Originally written October 27, 2010. It takes less than six hours by train to travel the 450 kilometers northwest from Delhi to Amritsar in the state of Punjab. Gazing out the window at the passing landscape, it’s easy to see why this region has long been considered the “breadbasket” of India, tempting waves of invaders…

Originally written February 10, 2011. On the 23rd, Dharmadas and Nirmala [the spiritual directors of Ananda India —Editor] led our annual Christmas meditation at the community in Watunde Village, thirty kilometers outside of Pune. As I sat there, I couldn’t help but gaze from time to time out the window from Swami Kriyananda’s home to…

The following is the second half of a two part interview with Dr. Aditya Gait, a resident medical doctor and member of Ananda’s Kriya Yoga Community in the countryside outside of Pune, India. Dr. Aditya is also a Brahmachari member of the Ananda Renunciate Order. Aditya and a fellow monk with Swami Kriyananda Jaya: There…

Aditya Gait is a member of Ananda Sangha helping to build a “Kriya Yoga Community” in the countryside outside of Pune, India. He trained as a medical doctor before joining Ananda and is now beginning a medical clinic to serve the needs of local villagers and community members. Aditya is a brahmachari member of the…

My first assignment upon arrival in Pune was “to do the needful” regarding our newly purchased land and prepare the site by March 1st for our inauguration ceremony, known in India as a “Bhoomi Puja.” That date had been set months before, and plans were in motion for a hundred guests to arrive for a major weekend retreat.…

My wife Sadhana Devi’s first impression of India was of her ride from the Delhi airport to our ashram in the suburb of Gurgaon. This was before the new expressway was built, with the road still narrow, bumpy and chaotic. It was late at night, and I was escorting her through four lanes of interweaving…

Cecilia Patitucci I would like to tell you something of the businesses we are establishing in India. This is an interview with Cecilia Patitucci, an Ananda member of many years from our center in Assisi, Italy. She came to India as part of the first wave of Westerners with Swami Kriyananda in 2003-04, and has…

The last weekend of September, Swami Kriyananda, with a dozen Ananda India members traveled to Pune and Mumbai, where Swamiji gave major discourses in each city, speaking to a combined audience of 800. He also inspected 3 pieces of property that could possibly be purchased for the creation of an Ananda community in India. For…

Read Part 1 Badrinath is quiet at 4:00 am, the rushing waters of the Alaknanda the only sound to break the silence. A few of my fellow pilgrims and I rose early to take a traditional morning bath at the temple hot spring. There to the right of the bridge and from a lighted pavillion…

Notes from the pilgrimage by Ananda devotees to the Himalayan region of Badrinath, India, in September 2007. The pilgrimage road to Badrinath is long and winding, symbolic of our own spiritual quest. Pilgrims in the old days, before the road, would walk the 300 kilometers from Himalayan foothills town of Rishikesh, but few do so…