We spoke with Dambara while he lived in the Ananda Community in Mountain View, California. Dambara now serves with Ananda in Oregon and also travels with Asha Nayaswami worldwide as a wandering minstrel, singing Swami Kriyananda’s music for her public talks and workshops.
Q: You’ve been a long-time member of Ananda’s music ministry, singing Swami Kriyananda’s music and playing guitar. You and Manisha volunteer as cooks at Master’s Kitchen, and you’re a member of the Ananda Sangha staff. What has attracted you to service?
Dambara: It’s very simple. I see service as fun. From the moment I joined Ananda, there was never any hesitancy. My thought was, “I want everything that Ananda has to give, a hundred percent,” and for me service was a natural way to go about getting it.
Each of us individually need to find the balance of service that will give us joy. Some people don’t want to be part of an organization, and that’s normal at this point in time because we’re breaking free of the old forms where the spiritual institution was all-important. But you do need an organization. Paramhansa Yogananda said that he was creating hives where people could come to sip the nectar of divine inspiration.
Ananda isn’t like an Indian ashram where everything is free – here in Silicon Valley it’s a very different reality. The energy and money to keep Ananda going have always come from people who love to give back because of how much they’re receiving. They love what Yogananda is giving them, and they want to help Ananda share it with others.
Q: Should people assume that if they see something going on at Ananda, they can ask “Can I help?” and they’ll be welcome?
Dambara: It’s a wonderful thing to do. “How can I help?” They can be assured that they’ll receive a very positive response. It might be “Sure, you can jump in and help right now!” Or “Let’s figure out a way you can help.”
In 1970, when Stephen Gaskin started The Farm, his community in Tennessee, he said, “You are God’s eyes on the planet. If you have the thought ‘Someone ought to do something about that’ – then you’re it.” I remember that saying often and I think “Maybe it’s me.”
It’s easy to sit back and enjoy the benefits, but that’s like a child who’s still dependent on its parents. At some point it’s good to step up and take ownership – good, because it’s good for you.
After people have been at Ananda for a time, they reach a crossroads where they realize how meaningful it all is, and how wonderful it could be for others. And then you look around, and you don’t see a ton of people supporting it, and you understand, “Oh, it’s just us, and oh, I do have a place in this.” So yes, it’s very appropriate to check in and ask how you might help.
Q: Do you find that it helps people’s spiritual lives when they help?
Dambara: I see more joy in their eyes. They’ll usually get hooked on service after they’ve had an “Aha!” moment while they’re serving in some small way and they experience that happiness. Asha said that our primary work at Ananda Sangha is to create excuses to get together and have fun.
In the early days we created many big events just to give people a chance to participate, because it gives them a taste of the joy that comes very naturally when you’re serving this work. You’re offering your energy to God, in service to Him in others, and it’s every bit as important as our private meditations and spiritual practices. They go hand in hand.
In the beginning, there’s a phase of searching where we’re “checking it out.” You go to various places looking for what’s your own. I remember going to many classes and feeling, “This isn’t it,” until I found Ananda. It’s normal for people to check us out and move on, but it’s different for those who have found something here that speaks to their hearts. “This is special. This is mine. I need to know more about this.”
I see a light in people’s eyes when they “get it” that this is theirs, and they find the joy in participating. But it always needs to be done appropriately, without overdoing it and getting stressed. If you try to do everything, you’ll risk getting burned out and having to pull back. Far better to relax into the process and take small steps and move ahead naturally.
Any small step is a good start because it brings big rewards. It might be as simple as helping clean up after the bagel bar on Sunday. It’s a good idea to look around and see what needs to be done and ask how you can pitch in, but you need to go at your own pace and have your own experiences.
When I found Ananda, I was ripe, so I went full-speed ahead. I didn’t take on any big positions, but I volunteered. I loved listening to the audiotapes of Swami and the singers. There were tons of them on cassettes – this was the 1980s – and they needed to be sorted and organized, so I started making a long list of the tapes, and it helped me as a singer and musician, too, because it was fun to see what the tapes were, and in any case I was a naturally organizing Virgo type, and it felt good to do something that was both fun and useful. But there are always lots of opportunities, depending on your nature.
I’ll tell you this: we truly bow before and appreciate anybody who has the time and energy to help, because it has big returns for us. The Sangha has a staff of just four people so we’re spread pretty thin. We have a few part-timers who volunteer, but it’s not a lot of people, and we’re deeply grateful for anybody who can help.