{"id":2089,"date":"2026-08-01T17:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T17:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/?p=2089"},"modified":"2026-08-01T17:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T17:46:20","slug":"swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-helping-a-schoolmate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-helping-a-schoolmate\/","title":{"rendered":"Swami Kriyananda \u2014 As We Have Known Him: Helping A Schoolmate"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a child, Donald\u2019s (Swami Kriyananda\u2019s) health was precarious. \u201cI was thin as a pencil and always coming down with something unusual,\u201d he recalled.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When he was nine and living with his parents in Rumania, he nearly died of colitis. The doctor recommended that he be sent to Switzerland where, he said, the mountain air would make him healthy. Unfortunately, it didn\u2019t work as hoped. Donald spent many weeks in bed.<\/p>\n

What he generally had were kidney infections, which were sometimes quite severe. More than once he was confined to his bed for three days on a diet of zwieback (crisp sweetened bread) and Vichy water. The lack of food, plus the infection, left him so wea, he could barely stand.<\/p>\n

A schoolmate coveted some object Donald owned. Seeing his weakened condition, the boy assumed it was his for the taking. He entered Donald\u2019s room, snatched the item, and ran away.<\/p>\n

To his surprise, Donald jumped out of bed and ran after him, catching him on the landing. He snatched the article back, then staggered upstairs to bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even remember what the item was,\u201d Swamiji said. \u201cIf the boy had asked for it, I would probably have given it to him. But I couldn\u2019t accept his taking advantage of me when I was weak and vulnerable, because it wasn\u2019t good for him<\/em> to commit such an injustice, or to think he could mistreat others and get away with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a child, Donald\u2019s (Swami Kriyananda\u2019s) health was precarious. \u201cI was thin as a pencil and always coming down with something unusual,\u201d he recalled. When he was nine and living with his parents in Rumania, he nearly died of colitis. The doctor recommended that he be sent to Switzerland where, he said, the mountain air … 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-2089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSwami Kriyananda \u2014 As We Have Known Him: Helping A Schoolmate - Swami Kriyananda: Lightbearer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda showed spiritual qualities even as a nine-year-old.\" \/>\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-helping-a-schoolmate\/\" \/>\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: Helping A Schoolmate - 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