·Ananda Village

·Sunday Service at Hansa Temple

·Residency

·Crystal Hermitage

Ananda Village

From his youth, Ananda's founder, Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters) had dreamed of creating small communities based on cooperation and high ideals. When he became Yogananda's disciple in 1948, he discovered that Yogananda, too, was committed to the concept of "World Brotherhood Colonies." Kriyananda vowed to do his utmost to make this dream a reality. In 1968 Kriyananda began the fulfillment of Yogananda's vision with the establishment of Ananda Village, located near Nevada City, California.

Yogananda taught that what the world needs is a blend of the best qualities of the East and West: the spiritual insight of the East and the practical efficiency of the West. One without the other leads to a society barren of human fulfillment, but a balance of the two can bring peace, harmony, prosperity, and happiness. Yogananda often predicted that world brotherhood colonies, based on the twin principles of "plain living and high thinking," would be the social pattern for the future.

Every Sunday morning Ananda Village residents and guests meet for meditation, chanting, readings, and a sermon by one of the Ananda ministers. You are invited to join us either online, or in real time and space. Click here for directions to Ananda Village Temple, and the schedule of Sunday Service topics.

Music is an integral part of the Ananda experience. From choral music to private chanting and listening, our music can be used as a way to approach life that is uplifting, inspiring and spiritually beneficial. Kriyananda has composed over 400 musical pieces, and is author of more than 80 books. The books and music he has written carry on Yogananda's tradition of offering practical ways to bring spirituality into everyday life.

The Ananda community is situated on 840 acres of meadows and forests amidst the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in northern California. Today, 250 people reside here, including adults and children of all ages.

The Expanding Light at Ananda

At The Expanding Light, Ananda's guest retreat, people from all walks of life can learn various aspects of yoga and meditation. Yoga, the basis for all our programs, is more than a system of physical postures-it is a way of life. Yoga means "union" in Sanskrit, and can be understood on many levels-from self-integration to union of the soul with God or Spirit. Yoga offers techniques for bringing peace and harmony into your attitudes, work, relationships, and family life.

People from around the world come here for personal retreats, training in yoga, meditation, healthy living techniques, or gaining certification from our popular Ananda Yoga Teacher Training or Meditation Teacher Training courses. Guests stay in cabins, guest houses, or our deluxe "Harmony House," with each room dedicated to a major spiritual tradition. Families or small groups can stay in a home across the meadow from the main retreat.

Yoga Postures at The Expanding Light

As well as guest quarters, the retreat includes numerous classrooms, a bookstore and gift boutique, group dining facilities, small meditation shrines, Lotus Lake, gardens, and walking trails.

Nearby is The Center for Radiant Health, where guests can enjoy massage or alternative healing treatments. For a more inward experience, The Meditation Retreat is located in a remote, forested area six miles from Ananda Village. Guests stay in simple cabins and can have vegetarian meals delivered to their door, cook their own meals, or join others at the retreat dining room.

The Meditation Retreat is also home to the Yoga Institute of Living Wisdom, so there are university students in residence there during school year.

There is a lovely temple on site that is reserved for meditation (6:30 to 8:30 am, and 4:30 to 6:30 pm), and used for classes and special programs at other times. For a schedule of programs held at the Meditation Retreat, other than private seclusion, click on the link above.

The Retreat offers an annual week-long family camp that offers ways to bring spirituality more deeply into family life. The upcoming dates for this program are July 22nd through 28th, 2007.

The Crystal Hermitage at Ananda

Also ideal for a private retreat is the Crystal Hermitage Guest House, which overlooks the scenic Yuba River canyon and is a few steps away from the Crystal Hermitage. This modern, two bedroom home has a small kitchen, a deck, and meditation room. The Crystal Hermitage includes beautiful gardens, fountains, a small chapel, residents' apartments, and the Shrine of the Masters, a small museum and gift shop. The museum houses holy relics from India and Ananda's lineage of yoga masters, and is open to the public.The Crystal Hermitage itself is a large domed building where many meditations, events, and celebrations are held.

Ananda's Living Wisdom Schools offer instruction for grades K-12, with a focus that supports the unity of all religions. As well as traditional academics, universal spiritual values such as respect, kindness, cooperation and responsibility are a part of the curriculum. The student-teacher ratio of 12-1 allows each teacher to connect at a deep level with every student. Teachers work toward the steady growth and unfoldment of each child, based on his or her own level of understanding and maturity. Meditation is also taught, as are yogic principles like self-discipline, concentration, service, and even-mindedness. Boarding is available for older students, who may live and attend school here in the community or at our European retreat in Assisi, Italy.

Children at Performing Arts Camp

Ananda's Education for Life Foundation trains educators and parents, and hosts the educational website, livingwisdom.org, which lists private schools dedicated to Education for Life principles. The foundation also trains teachers on how to teach yoga to children and older students. For those over 18 who want to experience life in a spiritual community, our Summer Internship Program offers a dynamic work/study program for learning yoga and meditation while participating in many service projects here at Ananda Village.

Reception Center at Ananda Village

Within the community are private as well as Ananda-owned businesses, which employ both residents and neighbors. A few of the businesses include Master's Market, a natural foods market with a deli and bakery; Ananda Design & Construction; the Sharing Nature Foundation; and Master's Flower Essences.

The Rajarsi Park business complex includes management offices for both the community and Ananda Sangha, which assists the worldwide network of Ananda communities, centers, and meditation groups. This is also headquarters for the Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry-with 600 members worldwide who do healing prayers regularly for those in need. Ananda Sangha members receive the quarterly Clarity magazine, which has offices here.

Rajarsi Park is also home to Crystal Clarity, Publishers, which produces books, video tapes, CDs and cassettes by Paramhansa Yogananda, J. Donald Walters, and others on topics related to yoga, meditation, and Self-realization philosophy. For in-depth study, The Ananda Course in Self-Realization is a home-study course that has helped thousands worldwide directly experience spiritual realities. The course teaches beginning through advanced meditation and yoga, healing techniques, Yogananda's "Energization Exercises," elements of a vegetarian diet, yoga philosophy, developing intuition and much more.

After completing this course, students are eligible to apply for Kriya Yoga initiation, the highest meditation technique offered by Paramhansa Yogananda. Yogananda said Kriya Yoga would hasten one's spiritual evolution, calling it the "airplane route" to God. Residents of Ananda Village are disciples of Paramhansa Yogananda, and practice the Kriya Yoga techniques he introduced to the West. Many of the residents have been a part of Ananda for 20-30 years.

A residency training program of several years prepares members for joining the Ananda Monastic Order, which includes singles and married couples who have taken vows of simple living and high thinking, and dedication to living the teachings of Self-realization as taught by Ananda's founder, J. Donald Walters (Swami Kriyananda). Ananda includes residential spiritual communities in Assisi, Italy; New Delhi, India, Palo Alto and Sacramento, California; Seattle, Washington; and Portland, Oregon. Ananda Meditation Centers and Meditation Groups are located throughout the world.