{"id":849,"date":"2022-07-16T18:32:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-16T18:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/?page_id=849"},"modified":"2022-07-16T18:32:42","modified_gmt":"2022-07-16T18:32:42","slug":"conversations-with-ananda-ch-2-nayaswami-jyotish-early-days-with-swamiji","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/conversations-with-ananda-ch-2-nayaswami-jyotish-early-days-with-swamiji\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversations With Ananda: Ch. 2 &mdash; Nayaswami Jyotish, Early Days with Swamiji"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>(Nayaswami Jyotish is Swami Kriyananda\u2019s spiritual successor and co-director with his wife Nayaswami Devi of Ananda Worldwide.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>I went to work for\u00a0Swami Kriyananda\u00a0<\/strong>in 1968, and my first day was an absolute disaster! But, like many disasters, it makes for a good lesson and a good story.<\/p>\n<p>I had been helping Swami with small tasks at his evening classes as a volunteer for many months. And then he asked me to quit my job as a social worker and become his assistant, and after a couple of weeks of indecision, I agreed.<\/p>\n<p>I arrived at Swami\u2019s small apartment in San Francisco to find that an old friend of his was visiting him. Adano Ley had been a center leader from the days when Swamiji was in charge of the center department for Self-Realization Fellowship, and they had grown close.<\/p>\n<p>After greeting them and chatting for a few minutes, I was ready to get to work. Also present, sitting at a small table in the living room, was a woman who occasionally helped Swami with various projects. Our job that morning was to send out a mailing announcing a new class series.<\/p>\n<p>After greeting her, I asked, \u201cDo we have a mailing list?\u201d I was somewhat surprised to get an angry retort back: \u201cNone of your business!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Being relatively young and foolish, I persisted. \u201cDo we at least have a list of names?\u201d Again, an angry answer was flung back at me: \u201cThat\u2019s my job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By this time Swami and his friend, Adano, could see where this was heading. Being men of wisdom and discrimination, they quietly repaired to the kitchen to have a cup of tea \u2013 the kitchen being the only place they could go and close a door.<\/p>\n<p>The explosion wasn\u2019t long in coming. After a couple more questions from me and a couple more angry retorts from her, she shouted, \u201cI can\u2019t take this anymore. I quit!\u201d and stomped out, taking care to slam the door as she left.<\/p>\n<p>Well, you can imagine my chagrin and embarrassment. It had taken me less than an hour to completely destroy Swami\u2019s office scene. I was sitting there, red-faced from embarrassment, and dreading having to tell Swamiji what had happened. It turned out there was no need for fear. As soon as the coast was clear, Swamiji and Adano emerged from the kitchen and, to my amazement, they were both laughing so hard they could barely stay standing. Swami looked at me and said, \u201cThank you. I didn\u2019t know how I was ever going to get rid of her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My career as his assistant had been quick to hit bottom, and from that point there was no way to go but up. Over the next months we worked together on his many projects: printing and distributing books, advertising and giving classes, correspondence, finances, and, soon, the beginnings of what would become Ananda.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Nayaswami Jyotish is Swami Kriyananda\u2019s spiritual successor and co-director with his wife Nayaswami Devi of Ananda Worldwide.) I went to work for\u00a0Swami Kriyananda\u00a0in 1968, and my first day was an absolute disaster! But, like many disasters, it makes for a good lesson and a good story. I had been helping Swami with small tasks at &#8230; <a title=\"Conversations With Ananda: Ch. 2 &mdash; Nayaswami Jyotish, Early Days with Swamiji\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/conversations-with-ananda-ch-2-nayaswami-jyotish-early-days-with-swamiji\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Conversations With Ananda: Ch. 2 &mdash; Nayaswami Jyotish, Early Days with Swamiji\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-849","page","type-page","status-publish"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Conversations With Ananda: Ch. 2 &mdash; Nayaswami Jyotish, Early Days with Swamiji - Swami Kriyananda: Lightbearer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jyotish describes his first days with Swami Kriyananda, in San Francisco in 1968\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/conversations-with-ananda-ch-2-nayaswami-jyotish-early-days-with-swamiji\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conversations With Ananda: Ch. 2 &mdash; 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