I’m writing this a few days after the New Year when people have already begun to break their resolutions. Let’s ask why. Will power alone, which Paramhansa Yogananda defined as “desire plus energy directed toward a goal,” is a weak ally. Like a muscle, will power suffers fatigue. An interesting study showed that the worst time to seek leniency in … Read More
This is something I wrote some years ago but perhaps you have never had a chance to read it. I hope it helps fill your Christmas season with God’s light. I am the Christ-consciousness, which has been with you always. Before you were born, I was there. Before even the world was, I was. I am the Spirit of God … Read More
We’ve just had an interesting experience: our first Thanksgiving in Gurgaon, India. This holiday, so well known in America, is normally not celebrated in the rest of the world.
Devi and I are currently traveling to Ananda centers and communities around the world. Last month we were in Italy helping lead a pilgrimage and now we are residing for a while in India. There are many interesting aspects to travel and, especially, to living in a foreign country. Among other things, your comfort zone gets poked, prodded, and bent … Read More
We recently showed the movie Finding Happiness to a group of about 150 students of the Sadhana Centre for Management and Leadership Development in Pune, India. These idealistic youths loved the movie, clapping spontaneously several times during the showing. Afterward they kept us for nearly two hours, chatting and asking questions. They are planning to make a field trip to … Read More
A while back I saw a self-rating system for artists. It asked painters to rate themselves on a scale from 1-5 for things such as composition, use of color, drawing, and two or three other areas important to a successful painting.
Many people are interested in their ancestry and the qualities they have inherited. There is a popular movement to have one’s DNA analyzed, in order to see what diseases and other traits run in one’s family.
An Italian friend told us a joke about two Carabinieri (a sort of Italian national police force who take the brunt of a lot of “dumb” jokes.) They got the “not too bright” reputation because, when Mussolini created this group, he was afraid they might rebel so he drew them from areas with various dialects.
A dear friend of ours, Maria, passed away from cancer 2 years ago. As her husband was taking her to the hospital, in the last stages of her life, she gave him this amazing advice, “Detach yourself. Control the reactive process. Live the teachings.”
Isn’t it interesting how misperceptions can turn truth on its head?
Seekers are often advised to practice the presence of God but only rarely given specific advice on how to do so. When concepts are too vague it is hard to put them into practice.
Last weekend we had a remarkable event — Finding Happiness, the movie about Ananda communities, had its debut theater showing. Lines literally stretched around the block as nearly 700 people streamed into the Del Oro Theater in Grass Valley, California. Several people have written about the showing and about the weekend’s events using phrases such as: “beyond wonderful” and “the most beautiful event of my life.”
Few of us can emulate all the things that Swami Kriyananda did, but his legacy of attitudes and practices can guide each of us. Here are some that are guideposts in my life.
With the death of Swami Kriyananda, a remarkable light has passed from the world, and we will not see its like again during our lifetimes.
We have a responsibility to do our best to become more powerful channels for the ray of divine grace that Swami Kriyananda channeled, and there’s a wind of grace that will help us do that.
The repetition of this mantra will begin to drive out all other thoughts and desires, until your consciousness begins to rotate around that single phrase, “God, God, God.”
A tool for the New Year.
Real spiritual growth begins when we start to look toward the source of our power.
Swami Kriyananda recently challenged Ananda members to practice the presence of God for five minutes a day. It doesn’t sound like much, but this practice has the potential to transform our lives
Most of us, when we try to meditate, have too much restless momentum in the mind and the senses, or we expect to see God with our senses.