Swami-Kriyananda-Centennial

A Tribute to Our Friend and Guide Swami Kriyananda

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Ananda Devotees Sharing Light with the World

Ananda Devotees Sharing Light with the World

I’m writing these words from the Expanding Light Retreat at Ananda Village in California’s Sierra Nevada Foothills, joined by some 750 kindred souls celebrating the 100th anniversary of Swami Kriyananda’s birth.

This has been a deeply uplifting week. We shared meditations, inspiring talks, devotional chanting, a beautiful concert of Swami Kriyananda’s music, his play The Jewel in the Lotus, and warm conversations with fellow devotees—all in celebration of the life of Ananda’s founder, Swami Kriyananda.

There has been a palpable feeling of expansive joy throughout the week—a sense that, through all of us present, Swamiji would continue to grow and expand Ananda’s worldwide work of sharing Yogananda’s teachings and vibration with the world. Continue reading →

Karma Our Divine Teacher

Karma: Our Divine Teacher

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Yogananda The Purpose of Life is to Be Educated and Entertained

Paramhansa Yogananda

“We all come into this world to be educated and entertained,” Paramhansa Yogananda once observed—then he added with a wry smile, “but how few are either educated or entertained!”

We each have many lessons to learn from life, and karma is among our primary teachers. Will we fear and resent this teacher’s firm hand, or welcome it with gratitude for the important lessons it has to offer us?

My first-grade teacher, Mrs. Class, was not what one would call warm and fuzzy. She was a strict, often extremely stern disciplinarian, and like most of the children in her class, I was intimidated by her. Continue reading →

Young man meditating on OM near a river.

OM Sweet OM: The Pathway to Self-Realization

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Young man meditating on OM near a river.OM is within, and all around us. It lies at the heart of all things, animate and inanimate. It is through OM that we have journeyed away from our home in God—into this world of maya and delusion—and it is through OM that we will find our way back to our true nature of oneness with God.

Yogananda used two spellings for the cosmic vibration: OM and AUM. Although AUM is the more accurate Sanskrit form, he often used the shorter spelling, OM, as well—especially in poetic writings. For simplicity, I will use the more commonly recognized OM in this article.

Occasionally, Yogananda would take some of the disciples to a movie. When the movie reached its most exciting part, he would tap them on the shoulder, point to the beam of light coming from the projection booth, and say, “It’s all just a play of light and shadow.” Continue reading →

Woman writing in her journal

Introspection: The Key to Spiritual Progress

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Woman writing in her journalParamhansa Yogananda said that we cannot stand still on the spiritual path: we are either moving forward or we are moving backward. He also said that the minutes are more important than the years. If we want to see improvement over the years, we must start by making the right effort today.

A few years ago, I was the service manager for an electrical contracting company. The owner often told me, “You need to inspect what you expect.” He meant that, as a manager, I needed to keep an eye on our crew to make sure they were meeting our quality standards.

The same thing can be said about managing our inner kingdom of attitudes, habits, and thoughts. These determine success or failure on the spiritual path: whether or not we are moving in the right direction. We need to inspect what we expect. Continue reading →

Peace-Meditation

Finding Peace in Tumultuous Times

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Paramhansa_Yogananda

Paramhansa Yogananda

Peace is often one of the first things we experience in meditation. It is one of the eight aspects of God as described by Paramhansa Yogananda. As such, the feeling of peace in deep meditation is an experience of communion with God.

Because even beginners often feel a sense of profound peace in meditation, peace is sometimes considered to be less important than, say, seeing light at the spiritual eye or communing with the sound of AUM. Yet peace, born of inner communion, is greatly needed in these tumultuous times. It can lift us above unrest, anxiety, and fear Continue reading →