September 12th was the 59th anniversary of the day Swami Kriyananda met Master. We celebrated it here in India as the first day of his 60th year of discipleship. One special aspect of the day’s events is that they were organized primarily by our Indian devotees. In a sense the celebration began on Monday, because…

Being located in a rural area with lots of brush and trees, Ananda Village has always been in risk of being affected by wildfires. Add to this the hot and dry summers, it is almost impossible to have a year without any fire incident. Year 1976 (way before my time here) marked the worst fire…

Blessings come in many forms. When we offer those blessings back to the Divine with our highest aspirations, we find them multiplied, and our lives transformed. Such has been the experience of Ananda Seattle in the building of its new meditation temple in Bothell, WA. The Dream is Born Since 1995, Ananda Seattle was located…

The history of Ananda is comprised of a series of miracles. Ananda Sacramento has been blessed in this way since its inception in 1977. In 1991, after purchasing a 48 unit apartment complex that serves as our Community, Ananda Sacramento rented a 2,100 square foot doctors’ office for our teaching center and Mandir (Sanksrit for…

Last Wednesday Vidura and I went to Oakland to pick up the statues of the Masters. As you may recall, has been a 2 year project. (please refer to previous post). The 2 life size statues of Yogananda and Sri Yukteswar each way somewhere around 600 pounds and are made out of beautiful white marble.…

“Property obligations, therefore, should be considered as man’s stewardship under God.” –Swami Kriyananda June and July bring the season of mowing the land here at Ananda Village. Many of you have seen on TV news, the wildfires which rage in the western US, such as in South Lake Tahoe at the moment, threatening homes and…

June 23rd 2007 marked the day for the dedication of the beautiful Ananda Seattle Meditation Temple. The Ananda community of Seattle joyfully and skillfully organized the entire weekend with keen attention to detail. All events for the weekend were sold out. People who weren’t able to get in the temple had to use the auxiliary…

“All art must be based on truth and on human nature.” –Swami Kriyananda in his Saturday talk on the Arts The Joyful Arts Festival, held every June (this year 15-17) here at Ananda Village celebrates the arts as a medium for inspiration and upliftment, not merely the display of good skills or clever ideas. Friday…

Glorious weekend! Around 400 Ananda Village residents and guests gathered to honor and celebrate Swami Kriyananda’s birthday. Saturday morning class at the amphitheater was his first public appearance since he arrived at the village last Wednesday. Though his body shows his age, his spirit is ageless. He gave a very inspiring talk on his search…

What an incredible day!! It began with sitting down this morning at the amphitheatre near the Expanding Light guest retreat to listen to a talk by Swami Kriyananda and ended with a wonderful party at the Crystal Hermitage. Over 400 guests and residents celebrated his birthday this weekend and we all eagerly anticipated Swami’s arrival.…

Ingredients:

• 3 monks
• 2 high school boys
• 1 foreman, the only one who really knows what he is doing
• Lots of tools
• Styrofoam, wood, electric wires, and a lot of other supplies
• Divine grace

Every year the first weekend in May, Ananda village residents and devotees gather together and beautify the community in remembrance and dedication to the life of Rajarsi Janakananda, Yogananda’s foremost disciple. We work on projects suitable for every age and talent, such as landscaping, land clearing, deep cleaning temples, fixing roofs of common buildings, preparing…

Recently, Jyotish and Devi Novak, the Spiritual Directors for Ananda, were with Swami Kriyananda in India. They said in a recent gathering with many of us:

One morning, when we were with Swamiji in India, we asked him how we could grow towards God more quickly. He replied very simply, “The whole secret of spiritual progress [...]

Two years ago, in Spring 2005, after the Mahasamadhi celebration in India, I journeyed to Rishikesh with Sraddha (my spouse) where we visited the Kriya Yoga Ashram of Swami Shankarananda. She had been there the previous Fall with a US pilgrimage and discovered these incredible life size marble statues of our line of Gurus. Later…

One of my favorite pastimes living in this rural community is to be able to go for bicycle rides that could easily be labeled as world-class. If you have visited Ananda Village you know what kind of natural beauty it is surrounded with. Sierra Foothills create some beautiful rolling hills and therefore beautiful (and hilly)…

This weekend is the annual Ananda retreat in honor of Paramhansa Yogananda’s Mahasamadhi, here in Gurgaon, India. It’s such a joy to practice meditation and Kriya Yoga with people from all over the world: India, America, South Africa, and nearly every European country. Seeing the harmony and love between the people here shows how easy…

We awoke this morning to a wonderful quiet blanket of snow covering the landscape. After meditation I went out to clear and area in the back garden so I could feed our wild bird population and heard the distant rumble of Prakash’s tractor. “Ah,” I said to myself, “Divine Mother is once again clearing the…

This past weekend I was in the Seattle area on personal business and arranged to attend Sunday Service in the new Seattle Mandir. Prior to moving to Ananda Village near Nevada City, I had attended the Ananda Seattle church for many years and lived for 2 years in the Ananda community. I remember the first…

My wife Suzanne recently had a surgery, which she is still recovering from. She had to stay at the hospital for three days and now she continues to recover at home for a few more weeks. The outpouring of love and prayers from our friends at our community before, during and after the surgery continues…

Swami Shankarananda Giri, who directs a large Kriya Yoga work in Northern India (Rishikesh and Bubaneshwar ashrams) visited Ananda Village last week. His guru was a disciple of Sri Yukteswar Giri, so you could roughly say he is a spiritual cousin of Swami Kriyananda. In fact he stated, during our community satsang at Hansa Mandir,…

We had our traditional Christmas Eve service at Ananda Village. Our dear friend Lila Devi, who was the mastermind of the evening, weaved the story of the birth of Jesus with stories, music and theatre. It was magical and very moving. The community center was filled with residents and many guests. The evening ended with…

Today we had a sweet (sweet in Spirit! though there was also pumpkin pie) dinner at the Meditation Retreat. This was my second year here for it, and both years what I have enjoyed most is serving together with spiritual family.

This weekend at the meditation retreat we had around 50 Tibetan Buddhists as guests. It was an inspiring experience to see other truth-seekers advancing in their chosen path.

Friday Night is Pizza Night at Master’s Market in downtown Ananda Village. From 5-7 PM folks come into the market to buy slices of vegetarian pizza, beverages and other assorted market items from the Deli as well as well stocked shelves. Its growing reputation amongst our neighbors has increased business so much they have added…