Last week, Thursday, July 12, the statues of the Kriya Masters were blessed with a wonderful ceremony at Hansa Mandir where we hold Sunday services and daily morning meditations. Swami Kriyananda conducted the dedication ceremony for the statues at Hansa Mandir, Ananda’s community temple. He spoke simply and devotionally about how Divine Grace can be drawn from the objects of … Read More
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. We needed to get Prakash … Read More
“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 towns. We live in a … Read More
“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 night was held a beautiful … Read More
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. Despite his aging body not … Read More
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 that spring, Sraddha and Durga … Read More
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 roads for us.” Despite 7 … Read More
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 time I visited Ananda Assisi … Read More
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, that he and Swami Kriyananda … Read More
