Years ago, I was part of a small group driving from Ananda Village to San Francisco. It was a long journey so we stopped at a restaurant along the road for lunch. My friend, a young teenage girl who sat next to me, was the first to receive her order. It was a beautiful and delicious plate of spaghetti. When … Read More
It must have been sometime in the mid-nineties when I was part of a small group spending informal time with Swami Kriyananda, who had arrived from America a few days earlier. The energy was high and joyful, as always in Swami’s presence, and the conversation free flowing. I knew about the challenges he’d faced in America, where a lawsuit had … Read More
There is nothing wrong with being happy to belong to a certain family, community, social class or nation. Every individual needs a social base to work from. A yogi’s spiritual progress will be tested first by his ability to relate appropriately to those near him: his family in other words, biological and spiritual. As long as these are, even to … Read More
In The Holy Science Swami Sri Yukteswar lists eight negative qualities that prevent the natural magnanimity of the heart to manifest. Interestingly, he states that only after the heart is free of these obstructions, man becomes fully fit for the practice of Asana – remaining in steady and pleasant posture. An interesting statement for Hatha Yoga teachers all over the … Read More
In their well documented and deeply insightful book on the yugas, Joseph Selbie and David Steinmetz list the following characteristics of the new energy age that we have been in now for 120 years or so: self-interest awakened intellect energy awareness How do these three features fit into the new religious expression that Yogananda has introduced to the world under … Read More
The emphasis throughout this second six-year phase of education should be on teaching through the feelings and the emotions, and particularly on developing the finer feelings. For it is during these years that a child can begin to direct his emotions constructively, instead of letting them rule him. Swami Kriyananda in his book Education for Life During my first months … Read More
Ever since the early days of Ananda, and even before that, Swami Kriyananda knew that he was bringing into manifestation the new expression of religion Yogananda said Self Realization was supposed to be in this new era of energy awareness. Swami’s own definition of the process must have been clear from the very beginning: free flowing spirituality, consistent with the … Read More
