With no jobs and two children to support, I felt all alone and in desperate need of spiritual guidance and inspiration. A friend had recently moved to Ananda and she suggested I come there for Spiritual Renewal Week. I knew nothing about Master and had never met Swami Kriyananda, but I had promised God I would walk through every door … Read More
The child was retarded, and the unaccustomed energy of having Swamiji and our whole tour group staying in her home as guests of her mother was making her loud and unruly. She was about fourteen years old and a formidable force in the middle of the kitchen where we were trying to make breakfast. I had no idea how to … Read More
After the earthquake in Assisi, Italy in 1998, tourism dropped off for a while. Many small businesses went bankrupt. The Ananda community there is twenty miles outside of town on a rural road. A small restaurant, serving mostly coffee and sweets, opened on that road just after the earthquake happened. “When so many businesses are closing,” Swamiji said, “It took … Read More
Once when Swamiji was traveling with Lawrence in Europe, they went out to dinner with a married couple who are friends of Swamij’s but not connected with Ananda. Afterward, Lawrence exclaimed, What a relief to get away from those two! The negativity between them was so thick you could cut it with a knife.” “It was?” Swamiji said. “I didn’t … Read More
By the time I got to Swamij’s lecture it was standing room only and I had to sit on the floor of the middle aisle. It didn’t matter where I was in the room; when Swamiji began to speak, I felt as if he were inside my spine, speaking directly to my soul. I don’t know how else to explain … Read More
During the hours when Swamiji was having open-heart surgery, I led a prayer vigil in the temple of the Ananda Sacramento community where I lived. A few others joined me, but mostly I prayed alone. Swamiji was in a hospital nearby, and afterward, I wanted to go see him. Each time I tried, however, so many others were there before … Read More
Adjacent to the lobby of the hotel where Swamiji and a few of us were staying there was a small jewelry store. For hours every day, a woman sat alone behind the counter. “I never see any customers in there,” Swamiji said. There was nothing in the shop that Swamiji wanted to buy, but the next day we went in. … Read More
Introduction The first time I saw Swami Kriyananda was in a tent set up behind the Beta Chi fraternity house on the campus of Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California. It was late November 1969. He was in his early forties. I was twenty-two years old. Usually, the tent served as an expanded venue for the parties for which the … Read More
