A Divine Journey: Meeting Saint Francis through Swami Kriyananda

A Pilgrim’s Story

Going on pilgrimage with Swami Kriyananda was always interesting. He had such an expansive, uplifting energy that you could not help but get pulled into whatever he was doing. He would talk to shopkeepers with a big, warm smile like they were his long-lost friends and they, in turn, were equally eager to talk to him.

Swami would stop to get a cappuccino or treat and make a point of conversing with each of us as if we were his best friends. He was very genuine and unaffected.

I went on my first pilgrimage to Italy with Swami in 1989. I was not married to Nakula then but Swami invited us along. I think he sensed the potential in our relationship and wanted to check out our energy to see if we would be a good match.

Swami organized things so that we could stay at a few monasteries and have the experience of meditating in the chapels together and appreciate the simplicity of travel.

We went to La Verna, the mountaintop sanctuary where Saint Francis went for seclusion. Swami was very quiet and inward during our visit there. We all gathered in the little chapel where Saint Francis received the stigmata from Christ on September 14, 1244, 800 years ago.

I became aware of Swamiji’s energy going very deep as we meditated. He was sharing with us the experience of attunement with Saint Francis. When you are with someone who has experienced a level of superconsciousness beyond what you have, you get a glimpse of what it’s like and feel that same level of consciousness yourself by being with them.

Naturally, all the pilgrims on the tour directed their attention to Swamiji. We watched his every movement, looked at his eyes, and were fortunate to feel the bliss of his smile and consciousness. He told us that Yogananda would teach and correct his disciples not with words, but with his eyes. He, in turn, would often do this with us.

Swami also taught us about leadership. Instead of leading us around like a herd of tourist cattle, loudly pontificating about all the sights, he rarely spoke. It was a happy time.

Years later, after Nakula and I were married, we wanted to return to Italy with our child, Rama, who was 9 years old.

It was 1996, and Swami Kriyananda had moved to Assisi after many legal battles for the right to share Yogananda’s teachings.

For me, it was as if Swamiji was living in exile. The legal trials he and the Ananda community withstood during the ’90s in California were harsh and stultifying. On many occasions, I felt a deep attunement to what Christ must have endured on the cross, tortured and rejected.

When I first walked into the Ananda Assisi Temple of Light during that 1996 visit, I knelt on my chair and instantly felt tears falling. I was thinking of Swamiji and all he had undergone trying so earnestly to bring more light to this planet. I must have spent a long time in the temple just letting the tears of grief wash over me.

Suddenly, I realized that Swamiji had entered the temple. He began speaking to the congregation in Italian. I did not speak Italian, but as he talked I gradually began to feel a lessening of my grief.

I was listening to Swami’s voice, and in so doing I was surprised to feel how much joy and laughter he had. I began to understand what he was saying on a much deeper level. In those first moments in his presence, I felt a healing had occurred.

My family was the first one from Ananda Village to visit Swamiji in exile and he naturally made all three of us feel welcomed and loved. At the time, no children were living in the Ananda Assisi community. That pilgrimage to Italy was different in many respects.

Visiting the various sites of Saint Francis, I felt a new closeness to this humble saint, who had so much love for Christ.

Paramhansa Yogananda referred to Saint Francis as his patron saint because of Francis’ love for the Christ. Similarly, Swami Kriyananda felt this love for his guru, Yogananda. So deep was Swami’s love for Yogananda that he established a center in Assisi, Italy to honor the humble saint that his Master extolled.

Swami Kriyananda left his body on April 21, 2013 at his home in the Ananda Assisi community in Italy.

We (Ananda College) plan to return to Italy this year (September 9–24, 2024). You are cordially invited to join a Pilgrimage to Italy with Nakula and me to the land of Saint Francis, in homage to Yogananda and his disciple, Swami Kriyananda. Reservations close on 5/18/2024. We hope you will join us!

La Verna refuge where St. Francis secluded