Sudarshan from Ananda Village meditating at a cave that Swami Kriyananda once secluded atNarayan (another monk) and I arrived in Delhi five days ago after fourteen hours of flying and four hours of driving – Zack, one of the monks at Ananda India, picked us up. Once we were on our way to the Ananda center in Gurgaon, he said, “Well, I don’t know if you guys are up for it, seeing as how you just got in, but in five minutes we’re starting a six hour meditation…”

We went!

The meditations here have kind of “knocked my socks off.” There is a lot of depth here, not only in the people but also seemingly in the country and culture itself. Swami Kriyananda has often said that he feels a joy “welling up from the soil” in India.

There are times for all devotees when meditations are easier and more joyful, even intensely joyful; these times happen naturally as we progress, their ebb and flow a little like the tides of the ocean. Being here has been one of those times for me, and possibly also for many other pilgrims here. (Times like this have their opposite in spiritual tests or so-called “dark nights of the soul.”)

Even though I almost always see at least some benefit from meditation in my life, when I come across one of these times I often think, “All the effort is worth it, just for this!”

The above photo is one of a pilgrim from Ananda Village on a past trip to India. It has this feeling that I’m talking about!


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