The teachings relating to health tend to focus on foods that will strengthen the body or on removing toxins that block the flow of energy in the body. These teachings are an important part of the picture so long as you haven’t reached a certain level of spiritual realization.

But we need to understand that health is a total process and primarily a reflection of our strength inwardly. Illness and other health troubles come from not being in touch with our deepest reality. Our true nature is healthy. It can’t be otherwise because we are children of God.

Spiritual ignorance, therefore, is the greatest disease of all. From spiritual ignorance all other mistakes follow. When you are ignorant of the fact that you are a child of God and not just the body and personality, when you are ignorant of your wrong attitudes, it is possible again and again to make mistakes that create bad karma and illness. Therefore the most important thing of all is curing this ignorance.

A healing through will power
I once knew a woman who had been hired as a cook at Mount Washington. She was a big, strapping woman and strong enough to carry things it would normally take two or three people to carry. I was very surprised when she told me she’d had polio and was told she would never walk again.

She responded to her illness by telling herself, “I am not going to be a cripple for the rest of my life!” When people weren’t looking, she would tumble out of bed and kind of crawl across the floor and huddle against the wall. Using all of her will power, she would then try to push herself up to a standing position, leaning against the wall for support. She did this repeatedly and with great determination.

She didn’t know anything about drawing energy from the cosmic source, but she just kept trying. She kept sending out the thought that she wanted her legs to move, which was, in fact, sending energy to her body. Little by little, her body started to respond. And after a while, the miracle occurred. She overcame the paralysis completely.

This woman healed herself without knowledge of spiritual laws. How much easier it is to use will power to heal yourself when you know that energy can make you well, and that a strong affirmation of wellness can draw energy from the cosmic source and heal your illness.

An ocean of cosmic energy
The body’s ability to heal or resist disease depends primarily on being able to draw energy into the body from the cosmic source. We live surrounded by an ocean of cosmic energy, and we draw on it to a greater or lesser extent all the time, depending on our will power or willingness, and on the clarity of our awareness. There are a number of saints and yogis who have lived for many years without eating, yet somehow they manage to carry on and, in fact, they put everyone else to shame with their high level of energy. They are sustained by that cosmic source.

The energy we bring into the body from the cosmic source is intelligent. It can transform the chemistry of the body. It can become whatever chemicals we need in order to heal because all of these chemicals are manifestations of cosmic energy. The body itself is not a physical object. It is a holding pattern of energy and this pattern can be changed. When we change the holding pattern, we suddenly find new and different chemicals rushing in to take the place that’s been created for them.

It is by changing the holding pattern that amazing miracles and instantaneous healings have occurred: people dying of cancer who suddenly became well; people who bathed in the waters at Lourdes who suddenly grew new organs. The woman crippled by polio, by her will power and determination, changed the holding pattern and healed her legs.

How to offset the karma of illness
How do we become ill? Illness enters the body through the agency of our karma. Our karma creates weaknesses in the aura, and through those weaknesses illness can enter. There isn’t anything we can do about the existence of that karma. We can’t banish it. But we can we can offset karmic law by spiritual means, by devotion and being more in tune with God.

There was a young boy at the Self-Realization Fellowship Hermitage in Encinitas who had an accident which resulted in his cutting off a finger. Paramhansa Yogananda said he had seen a black cloud in the boy’s astral body shortly before this accident. Yogananda said that if the boy hadn’t been at the hermitage, the accident would have been far worse.

Something very similar happened to Daya Mata shortly after I came onto the spiritual path. She was rushed to the hospital with an illness which the doctor diagnosed incorrectly. Karmically she was supposed to die but by Yogananda’s blessings, she lived. Explaining the situation, Yogananda said, “That’s the way karma works. The doctor diagnosed it wrongly because it was her karma to go.”

Attunement with the Divine gives you a very strong aura. It’s as though you were wearing armor. Any bad karma that comes either can’t get through or is greatly lessened.

Illness and spiritual growth
There are certain instances when it is not appropriate to offset the karma of illness. An example involved a very saintly 19-year-old girl in India who had healing powers. She had healed many people but she steadfastly refused to heal her father, who was very ill.

Finally her family, and especially her mother, pressured her so much that she had no choice but to pray for him. However, she wrote her mother a note saying, “You will see what will happen.” She prayed for her father and he became well. Not very long afterwards, he began living a dissolute life.

A dissolute life in the past had created the karma for her father to be ill. His illness was a means of creating a break with his past and changing the mental tendency to lead a dissolute life. For that change to occur, however, the illness needed to reach deep enough levels of his mind to rid him of those old tendencies. When his illness was removed prematurely, all of those old tendencies surfaced.

Illness and physical problems are often an important part of spiritual growth. They are the means by which the soul propels us away from error and toward God.

Love: your greatest protection
Paramhansa Yogananda had a great deal of respect for Christian Scientists but he said that good health requires more than mental affirmation. Our mental attitudes, our dynamism and optimism, are very important. But the most important thing of all is our attunement with the Divine. Swami Sri Yukteswar said that the unfolding of the heart’s natural love fills the body with such harmonious energy that it banishes all disease. To develop the natural love of the heart is the most important thing that we can do for our health.

Saint Francis had so much love that he could eat the scraps in people’s garbage pails, yet he was untouched. His deep attunement to God and Christ protected him. The best thing is to have a balance – to eat properly, to exercise regularly – while always keeping in mind that the greatest need is for loving God, for loving people, and for having this kind of harmonious energy.

Anything that makes us more giving towards other people, more sharing, less defensive and less competitive with them, helps very much in the development of devotion. On the other hand, attitudes of aggression, defensiveness, worry, fear, and self-condemnation constrict the heart and are harmful to the body.

God has no favorites
Divine love not only fills the body with harmonious energy and dissolves impurities, it puts us in tune with the great universal flow. When we are in tune with that flow, we have the power of the universe supporting us, giving us strength. Try to rely more on God. You have to do your part but God has no favorites. Anytime you put yourself in His hands and just flow with His great symphony of life, everything seems to work out for the best.

A lovely instance of this occurred when I visited India some years ago. I had written to friends that I was coming to Calcutta. When I didn’t hear from them I naturally wondered if they had received my letter and would be at the airport to meet me. And yet, I thought, “Well I’ve done my part. God will take care of the rest.”

When I arrived at the Calcutta airport, my friends weren’t there, but I didn’t worry about it. I just stood there thinking, “Well, Master, what do you have in mind?” Hardly ten seconds later a man came up to me and asked my name. He said he had been seen a photograph of me a few weeks earlier. It turned out he was in Calcutta to visit a dear friend of mine, someone I had hoped to see while in India but whose address I could not find—and he took me to see this friend. I later got together with the friends who were not at the airport to meet me.

So don’t think you have to do everything. Do your best in a common sense way but, above all, try to be in tune with Him and the universal flow will constantly sustain you. The right things will happen for your physical, mental, and spiritual health. The right guidance will come at the right time. The right kinds of foods will be there when you need them. Everything will be there if you cling to God with faith and devotion.

You have come from Infinity
This body is just a small part of that which you really are. For a while you are living in this body, but the truth is that you have come from Infinity and are living only temporarily in this little physical form.

You will not be anything but hopelessly diseased until you realize the truth of your own nature, the reality of your oneness with God. Ignorance of your oneness with God is the supreme disease of which all others are merely outward and limited manifestations. Banish that ignorance and know who and what you really are.

From a 1981 talk at Ananda Village.

Related reading: The Art & Science of Raja Yoga by Swami Kriyananda

By the power of concentration, you can use the untold power of mind to accomplish your worthwhile goals, and to do quickly what would ordinarily take a long time. I will tell you of such an experience.

A direct route to success
A friend told me that my success in the spiritual realm would not help me succeed in business. I replied, “Within two weeks I will make five thousand dollars for you through business investments.” He replied doubtfully, “I am from Missouri. You will have to show me.”

I did not rush about looking for ways to invest money. I sat in meditation and used my powers of concentration to disengage my mind from all distractions, and focused my attention on the inner divine source. Everything is recorded in the divine source – every change in the physical body, in the planetary system, and in business. When I touched that source, I prayed fervently for guidance. Right away I was shown lots of houses.

I went out and bought the Sunday papers and looked at the real estate advertisements. I selected a few houses that looked like good investments and advised my friend to buy them. He said, “The market for real estate seems pretty shaky right now.” “Never mind, doubting Thomas,” I replied. “Don’t spoil success by your doubts.”

In two weeks there was a real estate boom. The prices of houses rose very high. My friend sold the houses and reaped a clear profit of five thousand dollars. I had shown him what the concentrated power of the mind can do when we apply it with faith in God. The power of concentration, when guided by the Divine, does not lead you blindly through the jungle of wrong investments. You go straight to success.

Always start from within
All people of success have had great concentration. They would dive deeply into their problems and come up with the pearls of right solutions. You can apply concentrated mind power to all fields of activity and knowledge. The key is to start from within, not from without.

All knowledge comes from the inner source. By starting from within, I learned to play musical instruments. I thought, “Well, the first musician had no one to teach him. If he could learn, then I can also learn to play a musical instrument.”

By starting from within, you can acquire the experience of many years within a short time. The first step is to increase the receptivity of your intuition. Calmness, concentration, and condensation of experiences by intuitional perception will make you master of all knowledge.

The power of receptivity
When I met Luther Burbank, he showed me a walnut tree and said, “I took off more than one hundred years from its usual period of growth. I grew that tree in twelve years.” And I could see the tree bearing walnuts!

If the walnut tree can be made to grow in twelve years, instead of one hundred years or more, there is a chance for human beings also. How is a human being within the limited span of his existence going to be able to acquire all the knowledge he needs to accomplish his goals?

The power and largeness of your inner receptivity determine how much, and how quickly, you can grasp knowledge.  By awakening the brain cells through meditative practices, you can increase your receptivity. The receptivity of the brain cells can become so great that you can quickly grasp whatever knowledge you need. The person of great receptivity quickly sees everything. In a single lifetime, you will be able to absorb within yourself  everything you need to know.

How to make brain cells more receptive
This body changes every twelve years, and the mind changes correspondingly. If it takes twelve years of growth and development to manifest certain thoughts, how are you going to make the brain receptive to all wisdom? You cannot absorb all wisdom unless your brain evolves accordingly.

The masters of India have taught a method of revolving certain kinds of vital currents around the spinal column and brain that develops their receptivity.** When, by the power  of concentration, all spinal and brain cells are focused on the cosmic source, they become highly magnetized. By twelve practices of this method you gain the result of one year’s ordinary evolution of the brain. In a year, you gain the result of many years of evolution.

Practices like these have enabled many saints to gain spiritual knowledge quickly, far beyond that of theoretical theologians. These saints can perceive in a second the equivalent of years of ordinary experience. Revolving this current around the spinal column and brain is what develops that receptivity. Jesus Christ did not go to college, but not one of the scientists in the world knows nature’s laws as he did.

Scientists would accomplish much more if they concentrated on increasing the receptivity of their brain cells, instead of depending only on books and other outward sources. When the divine magnetism touches the brain cells, each individual cell becomes a vibrant brain. You then have a myriad of awakened brains ready to grasp all knowledge. With billions of awakened brain cells, you will be able to apprehend all things.

Whenever you want to know something, meditate and go within. When the mind is calm and receptive, ask the Divine to direct you to right action, and act according to the inner direction you receive. With the power of awakened brain cells you will quickly perceive everything. Success in all things will come to pass in a short time.

Why brilliant people sometimes fail
Why is it that many brilliant people with great powers of concentration do not succeed, or achieve only meager success?  Success depends not only upon your power of concentration, receptivity, and mental efficiency in this life, but also upon your failures and successes in past lives, which are carried over into the present as subconscious tendencies and traits.

These subconscious tendencies explain why many people fail despite their conscientious efforts. Even the most successful financier may sometimes experience reverses in his fortunes due to the sudden manifestation of subconscious failure tendencies.

Henry Ford, for example, nearly lost his entire fortune during WWII. He had acquired great wealth in life because he had been prosperous in former lives. But his subconscious mind was filled with failure tendencies due to the failures of past lives. During the war, when conditions were unfavorable to certain lines of business, his failure seeds sprouted and almost caused his financial ruin. If he had permitted himself to become discouraged he would have lost everything.

By a superhuman effort of will, he fought off his brutal business competitors, who were bent on destroying the organization he had built up during many years of hard work. His success consciousness of the past was reinforced by his initiative in this life, his trained business judgment, his knack for choosing the right workers, his perseverance, and his daring.

The will: your most effective weapon
The example of Henry Ford shows that financial success depends both on a person’s earning ability in past lives and on his determined exercise of will power in this life. The key to victory over karma is will power, exercised in conscious attunement with the Divine through meditation.

Whatever we have done in past lives, or in this life, can be undone. If a particular karma is strong, it can at least be modified. If you refuse to be discouraged or apprehensive, and do your part and rely upon God to do His, you will stimulate the dormant success consciousness of past lives.  The power of a strong will, guided by divine wisdom, is unlimited. Increasing your power of receptivity through meditative practices will help you overcome the karma more quickly.

Visualization and affirmation are not enough
Some people think that by visualizing a Rolls Royce or mentally picturing Henry Ford, they can acquire a Rolls Royce or become like Henry Ford. This viewpoint ignores the karmic law of cause and effect which governs the destinies of every person. No matter how clearly or powerfully all the people in the world visualized Henry Ford, not all of them would become like him.

Visualizations or affirmations of success can encourage and strengthen your conscious mind, but the conscious mind alone can not achieve success if it is hindered by karmic law. Only by contacting God in meditation, and tapping into His unlimited power, can a person overcome a strong poverty tendency from the past.

Success and divine abundance follow the law of service and generosity. Those who seek prosperity only for themselves are either bound to be poor for some time, or to suffer from mental inharmony. But those who think of others and work for group prosperity find that cosmic forces support and guide them in their efforts to achieve success. The law of magnetism works in their favor.

Accelerate your spiritual progress
Through the power of concentration and increased receptivity, you can use your attention to do quickly a thing which ordinarily would take a long time. Not only can you achieve business success more quickly, you can also quicken your evolution in all areas of life, including your own inner life.

Learn to use your awakened brains cells and intuitional perception not only to apprehend all knowledge but also to accelerate your spiritual progress.

From articles written in the late 1930s.

To learn about Kriya Yoga, see Autobiography of Yogi, Chapter 26, The Science of Kriya Yoga, Crystal Clarity Publishers.

Related reading: How to Be a Success The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda, Volume 4, Crystal Clarity Publishers.

In The Holy Science Sri Yukteswar describes a recurring cycle of human development called the cycle of the yugas (ages), caused by influences from outside our solar system that affect the consciousness of all humanity. He explains that as the yugas advance, humanity increasingly manifests its higher potentials and expresses divine virtue more and more completely. The world is now in the ascending half of the cycle, in the second age (Dwapara Yuga), which began in 1900 A.D.

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According to Sri Yukteswar, it is far easier for us to understand the present and previous ages of Kali Yuga and Dwapara Yuga than it is for us to understand Treta Yuga — if we can understand it at all. Paramhansa Yogananda said that both Kali Yuga and Dwapara Yuga have a common theme of materialism: in Kali Yuga materialism is most pronounced, but in Dwapara Yuga, too, mankind’s values are fairly materialistic. The motivations, awareness, and capabilities of those living in Treta Yuga will take a quantum leap beyond our current, more materialistic understanding.

In Dwapara Yuga, because mankind is able to comprehend that energy underlies all matter, he becomes able to manipulate and control matter. In Treta Yuga, mankind will be able to comprehend that thought underlies all energy, that everything is made up of ideas or thoughts. In Treta Yuga, people will first gain greater awareness of their thoughts, and then, gradually, will develop the ability to control and direct their thoughts at will.

In an attempt to give ascending Treta Yuga more shape and texture, we will explore several possible trends reflecting the natural expression of the awareness and capabilities of Treta Yuga man.

A Truly Civil Society

According to Sri Yukteswar, one specific mental ability most Treta Yuga men and women will share is the ability to be aware of one another’s thoughts. In a society in which everyone has at least some ability to perceive the thoughts of others, we would expect to find a level of awareness of, and sensitivity to others unparalleled in our age. Awareness of and sensitivity to others would naturally lead to a more civil society.

We expect that people in ascending Treta Yuga will be much more aware of what everyone else is “really like.” Today, it is easy to be fooled by people. We’ve all met someone who is charming and, seemingly, kind and thoughtful, only to have later encounters that reveal that the person has a mean streak, is prone to lie, or has other undesirable characteristics. Had his thoughts been more “visible” to us, we would probably have detected all the aspects of his personality immediately.

Similarly, if negative character traits were an unattractively visible part of what a person “looked like” to others — if their thought “pollution” clung to them like a rash — people would probably make every effort to “clean up their act.”  In our age, negative character traits such as meanness of spirit, unkindness, self-centeredness, avarice, and greed are difficult to spot right away.

Imagine a world in which everyone could perceive the character traits of those around them. Being untruthful would become more and more difficult. Saying one thing but meaning another, or making promises with no intention of keeping them, would be more clearly revealed to those whose perception is sensitive.

Beauty would no longer be only “skin deep.” People would be thought beautiful because of the beauty of their thoughts, motives, and convictions. Men or women harboring selfish thoughts and negative emotions would be thought unattractive, even if they are physically beautiful, because the average person in Treta Yuga will be more able to see them as they truly are.

Equally signifi¬cant will be the ability to see the impact one’s own thoughts and words have on other people. Today, the results of speaking an unkind word, acting in an insensitive way, or harboring negative thoughts toward another person often go unnoticed by the person responsible for them. In Treta Yuga, people will be able to “see” the subtle impacts of their thoughts, words, and deeds on others, as clearly as today we see the impact of our physical actions.

Truthfulness, sincerity, and sensitivity to the needs of others will have high value in such a society. As a result, a civil society, which many of us long for today, is likely finally and naturally to come into being. People who contribute positively and cooperatively to the betterment of society would be praised and admired. Those who have negative qualities, who exhibit characteristics that today are hidden behind various masks and justifications, would be encouraged to change their ways.

Leaders and Government

It would, therefore, be less and less likely, as Treta Yuga unfolded, to have leaders with hidden motives or signifi¬cant character flaws. Today we are essentially guessing about the true character of our leaders; in Treta Yuga we could know their true character. As a result, it would be more and more likely that only men and women of true worth would end up in positions of leadership. Cooperation for the overall benefi¬t of society would become the accepted goal of government.

Men or women who are drawn to leadership because of the desire for power, wealth, or because of other selfi¬sh interests would, by their own thoughts, be revealed for what they were, and would not be entrusted with the public’s business.

Society would probably fi¬nd it impossible to ignore exploitation, injustice, and inhumane behavior. Today’s self-interested and twisted political logic, which allows people to starve, live in crushing poverty and dismal circumstances, would simply evaporate. The sensitive awareness of others, common to all people in Treta Yuga, would not allow such suffering. Treta Yuga man could no more ignore the suffering of other people than he could ignore pain in his own body.

Democracy, certainly democracy as we know it today, will likely have ended by ascending Treta Yuga. Democracy today is in many ways a reaction to the often grievous failures of the hereditary and dictatorial rulers of Kali Yuga. Democracy for the most part prevents the excesses and wrongs committed by dictators interested only in personal power. As Friedrich Nietzsche is quoted as saying, “Democratic institutions form a system of quarantine for tyrannical desires.”

But democracy does have its faults. As Winston Churchill is quoted, “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”

By ascending Treta Yuga, most people will probably have left behind their previously justifi¬able fear of despots and dictators, and will realize that the best government, one that effectively improves the lives of its citizens, will be one run by wise and enlightened men and women with both the material and spiritual welfare of others uppermost in their hearts and minds. And as Treta Yuga citizens will be able to directly perceive the qualities of others, they will not fear that the wrong people will be given such power by mistake.

Daily Life

By Treta Yuga, we would expect the world population to have leveled off or continued to decline. The current population decline in prosperous nations, a decline attributable to the value attached to the quality of life, will, if anything, accelerate in Treta Yuga. Treta Yuga people will have the higher awareness and the knowledge to allow them to live nearly perfect lives. We could liken them to the Swiss of today — prosperous, settled, desirous of peace, orderly and civil, surrounded by beauty.

Beauty of form, and harmony in relation to nature, will most likely shape Treta Yuga architecture, since their expanded awareness will make them keenly aware of such subtleties. With Treta Yuga’s much smaller population, one may also expect people to settle into the best “real estate” available — beautiful, healthful, and bountiful. Treta Yuga man may well spend a considerable amount of time outdoors in close touch with nature.

Individuals will be guided to develop along the natural lines of their innate qualities. In the far more aware and enlightened society of Treta Yuga, we would not likely find the exploitative or unjust stratifi¬cation of today’s society. The hereditary class systems we still fi¬nd all over the world typically have nothing to do with merit, ability, or awareness. In Treta Yuga, mankind’s actual awareness of the thoughts and consciousness of other people will make it more likely that people will be allowed to develop according to who they are, not merely because of the family into which they were born.

Treta Yuga man will appreciate the value and benefi¬ts of serving others. Today there are many millions who are drawn to professions that allow them to be of service to others — teachers, nurses, policemen, fi¬remen, soldiers, social workers — because they derive personal satisfaction from being of service to other people. Our Dwapara Yuga society, however, does not in general value such service nearly as much as it values accumulating wealth. People in the service professions are notoriously underpaid; they are often referred to as the “unsung” heroes of our society.

In Treta Yuga this balance may well be reversed. Those choosing a life of service may be more valued than those choosing to accumulate wealth or power merely for self-interested ends. Treta Yuga people will probably be acutely aware of the satisfaction that comes with placing the welfare of others ahead of their own. Today, the benefits of a life lived in service to others tends to be honored primarily by lip service; in Treta Yuga those benefits will be truly understood.

Although our description of Treta Yuga may sound like the Garden of Eden, still Treta Yuga man will not be perfect. Treta Yuga man will be striving for perfection, rather than simply seeking outward pleasure, as most people are today.

Conflict and War

Despite Treta Yuga man’s advanced state, it is likely that there will still be conflict and war. Treta Yuga man will still be motivated by some degree of self-interest—enlightened self-interest surely, but nonetheless each individual will still be seeking personal ful¬fillment.

Additionally, as in every yuga, there will be those whose consciousness is more in tune with lower yugas. Even though the majority of mankind will be in tune with Treta Yuga, there will still be some part of the population that remains centered in the more self-interested consciousness of Dwapara Yuga.

The combination of Treta Yuga man’s remaining self-interest, however enlightened, with the residual Dwapara Yuga awareness of some portion of the population does suggest that conflict will be likely. Not all Treta Yuga citizens will embrace their higher potentials and strive to rise above sel¬fish interests. Some may seek, instead, to see how powerful they can become. They may still seek expansion, growth, and power, but with their egos as the focus, and with their personal ambitions as their goals.

War today is often waged indiscriminately. Civilian populations are frequently the victims of war. Mankind’s enlightened self-interest, which will likely develop even before the end of Dwapara Yuga, may well eliminate much of this behavior — after all, what is gained by either side if much of the world is destroyed in the process of waging a war.

By Treta Yuga, we expect that war would be waged among warriors only. No longer relying on technological weapons, but on mentally directed power, combat would likely be fought warrior to warrior. Warriors of the future may use concentration and attunement to higher levels of thought to directly control forces — forces they might be able to unleash with great accuracy. Strength of mind, rather than might of arms, would become the mark of the accomplished warrior. Battles involving such warriors may well unfold entirely differently from what we know of war today.

War may fi¬nally be waged in the idealized manner envisioned in the tales of the Knights of the Round Table and the Age of Chivalry.

The Pursuit of Happiness

The awareness of thought, with its greater subtlety and re¬finement, will bestow on Treta Yuga man greater potential for experiencing happiness than we now enjoy in Dwapara Yuga, but it will still be up to each individual to achieve that happiness.

According to Sri Yukteswar, Treta Yuga man’s natural attunement to thought will bring with it extraordinary awareness and abilities. Those living in Treta Yuga will eventually learn that their greatest happiness lies not simply in self-mastery, as an end in itself, but in using their self-mastery to attune themselves to expansive flows of thought.

Attunement to positive and selfless thoughts expands our awareness beyond the ego, and is accompanied by agreeable feelings of joy and well-being. Attunement to negative and self-centered thoughts contracts our awareness within the ego, and is accompanied by diminished feeling and unhappiness.

The arc of Treta Yuga development, therefore, will be one of increasing attunement to thoughts that lead to greater happiness. Mankind will learn that, fundamentally, joy, security, and love are experienced by intuitive attunement to expansive and uplifting flows of thought.

Further, perceiving that the flows of thought lie outside themselves, the people of Treta Yuga will come to appreciate that their ultimate happiness lies beyond the confi¬nes of their egos and limited minds. This awareness will form the essence of their spiritual experience.

The Religion of Treta Yuga

Currently mankind is moving away from narrow or anthropomorphic conceptions of God. Just as the coming of democracy was an antidote to the grievous failures of the rulers of Kali Yuga, a conception of God as impersonal, universal, and infi¬nite is an antidote to the rigid, sectarian, and anthropomorphic conceptions of God in Kali Yuga.

Certainly by Treta Yuga, if not before, we expect mankind once again to embrace the possibility of a conscious and personal relationship with the Divine, a Divine that is at the same time universal and in¬finite. Treta Yuga man will come to understand that spiritual advancement can be achieved through intuitive attunement to specific, conscious expressions of the infi¬nite divine consciousness.

People living in Treta Yuga, because of their heightened awareness of the thoughts and feelings of others, will naturally gravitate to teachers who demonstrate the spiritual understanding they wish to develop in themselves. Treta Yuga citizens will seek to learn from enlightened sages, living exemplars of the truths they seek to master.

By the end of the 3600-year arc of ascending Treta Yuga, people should be well on their way to the realization that there is no reality separate from the Divine. Not only will they realize that their highest fulfi¬llment lies in service and attunement to the Divine, but they will begin to comprehend that they are divine in their very essence.

This then will be the religion of Treta Yuga.

Excerpted from The Yugas: Keys to Understanding Man’s Hidden Past, Emerging Present, and Future Enlightenment, Crystal Clarity Publishers.

Author and lecturer, Joseph Selbie, studied ancient Western cultures at the University of Colorado and ancient Eastern cultures at UC Berkeley. He has had a keen interest in ancient history since grade school. He has taught and lectured on the principles of Eastern philosophy for over thirty years.

He lives with his wife at Ananda Village, a spiritual community in Northern California. Joseph, also known as Puru, is a founding member of Ananda Sangha and has served in many leadership and teaching roles. Joseph is also the founder and CEO of Tristream, a web development, marketing and application design firm.

Co-author, David Steinmetz. David’s background includes forty years of scientific work, including astronomy at the University of Arizona and optics at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Currently, he teaches about the yugas, ancient world cultures, astronomy, and physics at the Ananda College of Living Wisdom. He has been writing and lecturing on the topic of the yugas for more than a decade. David is a teacher at the Ananda College of Living Wisdom and was instrumental in developing a curriculum based on key aspects of the yuga cycle. He lives with his wife at Ananda Village, a spiritual community in Northern California.

Many people are deeply concerned about the overuse of natural resources, increasing global warming, and the vastly uneven distribution of wealth. The root causes are greed and competition, attitudes that won’t change until there is an expansion of consciousness. Paramhansa Yogananda came, in part, to help correct these attitudes by emphasizing high thinking, simple living, and the search for God.

Fortunately, time is on our side. As we move more fully into Dwapara Yuga, the age of energy, we can see the first glimmers of a global shift from competition to cooperation. As devotees, we fortunately don’t have to wait for the world to change. By cooperation and concern for others, we can find the happiness we are seeking right now.

A new consciousness of unity
A hallmark of the dark age of Kali Yuga was that life seemed to be little more than a brutal struggle for survival. This perception continued into the Industrial Revolution, coming as it did toward the end of Kali Yuga. Commerce was driven by the thought that success came through ruthless competition; Darwin’s doctrine of the “survival of the fittest” gave a “scientific” rationale to this competitive worldview.

But this old paradigm is slowly breaking down. With the advent of Dwapara Yuga, people are beginning to realize that all life is connected and that survival of the fittest is a misconception. Higher knowledge reveals that this world is nothing more than God’s dream. How can God be trying to “out-compete” Himself? How can God survive by being “fitter” than God? Even to think in those terms boggles the mind.

As devotees, our role is to become agents of change toward greater global cooperation, especially at work, where competition is still highly rewarded. A first step in this direction is to become more aware of the largely unnoticed connections that already exist.

A vast web of connections and cooperation
Imagine that you are in a supermarket buying a box of cereal. That simple product represents the cooperative efforts of millions of people –– farmers, truckers, builders, plant workers, shippers, business people, and government employees. A vast unseen web of connections underlies virtually every product you use.

Within our own bodies we find also an intricate network of cooperative activity. There are billions of physical cells in the body –– forming the blood, liver, heart, muscle, bone, and brain –– all working to maintain life. Our bodies are also made up of least ten times as many “foreign” bacteria cells as body cells. Our very lives depend upon the connections and cooperation between these billions of different cells.

Recently I (Nayaswami Jyotish) worked in the Permaculture Garden at Ananda Village. I found the experience enormously enlightening primarily because the garden is based on a conscious plan that enables different species to cooperate and help each other.

There are hundreds of plants in the garden. Some dig deep into the soil for minerals, thereby producing nutrient-rich leaves, which the gardeners harvest and use to help fertilize other plants. A few flowering species are there to attract bees, which both pollinate and provide honey. Some plants have multiple purposes: to provide nutrients for the soil, shade for other plants, to produce fruits or berries, and even medicines for their human “caretakers.”

What we see in a permaculture garden is a beautiful example of the web of connections and cooperation that links different species together. Enhancing our awareness of the underlying unity of everything will help us bring more cooperation into our lives. From a practical standpoint, there are a number of ways we can do this.

Learn to see God through others
The deepest sense of connection comes from learning to see God or Guru not only in everything, but through everything. There’s a very touching story of a young disciple of Satya Sai Baba that beautifully illustrates this consciousness.

One weekend the boy went home from the ashram to visit his family. When he returned, Satya Sai Baba asked him, “Did you see your family?” The boy answered, “Oh Baba, all I saw was you.” Satya Sai Baba said, “Well, didn’t you see your mother and your father?” The boy replied, “Oh Baba, all I saw was you.” Satya Sai Baba then asked, “What about your brothers and sisters? Didn’t you play with them?” Again the boy said, “Oh Baba, all I saw was you.”

Persisting, the guru asked, “Well, didn’t you see any of the friends whose company you enjoy?” The boy answered, “Oh, Baba don’t tease me anymore. All I saw was you.”

If we see God or our Guru in the faces of others, we will naturally feel a deep sense of connectedness with everyone. Even to hold a fraction of that consciousness radically changes the nature of our relationships. We should consciously try to see God acting through other people. When we can maintain the consciousness that God is everywhere, life becomes very sweet.

Create a magnetic upward flow of energy
Another important principle is to create a positive flow of energy up the spine to the spiritual eye. This upward flow of energy through the chakras creates a magnetic field that connects us with others. A downward flow, on the other hand, increases our separation and disunity.

If we find ourselves slipping into a negative or complaining attitude, we should work first on controlling the flow of energy rather than on trying to convince the mind to be more positive. When the energy is flowing in a downward direction, our thoughts will automatically follow the direction of energy and give us perfectly good reasons to be negative and critical of others. First feel the energy in the heart and make it positive. A little moment of appreciation works wonders! Then direct the heart’s feeling upward to the spiritual eye. We will find that our thoughts turn positive as soon as the life-force begins to flow upward.

This upward direction of energy will also make us magnetic. People are attracted or repelled primarily depending on the magnetism we generate. Positive magnetism will attract positive people. People with negativity, with a “carping spirit,” will attract people who want to hear negative things.

Swami Kriyananda recently discussed how the colors of the aura reflect the energy people are radiating. Some people radiate beautiful pure colors. Others radiate colors that are dark and muddy. But everybody is always radiating colors. An upward direction of energy will purify the colors and expand the aura.

Become channels of divine friendship
Once you can produce a positive flow, consciously let it stream out to those around you. Become a wellspring of kindness and support. One of our main guidelines at Ananda is that “People are more important than things.” When we make the welfare of people our main priority, we generate the positive magnetism that causes the right things to happen, and in the best possible way.

When Ananda bought East-West Bookshop in Menlo Park, California, the first managers had no experience selling books and questioned their ability to run the store. Swami Kriyananda told them they could gain the necessary knowledge in time, but that the most important thing was to treat their customers as friends, and to serve them and love them in God. Because of that attitude of divine friendship, East-West Bookshop continues to flourish today.

In the 1970s, Swami Kriyananda named the first monastic order at Ananda Village, “Friends of God.” By that name he meant not only being friends with God, but also being God’s channels of friendship to everyone in the world. He meant that we should see even total strangers as friends. If we can learn to use friendship as our primary way of relating to all people, friend and stranger alike, we will become harbingers of Dwapara Yuga and help the world move toward a more unified view of life.

A beautiful, harmonious flow
The deep sense of connectedness to God and other people that we gain in meditation is a large part of what produces an attitude of unity. It’s very important to carry that uplifted peace and harmony into our work and service. Yogananda said that meditation should be active service and that service should be active meditation.

If we can approach our work with a deep inward consciousness, our outer and inner life will begin to meld together into a beautiful, harmonious flow. The particular area of our work is not nearly so important as the quality of consciousness with which we work. Make it fun, joyful, cooperative, and holy.

From an October 20, 2011 talk at Ananda Village.

Related reading: 30-Day Essentials for Career by Jyotish Novak

Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi are the Spiritual Directors of Ananda Worldwide. Other Clarity articles by Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi are listed under “Jyotish and Devi Novak.”

From a young age, I wanted to know the purpose of life. What was it all about? Why was I born? I know that many people today ask the same questions, often after seeking answers in all the wrong ways, just as I did.

A long dry period
Before I found the spiritual path my life could be described as “a long dry period.” I never understood why people were so enthusiastic about growing up, going to college, marrying, raising children, and being successful when everything ended in death and forgetfulness. It made no sense to me. Only those few individuals who had an important history-making mission seemed never to die, but lived on in history.

Since I found myself living in a world I found incomprehensible, I tried to make the best of it. I went to a junior college, got a job, and then moved to California. With a college classmate and her sister, I drove cross country from the East Coast and finally ended up in San Francisco. It was 1957. I was 23 years old.

I loved the city of San Francisco and eventually obtained a stable, well-paid position as the accountant/bookkeeper for an architectural firm. I was still looking for true, lasting happiness. For a while, since there didn’t seem to be any alternative, I thought I would find happiness through outward experiences. But I eventually saw that I wasn’t finding any answers. Life still made no sense to me, and as far as I could tell, people were going no where.

Finally I find a lifeline
One night I became so discouraged that I swallowed far too many aspirins. In the midst of sickness and numbness, I called to God to help me. This was the first time in my life I had ever called to God. I was shocked to realize that I even believed there was such a Being. But God answered my prayer. Soon after, I went with a friend to a lecture in San Francisco given by Swami Kriyananda, who introduced me to Paramhansa Yogananda’s teachings, which gave me answers that made sense. Finally, I had a lifeline.

At the time I didn’t understand that when we start on the spiritual path we don’t change overnight. We don’t suddenly become joyful, even-minded, and all-forgiving. We take all of our unresolved karma – emotions, conflicts, and blocks – with us. I now had spiritual teachings and a guru to guide me, for which I was grateful beyond words, but I had no idea how many major challenges lay ahead.

After meeting Swami Kriyananda in 1967, I visited the small Ananda community as often as possible, while continuing to live and work in San Francisco. In 1970, I quit my job and moved to the Ananda Meditation Retreat, where the Ananda community first started.

Later I became part of the monastery at Ananda Village, which grew in time to close to a 100 people. The main value of the monastery was in giving many of us the opportunity to deepen our attunement to the spiritual path before we were drawn into other aspects of life — marriage, child-raising, or very demanding jobs.

I was already in charge of Ananda’s finances when Swami Kriyananda asked that I also oversee the women’s monastery. Being in charge of the finances put me in touch with nearly every aspect of the community. I conferred regularly with Swami Kriyananda and, for a year or so, served informally as overall community manager.

Completely at loose ends
In the early 1980s my life changed completely. The monastery fell apart – nearly all the monks and nuns got married. Since I remained single, I no longer had much contact with the people I’d been close to in the monastery. Increasingly, householders or married couples began leading the community. Around this same time, two people with accounting training and experience that far exceeded mine moved to the community, and it was only natural that they would take over my job.

Without a real job, and struggling to understand what work I was supposed to do, I was completely at loose ends. My self-esteem took a nose-dive. Looking back, I can see that everything that happened was divinely orchestrated to give me the challenges I needed to grow spiritually. God had a plan for me, complete with many new, and different, experiences.

Since there was no longer any work for me at Ananda Village, I was asked to go to Italy to help with the Ananda retreat just getting underway near Lake Como in northern Italy. I was there for nine months. During the colder months there wasn’t much to do. When not working as a cook’s assistant, I knitted sweaters, scarves and gloves.

Upon returning from Italy, I was asked to become co-director of the new Ananda center in Portland, Oregon. My time in Portland was a mixed experience. My first year included teaching, working as a waitress in the Ananda restaurant, and looking for a location at which to start a church. We did find a good location and the Ananda Portland church soon got underway. After a year, however, there was a change in co-directors and, once again, I found myself having my role cut back. My role was now limited to teaching, which was never my strength; I did not do well as a teacher.

Confused about why my life had taken this new turn, and feeling somewhat depressed, I returned to Ananda Village after two years in Portland. Since no other work was available, I took a job as a medical assistant at the nearby clinic, founded by an Ananda Village resident and physician. I was also strongly encouraged to seek professional counseling. Going into counseling and working in a job I would never have chosen for myself were big tests for me. But Ananda was my whole life and I wanted to cooperate, so I decided to give both a try.

Pulling out of my slump
In counseling I realized that I had always wanted to serve — to serve people and God, and that it really didn’t matter whether my outward service was “important.” I realized that it had actually mattered to me that my service be “important.” I could now see that my deepest desire was to go beyond ego, not to get trapped in my emotions and wrong attitudes.

The other important realization was that unless I wanted to sink into bitterness and despair, I needed to love. I chose love over anger, frustration, and depression. Truly, it was the only choice possible. Since I felt no love in my heart, I prayed to my Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, and asked him to love people through me. I hoped thereby to learn how to love. Having these goals, which were clearly God’s gifts to me, began to pull me out of my slump.

I had experienced a big breakthrough in consciousness, but it wasn’t the end of the process. Many lessons followed, some of them very painful. Changing oneself is a long-term process, but with each step I was becoming happier, the journey was getting easier, and I found it easier to meet the tests with the right attitude.

Making the commitment to serve God and Guru through the work I was doing at the clinic — work that was not overtly spiritual — helped me understand that even a leaf, as it says in the Bhagavad Gita, is pleasing to God if offered with love and devotion. In  times of upliftment and joy, I realized how important it was to make the commitment to meditate and do Kriya Yoga every day. Kriya helps to burn up the karma that draws us away from God.

Looking at the world with love
Looking at the world with love, I began to see situations differently. People no longer hated me! (They never did, but I’d thought so). I could now see why people acted the way they did, and this understanding opened my heart even more. Asking Yogananda to love people through me eventually became such a joyful experience that I was able to love those who were negative, unbalanced, or using the spiritual path for selfish ends. Perhaps most difficult of all, I even began to see and love the Divine within me.

I learned not to let anything — no judgments or negativity on my part, and no one else’s negative attitudes toward me — pull me down. I now understood that people who disliked or misjudged me had their own karma to work out. Their thoughts and actions were not my concern.

As I understood relationships more deeply, I became more joyful in my interactions with people. Joy was creeping into my being, opening doors to expansive new experiences, and helping me understand the spiritual teachings more deeply. During those years I shed a lot of old karma. And I learned not to let anything interfere with my dedication to finding God in this lifetime.

Becoming a different person
I have come to see that to take up the spiritual path in earnest is to shed everything we think of as ourselves, all our desires and plans. When we give up our plans and surrender to God’s plan for us, we find true happiness. In that state of consciousness, hatreds and judgment can’t exist, human love doesn’t exist — only God’s love and what He wants of us. God’s plan for all of us is that we learn to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. As we do that, we become the person He intended us to be.

Nayaswami Seva, a founding member of Ananda, serves as a Lightbearer at Ananda Village. Since 1995, she had been an integral part of the staff of Crystal Clarity Publishers at Ananda Village.

Q: Peter you are the founder and medical director of a primary care medical clinic, one that functions as the initial point of contact for patients in a certain geographical area. I understand that your clinic sees over 3500 patients annually. Does your clinic provide treatment for depression or other mental and behavioral health disorders?

PVH: Yes, and we consider it a very important part of our practice.

Q: Some observers are saying that there is an “epidemic” of depression and that depression may soon be one of leading causes of disability worldwide. Recent studies seem to support this prediction. We know, for example, that depression affects 30% of the population in high income countries like the United States, France, and the Netherlands.

Have you seen evidence of an epidemic of depression at your clinic?

PVH: I’ve been in medical practice for 30 years and I believe the epidemic has existed for a long time. What has changed is the dramatic improvement in the ability and willingness of physicians to diagnose and treat depression. In the past, many physicians tended to ignore signs of depression in their patients because they didn’t know how to treat it.

About a decade ago, our clinic did depression screening on every adult patient for several months. The results were startling. Nearly 30% of our patients screened positive for depression. This was a much higher number than we expected. We were shocked to realize how many depressed patients we had overlooked either because they did not complain about depression or because we did not relate their symptoms to an underlying depression.

Another factor in the epidemic is the change in peoples’ attitudes toward depression. Thirty years ago most people saw depression as a stigma. Patients might even argue with me if I suggested that diagnosis. Nowadays, patients will sometimes ask to be evaluated for depression.

Treatment of depression before the 1960s
Q: Before the 1960s and the discovery of antidepressants, what was the main treatment for depression?

PVH: For mild to moderate depression, the main treatment was traditional psychotherapy. This form of treatment was only moderately effective because it focused mainly on helping patients understand old behavioral patterns, but not on helping them change current negative patterns.

Electroshock therapy, rarely used nowadays, was the main treatment for severe refractory depression. Its effectiveness was limited and short-lived, lasting often no more than six months. The treatment sometimes resulted in harmful side-effects, including the permanent loss of long-term memory.

The different types of depression
Q: You mentioned two types of depression, mild to moderate depression and severe depression. Are these the main categories of depression from a medical standpoint?

 PVH: Essentially, yes. But severe depression can be a single short-lived episode, or a more longstanding and recurrent disorder.  I think it’s helpful to view depression as a continuum, with moderate depression being a midway point between mild and severe depression.

At our clinic, we see mainly patients with mild to moderate depression, people who are still relatively functional and able to work and take care of their families. A person with severe depression is more disabled and has difficulty with such basics as personal grooming, work attendance, and social conventions. About one in six of our patients have severe depression.

Our clinic also treats people with schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress syndrome, but depression is by far our most common diagnosis for behavioral health patients.

The main symptoms of depression
Q: What are the main symptoms of depression?

PVH: Anxiety and sleep disturbances are very common in people with depression. In fact, it is more common for people to complain of anxiety or sleep problems than to say, “I’m depressed.” Other common symptoms include fatigue, appetite changes (either lack of appetite or excessive eating), poor concentration, memory problems, and a lack of enthusiasm for life.

People whose depression alternates with edginess, irritability, or mania may have a bipolar disorder, which has a totally different treatment from standard depression.

Q: I understand that depression, especially in its more severe forms, causes changes in the functioning of the brain. Can you explain what the changes are?

PVH: The brain scan of a person who is severely depressed essentially shows inactive prefrontal lobes and an overactive limbic system. The prefrontal lobes are the region of the brain that allows us to concentrate, feel enthusiasm, learn new things, get along well with others, and live without anxiety. The limbic system is the primitive part of our brain. When overactive, the limbic system causes feelings of anxiety, panic, and abnormal body rhythms such as poor sleep or abnormal appetite.

When we look at that same person’s brain scan a year after the depression has lifted, we find normally functioning prefrontal lobes and a quieter limbic system. The normalizing of the prefrontal lobes automatically suppresses many of the negative emotional expressions of the limbic system.

The effectiveness of antidepressant medication
Q: There have been a number of scientific studies questioning the effectiveness of antidepressants as a treatment for depression. Essentially there are two main criticisms:  One, that antidepressants used alone produce full benefits in only 30-40% of patients, and two, that the effectiveness of antidepressants is short-lived, and patients end up having to take multiple antidepressants. Based on your experience, is there any basis for these concerns?

PVH: Unfortunately there is. Prescribing antidepressant drugs is too often a quick and easy substitute for developing a comprehensive treatment plan. Antidepressants are best used in combination with the type of supportive behavioral therapy that’s been shown to reduce symptoms of depression and prevent recurrences. At our clinic we try to prepare an individualized program for each patient based on the patient’s level of symptoms and disability.

Q:  How does your clinic determine whether or not to use antidepressants?

PVH: The decision to use antidepressants is usually dictated by the severity of a person’s symptoms and how long they’ve had them. Mild symptoms can often be treated without medication. For example, a person with mild depression may only be having minor sleep problems and occasional fatigue. Simple lifestyle changes like getting more exercise, eating a better diet, and drinking less coffee will often eliminate these symptoms.

A person with moderate depression may experience sleep problems, work problems, and difficulties with relationships but still have a certain level of successful functioning in each of those areas. We will use antidepressants to treat people with moderate depression depending on the severity of their symptoms and how long they’ve been present. The more severe and longstanding the symptoms the more likely we are to use antidepressants early in the treatment.

When someone who is severely depressed finally seeks help, he or she is highly symptomatic: often afraid to leave the house, not attending to proper grooming, using alcohol or cannabis to curb anxiety, and unable to work.

When a person’s life is impaired to this extent, we take stronger action, using medication in part to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is always a risk with depression but especially when the depression is severe and accompanied by anxiety. Typically we would start both antidepressant treatment and behavioral therapy during the patient’s first visit.

Cognitive behavioral therapy
Q: What type of supportive behavioral health therapy do you use at your clinic?

PVH: We use cognitive behavioral therapy, which works much better for most of our patients than traditional psychotherapy.

In cognitive behavioral therapy there is an emphasis on affirmation, positive attitude, healthy living, good friendships and simple forms of meditation. After about five visits, each 15-25 minutes, with the behavioral therapist, our patients are usually ready to do their behavioral techniques on their own. But they always have the option of returning for “tune-ups” if they are having difficulties.

Patients who are consistent in using the behavioral techniques can successfully phase out of using antidepressants in one to two years and can stay off them indefinitely.

Q: In your last answer were you referring to both moderately and severely depressed patients?

PVH: Yes, but patients with moderate depression are more likely to be able to come off antidepressants in a shorter amount of time. Those with more severe symptoms may need ongoing medication and sometimes multiple medications to maintain good mental health.

Q: What kind of behavioral techniques do you include in your patients’ treatment plans?

PVH: Since people with depression often tend to ruminate over negative events, our behavioral health practitioners train them to watch their thought patterns and to replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts, and to use affirmations tailored to their specific needs.

We routinely give our patients assignments to engage in positive activities such as serving others, practicing optimism, performing acts of kindness, and counting their blessings. We may start with simple recommendations such as showing a positive interest in others by calling at least one friend or family member daily. The studies show that these kinds of activities are effective in reducing symptoms of depression in people with mild or moderate cases. Our experience at our clinic supports the findings of the studies.

We also involve patients in developing a plan to improve their future. The plan involves setting goals and checking in with their therapist at least once a week to assess their progress. One study shows that having positive expectations about the future can even reduce symptoms of severe depression. From brain imaging studies we know that the simple act of setting goals can help activate the prefrontal lobes of the brain.

Meditation: a powerful tool
We also recommend regular meditation. Since meditation strongly activates the prefrontal lobes, it  is a powerful tool in the treatment of depression and other behavioral health disorders. Our behavioral therapists teach roughly 80% of our patients with depression some form of meditation as part of their therapy.

Q: I assume that antidepressants, as well as the behavioral techniques you use, also activate the prefrontal lobes?

PVH: Yes. Antidepressants are a chemical means of restoring normal prefrontal lobe functioning. Studies show, however, that modeling positive behavior is one of the best ways to stimulate helpful new activity in the brain.

Q: How widespread is the use of cognitive behavioral therapy in the treatment of depression?

PVH: Today depression is mainly treated in medical clinics such as ours by practitioners using antidepressants as well as cognitive behavioral therapy. The most cutting edge medical clinics all have behavioral health therapists as part of the clinic staff. We’ve had behavioral health therapists working at our clinic for almost a decade.

Our clinic uses an integrated behavioral health model which allows patients to see a therapist and start therapy the same day they receive a diagnosis of depression from a medical practitioner. Other clinics are also beginning to use this model.

Severe depression and cognitive behavioral therapy
Q: In your experience, is cognitive behavioral therapy alone, without the addition of antidepressants, effective for people suffering from severe depression?

PVH: No. Cognitive behavioral therapy usually is not effective because severely depressed people usually lack the motivation to get better or are simply not able to work on changing their thought patterns to any meaningful degree.

Q: What treatment does your clinic provide for patients who are severely depressed?

PVH: We now have a host of highly effective well-tolerated medications we can give for six months to one year to help patients through episodes of severe depression.

Q: What if a person has tried multiple medications and behavioral therapy and is still significantly depressed?

PVH: In that instance we either reevaluate our diagnosis or get a second opinion from a psychiatrist. The recent availability of tele-medicine has allowed us to make frequent use of on-site two-way psychiatric consultations with the patient present.

We refer the roughly 10% of our patients with severe depression whom we aren’t able to help to specialty behavioral healthcare, which involves treatment by a psychiatrist and ongoing traditional psychotherapy, and may last many months.

A new energy-based depression treatment
Q: What new directions or research do you see as the most promising for treating depression, especially severe or recurrent depression, in a primary care setting?

PVH: The most promising new treatment is known as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a type of therapy that sends short bursts of highly focused magnetic energy pulses to the left prefrontal cortex of the brain. These energy pulses stimulate the areas of the brain linked to depression.

TMS is a 40-minute out-patient procedure that’s administered daily for 4-6 weeks, with minimal side effects. Patients remain awake and alert, and are able to return to their normal activities immediately after the procedure. I think TMS therapy will be used increasingly in the future for severely depressed people who don’t respond to any other form of treatment.

Q: TMS sounds very promising and reflects the energy-consciousness of Dwapara Yuga. Could it also be used for people with moderate depression?

PVH: To date all the studies on TMS have involved people with severe depression. At this time, we don’t know enough about the treatment to recommend it for patients with milder symptoms, particularly patients who have not first tried antidepressants or behavioral therapy. The TMS equipment is also very expensive; until the costs go down, TMS would not be affordable by most clinics like ours. Currently TMS therapy is available primarily in large research hospitals that can afford the equipment.

Depression diagnosis: a trial and error procedure
The ideal for a clinic such as ours would be to offer functional MRI-type brain scans together with TMS. Having appropriate scanning equipment would enable us to make more precise diagnoses and to refine the diagnoses of patients who are not responding to treatment.

Although our clinic uses a detailed questionnaire to screen patients for depression, depression diagnosis remains a largely trial and error procedure based on the patient’s symptoms and observable behavior. There are no blood tests or inexpensive, readily available brain scans to help us make a diagnosis.

Q: Is there any chance the costs of TMS and brain scanning equipment will go down?

PVH: Yes. I’ve seen the costs of other new medical technology drop over time. Our clinic’s first telemedicine equipment cost $70,000 ten years ago. Today you can get the same technology for $9-10,000. The trend with new medical technology is toward making it smaller, more efficient, and less expensive.

Q: Even if TMS becomes more widely available, wouldn’t there still be a need for behavioral therapy to teach patients the behaviors and attitudes that prevent the recurrence of depression?

PVH: Yes. TMS might eliminate the need for antidepressants, but there would still be a need for cognitive behavioral therapy. We’ve found that nearly everyone with depression benefits from learning to meditate and from having someone available to coach them in the behaviors that lead to improved mental health.

Peter Van Houten, a Lightbearer and resident of Ananda Village, is the founder and CEO of Sierra Family Medical Clinic near Ananda Village. He is also co-author of Yoga Therapy for Insomnia and Yoga Therapy for Headache Relief  Crystal Clarity Publishers.

In his book, The Holy Science, Swami Sri Yukteswar, Paramhansa Yogananda’s guru, writes that fear is one of the eight meannesses of the heart and a serious obstacle to progress on the spiritual path. Overcoming fears of any kind always brings a sense of joy and freedom. Overcoming fear of the ocean was especially significant for me.

Years ago, I nearly drowned while swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. I went out in a small boat with a group of friends when the sea was rough. Apprehensive from the start, the farther out we went, the more frightened I became. Since I was the only one who wanted to turn around and go back, my only option was to swim back alone.

I was a very good swimmer, but I had no previous experience swimming in rough waters. Once in the water, the waves pounded me continuously. As each big wave hit from behind, I swallowed huge amounts of water. Panicking, I began swimming faster and faster, not realizing that I was exhausting myself in the process. Closer to the shore the waves became even bigger, and I didn’t think I had the strength to make it back. Although at one point I almost lost consciousness, somehow, a few minutes later, I found myself lying on the wet sand.

Since then, I have avoided swimming in the ocean and have limited my swimming to pools. Unlike the ocean, pools have boundaries, no waves, and a bottom one can see.

A new opportunity
Recently, my husband, Gyandev, and I led two separate one-week spiritual retreats in Hawaii in a secluded area close to the ocean. The daily schedule left plenty of time for swimming, snorkeling, and scuba diving. The first week’s group consisted of people who loved the ocean; many were experienced snorkelers. After watching them for a while and seeing how easy snorkeling seemed to be, I decided to go in.

Entering the water was not easy. The waves were not high but the ocean bottom dropped off abruptly. Suddenly finding myself in the turbulent deeper water and assailed by a strong current that seemed to pull me into it, the memory of my near-drowning experience surfaced. I panicked and swam back to the beach.

Since it was obvious to me that I was facing a deep fear of drowning, I decided to tackle the fear slowly, with respect. I wouldn’t again just plunge into the water. I would deal with the fear step by step.

I become an observer
The next day I sat on the beach and watched how others in the group dealt with the turbulence and high waves. I noticed that the waves farther out in the ocean were much lower and calmer than the waves at the shore. I realized also that the ocean bottom was covered with the same small black pebbles as was the beach, and that these pebbles had prevented me from seeing where the ocean began to drop off. Not being able to see the ocean bottom had made entering the water much more frightening.

Every morning the group meditated on the beach facing the ocean. During my meditations, I offered my fears to God and Guru, and sought their guidance and strength. I prayed for the courage to meet this situation according to God’s will. I also tried to feel the ocean as my friend, and visualized myself as a wave joyfully merging with the ocean. Throughout my spiritual journey, I have used the image of the ocean as a symbol of God, and the wave as a symbol of the individual soul, myself.

The pebbles on the ocean floor
As the days passed, the members of the group shared their daily snorkeling experiences, marveling especially over the beautiful fish at the coral reef, a five-minute swim from the shore. I did very little swimming during this time. When I did go in it was always near the shore. I spent most of my time observing the waves and those who were snorkeling.

At the end of the first week, I was the only one who hadn’t seen the coral reef or the beautiful fish. All I’d seen were the black pebbles on the ocean floor near the beach.

In talking to God about my situation, I told Him, “I don’t care whether or not I see fish. I am not attached to seeing fish. I love You and my goal is to change and conquer my little self, not to conquer the ocean.” I surrendered the issue to God, at the same time hoping He would tell me I didn’t need to conquer my fear. God listened to me silently.

A whole new world revealed
Most of those in the second retreat group were experienced snorkelers and excellent swimmers. A few days after their arrival, I mustered the courage to go into the ocean again. This time I wore a life vest along with the snorkel mask. Lalaan, a friend with whom I work, and a fearless and experienced ocean swimmer, offered to guide me. I trusted her. Holding on to her life vest as we swam together, we went much farther out than I had gone by myself. Suddenly, I saw the coral reef and the fish—hundreds of beautiful fish! A whole new world was revealed.

The life vest made it easy to stay afloat. Swimming took much less effort. Because I was less afraid, I experienced less tension and resistance and I was not as tired when I returned to the beach. Nonetheless, it had taken nearly all of my will power to stay centered and trusting.

The next day I was looking forward to going in. Again, Lalaan was by my side. This time we went out even farther and, because I was more relaxed, I actually enjoyed it. Later that day, Lalaan offered to take me out in a kayak; how thankful I was that I agreed to go! The ocean was calm and beautiful. I experienced less fear, more relaxation, and for the first time at the beach – joy.

All alone in the ocean
The ocean became very rough and for two days no one went in. Finally, the day before the retreat ended, the ocean was calm and, wearing the snorkeling mask and life vest, I went in again. To keep warm, I also wore a wet suit, borrowed from the woman who’d offered to go snorkeling with me. I’d had a very deep meditation that morning and, for the first time, I felt calm and centered as I entered the ocean.

The two of us swam to the reef and saw the beautiful fish. Feeling safe enough to explore the ocean, I continued to swim farther away from the shore. I enjoyed being in the water and the feeling of being gently swayed by the waves. As I swam, I prayed to God and Guru and thanked them for this wonderful opportunity. I felt relaxed, calm, and joyful.

At one point, I lifted my head and saw that my friend was heading back to shore. I was alone in the ocean, quite a distance from the shore. I continued snorkeling, and at one point, went farther out in the ocean. The water was so deep that I couldn’t see the bottom.

All of a sudden, I felt the power and depth of the ocean, and expanded into its vastness. In complete surrender to that power, I allowed the waves to carry me. Everything was so quiet – I could only hear the sound of my breathing. No longer was I separate from the ocean, a wave gently tossed on its surface. I had become the ocean. The feeling was blissful and with it came a sense of deep humility and reverence. I had been given an experience of oneness with God in the form of the ocean.

I stayed out in the deeper waters for quite a while. Then, slowly, moving in cooperation with the ocean, I began swimming back to the shore. The waves and I were moving together.

Closer to the shore, the waves were higher, and were rising and crashing. I didn’t resist, but allowed the waves to take me toward the shore – and then back out again into the ocean. Surrendering to the waves, I went back and forth like this many times. Suddenly a big wave came and pushed me gently onto the shore. Sitting on the warm black pebbles, I took off the mask and relaxed in joy and gratitude for this experience.

I became bigger
I learned from my experience in Hawaii that one can overcome fear by using common sense, skill, patience, and faith in God—and that all four are needed. In my near-drowning experience in the Mediterranean, these qualities were lacking. I did not assess the risk I was taking when I decided to swim back to the shore in rough waters. Not then being a devotee, I lacked a calm sustaining faith in God’s guidance and grace. In the moment of crisis, I relied completely on my own will power, which ultimately failed me.

The recent snorkeling experience was very different. I was able to transcend my fear by facing it. Each day I tried to tune into God and to let Him guide me in how to overcome my fear. As I became calm and centered through prayer and meditation, God was able to lead me step by step to the moment when I was able to surrender to the flow of the ocean.

Surrendering to the ocean took a lot of will power and energy, but it took less energy to surrender than to resist. Resisting the ocean left me feeling drained and defeated. By surrendering to the greater flow, I experienced joy and deep contentment. And, in the process, I became bigger.

Link to photos of Hawaii Retreat

Nayaswami Diksha serves as a Lightbearer at Ananda Village and a teacher at The Expanding Light Retreat, where she directs the Ananda Meditation Teacher Training Program.  She and her husband, Nayaswami Gyandev, also lead retreats in India and around the US.  

A Hindu devotee was puzzled about what kind of scriptures he should read, and what kind of idol he should worship. (Idols are used to help fix the mind in concentration on a particular god)  As soon as he bought and worshipped one idol, he would become afraid that the other gods might get angry, and he would buy another idol.

He carried the idols in two big trunks, suspended from his shoulders on a pole. Every day somebody would say, “You had better worship this god and idol or read this or that holy book.” Heavier and heavier the trunks grew. The man considered buying a third trunk but realized it was not possible for him to carry all three trunks.

One day he sat by the side of a pond and began to weep. “Heavenly Father, tell me which book to read and which idol to worship. As soon as I worship one god, I think the others are getting angry.”

It so happened that a saint passed by and, seeing the crying man said, “Son, why are you weeping? The man said, “Saint, I don’t know which book to read, and look at these hundreds of idols: I don’t know which one to please.”

The saint said, “Close your eyes and pick up any book and follow that one book through life. Drop the idols on a rock and break them one by one. Worship the one that does not break.” So the man picked up one book. Most of the idols were made of earth, and all broke except one which was made of solid stone.

Then the saint suddenly came back and said, “I forgot to tell you something. Now that you have found your god, go back home. But if you find a more powerful god than this one, worship him. Always worship the more powerful god.”

So the man went home and put the stone idol on a little altar, every day worshipping it and offering fruits. Every day he discovered that the fruit was gone. He thought, “The saint certainly led me to the right god. Since god has eaten the fruits, he must be a living god.”

One day, overcome by curiosity, the man decided he would watch how a god eats. While praying he opened his eyes a little and saw a big mouse come and eat the fruit. The man said, “Look at that stone idol. It cannot eat the fruit, but the mouse can. Then the mouse is a more powerful god.”

The man then caught the mouse by the tail and tied it on the altar. His wife said, “You have gone crazy.” The man replied, “No, I have not gone crazy. I am following the saint’s instructions to worship the more powerful god.” He threw the stone away and began to worship the mouse.

One day he was meditating when suddenly he heard a great noise and, opening his eyes, he saw a cat eating the mouse. He thought, “How interesting. The cat is more powerful than the mouse. So I must worship the cat.” He got hold of the cat and put it on the altar.

The cat became fat from being given bowls of milk each day, and from not having to chase and catch mice. Day by day the man’s meditation grew deeper and the cat got fatter. Every morning the man would always drink a bowl of milk. By now, the cat was not satisfied with drinking only her bowls of milk. One day she drank the man’s bowl of milk and then returned to the altar.

When the wife saw that her husband’s milk was gone, she looked at the innocent-looking cat sitting on the altar and went and got the broom. Her husband’s meditation was broken by the noise of the broom-stick falling on the cat. As the man watched his wife pounding the cat, he thought, “How interesting. My wife is more powerful than the cat, so she is a better god than the cat.”

He then demanded that his wife sit on the altar. So his wife sat on the altar and every day the man meditated on her. Of course the wife continued to cook food for her husband, and every day he would eat his meal after he finished worshipping his wife.

One day the man found a piece of charcoal in the rice. The man shouted at his wife, “Why did you put charcoal in the rice?” To which the wife promptly replied, “Master, I did not deliberately put charcoal in the rice. Master, forgive me, I am thy servant.”

Then her husband said, “Ah, how interesting. Since you are my servant and like to serve me, then I am more powerful than you are — and I am the most powerful god. God is in me. I have found Him within myself.”

******

Moral: It is impossible in this life to read all the Vedas and Bibles, and to follow all the various systems. To become God-like, you must search within just as the devotee in the above story did. You won’t find Him anywhere unless you find Him within. Finding Him within, you will find Him without.

From a 1938 article.

It’s a great mistake to try to reduce stress and tension by avoiding challenges and difficulties. There are some people who never do anything, and they’re always relaxed. Such lives may be pleasant, but they don’t advance you spiritually.

You do not attain peace merely by escaping responsibility. You attain it by discharging your responsibilities and winning on the battlefield of life, and by winning in the true sense. Success in life doesn’t necessarily mean winning in an outward way or even doing a good job. It means learning an important life lesson.

A step toward infinite freedom
Years ago I was invited by the Peace Corps to teach a group of young men who were going to India, and I accepted the job for two reasons. It paid very well, which helped me get Ananda started. The other reason was that I felt I could help these young men appreciate India in the deepest sense.

But they weren’t interested in what I had to say. They didn’t want to learn about Indian philosophy; they wanted to learn about five-year plans, village rehabilitation, and those kinds of things. I tried everything I could think of to arouse their interest but finally I had to admit to myself that I had failed.

Suddenly, in accepting that failure, I felt great victory because I realized that the failure didn’t really matter. I’d always been nonattached to the fruits of my actions, but this experience helped to drive that thought more deeply into my consciousness: I had done my best; the results were purely in God’s hands. And I realized that true success is different from what we normally consider success.

True success means taking a step toward infinite freedom because we’ve learned an important life lesson that we no longer need to repeat. Only that kind of success gives true peace. We can relax about these lessons once we have learned them. As long as there’s any fear — fear of the test, fear of being drawn into the karma, fear of failure, or even fear of success, then there is still karma to be worked out.

There is book by Joan Grant which makes a similar point. She tells us in the book that she remembered a past incarnation in which she had been in a bullfight on Crete. She later realized she’d been born into that life only to develop the courage to be able to face that bull. Whether she was killed or not didn’t matter. Her victory was in being able muster the courage to face that bull in a life or death struggle. Finding that level of courage was her success.

The pull of unwillingness
Most people are pulled in two directions. While they’re doing something, they’re wishing they weren’t doing it. For your spiritual growth, don’t try to reduce stress by avoiding what you’ve been given to do. Troubles and difficulties are your opportunity for growth.

I used to wish that I could be a hermit. I used to wish I didn’t have to teach. I constantly was wishing that I didn’t have to think about money and practical things. Despite my reluctance, I did what I had to do. That was important, but it would have been better still if I’d been able to say, “Oh, joy, let me do it!”  It was only after I learned to accept what I had to do as my dharma, that I was able to put out the level of energy and creativity that enabled God’s grace to flow. Until then it was a standoff between the two sides of my nature.

We need to think, “As long as I’ve got to do this, let me enjoy doing it and learn that the true enjoyment is doing it for God.”  When we give what we’re doing to God, we find that there is a great joy and even great relaxation in the process.

Learn to act from within outward
One of the most important ways to be relaxed is not to care what other people think about what you should, or should not, be doing. When I was young my father took the family to Capri. We took a tour bus up to Villa Tiberius, where the Emperor Tiberius had his villa, and the view from there was stupendous.  However, after about five minutes, the tour guide and the bus conductor said, “All right, let’s go.” But my father hadn’t finished enjoying the view, and he wasn’t going to let the conductor rush him.

Everybody else was in the bus. The bus driver was honking and the tour guide was saying, “Come on, come on.”  My father just quietly stood there and enjoyed the view, and when he was finished, he got on the bus. There was no need to rush. If we’d come to enjoy the view, why not do what we came for?

The teachings of yoga say we should be centered in ourselves. My father was not a yogi but he was non-attached and very centered. If you can reach that level of being centered in yourself, and of acting from within outward, then you will have that degree of poise and relaxation to turn left or right as the circumstances dictate.

Yogis often use a cat to illustrate the kind of relaxation that is needed. When you pick up a cat that’s relaxing, it’s completely limp, absolutely relaxed.  But if you threaten it in any way, instantly it’s on its feet. So we need to be completely relaxed, centered in ourselves but ready at a moment’s notice to go one way or another.

Work on developing an attitude of non-attachment to the fruits of your actions. A person who knows he is doing his best isn’t going to waste energy thinking about the results. People with that attitude will have the degree of relaxation needed to work without tension or fear, and even if they fail, they are able to rise again.

“I am ever the same”
Fear is one of the main things that prevent people from having the kind of centeredness and relaxation that leads to true success: fear of failure, fear of unforeseen obstacles, fear of death.

It’s very helpful to visualize the fear actually being fulfilled, to visualize the worst possible results of whatever you’re doing, because the anticipation is almost always greater than the realization. Once you’ve accept a certain possibility, you can then put all of your energy into the constructive action necessary for success.

To overcome fear, try also to remember that you are not the body. Sometimes in the expiation of bad karma the body is subjected to terrible tortures. People do terrible things to one another. Then there are the prophecies of horrible things that might happen globally, of continents being submerged. And we don’t know what our fate is.

But it will help you if in your mind you can say, “I’m not this body. I don’t need it.  I’m not affected by the changes that take place in this body.” When you go to bed at night, give everything, including your body, back to God. Learn to say, as Anandamoyi Ma did, “Whatever happens to this body, I am ever the same.”

Perfect love casts out fear
In the Bible we read that perfect love casts out fear. When you love God deeply enough there is nothing to fear because you know He’s always with you.

We find that level of courage in saints. They don’t have fear. They don’t even think of themselves as doing something courageous. All they know is that they’ve placed themselves completely in God’s hands. Their courage is based on the kind of total faith and total self-offering that says, “Nothing matters. It’s all God.”

It’s important to work toward attaining that level of courage. If in the process you sometimes feel anxiety about something, don’t pull back. Just call on God to support you in whatever you have to do. The time will come when you will be victorious over that fear.

Remember also that our thoughts send out a kind of magnetism that draws to us whatever is expressive of that thought.  Fear, in other words, attracts the very thing that we’re afraid of. People who undergo a disaster of a certain kind in some way have put out a call for that disaster. It’s usually a subconscious call but it’s nonetheless in the aura.

If you have fear, it behooves you to overcome the fear, if only because that fear may attract to you the very thing you’re afraid of. You can overcome fear by strong positive thoughts. That positive attitude will strengthen your aura and protect you. You can also meditate and harmonize the vibrations in the heart, and then consciously send out those vibrations in all directions. This practice also strengthens the aura and protects you. Live in the thought of being surrounded by an aura of God’s light.

Conditions are neutral
Paramhansa Yogananda said, “Conditions are always neutral.” They seem good or bad according to the positive or negative attitude of the mind. We can make the best of even the worst circumstances. We have to be practical, but the most important thing is to have faith in God and to live in the thought that God is with you always. Faith in God will give you the level of relaxation you need to fight the battles of life most effectively.

Excerpted from the talk, How to Overcome Stress and Fear.

Related reading: Ananda Yoga for Higher Awareness by Swami Kriyananda

Someone wrote saying he did not feel the need for a guru.
Dear ________:

You should understand what the guru really is, for it is definitely a law of the spiritual path that to find God—indeed, to get very far at all on the spiritual path—one needs a guru. A true guru is not a man, merely, but an egoless channel for the Divine. His human body and personality are the most superficial things about him. To see him as he really is is to see a blazing light shining through the narrow “window” of his humanity.

You say you are offended by the thought of devotion to a guru, but devotion to the guru as a man is not really what is asked of the devotee. (Though if one is thirsty, I should think a cup of water would not be scorned with the excuse that one is looking for a lake.) Our own guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, himself said that it is God alone who is the true guru, acting through the agency of souls that are awake in Him.

To seek God, on the other hand, without at least wanting Him would be self-contradictory. To want Him is to feel devotion to Him. To feel devotion to Him is to love Him in all His manifestations, ignorant as well as wise. Inevitably, then, the true devotee feels special love for those great souls who manifest Him most purely.

What one should look to is God’s impersonal presence manifested in the guru, and not merely to the guru himself as a human being. Yogananda himself taught us this kind of devotion, and always discouraged too personal an affection for him.

Do you need a guru? No, you don’t need a guru, if you don’t want God. But if you really want God and you want to work on finding Him, then you do need a guru.

May God and our Gurus bless you.

In divine friendship,

Swami Kriyananda

From Letters to Truthseekers, Crystal Clarity Publishers (Currently out of print).

Related reading: In Divine Friendship: Letters of Counsel and Reflection by
Swami Kriyananda

The Essence of Self-Realization  The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda,
Recorded, compiled & edited by his disciple Swami Kriyananda

The orphans and the stricken have heard of Thy healing power.

They have come to Thy door.

Wilt Thou turn them away empty-handed?

Those whose hearts are breaking with sadness and despair: dry their scalding teardrops with Thy invisible hand.

Those who are lost in delusion—to whom shall they turn, but to Thee?

Lift Thine unseen veil of silence and appear in Thy overwhelming, divine compassion.

Before the coming of the dawn of Thy presence, all their dark troubles will take wing.

From: Whispers from Eternity by Paramhansa Yogananda, edited by Swami Kriyananda, Crystal Clarity Publishers.

Now available!! Whispers from Eternity Audiobook, edited and read by his disciple Swami Kriyananda

Out of the Labyrinth
by Swami Kriyananda

In June 1962, Swami Kriyananda read an article written by the head of MIT’s philosophy department. The professor, claiming to give an overview of the fundamental trends of present day thought, stated  that thoughtful people everywhere were concluding from the discoveries of modern, materialistic science “that life is meaningless, and that the universe is wholly irrational and without purpose.”

Kriyananda took the depressing conclusions of this article as a spiritual challenge. His response, taking ten years of study, was Out of the Labyrinth, a book he felt “inspired to write specifically in fulfillment of my Guru’s command to me that I share his teachings through the written word. It was the first book I wrote with a real sense of mission, in the specific hope that it would change how people thought.”

Yogananda’s teachings: life has meaning
Schooled in the teachings of his Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, Kriyananda did not see a rationale for a philosophy of meaninglessness in the findings of modern science. He found no fault in the facts discovered by scientists, but rather in the limited, materially-based interpretation of these facts.

The same facts could equally well be interpreted expansively, in line with the ancient spiritual wisdom of India, especially as propounded by Paramhansa Yogananda: “It was clear to me that my Guru’s explanation of the yoga and Vedanta teachings provided the strongest reason for seeing meaning everywhere.  Armed with this vision, and realizing the depth of general misunderstanding on the subject, I decided that I had a spiritual duty to show the way out of these woods, through which so many people wandered in bewilderment.”

In the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, Theseus, who was sent into the labyrinth to do battle with the Minotaur, finds his way out again by following Ariadne’s thread—a ball of yarn which he unwound to mark his passage in. Kriyananda has used this Greek myth as a metaphor for the guidance of the guru, or of inner intuitive wisdom. For me, as for so many others during their years of intellectual and moral searching, there was no Ariadne’s thread leading to true understanding and to moral and spiritual clarity.

A calm center of clarity and awareness
I think that every thoughtful reader of Out of the Labyrinth will find memories awakening of his own struggles to grasp the meaning of life. Dr. Jay Casbon, PhD and Dean of the Graduate School, Lewis and Clark College, comments that had Out of the Labyrinth been available during his teaching career, he would have made it required reading. Dr. Casbon’s students, like those of every recent generation, struggled with the very problems addressed by Out of the Labyrinth, what Kriyananda calls “the loss of focus on the familiar ethical and spiritual guidelines: truth, honor, and justice.”

As a student, standing at the threshold of adult life one was (and still is) inundated with doctrines that call all the simple, traditional values into question. With no strong center of clarity and spiritual awareness, the student’s mind moves from philosophy to philosophy, with no real way to perceive the underlying truth. Out of the Labyrinth provides a calm center from which to see, study, and evaluate the hodgepodge of ideas that characterize much of higher education.

Thrillingly hopeful conclusions
What is particularly impressive in Kriyananda’s approach is that he treats the main currents of modern thought—however much he may ultimately disagree with them—with respect. His discussion of these currents of thought ultimately ends in thrillingly hopeful conclusions. To cite one example: his study of the law of relativity shows conclusively that relativity’s movement away from absolute values does not mean that values don’t exist.

In his inspiring conclusion, Kriyananda describes the meaning of life as “continuous development of the heart’s feelings toward joyous, ever-conscious experience: perpetual self-transcendence, unending self-expansion—until, in the words of Paramhansa Yogananda, “you achieve endlessness.”

Out of the Labyrinth, For Those Who Want to Believe, But Can’t by Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters) Crystal Clarity Publishers.

It takes less than six hours by train to travel the 450 kilometers northwest from Delhi to Amritsar in the state of Punjab. Gazing out the window at the passing landscape, it’s easy to see why this region has long been considered the “breadbasket” of India, tempting waves of invaders through the ages. Nature has blessed Punjab with fertile soil and abundant water from the five rivers that cross its plains. With just a little stretch of the imagination, I could picture myself in California’s agricultural Central Valley.

Punjab: the home of the Sikhs
When India was partitioned in 1947, the Punjab province was split into East and West Punjab. East Punjab became part of India while West Punjab became part of Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of Punjabis fled from the Pakistan side and resettled in Delhi.

I’ve found Punjabis to be good natured and generous, and their food delicious. Physically, they can be robust, and because they have been called upon through the ages to defend India against invaders from the West, they have a martial spirit. When you combine all of these qualities with personal self-discipline, honesty and religious commitment, you have the Sikhs.

The Sikh religion (Sikh means “disciple”) was founded by Guru Nanak Dev in the last half of the fifteenth century in that part of the Punjab now controlled by Pakistan. In those days, much of northern India was governed by Muslim rulers while the majority of the population was Hindu. From an early age, Guru Nanak displayed an inclination toward mysticism and he is said to have achieved enlightenment at the age of thirty after a deep samadhi of many days. Upon coming back to normal consciousness, his first words were, “There is neither Hindu nor Muslim, so whose path shall I follow? I shall follow God’s path.”

Thus the Sikh religion was born. Guru Nanak proceeded to expound his revelation and traveled widely, drawing followers to his non-sectarian teachings of ceaseless devotion to God, honesty and service.

Sikhism in its present form is based upon the teachings of the first ten gurus of the faith, beginning with Guru Nanak and ending with Guru Gobind Singh in the early 18th century. Before his death, Gobind Singh proclaimed the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the holy writings of the first ten Gurus, to be the eleventh and final Guru of the Sikh religion. That scripture is worshipped and brought out in procession each day at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, a place of pilgrimage for all devout Sikhs.

An uplifting place of pilgrimage
I traveled to Amritsar with a small group of pilgrims in early October. Amritsar is a major city not far from the Pakistani border. In the middle of town stands the Golden Temple complex encircling a wonderful pool of water, in the middle of which sits the Golden Temple itself, a beautiful marble structure sheathed in gold.

Pilgrims come by the thousands to circumambulate the pool and take darshan of the Guru Granth Sahib housed in the temple. There, Sikh elders read from the scripture throughout the day, interspersing their recitation with prayers and bhajans, all broadcast non-stop through loudspeakers. I found it both mesmerizing and uplifting.

When visiting the temple, you leave your shoes outside at special stalls and cover your head with a scarf or bandana before entering. These head coverings are freely available if you don’t have your own. Once inside the grounds, you see the Golden Temple sitting serenely on the water, as if floating.

I joined the steady procession of pilgrims circumambulating the pool and eventually made my way to a queue of devotees waiting on the causeway that leads across the water to the temple. All was orderly and steady. Inside the temple, reading from the scriptures and recitation of prayers proceeded while the ushers tried their best to keep the pilgrims flowing through. Upon exiting the inner sanctum, I found a niche by a side door where I sat with other pilgrims while listening to the sounds wash over me.

Food is served throughout the day at no cost and I found a pavilion where one can nap if tired. Taking a dip in the pool is permitted and I saw a number of people meditating and reciting prayers. I sat for meditation next to a fellow doing a regimen of pranayam.

The grounds are never closed
Stationed along the pool at regular intervals are khalsa guards. Their dress is a wonderful deep blue, knee length tunic with a bright yellow sash and turban. All sport thick black beards and carry a dignified, authoritative bearing that says, “Behave yourself!”

Thousands of pilgrims come to the Golden Temple each and every day with palpable devotion. The grounds are never closed and even in the wee hours of the morning, you will find a crowd.

At one point I noticed a group of teenagers following me, all the while exchanging conspiratorial whispers with one to another. Gathering their courage, they surrounded me and breathlessly asked, “Where are you from? Why are you here? Do you like it?” They were a group of schoolboys wanting to practice their English and curious about this stranger who so appreciated their traditions. They were very sweet and upon parting, we shook hands all around.

Nayaswami Jaya is a founding member of Ananda and a Kriyacharya. Together with his wife, Nayaswami Sadhana Devi, he lives in India where he serves as spiritual director of Ananda’s work in Pune.

To learn more about Ananda’s work in India click here

1. To help break a lifelong habit of restlessness, try simplifying your life outwardly and reducing the number of personal desires.

2. The essential attitude for correct meditation is one of listening. The mind must be kept receptive.

3. Meditation is the opposite of imposing your will on the world.

4. To meditate, will power is necessary, but the will should be used to deepen your enjoyment of relaxation

5. Without relaxation—of mind as well as of body—you won’t be able to concentrate deeply. And you won’t ever become truly receptive

6. The more deeply conscious and receptive you become, the deeper and more satisfying your meditations.

7. The more you can hold your concentration at the point between the eyebrows, the sooner superconscious experiences will come to you.

8. Gaze deeply into, and behind, the darkness you behold at the point between the eyebrows when your eyes are closed.

9. Listen!—not with the ear only, but with your entire being. Feel yourself in sympathetic resonance with the vibrations of inner silence.

10. Visualize your heart’s feelings rising upward in devotion toward the spiritual eye, the point between the eyebrows—the gateway to Infinity.

From: Meditation for Starters by Swami Kriyananda (Includes CD with instruction, visualization, and music) Crystal Clarity Publishers.

There is no better panacea for sorrow, no better reviving tonic, and no greater beauty than a genuine smile. Paramhansa Yogananda

How Old Are You?

A woman walked up to a little old man rocking in a chair on his porch.

“I couldn’t help noticing how happy you look,” she said. “What’s your secret for a long happy life?”

“I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day,” he said. “I also drink a case of whiskey a week, eat fatty foods, and never exercise.”

“That’s amazing,” the woman said. “How old are you?’

“Twenty-six,” he said.

Paying Up

One day a woman at a local café suddenly called out, “My daughter is choking! She swallowed a nickel! Please, anyone, help!”

Immediately a man at a nearby table rushed over. He wrapped his arms around the girl and squeezed. Out popped the nickel.

“Thank you!” the mother cried. “Tell me, are you a doctor?”

“No ma’am,” the man replied. “I work for the IRS.”

Crazy Work Excuses

Some people concoct crazy stories so they can skip work. Here are a few, collected by hiring managers:

• Employee said a chicken attacked his mom.

• Employee had a hair transplant that went bad.

• Employee had to mow the lawn to avoid a lawsuit from the homeowners’ association.

• Employee’s finger was stuck in a bowling ball.

• Employee fell asleep at his desk while at work and hit his head, causing a neck injury.

New Hearing Aid

Seems an elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years.

He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100%.

The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, “Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again.”

To which the gentleman said, “Oh, I haven’t told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I’ve changed my will three times!”

 

Delayed Wedding

A police officer in a small town stopped a motorist who was speeding down Main Street. “But officer,” the man began, “I can explain.”

“Just be quiet,” snapped the officer. “I’m going to let you cool your heels in jail until the chief gets back.”

“But, officer, I just wanted to say….”

“I said keep quiet! You’re going to jail!”

A few hours later the officer looked in on his prisoner and said, “Son, lucky for you the police chief is at his daughter’s wedding. He’ll be in a good mood when he gets back.”

“Don’t count on it,” the fellow replied, “I’m the groom.”

 

A Day in the Life of Tech Support

1. A customer was asked to send a copy of her defective diskettes. A few days later a letter arrived from the customer along with Xeroxed copies of the floppies.

2. A customer called to say he couldn’t get his computer to fax anything. After 40 minutes of trouble-shooting, the technician discovered the man was trying to fax a piece of paper by holding it in front of the monitor screen and hitting the “send” key.

3. A customer called to complain that his keyboard no longer worked. He had cleaned it by filling up his tub with soap and water and soaking the keyboard for a day, then removing all the keys and washing them individually.

4. A customer called to say she couldn’t get her new computer to turn on. After ensuring that the computer was plugged in, the technician asked her what happened when she pushed the power button. Her response, “I pushed and pushed on this foot pedal and nothing happens.” The “foot pedal” was the computer’s mouse.

5. A customer called to say her brand-new computer wouldn’t work. She said she unpacked the unit, plugged it in, and sat there for 20 minutes waiting for something to happen. When asked what happened when she pressed the power switch, she asked “What power switch?”

 I Give Up

Police in Pasadena, California spent two hours attempting to subdue a gunman who had barricaded himself inside his home. After firing ten tear gas canisters, officers discovered that the man was standing beside them, shouting please to come out and give himself up.

 Reservations

A man stepped up to the airline counter and the ticket agent asked him, “Sir, do you have reservations?” He replied, “Reservations? Of course I have reservations, but I’m flying anyway.”

 

Instructions for Giving Your Cat a Pill

1. Pick cat up and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat’s mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth, pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.

2. Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.

3. Retrieve cat from bedroom, and throw soggy pill away. Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of 10.

4. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse from garden.

5. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, holding front and rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold cat’s head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat’s throat vigorously.

6. Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines from hearth and set to one side for gluing later.

7. Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with its head just visible from below spouse’s armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force cat’s mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw.

8. Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink glass of water to take taste away. Apply band-aid to spouse’s forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.

9. Retrieve cat from neighbor’s shed. Get another pill. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band.

10. Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on hinges. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus shot. Throw T-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.

11. Ring fire brigade to retrieve cat from tree across the street. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil wrap.

12. Tie cat’s front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining table. Find heavy duty pruning gloves from shed. Force cat’s mouth open with small spanner.  Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak. Hold head vertically and pour 1/2 pint of water down throat to wash pill down.

13. Get spouse to drive you to emergency room; sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye. Stop by furniture shop on way home to order new table.

14. Arrange for vet to make a house call.

New Age Inventors

Who invented and flew the first heavier-than-air gas powered aircraft?

1.    Charles Goodyear
2.    Charles Lindbergh
3.    The Wright Brothers
4.    Robert Fulton

Who invented the first commercially viable telegraph system?

1.    Samuel FB Morse
2.    Alexander Graham Bell
3.    Thomas Edison
4.    Abraham Lincoln

Who invented the first alternating-current generator and electrical power motor?

1.    Henry Ford
2.    Nikola Tesla
3.    Archimedes
4.    Michael Faraday

Who invented the crescograph to measure the nerve sensitivity of plants?

1.    Luther Burbank
2.    David Attenborough
3.    George Washington Carver
4.    Jagadeesh Chandra Bose

Who invented the first machine to successfully record the human voice?

1.    Guglielmo Marconi
2.    Thomas Edison
3.    Albert Einstein
4.    George Westinghouse

Who invented the first U.S. patented sewing machine?

1.    Benjamin Franklin
2.    John Deere
3.    Isaac Singer
4.    Elias Howe

Who invented the first camera to use a transparent roll film?

1.    Edwin Herbert Land
2.    Louis Daguerre
3.    George Eastman
4.    Max Planck

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Answers to Quiz

Who invented and flew the first heavier-than-air gas powered aircraft?

1.    Charles Goodyear
2.    Charles Lindbergh
3.    The Wright Brothers
4.    Robert Fulton

Answer: 3

Who invented the first commercially viable telegraph system?

1.    Samuel FB Morse
2.    Alexander Graham Bell
3.    Thomas Edison
4.    Abraham Lincoln

Answer: 1

Who invented the first alternating-current generator and electrical power motor?

1.    Henry Ford
2.    Nikola Tesla
3.    Archimedes
4.    Michael Faraday

Answer: 2

Who invented the crescograph to measure the nerve sensitivity of plants?

1.    Luther Burbank
2.    David Attenborough
3.    George Washington Carver
4.    Jagadeesh Chandra Bose

Answer: 4

Who invented the first machine to successfully record the human voice?

1.    Guglielmo Marconi
2.    Thomas Edison
3.    Albert Einstein
4.    George Westinghouse

Answer: 2

Who invented the first U.S. patented sewing machine?

1.    Benjamin Franklin
2.    John Deere
3.    Isaac Singer
4.    Elias Howe

Answer: 4

Who invented the first camera to use a transparent roll film?

1.    Edwin Herbert Land
2.    Louis Daguerre
3.    George Eastman
4.    Max Planck

Answer: 3

Concentration

Concentration is the power by which you can free your attention from objects of distraction and place it upon one thing at a time.

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Concentration is the gateway to power. The root cause of failure is lack of concentration.

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Those who concentrate on the fruits of their actions are led continuously from one desire to another until they become completely entangled in earthly desires.

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Thousands of people make wrong investments every day because their minds are distorted by greed, which clouds their powers of concentration.

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If you can keep your mind focused deeply enough and long enough at the point between the eyebrows, you will get the right answer to any problem.

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To acquire mental magnetism, you must do everything with deep concentration. People who have reached the top of their profession or business have great magnetic power.

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Habits can be changed in a day. They are nothing but concentration of the mind. Simply concentrate another way, and you’ll completely overcome the habit.

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When you can concentrate upon any object and see it with either open or closed eyes, you will have developed your ability to concentrate.

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Just as all human beings have eyes, so does everyone have a spiritual eye within the forehead. It awaits only your discovery by deep concentration within.

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The more deeply you concentrate your attention at the point between the eyebrows, the more you will find your ego dissolving into superconsciousness.

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Concentration and meditation destroy mental diseases and corrosive bad habits that are lodged in the brain.

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If your concentration becomes supremely strong and you are one with God, you are able to see all the great saints materialized in flesh, and you can touch them with your hands. This is the ultimate state of concentration.

From lessons, articles, and books by Paramhansa Yogananda.

Clarity Magazine recommends the following books and movies:

BOOKS

Global Soul
by Pico Iyer

Global Soul is an intriguing book of essays about the rising tide of cultural displacement and the impact of globalization on the human condition. To the author, the concept of “global soul” is flexible. It could mean someone like an international consultant, who carries five different plane tickets at all times, or it could represent the citizen who combines a multicultural past with an equally colorful present.

Using his own multicultural upbringing (Indian, American, British) as a point of departure, Iyer sets out on a quest to find out what remains constant in this changing world of globalization. Publishers’ Weekly says: “Iyer brings a fine spiritual current to his writing, and his descriptive talents are unsurpassed.”

Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon–Survival of Bodily Death
by Dr. Raymond Moody M.D.

A pioneering work in the field of psychiatry, Life After Life, written by psychiatrist, Raymond Moody, investigates more than one hundred case studies of people who experienced “clinical death” and were subsequently revived. First published in 1975, this classic exploration of life after death became an international bestseller and has paved the way for many other studies on near death experiences.

Saved by the Light
by Dannion Brinkley

Saved By the Light is Dannion Brinkley’s profoundly moving account of his two near death experiences and the spiritual transformation that he underwent afterward. Dr. Raymond Moody calls Brinkley’s book “the most complete near death experience ever recorded.” Dannion Brinkley currently lives in South Carolina, where his life is devoted to hospice work and research into alternative medical therapies.

The Great Lion of God
by Taylor Caldwell

The Great Lion of God is a fascinating biographical novel about the life of St. Paul and the early Christians during and after the time of Jesus. A richly textured work that combines the author’s literary skills with in-depth research, The Great Lion of God  reveals the amazing story of Paul, persecutor of the Christians turned Apostle, and the powerful impact he had on his times and long after.

Spontaneous Happiness
by Andrew Weil, MD

Everyone wants to be happy. But what does that really mean? Increasingly, scientific evidence shows us that true happiness and well-being come only from within.

In his new book, Spontaneous Happiness, Andrew Weil shares the latest research and offers an array of scientifically proven strategies for attaining optimum emotional health. Whether you are struggling with depression or simply want to feel happier, Dr. Weil’s revolutionary approach will shift the paradigm of your emotional health and help you achieve greater contentment in your life.

Unbroken
by Laura Hillenbrand

Unbroken is a biography of World War II hero Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic track star who survived more than two and a half years of internment in several of Japan’s most brutal POW camps. A story of survival, resilience, and redemption, you’ll cheer for the man who refused to be broken and somehow maintained his selfhood and humanity despite the humiliation and degradations that he suffered.

William the Conqueror: The Norman Impact upon England
by David C. Douglas

In this very detailed and well researched book, historian David C. Douglas examines the life and times of William the Conqueror from his early childhood as the bastard son of Duke Robert of Normandy, to the zenith of his career as the most powerful and successful ruler in all of Western Europe. A book for the general reader as well as the scholar, you will come away with an understanding of how William’s intelligence, courage, and military and political leadership enabled him to become the foremost leader of his time and to forge a legacy that endures down to the present day. A classic in any genre!

My Family and Other Animals
by Gerald Durrell

My Family and Other Animals is an autobiographical work by naturalist Gerald Durrell, in which he depicts his childhood and his larger-than-life expatriate family on the Greek island of Corfu. Originally intended as a discussion of the natural history of the Greek island, the book ended up as a delightful account of his family’s experiences, which Durrell describes as “rather like living in one of the more flamboyant and slapstick comic operas.” An absolute great read!

All Creatures Great and Small
by James Herriot

For over 25 years—since All Creatures Great and Small was first published—readers have delighted to the storytelling genius of James Herriot, the Yorkshire veterinarian whose stories brim with the wonder of life. Herriot’s stories of his first years as a country vet are heartwarming and often hilarious. They depict the wonderful relationship between man and animal and the humor, compassion, and love of a kindly doctor who is always available to help. A classic multimillion copy bestseller!

Code of the Woosters
by PG Wodehouse

The Code of the Woosters, another Wodehouse masterpiece first published in 1938, is the third full-length novel to feature two of Wodehouse’s best-known characters, the likeable and clueless Bertie Wooster and Jeeves his effortlessly superior valet and protector, who rescues Bertie time and again from the consequences of his repeated follies. This time the action takes place at Totleigh Towers where Bertie keeps getting embroiled in one impossible situation after another, all under the jaundiced eye of Sir Watkyn Bassett and his menacing associate, Roderic Spode. Without question Code of the Woosters will both entertain you and brighten your day.

*******

MOVIES

Around the World in 80 Days, 1956
This Oscar-nominated movie, an adaptation of Jules Verne’s 1873 novel, recounts the adventures of Englishman Phileas Fogg who makes a seemingly impossible wager that he can circumnavigate the globe and arrive back in England within 80 days. The whirlwind journey takes him and his faithful valet on adventures to India, Hong Kong and the United States. Throughout the voyage, they are followed by a detective, Mr. Fix, who is convinced that Fogg is responsible for a recent theft at the Bank of England.

Available: DVD; Rated G

America’s National Parks, 2000
Visit all 55 American National Parks and see why each is treasured as an irreplaceable part of our national legacy. Stunning photography brings the wilderness and beauty of these unspoiled places to life, including footage of areas seldom seen by most visitors. The narration reveals the fascinating history and delicate future of the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, Glacier Bay, Crater Lake, Capitol Reef, Mount Rainier, Yosemite, and other parks.

Available: DVD (2 discs); Not Rated

Saint Dnyaneshwar, 1940
Hindi/Marathi (subtitles)

This 1940 movie recounts the life of Sant Dnyaneshwar (1275–1296), a 13th century Hindu saint, poet, philosopher and yogi, who was also known as Gyandev.

There is a reference to this movie at the beginning of The New Path, by Swami Kriyananda. Paramhansa Yogananda and a group of disciples had just seen this same movie, which Kriyananda describes as depicting the life of Gyandev, “a great saint of medieval India.”

Available: you tube; Not Rated

Inside Job, 2010
This sobering, Oscar-winning documentary gives us a detailed and comprehensive account of the pervasive and deep-rooted corruption that led to the global economic meltdown of 2008. Along with interviews of key financial insiders, politicos, journalists and academics, the film shows, in five parts, how changes in policy and banking practices helped create the financial crisis.

Narrated by Matt Damon, the film was screened at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In a number of talks, Swami Kriyananda has recommended this film.

Available: DVD; Rated PG-13

March of the Penguins, 2004
This Oscar-winning documentary depicts a year in the life of a flock of Emperor penguins who live in Antarctica, one of the most pitiless and cruel climates on the planet. In autumn, all penguins of breeding age (five years and older) leave the ocean, their normal habitat, and trek inland to their ancestral breeding grounds. After a ritual courtship, they pair off into monogamous couples and mate. Over the ensuing months, both parents must make arduous journeys between the ocean and the breeding grounds for the chick to survive.

The film won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Available: DVD; Rated G

Mirror, Mirror, 2012
Mirror Mirror, a 2012 comedy fantasy based on the fairy tale “Snow White,” stars Julia Roberts as the evil queen who seizes control of the kingdom after her husband, the beloved king, vanishes. The queen keeps her stepdaughter, Snow White, hidden away in the palace. When the princess attracts the attention of a wealthy visiting prince, the jealous queen banishes her to a nearby forest. Taken in by a band of kindly but rebellious dwarfs, Snow White blossoms into a brave young woman determined to save her country from the queen.

Available: DVD; Rated PG

Nanny McPhee, 2005
The recently widowed Mr. Brown (Colin Firth) and his domineering aunt (Angela Lansbury) can’t seem to control his seven exceedingly ill-behaved children. The children have managed to drive away 17 previous nannies. But with the arrival of Nanny McPhee, a mysterious woman with magical powers, the children begin to see that their vile behavior now leads to some swift and startling consequences. A movie for the entire family.

Available: DVD; Rated PG

Nanny McPhee Returns, 2010
In this sequel to the 2005 fantasy comedy, Nanny McPhee arrives at the Green family farm, and uses her special blend of magic to discipline the Green children and to help the frazzled Mrs. Green run the farm while her husband’s off fighting in World War II. A  movie for the entire family.

Available: DVD; Rated PG

Ratatouille, 2007
Growing up beneath a five-star Parisian restaurant, Remy, a rat with a taste for fine food, dreams of becoming a great French chef against his family’s wishes. Despite the apparent dangers of being an unlikely and unwanted visitor in the kitchen of a fine French restaurant, Remy’s passion for cooking soon sets into motion a series of hilarious misadventures that turn the culinary world of Paris upside down.

A Pixar film, Ratatouille won an Academy Award for the best animated feature. A movie for the entire family.

Available: DVD; Rated G