{"id":1355,"date":"2024-01-06T16:14:28","date_gmt":"2024-01-06T16:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/?p=1355"},"modified":"2024-01-06T16:33:49","modified_gmt":"2024-01-06T16:33:49","slug":"conversations-with-ananda-ch-53-nayaswami-chidambar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/conversations-with-ananda-ch-53-nayaswami-chidambar\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversations With Ananda — Ch. 53, Nayaswami Chidambar"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

 <\/p>\n

Chidambar and David James co-manage the Mountain View Ananda Community.<\/strong> (Photo: 2019 \u2013 Chidambar hard at work in the Ananda Community office in Mountain View, California.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> People come to Ananda for a variety of reasons.<\/strong> They come to Sunday service because they enjoy the music and fellowship, or they take a class series. And then sometimes they don\u2019t feel a need to take the further step of serving the work. Perhaps it\u2019s because service, membership, and commitment were defined in earlier times by religious institutions that wanted to take control of what their members believed, and people now find that approach off-putting. And perhaps it\u2019s not surprising if they reject elements of Ananda that they mistakenly see as hangovers from the older ways.<\/p>\n

Chidambar:<\/strong> It\u2019s a tough sell. It takes a while for people to understand what service is, and to experience the spiritual benefits. Gary McSweeney told me that he didn\u2019t initially grasp the need for service until the community hosted a get-together, and afterward someone asked him to help tear down.<\/p>\n

As Gary began helping, he thought, \u201cOh, I get Ananda now.\u201d He had an opportunity to experience what it felt like to serve, and he found that he enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

Service opens your heart. When you\u2019re purely serving, there is no longer the thought \u201cI\u2019ll give God this much, and I\u2019ll get so-and-so much in return.\u201d In our culture we\u2019re always exchanging goods and services for money, and I find that it gets tedious. Service frees you from that grasping attitude, and I enjoy that. To be able to give freely, and have the feeling that people would give freely to you, was a great awakening for me.<\/p>\n

I learned about Ananda in 1973 or 1974, at a lecture that Swami Kriyananda gave in San Francisco, but I wasn\u2019t much interested in exploring it further. Then my sister wanted to see Ananda Village, and we drove up together and spent a weekend. We were the only people in the class that we\u2019d signed up for, and we got to spend a lot of time with Asha, who was the teacher.<\/p>\n

It was only when I started spending more time at Ananda that I began to see how service works. I realized that the people at Ananda weren\u2019t trying to get anything out of me, because they were genuine, and they were there to help.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> In what ways do you serve now?<\/p>\n

Chidambar:<\/strong> I give Sunday service occasionally, and I sing in the choir. On Thursdays I lead an all-comers meditation at the church. I basically do anything that\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Have you observed that service helps people?<\/p>\n

Chidambar:<\/strong> I\u2019ve seen that the folks who serve willingly quickly begin to understand the spiritual path, but the ones who don\u2019t serve sooner or later will spin off. Unless God\u2019s energy is flowing through you, you tend to get stuck in \u201cme\u201d and \u201cWhat am I getting out of it?\u201d It\u2019s immature, and it works against your spiritual progress. And until you can break out of that phase, where your first thought is always \u201cme,\u201d you can\u2019t make much progress on the path.<\/p>\n

If you watch Swami Kriyananda, you see that he\u2019s constantly serving. It\u2019s as if there\u2019s no Kriyananda there at all, and it\u2019s just service. It\u2019s Master\u2019s work going on through him all the time, and he\u2019s setting the example for what will help us grow into the bliss that he enjoys continuously.<\/p>\n

\"Chidambar<\/a>
Chidambar sings with the choir at Ananda Sangha in Palo Alto, California during a performance of the oratorio “Christ Lives” composed by Swami Kriyananda.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve seen that people who don\u2019t serve never seem to be as happy. The world is still \u201chappening to them\u201d and they aren\u2019t creating and moving forward. Service can look like a very simple concept, but it\u2019s profoundly life-changing. It is, in a very real sense, the lifesaver for your spiritual path.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Do you find that people\u2019s meditations improve when they serve?<\/p>\n

Chidambar:<\/strong> I would say so. Until you open up by serving, the most blissful inner spiritual experiences cannot come to you, because you\u2019re closing your heart to what God wants to give you, and you need to expand your heart to receive it. And nothing does that as well as service.<\/p>\n

The spiritual path is a continual process of giving. Until you can give up \u201cme,\u201d you find that you reach a certain level in your meditations and you can\u2019t go any further.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Do you think the word \u201cservice\u201d looms larger in people\u2019s minds than what it actually is?<\/p>\n

Chidambar:<\/strong> That\u2019s true. People worry that they\u2019ll be taken advantage of, and that they\u2019ll lose something. The culture all around us is so thoroughly oriented toward the give-and-take merchant attitude \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ll give so much, but only if I\u2019ll get that exact amount back.\u201d In India it\u2019s called the vaishya <\/em>mentality \u2013 the shopkeeper level of awareness, where there\u2019s always a concern that someone will take something from you, and you\u2019re always trying to be sure it\u2019s an equal exchange.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Do people magnify the word \u201cservice\u201d? Do they tend to overlook that even small service can be rewarding?<\/p>\n

Chidambar:<\/strong> Some people feel that their service has to be big and important before they\u2019re really serving. But I think the best thing is to do anything at all. I\u2019ve seen very competent people do the dishes after an event at the Sangha, and I\u2019ve seen that they\u2019re soaring in joy. They\u2019re fully absorbed in the moment, doing the dishes, and they\u2019re getting higher and higher, to where they\u2019re just floating. But it\u2019s something you have to experience. You can talk about it forever, but until you pitch in and experience it, you won\u2019t know how satisfying it is.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s heart-opening. If you do it for God and for joy, you\u2019re taken care of. You\u2019re floating. You\u2019re just taking off.<\/p>\n

Years ago, we had a series of programs called \u201cYogananda for the World.\u201d Swami Kriyananda came to speak, and there were hundreds of people in the audience. We rented a church, because we didn\u2019t have enough space, and before the program started I wandered into the kitchen and saw that it was a big mess because we didn\u2019t have enough cleaners. We had to be out of the church by midnight according to the terms of our rental contract, and I looked at the mess and thought, \u201cThere\u2019s no way we\u2019ll get out on time.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I started cleaning. Swamiji was talking in the temple and I was cleaning, but the longer I cleaned, the happier I got, and pretty soon I was in joy. I was having more fun than I could imagine, even if I\u2019d been sitting in the audience with Swami. I thought, \u201cI hope everyone is having as much fun as I am.\u201d [Laughs] And we did get out on time.<\/p>\n

It was a great lesson for me. It helped me understand that, in life and on the spiritual path, when you give you get exactly what you need. You never lose anything. I\u2019ve come to see that it\u2019s neurotic to fear that something will be taken away from you if you serve. You\u2019re there, and this is what\u2019s going on, and this is exactly what you need to be doing at this moment. As soon as you accept it and say \u201cyes,\u201d your life is perfect.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Swami Kriyananda talks about how the Divine Mother plays a game with us, where She\u2019ll ask us to do something that looks like the worst thing imaginable.<\/p>\n

Chidambar:<\/strong> You\u2019re tempted to fight it, until the point in your spiritual growth comes where you known how to laugh and say \u201cOkay, I give up \u2013 whatever You want is fine!\u201d<\/p>\n

I had a job in the community that I didn\u2019t enjoy at all. I was really struggling with it, and it went on for almost a year. Then, at some point, I said, \u201cOh well, this is what I have to do. I don\u2019t have a choice, because I\u2019m not going to quit and go somewhere else.\u201d And as soon as I made that decision, the job disappeared. It was gone \u2013 someone else took it over and it was out of my hair within a week. [Laughs]<\/p>\n

The great secret is to learn \u201cWhat is.\u201d Had I learned the lesson a year earlier, I wouldn\u2019t have had to endure so much grief.<\/p>\n

Because I\u2019m trained in accounting, the community manager said, \u201cHere, you can do the books.\u201d But I wanted to be outside working on the lawn and trees. I felt I wasn\u2019t being paid to do the books, and I had the feeling \u201cI\u2019m being ripped off.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then for months the books wouldn\u2019t balance \u2013 this mindlessly easy set of books. And then I realized that the problem was my attitude, and as soon as I changed my attitude and started doing a good job on the books, they were perfect. They took care of themselves, and I got them done in a third of the time I\u2019d been spending. It\u2019s as if God was saying \u201cWake up! Do what\u2019s in front of you. Everything\u2019s fine! It\u2019s only yourself that you\u2019re running into.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Do you find that when God asks you to do a job, you somehow have the resources to do it?<\/p>\n

Chidambar:<\/strong> There are lots of situations that will come up in the community office where I have no idea what to do, and over time I\u2019ve realized that if I give it to God, He will give me the answers I need. I\u2019ve got Yogananda\u2019s picture here on the wall and Swami Kriyananda over there. Someone will come in, and they\u2019ll be upset, maybe in tears \u2013 they\u2019ll have some big, huge issue, and I\u2019ll have absolutely no idea how to answer. I\u2019ll say, \u201cOkay, boys, I need a little help,\u201d and I\u2019ll sit and wait, and I\u2019ll say what comes. I won\u2019t have thought it out, I\u2019ll just open up and say, \u201cAll right, I need help.\u201d And then generally what\u2019s said is what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something you have to practice a bit, but we do have the answers, if we\u2019ll just ask for help.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> It sounds as if you\u2019re saying that service helps us make a relationship with God.<\/p>\n

Chidambar:<\/strong> It does. It would be wonderful if we could help more people experience it so that they could realize for themselves that they aren\u2019t losing anything, but they\u2019re gaining so much. The people I see serving are the happiest. It takes your life away from the exchange of energy for money. As soon as your heart opens, you\u2019re happier.<\/p>\n

People can serve in their own way. For some, they\u2019ll never be moving chairs, but maybe they can sing, or they know how to help in the office, and they can serve just as worthily in their own way.<\/p>\n

The ideal would be to serve wherever you\u2019re asked. Because it\u2019s not like \u201csomeone\u201d is asking you. God is asking you, and if you realize that, then what you\u2019re being asked to do doesn\u2019t really matter.<\/p>\n

I often wonder how we can invite people to serve so they can have those experiences of Master\u2019s inward presence and joy. How can we offer people more options to serve? It\u2019s very important for Ananda to help people in that way, because as soon as they begin serving they start to feel what Ananda is really about.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Is there a need on Ananda\u2019s part for service?<\/p>\n

Chidambar:<\/strong> Only that if you let people serve, they can feel a part of what\u2019s going on. If you\u2019re always serving them, then they\u2019ll just always be guests and they\u2019ll never own it. But when they begin to serve, there\u2019s ownership, and without that sense of ownership they\u2019ll never truly feel part of Ananda.<\/p>\n

The Sangha needs all the help it can get. It\u2019s less obvious here in the community, but that\u2019s changing. Over the last ten or twelve years, the focus has shifted from the community to the Sangha, because the church is the outreach aspect of our service. But we\u2019re starting to have more community events, so we\u2019re having more opportunities to serve.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Do people need to move into service at their own pace?<\/p>\n

Chidambar:<\/strong> It\u2019s a heart connection. That\u2019s how I started serving in the late 1980s. I saw that Asha and David were always serving, and I liked them, and I wanted to be doing something with them, so I started serving, and as I began serving I realized that service has intrinsic value. Once you\u2019ve tasted the joy in service, it opens up a world for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Chidambar and David James co-manage the Mountain View Ananda Community. (Photo: 2019 \u2013 Chidambar hard at work in the Ananda Community office in Mountain View, California.) Q: People come to Ananda for a variety of reasons. They come to Sunday service because they enjoy the music and fellowship, or they take a class series. … 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-1355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nConversations With Ananda — Ch. 53, Nayaswami Chidambar - Swami Kriyananda: Lightbearer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda reflects on the value of joyful service as a spiritual practice.\" \/>\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-53-nayaswami-chidambar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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