Dedicated to the memory of Swami Kriyananda<\/strong><\/p>\n And unto these \u2013 thus serving well, thus loving ceaselessly \u2013 In his commentary on Patanjali\u2019s Yoga Sutras, Swami Kriyananda writes: When I told my friend<\/strong> Jack Gladding that I was writing a book about business and spirituality, Jack laughed. \u201cMy Pappy used to say, \u2018If you can\u2019t succeed in business, you can become a teacher, and if you can\u2019t succeed as a teacher, you can always become a preacher.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a gem of truth in Jack\u2019s words. If your religion isn\u2019t proving itself where the spiritual rubber meets the real-world road, no one, particular in America, that most practical-minded of all lands, will pay much attention.<\/p>\n The unusual thing about the people in this book is that they have proved that their spiritual practices work in the real world, yet the spirituality they practice has long been associated in people\u2019s minds with im<\/em>practicality. \u201cLook at India\u2019s poverty!\u201d they say. \u201cHow could we learn anything about practical spiritual living from them<\/em>?\u201d And they\u2019re right. India hasn\u2019t <\/em>earned the right to preach about material success. In fact, Paramhansa Yogananda, a great Indian master of yoga, said that India\u2019s current poverty is due to that country\u2019s centuries-long, preoccupation with spiritual matters, to the neglect of material realities.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough the West can teach India much about sanitation, business methods, and development of resources,\u201d Yogananda said in 1935, \u201cand although India needs business missionaries like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, yet the Western lands, too, are thirsty, consciously or unconsciously, for the practical spiritual lessons that India has specialized in for centuries. In the Western cities, science has progressed so far that the physical man is usually well taken care of, fed and clothed and sheltered. Yet physical and material comfort without mental and spiritual peace and solace is not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Yogananda, who lived for 27 years in this country and took U.S. citizenship, said that he came to the West with a specific mission: to help Americans learn to take better care of their inner <\/em>business.<\/p>\n His message was not sectarian; it was universal. Yogananda came to help people, regardless of their formal religious affiliation, find true, lasting happiness in all <\/em>aspects of their lives, from work to friendship and marriage, to child-raising and education. All of the people whose stories are told here are disciples of Yogananda and members of the Ananda communities. Yet this book, too, is intended to serve universally. Its purpose isn\u2019t the promotion of a particular religion; rather, it is hoped that readers of all paths will find in its pages fresh inspiration to help them erase the separation between their work and their spiritual lives.<\/p>\n Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters),<\/strong> a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, started the first Ananda community in 1967 in the beautiful Sierra foothills near Nevada City, California. Ananda has been dedicated from to start to serving as a model for a harmonious life of \u201cplain living and high thinking,\u201d as Yogananda advocated.<\/p>\n Ananda was also established to fulfill a dream of Yogananda\u2019s. In his book, Autobiography of a Yogi <\/em>(1946 edition), the great master listed the fourteen points of his life\u2019s mission, one of which was: \u201cTo spread a spirit of brotherhood among all peoples, and to aid in establishing, in many countries, self-sustaining world brotherhood colonies for plain living and high thinking.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Elsewhere, Yogananda predicted: \u201cThe day will come when this idea [of cooperative communities] will spread through the world like wildfire.\u201d<\/p>\n In The Path: A Spiritual Autobiography<\/em>, Swami Kriyananda recalls Yogananda\u2019s high enthusiasm for cooperative communities:<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Gather together, those of you who share high ideals,\u2019 Yogananda told his audiences. \u2018Pool your resources. Buy land out in the country. A simple life will bring you inner freedom. Harmony with nature will bring you a happiness known to few city dwellers. In the company of other truth seekers it will be easier for you to meditate and think of God.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n In Ananda\u2019s first days, it didn\u2019t look like there was much \u201cmodeling\u201d going on, at least outwardly. The \u201ccommunity\u201d in 1967 consisted of 72 acres of undeveloped land without buildings or electricity. Later, a 600-acre parcel was added, boasting a 100-year-old farmhouse, and not much else. If there would ever be a community here, it would have to be scratched from the land. The perennially depressed economic climate of rural Nevada County didn\u2019t bode well for Ananda\u2019s survival. Even less promising, the land for the community was 17 miles from Nevada City and Grass Valley, the nearest small towns.<\/p>\n For the first years, most of the men worked in construction jobs outside the community. Meanwhile, several small, individually owned enterprises were started: an incense and oils company, a cottage industry making macrame plant hangers, a small candy business, and a mail-order company that sold bicycle-powered grain-grinding mills.<\/p>\n Of these, only the incense business is still thriving. Also among the first businesses was a community-owned publishing company, Ananda Publications (now Crystal Clarity Publishers), which continues to publish Swami Kriyananda\u2019s books, videos, music, and lectures (www.crystalclarity.org<\/a>).<\/p>\n The early pioneers who settled at Ananda<\/strong> in the late 1960s and 1970s not only had to build a community out of nothing; they had to rebuild after a forest fire in 1976 destroyed 21 of 23 homes on the main property. A few members left, but most remained and cheerfully set about building an even better community from the ashes. When the cause of the fire was found to be a county fire truck with a faulty spark arrester, Ananda could have collected millions by suing the county for damages, as several neighbors did. But the thought didn\u2019t even cross their minds. \u201cWe won\u2019t take our hard luck out on our neighbors,\u201d Swami Kriyananda said, expressing the general sentiment in the community.<\/p>\n Where Ananda\u2019s first settlers had built homes far apart, reflecting their desire for personal seclusion, the members now realized that they needed to come together in a spirit of cooperation. New homes were built in \u201cclusters\u201d\u2014small neighborhoods, several of which included cooperative living quarters where the residents could share kitchen and recreation facilities. This arrangement has worked beautifully and still serves the residents well.<\/p>\n Fifty-five years later, the community looks very different than it did in 1967, with lovely, \u201csimple living\u201d homes and a landscaped \u201cdowntown\u201d with a market, deli, school, auto repair shop, and a thriving guest retreat, The Expanding Light (www.expandinglight.org<\/a>). Ananda\u2019s success bears eloquent testimony to the notion that faith in God is <\/em>the most practical way to live.<\/p>\n
\nI give a mind of perfect mood, whereby they draw to Me;
\nAnd, all for love of them, within their darkened souls I dwell,
\nAnd, with bright rays of wisdom\u2019s lamp, their ignorance dispel.
\n\u2013 Bhagavad Gita<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe best way to overcome the ego is through selfless service.
\n\u201cParamhansa Yogananda said, \u2018If you want to be in tune with the Guru, serve his work.\u2019
\n\u201cHe wrote to a devotee in St. Louis, urging him to support the center there.
\n\u2018If you get behind this work and help build it, God will bless you and give you realization.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\nIntroduction<\/h2>\n
What Is Ananda?<\/strong><\/h2>\n