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How Does One Come to the Guru?

Nayaswami Mukti

Question from SS: Does a Guru have to accept a disciple? In one of Swami Kriyananda’s books, it says if the Guru chooses to accept the disciple? Also, does a Guru know a disciple’s thoughts or only those that are attuned to him? If they are disciples for many lifetimes, do they know all their thoughts?

A Place Called Ananda, Ananda Writers Group, Guru-Disciple Relationship, Spiritual Growth

Swamiji Guides My Relationships

by Nayaswami Rambhakta

Before I moved to Ananda, I worked for a fledgling sports magazine, Runner’s World, with its offices in Mountain View on the San Francisco Peninsula. I discovered Ananda and Swamiji in 1974 through his book Cooperative Communities – How to Start Them and Why, found while browsing in a bookstore in nearby Palo Alto. Ananda seemed the answer to a…

Guru-Disciple Relationship

The Imitation of Yogananda

by Nayaswami Sagar

When I first began to study Swami Kriyananda’s lectures and writings, I was struck by his supreme emphasis on a disciple’s attunement to the guru if the disciple is to attain the state of Self-realization. In his wonderful book Paramhansa Yogananda: A Biography, (around which this article revolves), Swamiji writes about the importance of attunement as follows: One difference I…

Video / Audio

Discipleship: The Path to Self-Transcendence

Asha Nayaswami

Join Asha for a two hour deep dive into discipleship as a path to self-transcendence. Asha takes the vow of discipleship line by line, showing the incredible inspiration latent within every word. Read the prayer and vow of discipleship here.

Guru-Disciple Relationship, Spiritual Growth

Similarities Between Attaining Self-Realization and the End of COVID Lockdown

by Nayaswami Sagar

I have always wanted to know the exact date that I would become Self-realized just as we would all love to know the exact date the coronavirus lockdown is going to go away. This made me come up with a delightful analogy: If we think of Self-realization as the ending of the BIG lockdown — the soul being locked up…

Ananda Writers Group, Guru-Disciple Relationship, Yogananda 100

Master Works in Mysterious, Miraculous Ways 

by Manmohini Tiwari

Paramhansa Yogananda was a monk, yogi, and guru who introduced the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga to the West through his U.S. organization known in the East as the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. Yogananda’s global mission was to spread the teachings and practices of Self-realization to uplift humanity. Yogananda is often referred to as “Master” and he traveled…

Guru-Disciple Relationship

When I Am Only a Dream

by Paramhansa Yogananda

I come to tell you all of Him, And the way to encase Him in your bosom, And of the discipline which brings His grace. To those of you who have asked me To guide you to my Beloved’s silently talking mind, Or speak to you through a gentle significant glance, Or whisper to you through my love, Or loudly…

Guru-Disciple Relationship

A Mahasamadhi Miracle from Master

by Nayaswami Sadhanadevi

In 1952 Paramhansa Yogananda entered mahasamadhi, a master’s conscious exit from the body at the time of physical death. That same year brought a worldwide epidemic of polio, a serious disease of the spinal cord, which often brought about paralysis and permanent disability. It especially affected children and I was one of them, at age 9. The disease begins with…