Our Visit to India

Note from the editors: Nayaswami Jyotish and Nayaswami Devi are currently visiting Ananda centers in India. Swami Kriyananda is also there now.

Dear Friends,

We want to share with you news from our time in India.

We arrived at Ananda Gurgaon less than a week ago, and what a blessed time it has been already.

Swami Kriyananda has been busy with all sorts of projects. He’s completed a screenplay called “The Wayshower” about Yogananda’s life, and will be meeting with prospective movie producers over the next few months.

He’s also busy with a steady stream of devotees who come for appointments with him on a regular basis.

Last weekend was a special program here in Gurgaon – “Inner Renewal Weekend.”

Three hundred guests attended what was a deeply inspiring time. On Saturday Swamiji gave a wonderful talk, which was also the launching of the Indian edition of Religion in the New Age.

He is deeply cherished by the Indian devotees who flocked around him so densely for his blessings that he could hardly get to his car after his talk.

The concluding event of the weekend was a blessing for the new school here — Dihika Living Wisdom School. Despite feeling tired, Swamiji gave a riveting 45-minute talk on Education for Life and its importance in Yogananda’s work. Many people described his talk as “historic,” and certainly for us it was one of the most lyrical, expansive and inspiring talks we’ve ever heard him give.

The new school facility, which was built through the generosity of one of Ananda India members, is a beautiful three-story building. Swamiji spoke at a small outdoor amphitheater on the grounds.

We still don’t know when Swamiji is planning to come to America — he just doesn’t know yet.

We’ll all be heading down to Ananda’s community in Pune at the end of this week or the beginning of next for the celebration of Paramhansa Yogananda’s Mahasamadhi at the new community. We will write about those events later.

Everything in Gurgaon is flourishing — the main ashram (Sangha House), the guest retreat house (Shanti House), the publishing business, and The Wishing Tree, Ananda’s books and gifts store in a nearby shopping center, which we visited this afternoon.

We saw much integration and spiritual deepening of our work everywhere we went.

Ananda India truly has put down deep roots in this blessed soil.

There are now many couples and families who have moved to be close to our Center here, and are forming a very strong core group. There are over 20 Indians who have taken our training, and are now teaching meditation classes on their own.

Finally, it’s been a joyous experience to be traveling about with Swamiji in his blue nayaswami robes, with his little flock of nayaswami all in blue as well.

Many people come up to us and ask who we are, and why we are all wearing blue. It such a joy to explain we are members of a new sannyas (renunciate) order. Somehow the Indians seem to understand it right away.

We send our loving thoughts and joy to you. May Master’s light shine through you always.

In God and Guru,
Nayaswami Jyotish and Nayaswami Devi