When I arrived at Ananda, I was offered a job at Ananda Publications, later Crystal Clarity Publishers, where I was asked to start a magazine for Ananda. No one had to tell me how to publish a magazine. I had learned the needed skills at the company where I worked before I moved to the … Read more
Several people dedicated to ending war and banning nuclear weapons came to Ananda to try and enlist Swamiji’s support for their cause. Their presentation included a graphic description of what would happen if a nuclear bomb hit an American city. Using charts, graphs, and full-color illustrations, they explained how people would be vaporized, incinerated, burned, … Read more
I was at Swami Kriyananda’s for a meeting – the subject escapes me. I arrived early and Swamiji chatted with me in his gracious way. He said that a woman in Arizona had offered to pay him to take photos of her guest retreat. He was free of other engagements and accepted the assignment as … Read more
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