runbei

For every important decision, Swamiji relied on intuitive guidance from Master. But he never presumed, especially when a decision would affect not only him, but all of Ananda. Any new idea he would usually discuss first with a small group of leaders. If they confirmed his intuition, and the consensus was to go forward, then … Read more

  For Master’s birthday weekend, all the ministers gathered with Swamiji and Rosanna at Crystal Hermitage for a three-day retreat, even though it meant not having a January 5 celebration in our centers. Coming together in divine friendship was deemed a higher priority, especially now that we were more dispersed. Many founding members of the … Read more

  Even with the new book, Cities of Light, the original Cooperative Communities was still important for our 20th anniversary. Swamiji did some editing, mostly to bring it up to date, changing the title to Intentional Communities. He also worked on his poetic allegory, For What Was Man Made? which he now called The Land … Read more

The United States of America and the community of Ananda have the same birthday: July 4th, the day in 1968 when we got the Farm. The Retreat land, however, was purchased a year earlier. So we decided to celebrate our 20th Anniversary for a year and a half, starting on New Year’s day, 1987, and … Read more

In January, Swamiji wrote to Daya Mata. “It was a joy to be with you once again. If we can continue to meet on a spiritual, heart level, the differences of which we spoke between Ananda and SRF will slowly diminish of themselves. At the meeting I really didn’t want to talk about anything negative. … Read more

  If SRF ever softened its opposition and accepted Ananda as a legitimate branch of Master’s work, Swamiji was concerned that we might be overwhelmed by new members who would come for the lifestyle, but whose first loyalty was to SRF. Not knowing, perhaps not even respecting Ananda’s way of discipleship, they might try to … Read more

In the three days between his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus lay in what is now called the Holy Sepulchre. It was there Swamiji felt the deepest inspiration. On New Year’s Day, he held an open house for the community. His dome was still a work in progress, but it was tidied up enough for people … Read more

In January, four leaders from PEKI, including Rosanna, came to the Village for two months. They stayed together, with Keshava as their American host, in a small, four-bedroom house next door to Swamiji. They brought their guitars, their music, and their love for God, expressed with a joyous spontaneity natural to Italians, less natural to … Read more