It has been an amazing few weeks at Ananda Village. pizza-night01.jpg
Naturally, having Swamiji here is a real blessing. You have already heard alot about Swamiji’s birthday celebrations and probably heard the talks on the internet. His Sunday Service talk was wonderful.
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I have two groups of photos to share with you to show some other fun things happening here.
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This year we have had several groups of pilgrims visiting us here at the Village!
Mexico Meditation group with Marga and Amanda
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First, there was a group from India. Their tour was led by Daya and Keshava. They visited Los Angeles to meditate at Yogananda’s shrines, spent a few days at the Palo Alto and Sacramento communities. They came to Ananda and spent time at The Expanding Light and visited each of the different departments at the Village to see how our community operates.

For the past three years we have had the great blessing to host a pizza night for the Indian Pilgrims visiting Ananda Village. It is a great highlight for us at the Bingham house!
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Having everyone here was an honor and great fun. I have photos here for you to see. It was a lovely night, we ate lots of pizza and had interesting conversation. Dave and Maria Warner, our next door neighbors, joined us.

Our Ananda family from India is beautiful and dedicated. Thank you for sharing your evening with us!

The second set of photos for you is from our July 4th celebration. Ananda Village hosts an afternoon event that includes a parade, games, music and this year some very inspiring talks.
There were several other groups of pilgrims with us. This time from all over Europe and Mexico. It was wonderful!

I was so inspired to see how big and diverse and dedicated our Ananda family is.
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The choir sang international songs written by Swami Kriyananda. Swamiji gave a brief talk and then representatives from the groups of pilgrims spoke. They gave beautiful and sincere talks sometimes through an interpreter. I found myself smiling so much that my cheeks were tired. Yogananda’s teachings and joy are literally all over the world. Again, I was honored being in the presence of these great souls who represent and share the teachings with such dedication.

One fun moment came when all the pilgrims began to gather around Swamiji at his table for a group photo. I climbed on the stage and sneaked a few of my own group shots. Looking at these photos impressed me. All those happy faces! (This photo reminded me of Swamiji’s song “There’s joy in the heavens, a smile on the mountains, melody sings everywhere…)

Next week I will travel with Dave to Palo Alto and then to Los Angeles to record the events that are scheduled there. I will share them with you on this blog.

I set up a little gallery so you can view more photos than I can post here. If you are interested in seeing more photos from the birthday weekend and the July 4th event click here.

Next week I will post to this same gallery.

I hope all is well in your world. God Bless you all.

In joy,
Barbara, from Ananda Village