Question: How do I surrender to God? Answer: Surrender is not a passive attitude. Surrender requires strength, courage, and devotion to the will of God. As Swami Kriyananda described the process of enlightenment, it is an upward relaxation with joy and willingness into super consciousness. In order to have the strength and calmness to accept God’s will, you must practice … Read More
The members, staff, students and friends of Ananda share in the sadness and righteous outrage of yet another racially motivated murder. How can we not, both as people and as an organization that seeks to represent universal spiritual values, wonder “How long must this continue?” Our very teachings aver that we are all children of God and that behind the … Read More
Paramhansa Yogananda describes how, as a child, he was healed of Asiatic cholera (which is usually fatal) in a blinding flash of light after his mother instructed him to pray to her guru, Lahiri Mahasaya. Albert Einstein, as a young man, was fascinated with the phenomenon of light. His discovery showed that the speed of light is the constant of … Read More
Dear Friends, Padma and I wanted to share a bit more in depth about our experience at Ananda in Italy where we went for the inaugural initiation of nayaswamis and other renunciates for the Nayaswami Order on Friday, November 20. Swamiji has long recognized the need to create the opportunity for individual devotees to give themselves fully to the spiritual … Read More
Dear Friends, Padma and I are honored and humbled to travel to Italy a week before Thanksgiving to participate in the first initiation ceremony as nayaswamis in a new, worldwide order of swamis recently announced by Swami Kriyananda, founder of Ananda, and direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. During his life, Paramhansa Yogananda invited men and women from all walks of … Read More
“It takes One to know One” One of the cornerstones of the teachings of metaphysics is that all creation, and each one of us, is an integral part of the Whole, of the One Spirit of God. It is taught, further, that God manifested this creation out of Himself. In the reading for a recent Sunday Service at Ananda, in … Read More
Have you ever traveled for an extended time, perhaps camping, backpacking, or traveling on public transportation through many countries with only your rucksack to your name? Or alternatively, can you imagine the sadhus (wandering mendicants) of a bygone era, roaming the Ganges plains or Himalayan woods chanting God’s name, So Hum? Ah, what freedom compared to 401(k) plans, stock portfolios, … Read More
A theme for the talks in June at Ananda Village in California by Swami Kriyananda revolved around the process of transcending ego and shedding the “bundle of self-definitions” that veil the true Self from our realization. When, in his talks and writings, Paramhansa Yogananda gave to us a definition of “ego” as the “soul identified with the body,” he was … Read More
Since September 11, 2001, the United States has been caught up in a slowly rising tide of fear and instability. Masked at first by aggressive use of force abroad and intensive security measures at home, terrorism at home has gradually been accepted as an ever-present possibility. To this has now been added the threat of large-scale economic instability and long-term … Read More