{"id":1872,"date":"2025-05-31T15:26:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T15:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/?p=1872"},"modified":"2025-05-31T15:26:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T15:26:33","slug":"swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-full-prostration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-full-prostration\/","title":{"rendered":"Swami Kriyananda &mdash; As We Have Known Him: Full Prostration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The night before, one of the retreat guests had shaved his head.<\/strong> Now he was hidden in the bushes, stark naked, carrying his clothes in a small bundle. Swamiji was giving a class in the outdoor Temple of Leaves and the man\u2019s intention was to lay himself and all he possessed at Swamiji\u2019s feet.<\/p>\n<p>He came out of the bushes behind Swamiji. A collective gasp went up from the crowd. Swamiji, however, went on with his discourse, unaware of the unfolding drama.<\/p>\n<p>Then the man stepped in front of Swamiji, placed his clothes on the ground and made a full prostration at Swamiji\u2019s feet. Immediately, two men on the Retreat staff started moving forward, intending to lift the man and lead him away. With a small gesture, Swamiji made it clear: \u201cLet him stay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To the audience, Swamiji said in a matter-of-fact way, \u201cSometimes on the spiritual path, these things happen,\u201d meaning, that a person may get carried away by excessive zeal. Then, with the man lying at his feet, covered now by a blanket someone had tossed over his nakedness, Swamiji went on with his lecture as if nothing had happened.<\/p>\n<p>If the man had remained quiet and still, Swamiji would have let him stay there until the class was finished. Instead, however, he began inching forward, sobbing with ever increasing volume and intensity, until his head was resting on Swamiji\u2019s feet.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, Swamiji leaned forward and said quietly, \u201cPlease put your clothes back on.\u201d Then he indicated to the staff members to help the man move away.<\/p>\n<p>Without missing a beat, even as the man was being escorted off the scene, Swamiji went on with his lecture.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, the man soon recovered and resumed a more normal relationship to the spiritual path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The night before, one of the retreat guests had shaved his head. Now he was hidden in the bushes, stark naked, carrying his clothes in a small bundle. Swamiji was giving a class in the outdoor Temple of Leaves and the man\u2019s intention was to lay himself and all he possessed at Swamiji\u2019s feet. He &#8230; <a title=\"Swami Kriyananda &mdash; As We Have Known Him: Full Prostration\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-full-prostration\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Swami Kriyananda &mdash; As We Have Known Him: Full Prostration\">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-1872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Swami Kriyananda &mdash; As We Have Known Him: Full Prostration - Swami Kriyananda: Lightbearer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A direct disciple of Paramhansa Yoganand responds appropriately in a somewhat ludicrous circumstance.\" \/>\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\/swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-full-prostration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swami Kriyananda &mdash; 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