Dear all – I wanted to share with you some of the new recordings we’ve been working on these past few months, combined with others to make up a full Ananda Christmas music experience! We’ll be releasing the CD later in 2012, so please forgive imperfections in these, like the volume being too loud or…

Hi all — wanted to share with you all the songs that we’ve recorded so far that will be a part of Swami Kriyananda’s Bhagavad Gita TV shows in production. We’ll start you off with “Brave Were the People”, one of the first we recorded. “Come Gather Round”: “Brothers”: “There’s Joy in the Heavens”: “What…

We had a very uplifting concert last night featuring Swami Kriyananda’s music, and even though there are some imperfections in the recordings such as wind on the mic, I thought I’d post them for you all: Dark Eyes with solo by Ramu Atwell Keep Calling Him with solo by Maitri Jones, Krishna Dewey, and Latika…

When I moved to Ananda Village in 1976, I was offered a job at “Pubble,” the department where Swami Kriyananda’s books were published. Not long after I arrived, Swamiji invited the staff to his home to discuss some projects. Swami’s house was on the other side of the ridge from the main part of the…

Ananda Portland got an early start on the Easter season this year with a performance on April 2nd, of the Oratorio – Christ Lives! composed by Swami Kriyananda. It began as a joint effort by the choirs of Ananda Portland and Ananda Seattle, but we were joined by singers and musicians from Ananda Village, Ananda…

I just finished leading an Education for Life Music Workshop in which I worked with four music teachers from the Living Wisdom Schools in Portland, Seattle, and Palo Alto. For two and a half days we immersed ourselves in the vibration of music and children: a very powerful and uplifting mix! Working with groups of…

We never will know our true potential if we don’t push ourselves past our perceived and self-made boundaries. Touching Soul Touching Soul came into being as a consequence of an inspired moment preceded by reading an excerpt of Swami Kriyananda’s Conversations with Yogananda. The excerpt told of a someone asking Yogananda if inspiration could be…

Choir and Swami Kriyananda singing “Peace” As many of you may know, Swami Kriyananda, now 84, has had some recent physical setbacks, including a visit to the emergency room last Tuesday after a fall that injured his hip. He was scheduled to be at a tea in Los Angeles on Saturday, and was heartbroken to…

What an incredible week we had! Here are some recordings from our concert last Monday night: Salute The Great Paper Flag (Swami’s one political song!)salute-the-great-paper-flag.mp3 Here is a beautiful instrumental, Love Is the Aspiration Toward Perfection played by Craig Roberts, Bhagavati, myself, Todd Billingsley, and Mukti Deranja. 01-aspiration.mp3 And another, Friendship Is Acting In Freedom,…

The Peace Treaty is a three-act play that Swamiji wrote many years ago. And for about the last 10 years it has been a tradition to perform it during Spiritual Renewal Week. I know that for the actors and viewers alike, with each performance the play offers some new pearls of wisdom. The play in…

Delighted, no end is actually the punch line to a joke in the Peace Treaty (Swamiji Kriyananda’s 3-act play). But it describes this weekend perfectly. People were delighted with the gardens at Crystal Hermitage. Hi everyone, last week I shared with you photos of the first weekend of Springtime at Ananda. It was cloudy and…

It truly was a beautifully inspiring week of Inner Renewal, and I wanted to just quickly share some highlights from the concert on Saturday night. It was titled “A Musical Pilgrimage into God Communion”, and was filled with many very deep performances of some of Swami’s most sacred pieces. Cloisters: Cloisters In the Temple of…

It has been a blessed month indeed! Here are a few excerpts worth a listen: First, from our Living Wisdom High School Concert on Friday, Dec 11th, a piece by John Rutter titled Mary’s Lullaby.marys-lullaby.mp3 On Saturday, Dec 12th, I led an astounding performance of Swami Kriyananda’s Oratorio, Christ Lives! at Mills College in Oakland,…

Swami Kriyananda has often said that music has the power to change consciousness, and I have always believed that to be true. But there are always new levels of understanding to discover. I have been singing in the Ananda Portland choir now for many years and find that my consciousness is always uplifted when I…

Dear Friends, Writing and posting on this site has been moved up the priority list in my life; I hope to be sharing more regularly with you. Paramhansa Yogananda said we should regulate our lives – approach our days with a sense of order. We also have to flow with life and be willing to…

Dear friends, Here are a few songs from the evening concert at Swami Kriyananda’s Spiritual Anniversary celebration on September 12 at Ananda Village. The concert included readings from The New Path, Swamiji’s autobiography, and songs written by him over the years. Performance by Swami Kriyananda and Ananda Choir. Enjoy! God, God, God “God, God, God,”…

Here is the recording of O, Master from this morning’s service. Enjoy!o-master.mp3

This has been an action packed Spiritual Renewal Week. It will take me a few more days to catch up and post photos from the various classes and happenings. What I am posting today is a bit out of order. Yesterday, Friday, Swamiji spoke to a packed house at the amphitheater at The Expanding Light.…

Dear all – here is the recording of Life Mantra from last night – enjoy!life-mantra-srw-09.mp3

What is it that truly happens when we sing? Are we merely creating waves of sound, or is there a deeper, metaphysical aspect that we can explore? For myself, I’m beginning to realize that every time my bow touches the cello, or a note comes out of my throat, I have the opportunity to witness…

Happy 4th of July. I am posting a collection of photos from yesterday’s (Saturday) celebration of our 40th anniversary and our nations anniversary. We had beautiful songs, yummy food, and great company. Swamiji visited each of the booths that showed the many aspects of Ananda Worldwide. He sang with the choir and also greeted many…

Happy Ananda Anniversary! The first day of our three day celebration was lovely. It was so nice to see all of our friends at the morning talk and the evening concert. The morning included talks from 5 different and wonderful speakers. The concert was beautiful. I never get tired of watching the choir members channel…

Greetings from Ananda Village. Lisa Powers wrote a wonderful blog post about the open houses at Crystal Hermitage Gardens. It was great to see people from the surrounding area come and enjoy the gardens. I spent a lot of time in the gardens recently. I have been working on a book of photos of the…

As you can tell from Ananda’s homepage, we had a wonderful Winter Renewal Week, with Divine Mother’s added gift of snow. It began snowing Monday morning, and I was amazed to see how many people braved the weather to come to the classes. On Wednesday evening, it snowed about 4 or 5 inches within an…

My Mother and Father always made a point to keep Paramhansa Yogananda as part of my life. Some of my earliest memories are hearing stories of his life when they would paraphrase stories from the Autobiography of a Yogi. I also remember informally acting out several scenes from his life when my Mother did an…

The past month has held many many wonderful musical events: The two school concerts (including the High School’s breathtaking presentation of Handel’s Messiah), World Brotherhood Day, our Ananda Christmas Concert (when my baton flew in a 30 foot graceful arc while conducting the Halleluiah Chorus), our Christmas Sunday Service, our Christmas Eve crèche program, and…

In the spring of 2007 a dear friend suggested that we build a new entry sign at Ananda Village to welcome people to the community. To help it happen, she volunteered money for the project. This started discussions in our monthly planning meetings about building an informational sign that was also “nice-to-look-at.” So began the…

This year’s production of the Peace Treaty was magical. The newly renovated amphitheater was very welcoming, the costumes were better than ever, and the lighting highlighted the beauty of the backdrop and the commitment of the actors. Each of the actors has made the part they played their own. It has been very fun to…

Greetings everyone! Last nights performance was so beautiful. I hope you enjoy the sampling of photos from the evening. Blessings to you. Barbara Swamiji arriving at the evening concert in The Expanding Light amphitheater Swamiji rehearsing with musicians just prior to the concert The World Brotherhood choir singing the Ananda theme song, “Many Hands Make…

I played the part of a Self-realized master last Thursday.

A small group of us at Ananda Village had gathered to do theater improv “for fun and spiritual upliftment.” One improvisation game we played went like this: 4 people got on stage, each inventing a character with a specific level of consciousness. …

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…

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…

First live broadcast today of Swami Kriyananda talk from our new amphitheater. Last night, crews were still laying cables to bring power, lighting, sound and AnandaBell DSL. That on top of a new shade tarp. Truly amazing feat considering this is all our own system. We set up and tested the connection on Thursday then…

Hi Everyone, It has been a wonderful and awe-inspiring week. I live out here on the West Coast and woke up Saturday morning feeling like something good was happening. It was the morning that Swamiji gave his heart-opening and soul stirring talk in Rome. I think everyone here at Ananda Village felt a calm sense…

As I went back into the community center to pick up the last of my things after the concert, I could tangibly feel the beauty that the students created with their music. I stood for a moment in the now empty hall, and tried to imprint the feeling and vibration of this beautiful evening into…

On Saturday, November 10th we had our third evening in the Ananda Concert Series, entitled Inner Awakenings. Held once again at the Crystal Hermitage Dome, we played and sang to a full house of long time devotees and newcomers alike, with music and interspersed guided meditations from Swami Kriyananda’s book, Awaken to Superconsciousness. Melody, it…

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…

This past weekend we presented our second concert in our Ananda Concert Series, entitled An Evening with St. Francis, presenting the life of the great saint with narration and music written by Swami Kriyananda. The dome of the Crystal Hermitage was filled to capacity with close to 70 in the audience as we began our…

Music touches people on a deeper level than words alone. The music composed by Swami Kriyananda is written to change consciousness; the experience of listening to, playing, or singing such music goes beyond the sensory experience, into the soul. Being part of the choir at the Ananda Center in Portland has become a vital part…

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 …

I have the deep blessing to work with the music at Ananda Village. Most of my work is presenting music written by Swami Kriyananda, which comprises over 400 vocal and instrumental pieces. This summer we’ve had many performances: one at Ananda village, another at the Seattle Temple Dedication, and still more at the Revelations of…

Hello from Southern California. This is the week for the launch of Swami Kriyananda’s book, Revelations of Christ. There were two special events on Wednesday and Thursday night. The Jewel in the Lotus was performed in Encinitas at the Seaside Center for Spiritual Living and in Malibu at the Malibu High School. Both were great…

Next week is a big one. Swami Kriyananda will be in Los Angeles to launch his new book, Revelations of Christ. Many people from Ananda Village and Ananda Colonies will also be there to join in and help with all the festivities. Along with the book launch, some of the events we are all looking…

Art is one way to help Divine truths become more dynamic to our minds.

You may have experienced this: you are reading a spiritual book, or talking with a person who has a lot of wisdom. You think, [...]