Sky
I live at the Ananda Meditation Retreat, which I often think is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Each season, its extraordinary gardens have something unique to offer. In the spring, there are newly-blossomed flowers and plants, vibrant with life. In the winter, there is coolness, stillness, and the silent invitation to become more still, oneself.
There are, of course, many things to be grateful for here. Some are transitory, while others are more permanent. I was particularly touched to hear what the 2nd and 3rd graders at Ananda Village’s elementary school were grateful for, when yesterday the entire school, kindergarten through 12th grade, came up to the retreat.
They were grateful for trees, forests, and the sky; for fish, birds, and the ocean. It wasn’t a put-on; many of them shared these things spontaneously during an activity led by the college students. Surely it takes a refined nature to place thesky high on a list of what you are grateful for. It speaks of a feeling of being connected to all life around you, and to realities that expand beyond the present moment.
If, instead of focusing on the calm, eternal expansiveness of the sky, I was busy being grateful for pancakes — as, in fact, I was this morning — and if all of the pancakes were gone — as, in fact, they were — I might have lost some of my gratitude, which I did. That was conditioned gratitude, which isn’t bad, just limited. (A fresh batch of pancakes arrived in short order.)
Maybe this is a key to a higher form of gratitude: being grateful without limitation. One way to do this would be to be grateful for things that don’t change.
Someone once asked Yogananda, “Should one thank God for His gifts?” Yogananda replied, “Thank him, rather, for His love.” Indeed, what could be more changeless?
Grateful Without Cause
Another way to be grateful without limitation is to be equally grateful for all experiences, including painful ones, like, ahem, missing pancakes. (Admittedly, absence-of-pancakes is not very painful — say, on a scale of one to ten.)
Gratitude, properly understood, has no reason: It is simply an aspect of the pure joy of our existence — so much a part of it that one can hardly be distinguished from the other.
This passage finally explained to me why reading something like the comments of this post is inspiring: because gratitude itself is joyful!
If we needed an external, scientific proof of this, there is one: Facebook’s United States National Gross Happiness Index. This chart on this webpage shows a large spike on Thanksgiving day, indicating that people express themselves to be much happier (using words like “happy” and “elated”) on that day than on any other, with the exception of Christmas.
Surely this is, at least in part, because on Thanksgiving people are making a conscious effort to be grateful — and even if that gratitude is sometimes for things, and not for God, it is still ennobling, and expresses an aspect of the Divine joy that we all have within us.
In this way, a stepping-stone to being grateful for everything might be, first, to be grateful for the things we naturally like. This would begin a habit of gratitude, which in time could expand to include everything — especially the source of everything.
But still, the clearest and quickest path must be going straight to the source itself, through the joy and peace found in meditation. Certainly this has been my own experience: gratitude comes most easily in the presence of even a small amount of Divine Joy.
I hope you had a joyful Thanksgiving, and may your next several weeks — from Thanksgiving through Yogananda’s birthday on January 5th — be particularly deeply blessed.
Every day should be a day of Thanksgiving for all the gifts of Life — sunshine, water, the luscious fruits and greens, which we receive as indirect gifts from the Great Giver.
Paramhansa Yogananda
with Native American friends
He makes us work so that we may consciously and thankfully deserve to receive His Gifts.
The All-Sufficient One does not need the benefit of our thankful hearts, but when we are grateful to the Fountain of all gifts, our attention is concentrated for our own highest benefit upon the only Great Source of all supply.
He alone can unfailingly, un-deceivingly bestow upon us the lasting gifts of wisdom, abundance, and spiritual treasures without the confinement of any mundane measure.
There are millions of people today who are drunk with egotism, who think that they keep themselves alive because they feed themselves with their self-earned magic gold of delusion.
They never stop to think that man can neither make a grain of wheat, nor a leaf of green, nor the illusory, glittering, yellow gold, nor the paper and ink of which greenbacks are made.
Neither can he create first life independently of God — the life that gives power to the precious green papers.
For these people, Thanksgiving Day, although soiled with the blood of unthankful turkeys, is a great day of awakening. It is a day of thinking of the most important and the most forgotten Molder of our Destiny.
Millions of people who eat turkey forget to thank God at all, and think more of the turkey than of God. But many of you could thank God in meditation more consciously while munching on the meat of peace, than while dipping your lips in the gravy and the flavor-camouflaged flesh of a turkey, where once sensitiveness guarded the throne of Life.
If you eat turkey, be sure to stuff it with the best Bliss-spiced dressing of thankful remembrance of God and His highest gifts of wisdom, peace, and power to accomplish.
And thank God that you are not the turkey, to be used for the festivity of Thanksgiving!
Wild turkey feeding peacefully
at Ananda Meditation Retreat
Anyway, don’t mind my sympathy for the turkey, for I am more sympathetic toward you, who are superior to the turkey.
God is waiting to hear your unceasing knock of devotion so that He can open the Gates of Omnipresence to receive you. Whether you eat turkey or not does not matter if you will only knock hard with devotion on the doors of your heart.
Make every day a day of Thanksgiving, and continuous contentment will sparkle in your body, mind, and soul. Be sure to search for the all-freeing God from now on, until you find Him on the brink of unceasing seeking.
—Paramhansa Yogananda Letter to Students and Friends, Inner Culture, November 1934
Related:
Praise Ye the Lord song by Swami Kriyananda, performed by Ananda Singers:
My concept of Ananda, before I had visited, was a place of inspiration, support, and Paramhansa Yogananda’s teachings.
My initiation into Kriya Yoga earlier this year proved to be the most moving and sacred experience of my life. Ananda holds a treasure, just waiting to be discovered…. and if I can find it, then so can you!
I am a member of Ananda Sangha (Ananda worldwide). I live on the Isle of Man, UK, a small island situated in middle of the Irish Sea, more or less equidistant of England, Scotland and Ireland.
An unexpected invitation to become a contributor for ‘A Place Called Ananda’ was a delightful surprise for me, a relative newcomer on the block. As my dear friends at Ananda recognize, I have much in my heart to share (and they are probably so fed up of my renditions, they have given me a regular slot, ha, ha!).
I would be hard-pressed to capture in words the essence of Ananda Sangha.
A poor attempt would be to define it as expansive consciousness. In truth, it has no bounds and cannot be defined in terms. Swami Kriyananda often talks about how he can tell when he has crossed the neighboring boundary onto Ananda Village property. I now can attest to this.
Lake near Expanding Light Retreat
One doesn’t have to be highly attuned to instantly recognize the immediate sense of tranquility and poise, of ‘something precious,’ after crossing the threshold. Ananda, I soon discovered, does not have to promote itself in a marketing sense. Its principle of truth by right living is a shining example to all, and promotion in itself. But the real treasure?……..it’s all about attunement!
On our first trip to America, my daughter Nicola and I were booked into Ananda’s Expanding Light Retreat for Kriya Yoga preparation and initiation. Six in our Kriya group took initiation together, the experience of which has left us with an eternal bond.
Over the 3 days prior to initiation, an awareness of something I could not quite put my finger on was manifesting within me. As time went on it became increasingly more obvious. True ‘no strings attached’ friendships were being forged, or were they old friendships being renewed? Light recognized in the eyes; everywhere warm hearts freely gave of themselves. A common vibration to all became evident to me. I was walking in this vibration. It was conscious. I felt a connection to the land, the people, but most importantly, to our Gurus.
The morning of Kriya initiation, I had a profound opening experience whilst chanting Door of My Heart.
(For those of you who don’t know the chant, click on the player to hear it:)
The rest of the day was spent in welcome seclusion and silence, to reflect and prepare inwardly for the sacred initiation ceremony, to be performed that evening in the beautiful Hansa Mandir (temple). The blessing of diksha (a sacred touch during which divine power is transferred to the receptive devotee) given by the officiating Kriyacharya (teacher of Kriya Yoga) during the ceremony has changed me forever.
Blessing at a Kriya Initiation
Emanating from him, I strongly perceived the energy of our gurus, but in particular Master Jesus Himself. On leaving the temple after initiation, I knew I was not the same. The overwhelming sense of connectivity, that I had come home and found my true family, was a tangible vibration. I became that vibration!
Hugs and tearful, loving farewells after the following Sunday Service saw Nicola and I boarding the Super Shuttle back to Sacramento for the long (3 flights) journey back to UK and my island home.
What I really want to share with you today is that this wondrous and powerful vibration has not left me. I no longer feel out on a limb from Ananda. I live in its very essence, which is synonymous with the essence of the Guru: God!
Ever increasing, never static, this essence is powerfully dynamic. I would dearly love to be back living amongst the Ananda community, but God has placed me where I am for His purpose, known only to Him as it unfolds in my life, yet I don’t feel bereft of these wonderful people.
They are now always with me and I with them. I am not limiting my connectivity to my newfound family alone. I am ever expanding it to include all humanity.
My devotional flame is fanned by regular visits to my ‘lifeline’ support network online on Ananda’s main website. I keep current of the events, and I am a regular viewer and participant in the Sunday Service, available online, each week. I am able to receive support from my dear friend and Kriyacharya Dave Warner, and also my new/old friends.
The attunement I speak of develops by default when faithful, regular sadhana (spiritual discipline) is practiced.
Living without attunement to God and Guru is to remain on this earthly plane for God knows how many more lifetimes until the realization dawns that there is only one way out. To be able to ‘go the distance’ in meditation and the discipline taught by Yoganandaji is vital if one is to find liberation in this life.
I know without my own efforts in applying Master’s teachings to, not only my sadhana, but my daily life, I would not be progressing so quickly on this path.
The realization of this sacred flow; the attunement to the gurus and Ananda’s treasure, leaves me longing to share it with others.
Writing and posting on this site has been moved up the priority list in my life; I hope to be sharing more regularly with you. Paramhansa Yogananda said we should regulate our lives – approach our days with a sense of order. We also have to flow with life and be willing to change our priorities when circumstances present new opportunities for growth, service, and self-forgetfulness.
The challenge for me lies in finding the middle ground. I err on the side of fluidity and willingness to do what needs doing in the moment. But I find that the balls I drop often never get picked up again. So here I am, picking up the ball again and reenergizing my desire to be part of this sharing about Ananda.
It helps that I am feeling full of gratitude for the teachings that come through Ananda and the great souls who are a part of this movement of consciousness. Every part of my life is changed and uplifted when I pick it up with the idea that my true nature is joy and everything I do can awaken that joy.
Here at Ananda Portland we have had a very busy season of joyful offerings and special guests. David Eby, friend and director of Ananda music worldwide, came here to visit and share his attunement with the expression of joy in music. We had an amazing weekend of learning and practicing and then sharing the music in a concert of choral and instrumental masterpieces. Every aspect of the spiritual life can be felt in the music of Swami Kriyananda, and there is no end to the inspiration that can be drawn from it.
Then another guest, Dana Lynne Andersen, came and shared her experience with tapping into joy through creativity and the visual arts. Her work has appeared as cover art on several books by Swami Kriyananda, but those are small representations of her full-size canvases that vibrate with light and superconscious expression of spirit. It is a wondrous thing to see what can happen when we allow divine energy to flow through us without resistance.
Right now we have the honor of hosting Lila Devi, founder of Spirit-in-Nature Essences. Through classes and individual consultations, she helps people discover their true nature and experience the inner joy that is always there. I had a flash of understanding into the “essence” of what she does when she said it is about “life force meeting life force”. We can access the more pure vibration of spirit that is within nature’s bounty to attune our vibration to a higher level. Just as we can change our vibration with the purity of superconscious music or superconscious creativity.
Ananda is a movement of consciousness – an awakening of our true potential as spiritual beings. To be awakening in the company of so many joy-filled souls is a blessing beyond imagining.
What is the sound of 16 yogis stuck in an elevator?
(still listening?)
(hear anything?)
Last month I had the great joy of being in Los Angeles for the launch of Swami Kriyananda’s new book, The New Path, which Barbara has portrayed so beautifully in words and photos in her posts. On Sunday, after we loaded all the books and equipment back into the van, we were invited to a tea at Swami Kriyananda’s hotel in Beverly Hills (on Rodeo Drive, no less!).
We arrived right on time at 5:00, and were greeted in the lobby by a sea of devotees waiting to ride the elevator up to the top floor. There is no stair access from the lobby in this particular hotel, due to security reasons.
The elevator doors finally opened to reveal a few devotees, startled at seeing all of us ready to pack ourselves in. Before I knew it, I was caught up in the first wave of people getting on. I found myself in the middle, being pushed further and further back as we made room for “just one more” and “just one more”.
The door finally closed and the elevator gave a significant groan as we lifted off toward the second floor…slowly….ever so slowly…
With baited breath we watched the floor indicator slowly change as we made our way up to the fifth floor. We finally made it up to the fourth floor when the door opened to let just one more person on. (Why didn’t we all just get off and take the stairs at that point? I’m not sure that there was stair access at up to the floor above, but for some reason, none of us had the thought to try!)
There were now 16 of us, strategically packed in with perhaps a half of an inch of space between us. Needless to say, it was getting rather hot. It was at that point when I finally looked up and saw the maximum occupancy - 12. Or was it even 10?
The elevator closed its door and gave one final effort to lift us up to the next level.
Almost there….almost there….
and then we stopped.
What happened next was truly out of the ordinary. No one panicked. No one screamed. No one started frantically pressing the buttons (although we gave the buttons a healthy dose of prodding, in hopes that it would magically bring our chariot back to life). Finally we pressed the call button, which connected us to the elevator service company nearby. “We’re working on it!” was their repeated reply as we called them every few minutes. We also used our one working cell phone to call our friends downstairs, who then told the reception desk of the hotel. From what I was told, the hotel staff walked over to the elevator, put an ear to the door, and not hearing anguished cries of “LET US OUT!”, simply didn’t believe that there could be anyone trapped within.
So there we were, truly in God’s hands. We had done all that we could think to do, having unscrewed all but one of the ceiling lights, and explored the ceiling for an escape hatch. We settled in to wait it out. I had my new iPod with me, and set it to play Swami Kriyananda chanting AUM. It was barely audible, and we all just relaxed and listened.
Usually a sadhana consists of sitting comfortably with plenty of fresh air, but this sadhana was of a different type. What could we do but go inside, pray to God, and feel his reassurance in our hearts. What an incredible juxtaposition it was, to be in a situation that for some could be considered life threatening, and to tangibly feel God’s hand of peace move throughout the cramped space.
Finally, we could hear the fire trucks arrive - quite a scene on Rodeo Drive! After a few minutes they got the door open, with the elevator just 3 or 4 feet shy of its goal. “Aha! Well there’s your problem!” they said, gazing upon the overpacked tin of sardine devotees. They graciously helped lift us out into the very welcome fresh air of the fifth floor balcony.
We had been in that elevator for 40 minutes, although in situations like that, time seems to take on a very surreal quality. A little dazed, we made our way to the refreshments that tasted ever so heavenly! We all had different initial reactions to the experience (my own delayed reaction waited until we were at the airport an hour later), but I could in no way imagine being stuck on the elevator with a better group of people!
To my dear elevator gurubais, thank you for your exemplary self control, light heartedness, humor, and deep calmness! I, personally, am deeply grateful for the opportunity to test my inner peace in a very real way, while surrounded by cherished and revered gurubais. I can still feel the touch of the Divine Presence that blessed us all that day.
As I said my farewells before leaving for the airport, Devi looked at me, first with deep sympathy, and then said with a twinkle in her eye, “Oh, and David… take the stairs!”
I am grateful for this opportunity to share with you all, my spiritual family.
My name is Aditya. I am a medical doctor, and a recent addition to the ever-expanding Ananda family in Pune, India. I’m a monk. Since joining my brothers in the monastery, my life has been filled with many opportunities for growth and expansion. Each one has brought a challenge, but also joy.
“Building Spiritual Power of Our Times” was the topic of the 2009 Spiritual Renewal Week at Ananda Village. That is a great topic, much needed today. And for devotees, it’s also a great responsibility! This spiritual power can be built individually, and also as a group.
“Don’t disband your group, pray, pray together!” —Padre Pio, a great modern-day mystic of the Catholic Church, used to say to his disciples, sensing difficult times ahead.
Yogananda, too, said that whenever two magnets come closer, the magnetism of the stronger magnet overpowers the weaker one.
I have been on this path for a short while, but I already had a chance to see how easy it is for devotees to go astray. Even young, energetic, and seemingly devotional people sometimes are gone without a trace!
This world has seen enough spiritual “casualties.” It is time we band together.
When discussing spiritual power, it’s impossible to overlook the magnetism created by spiritual communities.
When I left my home almost a year ago, my family had no clue whatsoever what my search was all about, or what possible good can come from seeking God. I guess their biggest thought was, “Does God even exist?” Even so, my younger sister said this to me, “Bhaiya (brother), don’t worry. I will tell Daddy that you are doing a good thing, even though it is something we don’t understand!”
Swami Kriyananda said that in one man’s search for God he could easily be thought by the world as a madman. But when a thousand “madmen” come together to work, pray, meditate, and live harmoniously, it makes people stop and take notice.
Life at Ananda is beautiful!
The Villagers at the job site
Speaking of our Pune community, it is amazing to see the consciousness of people around change so much (for the good!), even in a few months. The nearby villagers are gradually coming to realise that we are not here only to build something for ourselves, but also to share it with them — whether providing them with solar electricity, or serving them through our medical clinic, or creating a library.
We set up a free clinic for the villagers with medicines for most of the common illnesses. In the past, the villagers would have to go to the city for medical care — over an hour away on dirt roads. With the help of some devotees, I even invested in a decent surgical kit too!
On any given day around 30 villagers come to work at the Ashram building site, earning daily wages. As they told us often, they have never met such joyful employers!
Our exchange is two-way. We buy our grain from them, hire their bullock carts, and at times, share our meals together.
“Once you live in this way (in spiritual community), you would not want to live in any other way!” said Swami Kriyananda. It Is True!
Dr. Aditya lending a hand
Attitudes of renunciation, selfless service to others and God, come easily in gathering of renunciates. Living in community gives one endless opportunities to offer seva or service, right from day one.
I know I am strongly recommending Ananda to you all. But I can’t help it! It is simply too precious a gift to keep away from you. To use a medical term, there’s something about Ananda that is almost “infectious” — in a good way! You don’t have to be a saint to come here, but you can get a lot of help to become one!
