Swami Kriyananda Stories — Ch. 2: Swamiji Passes By Again

Runner drinks from water bottle, on a grassy knoll on Mt. Tamalpais.
The renowned Swedish Olympian Arnie Oldandslow takes a water break during a run on Mt. Tamalpais, north of San Francisco.

When I was in my early fifties, I signed up to run a 100-mile race in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. As a joke, I grew my hair long, thinking it would be amusing to start the race looking like an old-time mountain man.

I had a difficult time during the race. On a long ascent at 50 miles, I prayed to my guru, Paramhansa Yogananda. I said that I wanted to do only what was right, and that I would do whatever he suggested. Of course, I had been keeping company with him throughout the first half of the race, by continuously repeating a short prayer.

In response to my question, I instantly heard his reply – it was a clear intuitive voice that said: “This is not healthy for your body.”

Later I discovered that I was feeling bad because of rhabdomyolysis, a condition in which injured muscle cells leak myoglobin into the bloodstream, damaging the kidneys and requiring lifelong expensive dialysis.

After the race, I considered cutting my hair again but decided not to, for reasons I’ll shortly explain.

Several weeks later, Swami Kriyananda visited our Ananda community in Mountain View, California. While he was here, my boss in Ananda’s legal office asked me to deliver some papers to him.

When I arrived, Swamiji was talking with Nayaswami Asha. The moment I entered, he turned and said with a big smile, “Rambhakta, I like your hair!”

Strolling back to the office, I wondered, “Why in the world did he mention my hair?”

When I saw Swamiji again the following day, the first words out of his mouth were, “Rambhakta, I really like your hair!!” He said it with good spirits and a broad smile.

It was so strange – what was the big deal with my hair?

I had started running on the advice of Brother Bhaktananda, a senior disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. At the time when Swamiji commented on my hair, I was writing a book on yoga and sports, The Joyful Athlete: The Wisdom of the Heart in Exercise & Sports Training. It tells how world-class athletes have applied universal spiritual principles in their training. When Swami visited the community, I had completed a first draft and was thinking of teaching workshops on the subject. (To learn more about my experiences with spirit and sport, you might like to visit the Joyful Athlete website.)

In deciding whether or not to cut my hair, I thought, “I don’t particularly like having long hair, but people might relate better to my talks if I look like a ‘counter-culture’ type. I’ll keep my hair long, and I’ll do it for God.”

It was very touching to realize that Swamiji had responded so sensitively to my wish to please God, even in such a trivial matter.

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