Spiritual surrender is a great threat to the ego and yet it is the way to true freedom. Whims and limited understanding, as Paramhansa Yogananda used to say, guide human will. Divine will is in harmony with every level of reality. It will sometimes appear to us at first to be wrong though it always proves, in the end, to … Read More
I must admit that meditation has not been easy for me lately. I have so many things calling for my attention including the daily priorities of family life, longer-term goals, creative projects, and of course, spontaneous desires. It has been almost impossible to keep still long enough to go deeper in meditation. I was humorously sharing with a friend recently … Read More
Nayaswami Sadhana Devi leads you in a 30-minute guided meditation on finding peace and calmness within. More meditations are in our free meditation app. Ananda Meditation is the only meditation app based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda. Learn how to meditate, practice ancient yogic techniques, and go deeper in the joy of your own Self. – Start a new … Read More
Recently, a long-time friend shared with me that they are not doing their spiritual practices; they are without faith, and even losing their belief. This person explained to me that they know what needs to be done but do not have the energy to do it. It saddened me deeply to hear this. The only door open to me was … Read More
In 2010, my husband, Gyandev, and I visited our friend Francis at his home in Palm Springs. He was a devotee of Paramhansa Yogananda and took us to visit Palm Canyon, a place Yogananda had visited in the late 1920s. While there, Yogananda went into a deep period of samadhi (a state of oneness with God). After he emerged from … Read More
This quotation of Muir captures the essence of his love for the California Sierra Nevada mountain range and passionately attests to the inspiration that enabled him to strive tirelessly to preserve their beauty. As I read these words colorfully painted on a bench alongside the forest path at our Meditation Retreat, I was immediately struck by their powerful relevance to … Read More
Swami Kriyananda, Paramhansa Yogananda’s direct disciple and the founder of Ananda, counseled thousands of people during his lifetime. He developed our approach to counseling others spiritually. Most people live in the conscious realm, which is limited to the material world. They are not used to thinking in superconscious ways or to drawing on intuition to find solutions. In spiritual counseling, … Read More
In the Autobiography of a Yogi (AY), Paramhansa Yogananda describes many of the miraculous events that he personally witnessed. He speaks of yogis levitating, sitting in a state of suspended animation without any trace of heartbeat or breath, and he further delights us with stories of his own guru’s powers. Yogananda also shares with us a number of mind-expanding scientific … Read More
A lot of people decide to learn meditation but far too many do not stick with it nor decide to make it a practice for life. I suspect that to these individuals meditation seems too much of a labor, an investment of time they don’t think they have, or as some may call it — a selfish pursuit. There are … Read More
The state of our world today can easily have an unsettling effect on us. We see increasing strife and disunion everywhere. Is what we see the portentous rumble of more planetary tension? Could it be the announcement of even greater, horrific global roars and upheaval? What really is happening in the world right now is a battle of mass-consciousness: Aggression … Read More
