Dear Friend, Out of the corner of his eye, the old man caught a movement—waving hands, a mother smiling out of the fullness of her maternal love, a very small boy rushing forward, arms up and out ready to embrace the big, yellow tractor. The boy looked up trustingly, eyes wide and clear, unblinking, until the man understood, stopped the … Read More
Our winter here at Ananda has seen a succession of storms, with high winds and soaking rains. At Christmastime, a lone snow goose appeared on Lotus Lake. Perhaps this bird, like the young bird in Swamiji’s Festival of Light, had “entered a storm cloud, and soon found itself struggling for its life. Wind and rain lashed at its wings. The … Read More
Dear Friend, When the diagnosis came, Judith turned inward to God, and there felt His presence more powerfully, more sweetly than ever before—that it was God in the birds, in the trees, in herself, even in the disease that would take her life. All was God. All was joy. She asked her friends to join her, during the time remaining … Read More
Christmas at Ananda’s Living Wisdom School Friend, Late in December Ananda’s Living Wisdom School let out for Christmas vacation. The magic of Christ-love was everywhere: colorful lights in windows, on trees; warm fires indoors; a growing sense of universal family. The next day would be the annual eight-hour meditation, all of us gathered in honor of the tradition started by … Read More
Dear Friend, In the gang-ridden Englewood neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side, a place where children playing outside can lose their lives in drive-by shootings, where a young man’s ambition is more often to be “like my big homie L.D.” than to be a teacher or a doctor—where his future is likely to be the penitentiary, or the morgue, or continuing … Read More
Songbirds come regularly to drink and bathe in a small birdbath just outside my window. The adults approach cautiously, flitting from branch to branch, looking around anxiously at each stop, lest the local hawk catch them unawares. Finally they land on the outermost edge, there to continue poised for flight even while drinking and bathing. Into this ritually structured scene … Read More
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Keshav Bhat, a pious brahmin, wishes to travel to Dwarka, but fears carrying rupees through the robber-infested countryside. “When the Lord of the world,” it is said, “sees His bhaktas in distress, He rushes to their help.” Responding to Keshav Bhat’s prayer, Krishna guides … Read More
A hen turkey has arrived just outside my window where the bird feeders hang, five tiny poults clustering around her long red legs. They are so recently hatched that they don’t yet know to scratch and peck for food. The mother rakes the ground with talons the size of her babies. The most adventurous of the poults rushes to the … Read More
Our Master has urged us to become so inwardly strong and centered that we “stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking worlds”—not only that we stand unshaken, but that, whatever tests may come, we pour out vibrations of love and joy. We have made it a spiritual practice this year, as a worldwide family of disciples of Yoganandaji, to bless … Read More
Dear friends, “The guru helps us by giving us extra strength,” Swamiji writes, “by reaching down and lending us a hand up, but still we have the hard job of climbing that mountain to reach the heights.” For the devotee, the need for self-effort is inescapable. In a boyhood vision, Yogananda looked up from a dusty, crowded, chaotic marketplace, a … Read More
