{"id":1300,"date":"2023-11-01T17:19:27","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T17:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/?p=1300"},"modified":"2023-11-01T17:19:27","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T17:19:27","slug":"conversations-with-ananda-ch-47-nayaswami-shanti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/conversations-with-ananda-ch-47-nayaswami-shanti\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversations With Ananda — Ch. 47, Nayaswami Shanti"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shanti serves as a co-director of Ananda Sangha in Palo Alto, California.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think of myself as being two things in this world. First I\u2019m a minister, and I\u2019m also a physician. I\u2019ve never been sure that they\u2019re terribly different. But I was trained as a physician in internal medicine, and for many years at one point I had the third-largest practice in the U.S. \u2013 it was a huge practice of medicine. (Photo: 2020)<\/em><\/p>\n

Before I went to medical school, I had been a nurse for many years, and I loved it because it perfectly suited my nature, which is that I love serving people and taking care of them. It may sound trite, but it\u2019s profoundly true for me. Ever since I was a little girl, the way I\u2019ve found the deepest satisfaction is by giving something away. So I went into nursing and I loved it, but it soon occurred to me that if I was in charge, I could serve people in a much better way.<\/p>\n

I had begun to explore holistic medicine in its truest form, as the healing of body, mind, and soul. But I knew that I wouldn\u2019t be able, as a nurse, to manifest that form of medical practice to any great degree, and if I wanted to continue to pursue that direction I would have to return to school to become either a PhD or an MD.<\/p>\n

My husband I were living in Southern California, in a little town called Leucadia, which is next door to Encinitas where Paramhansa Yogananda had his hermitage. I was in my late twenties, and I didn\u2019t know anything about the spiritual path, but we were runners, and whenever I was running on the beach below the hermitage I would always have to stop. My husband would say, \u201cAre you tired? Did you hurt yourself?\u201d And I would say, \u201cNo.\u201d It felt like an unseen force was pulling me to stop, because I was compelled by that place.<\/p>\n

In the middle of a run one day, it suddenly came to me what I needed to do. I went home and said to Barry, \u201cI am definitely supposed to go into medicine. It\u2019s like I heard it on the beach. And I need to go to an Ivy League medical school, because I\u2019ll be practicing in an unusual way, and I need to have really good credentials.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cGreat. What do we do?\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been an intellectual person. I\u2019ve always been a bhakta<\/em>, a devotee. But I knew, because I heard it that day, that I was supposed to go to an Ivy League school. So I applied to Duke, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and many other schools \u2013 and I didn\u2019t even have an undergraduate degree! But I got accepted everywhere, and I went to Stanford.<\/p>\n

A few weeks before I graduated from medical school, I was scheduled to give the address at the graduation ceremony for our class, and the dean called me in. We\u2019d become friends, because I was ten years older than everybody else, and I was meditating and on a spiritual path, so I was an unusual student. Certainly not a straight-A student, but very present, and I loved medicine, and I was really thriving.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cWe have a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cWhat is it, John?\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cWell, we can\u2019t find your undergraduate degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cI don\u2019t have one.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cThat is impossible! Stanford would never<\/em> accept anybody without an undergraduate degree!\u201d<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cI don\u2019t have one. I never got one.\u201d He said, \u201cHow did you get in here?!\u201d I said, \u201cWell, you accepted me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I certainly wasn\u2019t going to tell him that I was on my knees under the Swami\u2019s place in Encinitas, because I knew he\u2019d think I\u2019d lost my mind!<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cWell, we can\u2019t give you an MD without an undergraduate degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cThen you\u2019re right. You do have a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I got an honorary undergraduate degree from Stanford. I mean, it was all so guided, in the way that God puts His arms around us and doesn\u2019t let us go, even when we\u2019re not terribly conscious of Him.<\/p>\n

So I went to Stanford, which was a completely wonderful experience for me, but in a unique way. I was never somebody who was going to excel intellectually the way Stanford expected me to. But I eventually went back to Stanford and taught there during a chief medical residency. It\u2019s not that I wasn\u2019t accepted, but I was always a bit of an enigma, because I could just as easily teach yoga postures in the med school, or talk to people about vegetarianism. My third year, I taught a course called Health Alternatives for the Whole Person, about eating well, exercise, meditation, and yoga. But I trained in internal medicine, and I did a medical residency.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> You must be pretty smart.<\/p>\n

Shanti:<\/strong> [Laughs] You know, I\u2019m smart enough to have gone to Stanford and done well, but I\u2019ve never been an intellectual. I\u2019m not enamored with knowledge. I\u2019m really taken with people and their experiences and knowing them. But that kind of knowing is a much more intuitive process.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a really good diagnostician, but I\u2019m often diagnosing things beyond my knowledge, where I\u2019ll simply feel that I\u2019m being inwardly guided. I\u2019ll get an intuition, and I\u2019ll know something\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Do you ask for help?<\/p>\n

Shanti:<\/strong> I ask for guidance all the time, over and over. I\u2019ve had miraculous experiences, and I think they\u2019ve happened because I\u2019ve been willing to practice being quiet and just listen with my heart. Now, before I walk into a patient\u2019s room, or while I\u2019m sitting with a patient, I often won\u2019t know what to say, so I\u2019ll stop and pray, \u201cOkay, Master, I need to know what to say to this person, and how to say it so they can hear, and so it helps them take their next step.\u201d And then the words will come, and diagnoses will come. I\u2019ve received much more credit and applause in my career than I deserve. And I just want to say to people, \u201cThis has nothing to do with me. You don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before I was in medical school, we were at a bookstore in Southern California, and a man was eavesdropping on a conversation that my husband and I were having about moving up here. He said, \u201cIf you\u2019re moving to Palo Alto, you\u2019ve got to go right away and find East West Bookstore!\u201d He said, \u201cI can tell by your conversation that you will both love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right after we moved here, we visited East West, which was in Menlo Park at the time. We walked in, and Prahlad and his brother Danny were there\u00b8 and it was perfect for us because my husband and I were these very Jewish souls, and we bumped into Danny and Prahlad who were also very Jewish souls.<\/p>\n

I began incorporating yoga and the spiritual path into my career, while always making sure that I was learning a lot about medicine and becoming a fine physician. Because I knew I had to be respected and trusted in order to incorporate all of these things.<\/p>\n

My service now is what I call transformational medicine. It\u2019s working with people to help them accept what comes to them in life, and help them take the next step. But really, what I\u2019ve become is a spiritual coach.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019re talking, I\u2019m sharing an office with Connie Hernandez, a naturopathic doctor and fellow Ananda member. I\u2019m also the medical director of a large drug and alcohol program. I\u2019ve always been involved in chemical dependency, because it\u2019s the one area in medicine where you can come out of the closet and talk openly about God.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re looking at a twelve-step program, it\u2019s based entirely on a spiritual understanding of the world, that we\u2019re part of something bigger, and that we need to evolve toward it or else we cannot get well and stay well. I\u2019ve been blessed to have a wonderful career \u2013 it is truly a ministry, and I often feel deeply attuned spiritually while I\u2019m at work.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> You spend lots of time helping out at Ananda Sangha. From your perspective as a person who loves to serve, what are people missing when they don\u2019t give of their time and energy to help God and Guru help people through this work?<\/p>\n

Shanti:<\/strong> The question is how well we understand the absolute truth about spiritual growth, which is that it has to do entirely with giving away the little self that we\u2019re so attached to. How can we develop the courage, or the grace, to let go of what we\u2019ve known, and all that we\u2019ve been taught? Because that alone is what will bring us joy, and everything that we truly want.<\/p>\n

Our great delusion is that the more we exert our will and our ego, and the more power we can amass in the world, the happier we will be. It\u2019s such a flagrant lie! But it\u2019s the delusion of the material age in which we are living.<\/p>\n

When I give talks, I often tell people that the only problem with the way we\u2019re trying to find what we believe we want is that we\u2019re looking in exactly the wrong direction. We\u2019re so focused on looking \u201cout there,\u201d and if we truly want the greatest happiness, we need to turn around and come back inside.<\/p>\n

People think that the more they give away, the less they\u2019ll have, but the simple truth is, the more we give away, the more we have.<\/p>\n

We aren\u2019t being asked to give away anything that\u2019s been serving us well. We are all looking for joy, but we\u2019re so far off the mark! It\u2019s totally understandable that we\u2019re afraid to let go of what we have, and everything that helps us feel sane and grounded and successful and safe. And it\u2019s a very big deal to walk into a place where people are suddenly saying \u201cNo \u2013 you need to do exactly the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time and energy are huge issues for people. For many years I\u2019ve been involved with helping people volunteer at the Sangha, and very often, when I\u2019ve said to people, \u201cHow would you like to\u2026\u201d I\u2019ve seen them immediately say, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t have the time. I don\u2019t have the energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

I often think that the best way people can learn about service, and the feelings of upliftedness and joy that it brings, is by watching others who serve, and who live for it and love it. I often say, \u201cIf you want to know these teachings truly, and not just grasp them with your mind, come to church and look at the people in the front rows. Look at their faces and ask yourself, \u2018Would I like to have a piece of whatever is helping them feel what is written on their faces?\u2019\u201d Because there is so much joy on many of those people\u2019s faces.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> What about people who think it\u2019s just because those folks meditate a lot? It seems to be a common assumption. \u201cI\u2019ll meditate, and once I have God\u2019s joy in my heart, I\u2019ll give because then I\u2019ll have something worth giving.\u201d It\u2019s difficult to understand, at first, that joy comes in the giving, even if it\u2019s only by serving in tiny ways.<\/p>\n

Shanti:<\/strong> It\u2019s unfortunate. It\u2019s really very sad. When I was thinking about going to medical school, my husband said something to me that was very wise. After you finish medical school, you go through a year of training during which you\u2019re working 120 hours a week, every week, and in that year you get just two weeks off. It\u2019s life-and-death situations, it\u2019s intense, and you aren\u2019t sleeping. I was on call every third night, sometimes every other night, and you stay up all night. It\u2019s a very complicated and rigorous path to become a physician. But my husband said, \u201cI will support you in this the entire way, if you can hold on to the understanding that we love the path, and not that we think we\u2019ll be happy when we get to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s exactly the answer to your question. I don\u2019t feel that our connection to God, which is our connection to ourselves, and our connection to joy, happens only when we attain ecstasy. Our ability to know joy, and to feel inner peace, and absolute safety happens when we give to God, without waiting for Him to give to us.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m speaking to you with great passion. I certainly do forget about God for moments with my conscious mind. But the instant I turn back, and every time I go, \u201cOh!\u201d and ask for guidance, and ask for help, and acknowledge a divine presence \u2013 every single time, I find that I\u2019m knowing and affirming and expanding that joy.<\/p>\n

I think that if God were waiting for us to be perfect, He would be very lonely indeed. God is in the practice. He\u2019s in the effort. He\u2019s in every step of the way. We are there \u2013 really, in a way, we are there already.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> When people begin to serve, do they find that Master is with them more because they\u2019re serving? And that he\u2019s helping them serve?<\/p>\n

Shanti:<\/strong> I see that people come to Ananda because they\u2019re on a spiritual search, and they want to feel \u201csomething better\u201d within themselves. And they truly begin to find what they\u2019re wanting when they become involved with this path.<\/p>\n

A couple came to the Sangha recently, and they were feeling immediately that it resonated with them. So they began coming every Sunday, and one day I said to them, \u201cI want to ask you to start volunteering a little, because when you volunteer you\u2019ll instantly feel more a part of this family. You won\u2019t keep feeling like you\u2019re always just visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said, \u201cGreat!\u201d And they helped set up the fire ceremony before service. I taught them how to do it, and I left them on their own. Later, they told me, \u201cDoing this just once, we feel so much more a part of Ananda!\u201d The husband is a physician at Stanford, and his wife is an accomplished business person. They could be doing a lot more than putting cotton balls and alcohol in a bowl. But the experience of belonging and of a greater joy happened instantly. They said, \u201cWe want to do this every week while you\u2019re looking for other people to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think the concept of \u201cservice\u201d has more meaning in the Sanskrit term, seva<\/em>. When we talk of \u201cservice\u201d and \u201ccommitment,\u201d it sounds like hard work. But it\u2019s not<\/em> work. It\u2019s knowing the blessing that comes from surrendering our hearts and offering them to something that is so much larger than we are. I\u2019m always looking for ways to convey the joy that serving brings.<\/p>\n

In India, they have many white marble statues of spiritual figures, most particularly the chariot that Arjuna rides in, which is pulled by big white horses in front. There\u2019s a moment in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna tells Arjuna, \u201cYou have to be willing to accept this charge. You have to say \u2018Yes, I want to move down this path.\u2019\u201d The statues are portraying the moment when Arjuna takes the reins from Krishna. And looking at these big marble statues, you get the feeling that all we have to do is say \u201cokay,\u201d and you feel these horses sort of coming into line to go where Krishna wants them to go.<\/p>\n

The instant we say yes, in whatever is our own way, in whatever way is given to us, we begin to feel the Guru\u2019s power flowing through us and helping and blessing us.<\/p>\n

The spiritual path is not only or even centrally about seeing great visions; it\u2019s about the little stories where you feel God\u2019s presence. It\u2019s very much like being a child, where you keep trying and you keep talking to God, and you keep cooperating with the Divine Mother. And in the end it\u2019s all so simple and beautiful.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shanti serves as a co-director of Ananda Sangha in Palo Alto, California. I think of myself as being two things in this world. First I\u2019m a minister, and I\u2019m also a physician. I\u2019ve never been sure that they\u2019re terribly different. But I was trained as a physician in internal medicine, and for many years at … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nConversations With Ananda — Ch. 47, Nayaswami Shanti - Swami Kriyananda: Lightbearer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A talk with a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda who ran the third-largest medical practice in the U.S.\" \/>\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-47-nayaswami-shanti\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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