{"id":1926,"date":"2025-10-04T15:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T15:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/?p=1926"},"modified":"2025-10-04T15:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T15:44:13","slug":"swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-with-divine-mothers-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-with-divine-mothers-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Swami Kriyananda — As We Have Known Him: With Divine Mother\u2019s Help\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the summer of 1980, Swamiji spent most of his time in San Francisco helping to establish an Ananda Center there<\/strong>. Even with him spearheading the energy, it was hard going. The San Francisco Bay area, however, is the population hub of northern California. Swamiji felt we must establish some<\/em> presence there, for the sake of the work we were doing.<\/p>\n

One evening, Swamiji drove an hour north of the city to give what he thought was a free introductory lecture for an upcoming class series.\u00a0 When he arrived he found there was no introductory lecture; it was the first class of the paid series and only three people had come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI raised the money to build Ananda by giving classes,\u201d Swamiji said to those responsible for the mistake. \u201cOne thing I learned is always <\/em>to give a free introductory lecture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trying to put a positive spin on the whole experience, someone said, \u201cMaybe Divine Mother wanted just these three people to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease<\/em>,\u201d Swamiji said, \u201cdon\u2019t blame Divine Mother. Leave a little room for human<\/em> error.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few weeks later, another devotee was feeling discouraged and said to Swamiji, \u201cPerhaps Divine Mother doesn\u2019t want us to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Divine Mother didn\u2019t want this work to happen,\u201d Swamiji said, \u201cShe would make it impossible<\/em> for us to go on. We could happily go home, then, knowing it was Her will. Instead, Divine Mother makes it barely <\/em>possible. So we can\u2019t give up; we have to go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not long afterward, an opportunity came to rent a 45-room house in one of the nicest areas of the city. As soon as Swamiji stepped over the threshold, he said, \u201cThis place feels like ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was ten times as large, and ten times as costly, as the place we were currently renting. Swamiji felt Divine Mother wanted us to have it, however. He called a meeting of everyone in the city who might be interested, and in an hour raised the thousands of dollars needed to move in.<\/p>\n

It was the turning point. It wasn\u2019t easy, but for the next decade, Divine Mother made it barely possible for \u201cAnanda House\u201d to survive as an urban ashram.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Divine Mother made it clear that San Francisco was not to be Ananda\u2019s permanent urban home. The house was sold and the new owner didn\u2019t want to lease it to us anymore.<\/p>\n

The timing was perfect, however. The Ananda community in Palo Alto, on the peninsula south of San Francisco, was just getting underway. It soon replaced San Francisco as the center of Ananda\u2019s work in the San Francisco Bay Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the summer of 1980, Swamiji spent most of his time in San Francisco helping to establish an Ananda Center there. Even with him spearheading the energy, it was hard going. The San Francisco Bay area, however, is the population hub of northern California. Swamiji felt we must establish some presence there, for the sake … 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-1926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSwami Kriyananda — As We Have Known Him: With Divine Mother\u2019s Help\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 - Swami Kriyananda: Lightbearer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda reveals how we can know when it is God's will that we persevere despite difficulties.\" \/>\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-with-divine-mothers-help\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swami Kriyananda — As We Have Known Him: With Divine Mother\u2019s Help\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 - 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