{"id":2015,"date":"2026-02-14T17:01:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T17:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/?p=2015"},"modified":"2026-02-14T17:01:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T17:01:59","slug":"swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-a-foolish-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-a-foolish-mistake\/","title":{"rendered":"Swami Kriyananda \u2014 As We Have Known Him: A Foolish Mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A woman at Ananda made a foolish mistake.<\/strong> Her thoughtless remarks at a public gathering placed Swamiji in a bad light. This caused a misunderstanding with others that took some effort on his part to rectify. Swamiji took it calmly, and fortunately no lasting harm was done. Days later, however, she was still depressed about it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat are you moping about?\u201d Swamiji asked her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel so bad about that stupid mistake,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat an <em>egoist!<\/em>\u201d Swamiji replied.<\/p>\n<p>She was shocked. \u201cI feel terrible about what happened! I\u2019m not puffed up with pride about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPride is ego<em>tism<\/em>. An ego<em>ist<\/em>,<em>\u201d <\/em>Swamiji explained, &#8220;is someone who concentrates too much on himself \u2013 whether in praise or blame.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWas it so surprising to find that you aren\u2019t perfect? Why\u2014days later\u2014are you still brooding about it? An egoist thinks too personally about himself. Be realistic. Everyone makes mistakes. There is nothing special in that. Take it in your stride, learn from your errors, and go on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe essence of the spiritual path is <em>self-forgetfulness<\/em>\u2014to break free from the confining little bubble of ego-consciousness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A woman at Ananda made a foolish mistake. Her thoughtless remarks at a public gathering placed Swamiji in a bad light. This caused a misunderstanding with others that took some effort on his part to rectify. Swamiji took it calmly, and fortunately no lasting harm was done. Days later, however, she was still depressed about &#8230; <a title=\"Swami Kriyananda \u2014 As We Have Known Him: A Foolish Mistake\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-a-foolish-mistake\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Swami Kriyananda \u2014 As We Have Known Him: A Foolish Mistake\">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-2015","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 \u2014 As We Have Known Him: A Foolish Mistake - Swami Kriyananda: Lightbearer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda advises a friend on how we should deal with our mistakes.\" \/>\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-a-foolish-mistake\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swami Kriyananda \u2014 As We Have Known Him: A Foolish Mistake - 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