We have been on the run here for Spiritual Renewal week. I was hoping to write about the talks a bit, but I know Dave will post the talks soon. They will be in separate clips so they will be easy to listen too. They are each amazing. We have such great and inspiring teachers.…

Swami arriving with Sri Kaarthikeyan Spiritual Renewal Week 2008 is here! Ananda Choir singing to an audience of 400+ 400+ beautiful people came to The Expanding Light amphitheater on this warm August Day to hear Swami Kriyananda give a talk entitled “World Brotherhood Colonies: Social Pattern for Dwapara Yuga” It was a great talk, it…

Blessings and greetings from Southern California. We are currently on the road (Hwy 99) on our way back to Ananda Village. We are basking in the glow of the wonderful weekend spent in the LA area with our divine friends and Swami Kriyananda. There is so much to share. The talks Swamiji gave will be…

All the shining souls in our Ananda family from the Palo Alto area deserve a standing ovation for their tireless and joyful hosting of 3 days of wonderful events.

It was truly inspiring to see our dear friends in action and share in these amazing events. Instead of looking and tired and relieved to have survived all these events everyone looked energized…

Last night, July 18, a beautiful event took place in Palo Alto, California. As part of Ananda’s 40th Anniversary celebrations the Oratorio “Christ Lives” was performed. This was a special performance in that Swami Kriyananda sang many of his divinely inspired songs. The collection of songs depicts the mystic life and teachings of Christ. Swamiji…

I was sitting outside, feeling sorry for myself.

“Nabha, you’ve got to drive away the smoke.”

Huh? I looked up.

“Nabha, you’ve got to drive away the smoke!”

A friend at Ananda Village was saying this to me. With fires all over Northern California, even though …

Over the past month or so Ananda Village has played host to disciples from all over the world. They came on several pilgrimages from 15 different countries. Words are escaping me as I try to describe the joy! The depth of the friendship that devotees can have is amazing. As the European pilgrimage left I…

This is the home my parents built and my siblings and I grew up in. My parents came to Ananda 30 years ago with very little. They moved here, sight unseen, with just enough money to buy supplies to build a house. My Dad managed to find cheap lumber and built the house himself. As…

My son is away at camp this week and my daughter is taking swimming lessons. We finished our homeschooling for the year and it seems summer is under way – but my mind is leaping ahead to September and the start of the new school year. It will be a year of changes for us,…

Twenty years ago my husband and I welcomed our firstborn into the world, and the Ananda Portland meditation group became a true Ananda “colony”. There may have been other significant events in 1988, but I don’t remember them. As we plan the 20 year anniversary celebration of Ananda Portland, my memories of those growing up…

April 17-21 of this year, 2008, I was blessed to return to my “ole stompin’ grounds, deep in the heart ‘o Texas.’” Actually what that means, ya’ll, when translated out of Texan into Amurrrri-can, is that I flew to out Dallas to give classes and get-togethers at the Ananda Dallas Center. My flight was over…

It is Saturday night, April 19, just past 10:30 in the evening. We are with Swamiji in Rome, Italy. The long-anticipated event, the launch of the just published Italian version of Swamiji’s Revelations of Christ as Proclaimed by Paramhansa Yogananda is now an event recorded in the ether for the ages. It was a triumph,…

“I wasn’t sent to the West,” Yogananda often told his audiences, “by Christ and the great masters of India to dogmatize you with a new theology. Jesus himself asked Babaji to send someone here to teach you the science of Kriya Yoga, that people might learn how to commune with God directly. I want to…

Long ago, I began mingling with the people who are part of Ananda and noticed several things: the joy in their eyes, the easy way they spoke of God, and the emphasis they placed on energy. I had not heard the term “energy” used in so many different ways before, and in relation to so…

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” (Isa. 55:8) To find God, it will help us to try to see, feel, and think of everything differently from what we are accustomed to doing. That is why, among devotees in India, much is made of the importance of…

Audience at 2008 International Kriya Yoga Retreat in India Ananda recently held its second International Kriya Yoga Retreat in Gurgaon, India. You can watch and listen to all the talks here. I would like to expand on something I mentioned in one of my classes there. There is a great deal of talk in modern…

I haven’t posted for a couple months – life gets very full with a family of five! We all seem to be going separate directions these days, but part of me really enjoys all the activity and seeing three children grow and explore their potential is fun. Many friends my age are watching their children…

In these pages I aim to show how a spiritual mission, regardless of its name and tenets, can be made to relate to the whole world. Paramhansa Yogananda prophesied that some day the purpose of all religions would be accepted as being one and the same: Self-realization. Included in that understanding would be a sense…

“Be restful in your heart” is one of the daily sayings from Swami Kriyananda writing in his small book called “Do It Now” Sunset During Seclusion Upon reflection, during this past week’s seclusion, it seemed that as I have been less caught up in daily “to do’s” and requests, I noticed that as the week…

St Francis pond below our home. As part of our spiritual practice here at Ananda Village, we are urged to take seclusions regularly, perhaps just a day here and there) and at least annually, take a week seclusion, as a balance to all of our busy outward service activities. In fact, employees like me, who…

Paramhansa Yogananda says, in an article written in 1923: “The week should be allotted to work, amusement, and spiritual culture—five days for money making, one day for rest and amusement, and one day for introspection and inner realization.” There probably isn’t too much question about working: most of us don’t have much choice about it.…

I wish you all a very happy New Year. After reading Swami Kriyananda’s recent letters to us relating his bliss in the midst of his surgeries and chemotherapy I realize that the “happy” in our new year greetings is a powerful affirmation to feel inner joy despite any outward circumstances. I am sharing a collection…

Lifestyles for Radiant Health: Last October we offered an exciting new program at the Expanding Light, Ananda’s Yoga and Meditation Retreat. It was called Lifestyles for Radiant Health: Personalized Coaching for Optimal Wellness. Our goal was to reach people who wanted to make healthy lifestyle changes, but had not been able to do so on…

I’m a mom, an oldest daughter, a nurse, a teacher, a karma yogi, – any way you look at it, I have “the heart of a servant”, as one friend described me. I am happiest when serving others, I always have been. An attitude of service is helpful when I am in a new situation…

My Mother gave my Father a copy of Paramhansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, in 1978 – almost 20 years later, they come to visit me at Ananda Village.

Shortly after I found Ananda, Swami Kriyananda wrote a small pamphlet called “The Way of Ananda Sanghis.”

The original edition stated:

“If formal renunciation is an option… it would be wise to consider embracing it.”

This was in the middle of text which made it clear that, to find God, it is not necessary to become a monk or a nun (i.e. a formal renunciate)…

Last week I had the pleasure of being commissioned to photograph the Music Ministry staff: David Eby, Jeanne Tschantz and Romesha and Bhagavati Nani. They are the core of a very large group of people who love to sing here at Ananda. I had the four them all to myself for over two hours as…

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…

I first came to Ananda Village in the fall of 1979 for a vacation. I had been practicing hatha yoga for about 6 years, and I really wanted to learn how to meditate.

I had a great longing for “something more” in my life, and I knew I could find it within …

Yesterday was the first full day of Spiritual Renewal Week of 2007 and Jyotish and Devi Novak gave the most wonderful and profound talks. This years theme is Inner Peace, World Peace. I believe at this moment my husband, Dave, is converting and uploading today’s talk to our website. I think when you listen to…

I have just finished the fourth and final week of Level 1 Ananda Yoga Teacher Training. After five years of living in Ananda Village I have finally been able to take the time off to do this four-week program. I am so glad I did. The course has been educational, fun, inspiring, challenging, deep in…