runbei

The event was a “new age” ecumenical gathering called Meeting of the Ways. It was held in San Francisco and included leaders from the most prominent yoga and meditation groups in America. The day before the public program started, there was a reception for the spiritual leaders and a handful of their students so they … Read more

(Told by an Ananda devotee) Swamiji was one of several guest teachers sitting on the raised dais at a large yoga center waiting his turn to speak. It was a casual event and the speakers were all in rocking chairs. The room was hot and stuffy and the talks were a little dull. Swamiji was … Read more

I am not a patient traveler. Hours before my flight would leave Lihue, I was packed and out the door. The airport shuttle driver was friendly. I asked if he had lived on Kauai all his life. He said that he was born on Oahu and moved to Kauai in 1974. He told me that … Read more

In 1990, Self-Realization Fellowship sued Ananda. For two years, from 1996 to 1998, I served in Ananda’s legal office in the Mountain View Ananda community. I won’t attempt to tell the legal side of the story. That saga is entertainingly told in a book by Jon Parsons, the irrepressibly good-natured attorney who led our defense. … Read more

A man in the community was about to make a serious mistake. His judgment was clouded by desire and he could no longer tell what was spiritually right for him. When Swamiji heard about it, he called the man on the phone. “Please don’t do anything until we have a chance to talk,” Swamiji said. … Read more

I’ve mentioned several occasions when Swamiji’s guidance was strict and uncompromising. It could be difficult to bear. It was as if a mighty spiritual force was prying my tightly clenched fingers from my ego. I don’t want to give the wrong impression. Watching Swamiji for thirty-nine years, I found that he fulfilled Yogananda’s definition of … Read more

“I’m not making the spiritual progress I hoped for,” an over-intellectual devotee said to Swamiji. “I think I need to improve my powers of analysis.” “No!” Swamiji said, forcefully, as if to remove from the devotee’s mind—and even from the air between them—every trace of that word. Then again, more quietly, he said, “No. Analysis … Read more

In the early days, Ananda was fairly crammed with Leos and Capricorns – the Leo leaders and their Capricorn implementers. In their company I always felt at sea – the plodding village idiot among the witty partygoers. Swamiji encouraged me to accept my nature – to be comfortable with it, and to understand that I, … Read more

When the formal interview was done, Steven, the journalist, began to ask Swamiji some personal questions of his own. “I am a Gemini,” Steven said, “and am curious about everything. It’s hard for me to stick to just one spiritual path. I feel like I might be missing something, so I keep jumping from one … Read more

I parked beneath an oak tree on the Stanford University campus at 6 a.m. and set out for a run. Six miles from Stanford, I turned onto a trail by a creek that flowed under shimmering leaves in the early morning sun. After a long climb to the ridge top, I turned north and jogged … Read more