In Living Wisely, Living Well, perhaps more so than in any other of his books, we the readers feel our spirits lifting up on the waves of blessing flowing through Swami Kriyananda’s words of guidance for each day of the year.

An inspiring life lesson
The story behind the book is in itself an inspiring life lesson. Kriyananda set out to complete the first edition, titled Do It Now!, in one day, ending his labors at about three o’clock in the morning. But before he could begin editing it, he had to undergo heart surgery, and was ordered by his doctors to take the entire next year off to recuperate.

Instead, preparing this book (and others) for publication made his “year of rest” the most intensely active year of his life. Even the day of the surgery itself Kriyananda worked. The day after the surgery he, incredibly, “blew away the post-operative mists” and continued his work, staying with it until the book was ready for publication. So enthusiastic was he about the result and wanting as many people as possible, and as soon as possible, to read the book, Kriyananda gave away the first 5,000 copies without charge.

Now fourteen years later, Do It Now! has metamorphosed into Living Wisely, Living Well  — a much revised and greatly expanded new edition, the fruit of Kriyananda’s “continued growth in the insights it expresses.”

In his introduction, Kriyananda explains that the “sayings in this book consist of lessons I myself have learned in life, whether by experience or through trial and error; sometimes by deep pain or disappointment; many times through an inner joy almost unbearable.” He concludes with this exhortation: “I ask you, as a favor to yourself: Buy, beg, or borrow this collection of thoughts…..keep it on your nightstand or in your meditation room. Read from it every morning, and ponder, throughout the day, the thoughts expressed. If even one saying should spare you some of the pains I have experienced in my own life, I shall feel amply rewarded. For whatever tests you face or have faced, they will likely resemble some that I, too, have known.”

A focusing practice
My own approach has been to read the day’s selection when I first wake up in the morning – a time of great receptivity. I try to carry the thought and vibration of the reading into the ten-minute walk through a forested area of Ananda Village to Hansa Temple and our community morning meditation there. The meditation leader reads the passage at the conclusion of our time together – another very receptive time.

During the ten-minute walk home, I try to bring Kriyananda’s guidance into focus for the activity of the day. And during the day – at rest points, such as midday meditation and lunch, quiet times at work – I revisit the reading, check in on how I’m doing, and try to reconnect if activity has pulled me away from centered awareness. This focusing practice becomes the more heart-opening when I can feel, behind the words of guidance themselves, the loving presence of Swami Kriyananda, in Nayaswami Devi’s phrase, “a wise impartial friend”—one who wishes only our own joyful freedom from all darkness and delusion.

Freedom from all darkness
To a recovering English major like myself, the book’s title – Living Wisely, Living Well – recalls the tragic speech of Othello, driven by jealousy to murder his chaste and innocent wife Desdemona:

When you shall these unlucky deeds relate
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Now set down aught in malice: Then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well.

The serious seeker reads such a tale and learns the price of emotional excess, of attachment and despair. He feels the tragedy of waste—human potential brought low through flawed perception.

The wonder of Kriyananda’s book is that, without denying or ignoring the reality of suffering and tragedy in human life, his real thrust is entirely practical and positive—how to find freedom from all darkness. He takes the lessons learned from a life spent in careful observation of himself and others, and extracts from them guidelines that can transform the life of anyone who will practice them faithfully and with an open heart.

A favorite spiritual memoir of mine is The Way of the Pilgrim, the personal account of an anonymous nineteenth-century Russian pilgrim, who, hearing in a Russian Orthodox church service, the text from St. Paul—“pray without ceasing”— devotes his life to understanding and practicing this simple instruction. We the readers follow his journey deeper and deeper into joy and freedom.

May it be the same for each one of us with Living Wisely, Living Well. Read and practice the daily lessons. If one strikes you deeply, as St. Paul’s words did the Russian pilgrim, stay with it, make it your spiritual practice, and follow it to the divine reward that comes with its perfection.

Lessons for the New Year
Since we are entering the season of Christmas and New Year, I wanted to share those particular readings, to whet your soul appetite for the wonderful journey that lies ahead.

For Christmas Day: “The teachings of Jesus Christ, and of every great spiritual master are as fresh, true, and alive today as when they were first declared. Truth never changes with time. Its expression may vary with fluctuations in human understanding, but love, wisdom, and joy are eternal realities. There is no need to ‘pound your pulpit,’ emotionally. All that anyone needs is the awareness that truth, as taught in all true scriptures, is forever one. Our souls come from God, and our divine assignment is to merge back at last into Him.”

And for New Year’s Day, capturing the very essence of the practice of “living wisely, living well”: “Resolve difficulties by raising your level of consciousness. Keep your mind focused at the point midway between the eyebrows: the seat of superconsciousness.”

Nayaswami Prakash is a long-time member of Ananda. He currently serves at Ananda Village doing forestry and landscaping work.

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

Swami Kriyananda came into this lifetime with the desire to serve people, a desire that unfolded into a compassionate commitment to help people grow toward God. His understanding of leadership grew out of this desire, and rested on two essential, and interconnected, principles—that people are more important than things, and that, in any undertaking, worldly or spiritual, only right action (dharma) can lead to victory.

The first sentences of his book, The Art of Supportive Leadership, succinctly capture Kriyananda’s approach to leadership:

Genuine leadership is only of one type: supportive. It leads people: It doesn’t drive them. It involves them: It doesn’t coerce them. It never loses sight of the most important principle governing any project involving human beings: namely that people are more important than things.

Praise from the business community
Lecturing in Australia around 1980, Kriyananda was frequently questioned about communities, and questioned with particular skepticism about the role of leadership in communities. His answers came entirely from his own experience, and met with gratifying success, notably so in light of the initial skepticism of his audience. Out of this beneficial exchange came The Art of Supportive Leadership, first published in 1983.

Kriyananda wrote The Art of Supportive Leadership, as he did Money Magnetism, to bring Paramhansa Yogananda’s teachings into such eminently pragmatic realms as business and finance. The book’s subtitle puts the point well: “A Practical Guide for People in Positions of Responsibility.”

Not surprisingly, Kriyananda’s book has had a profound effect on the business community. In March 1995, after Kriyananda had given a lecture at a breakfast club for businessmen in Anaheim, California, but before the master of ceremonies could thank him, a member of the audience took possession of the microphone: “I’ve just realized who this speaker is,” he cried. “My work is reviving failing businesses. For several years now, I’ve been giving out this book, The Art of Supportive Leadership to everyone I work with. It’s a great book.’”

Leadership principles based on experience
What impresses me most about The Art of Supportive Leadership is that everything Kriyananda writes comes from leadership roles he himself has played—as a young monk in Yogananda’s organization, and in founding and leading Ananda from its humble beginnings to its present status as the most successful intentional community of this age, with branch communities, centers and meditation groups worldwide. Not only have I seen Kriyananda unfailingly adhere to the spiritual principles that underlie the book, but perhaps even more tellingly, I have seen generations of new members successfully practicing these same principles in their own leadership roles.

Paramhansa Yogananda placed Kriyananda, still in his early twenties, in charge of the monks, many of whom were older and resistant to his authority. Motivated by the desire to carry out his Guru’s wishes and to serve his fellow monks by organizing a strong and regular meditation routine, Kriyananda never asked obedience of the monks, but rather cooperation and a spirit of mutual surrender to Yogananda’s will. In return, Kriyananda pledged to the monks his own cooperation and willingness to support them in any undertaking that did not conflict with their shared rules. Always uppermost was the spirit of service.

Expanding Yogananda’s mission
Having begun his life of discipleship in Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), his guru’s organization, Kriyananda’s innate longing to serve people found its natural expression in service to Yogananda’s mission. Yogananda himself frequently pointed Kriyananda in the direction of expanding his mission to reach more people, to help them on the journey homeward to God.

Kriyananda’s adherence to that vision after Yogananda’s passing would ultimately bring him into conflict with the new SRF leadership and result in his separation from the organization. Throughout that long and difficult period of his life, Kriyananda dedicated himself even more determinedly to the principle, “Where there is right action, there is victory,” and transmuted his own personal suffering into a deeper understanding of the two principles that have since formed the foundation of his approach to leadership.

Reflecting on the origin of the principles that have guided his leadership of Ananda, Kriyananda writes:

I built Ananda on principles I’d learned through meditating on the life of Paramhansa Yogananda after years of working with people as head of the monks at Self-Realization Fellowship, and as director of SRF center activities throughout the world, [and] as the target of misguided attempts to suppress my expansive understanding of Yogananda’s mission to the world….

A workbook for dedicated students
The chapters of the book are each organized around a specific principle with explanations and illustrative stories in the text. (The conclusion at the end of each chapter is a review of essential points, which for the dedicated student can serve as a workbook for his own practice):

• Leadership as an art.

• Taking responsibility as a leader.

• Setting aside personal desires.

• Leadership as service.

• “People are more important than things.”

• Making decisions based on intuition guided by common sense.

• Flexibility.

• When to stop talking and start acting.

• Giving support.

• Working with people’s strengths.

• Guidelines for gauging true success in any undertaking.

Broadly applicable principles
As I read and studied the individual chapters of The Art of Supportive Leadership, memory produced, from my own thirty-seven years at Ananda, stories and images illuminating each principle. Those who have understood and practiced these principles have blossomed as devotees and have blessed those around them with their service. Those who have done less well, who have struggled and perhaps even fallen down as leaders, have also served—as models of why certain attitudes don’t work, and as mirrors to others of their need to improve in those same areas.

Those who undertake the spiritual life with serious intent, whether living in a spiritual community or fulfilling a different dharma in the world, come face to face with the principles of supportive leadership—in their own work, in their relations with friends and family, and ultimately in their own inner life. The principles apply equally well to all areas of life: to organizational settings such as the military and business, to the relation of parents and children, and to the ongoing dynamic between soul and ego.

Nayaswami Prakash is a long-time member of Ananda. He currently serves at Ananda Village doing forestry and landscaping work.

To order The Art of Supportive Leadership by Swami Kriyananda click here

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

The yogi who feels hopelessly out of tune with money will learn much from Swami Kriyananda’s early resistance to having to think about making money, and what he gained when, out of necessity, he transcended that resistance. During the beginning years of the Ananda community, when money was clearly needed on many fronts, Kriyananda experienced the need to raise it as a “great burden on my mind.” He resisted what he perceived as becoming enmeshed in materialism.

Interestingly, many of us who came to Ananda in the formative years shared Kriyananda’s attitude toward money. I arrived in 1974 with thirty dollars—and no thought except to serve the community. My income was about four hundred dollars a year. (I had cashed in my worldly goods and my father had kindly used the proceeds to purchase public utility stocks for me.) My life was one of hard work, very simple living, gardening, and rebuilding after the fire of 1976. We lived in teepees, old trailers, and homemade shacks. It was a great day when we had spigot for water and no longer needed to carry gallon jugs over the hill from “downtown” Ananda.

Kriyananda showed the way
It was in this atmosphere of extreme “simple living” that Kriyananda undertook the considerable task of leading us to understand the world in which our service was to lie—material, money-based twentieth century America.

As always in his guidance of us, Kriyananda himself undertook the spiritual discipline required before asking it of others. He overcame his own resistance and learned how to deal with money. But by so doing, his real gain, he tells us, was in developing tremendous strength of will.

From that experience, and many others, came the central principle of Money Magnetism: How to Attract What You Need When You Need It. Money is a form of energy. In learning to attract money, to use it rightly, we learn to attract energy, and to use energy rightly. In the process, we develop will power and concentration—essential attributes not only for success in the world but also on the spiritual path.

A wonderful sadhana
Money Magnetism is of course intended for a much wider readership than only those who resist the very idea of prosperity. I have spent the last several months going through the book slowly and meditatively—taking notes not only on the principles themselves but also on the episodes in my own life that illustrate, or become clear, in light of the principles.

It has been a wonderful sadhana. A special blessing comes with such an undertaking—for we have not truly understood a teaching until we have practiced, and ultimately become that teaching. Such a practical book as Money Magnetism, Kriyananda writes, exemplifies Yogananda’s insistence that “the search for God includes uplifting one’s consciousness in whatever one is doing. As he once said to me, “You must be practical in your idealism.’” An interesting sidelight: I have noticed that my best meditations often come in the transition from active work to rest, as though the energy of work were preparing the way for a deeper, more interiorized spiritual practice.

A daily guide
In a more immediate sense, Money Magnetism can be used as a daily guide—particularly the summarizing paragraphs at the end of each chapter—each one suitable as a focus for meditation, and as a principle to be practiced in the midst of workaday activity.

In the first chapter, “What Is True Wealth?” Kriyananda lays down the foundation principle: money is energy. It is in fact an expression of our energy. If we allow this energy to flow freely, like water from a mountain spring, it will remain fresh, life-giving. If we bottle it up, it will grow stale and lifeless. That is, money can be used constructively to do wonderful things; or it can be hoarded. Hoarding, however, blocks the energy flow and warps the consciousness of the hoarder.

Energy must flow
I thought of my mother’s recent passing. She was as kind and generous a soul as I have known. She loved Ananda, and the people who lived in and visited the community quickly became her friends and extended family. And yet, after her passing, when a packet of materials relating to her estate arrived, from the pages there rose a peculiar odor— musty, moldy, decaying, and depressing. I had to keep the packet outside. When I attempted to read and understand the contents, I would feel my mind being pulled down into depression. What was this?

The moldiness could not be a reflection of my mother’s bright spirit. My sense was that the smell of these “wealth management” bank materials and their depressing effect were simply an expression of trapped energy, and the concomitant stagnation of consciousness. The answer lay clearly in the first principle of Kriyananda’s book—energy must flow. My mother had understood the teaching perfectly. What came to her she shared, as her heart guided her.

I followed her example.  Once I’d plowed through the bank documents enough to have a sense of the income, I simply added the increase to certain Ananda fundraising efforts, and to equipment for the work I do caring for the land in the community. Immediately my spirits lifted. What has happened? The “wealth management” people send statements, and checks. By redirecting those checks to ends that inspire me—the nauseating smell has disappeared.

A doorway to opportunity
Kriyananda writes in Money Magnetism: “The purpose of this book is to help you to attract money in such a way as not to make it a burden on your peace of mind, but a doorway, rather, to genuine opportunity. It is to help you to learn how to use money wisely, in such a way as to acquire the greatest possible benefits for yourself and for others.”

I have imagined myself stranded with only this one book for spiritual nourishment. There is of course much that cannot be addressed in such a book, and Kriyananda himself urges the reader to continue his study particularly with his course, The Art and Science of Raja Yoga. And yet I find all the basics present in this single book—energy, magnetism, will power, concentration, levels of consciousness, affirmation.

Someone who reads Money Magnetism to find practical help in financial matters ends up finding help that extends all the way to the search for God and inner joy. This book, like so much that Kriyananda has written, is a doorway to the ancient teachings of Sanaatan Dharma, the eternal religion at the heart of all true paths to God.

Money Magnetism – How to Attract What You Need When You Need It by Swami Kriyananda is available from Crystal Clarity Publishers. To order click here

Nayaswami Prakash is a long-time member of Ananda. He currently serves at Ananda Village doing forestry and landscaping work.

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

Dedicating his book to “those sincere Christians whose faith has been shaken, ”Swami Kriyananda reaches out to those who find their Christian faith under attack from all sides—from such diverse sources as biblical scholars, advocates of a materialistic view of science, even some popular novelists.

I myself came to the book as someone who grew up in a Christian church, which, far from providing guidance on how actually to live my life, seemed fear-based and guilt- ridden. When I found Paramhansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, I felt here, at last, I was in the presence of Truth, and of a teacher who resonated with my inner being and provided clear guidance for all areas of life.

The original teachings of Christianity
In my enthusiasm I happily set aside my religious upbringing and dove into Yogananda’s teachings, and into the expansions and applications of those teachings given by his disciple Swami Kriyananda. Imagine my surprise (and chagrin) when I realized that, in fact, Yogananda’s teachings, were not other than Christian but were the expression of a mission to bring back the original teachings of Christianity.

Central to Paramhansa Yogananda’s life’s work is The Second Coming of Christ, divinely inspired explanations of the inner meanings, from a yogic perspective, of the teachings of Jesus Christ. And central to Swami Kriyananda’s more than sixty years of discipleship to Yogananda is Revelations of Christ, the essence of Yogananda’s commentaries presented in a way to lead the sincere but doubting Christian back to true faith, based on an understanding and experience of his own religious tradition.

Here, in part, is Kriyananda’s account of the origin of Yogananda’s mission to restore “Original Christianity”:

When Christ appeared to Babaji, the great yogi-christ living high in the Himalaya, he addressed these words to him: “What has happened to my religion? My followers are doing good works, but most of them have forgotten the essence of my message…direct, inner communion with God. Let us send again to the West the secrets by which they can achieve that communion.”

Jesus Christ’s meeting with Babaji, Kriyananda further explains, is an example of “the truth that God does intervene, sometimes, in human history. Jesus Christ asked Babaji to send to the West a true master, fully qualified to fulfill the mission they envisioned together.” That “true master,” we learn from Autobiography of a Yogi, was Paramhansa Yogananda.

Stepping stones to the Christ presence within
Swami Kriyananda speaks often of the intensity of his desire to bring Yogananda’s teachings not only to committed devotees, but to sincere seekers in all walks and conditions of life. And because Yogananda’s mission was divinely intended to bring the essence of all true religions to the Christian West, Kriyananda has devoted much of his writing and lecturing to showing the harmony between the teachings of Jesus Christ and the ancient spiritual tradition of India, especially as expressed through the “Hindu Bible,” The Bhagavad Gita.

Swami Kriyananda brings his tremendous focus of mind and heart to explaining as perfectly as the English language allows the reality of Christ’s teachings. Having led us as readers to the point beyond which language can do no more, he pours such a vibration of divine love and divine realization into his words that we feel inspired to experience in our own beings the Christ presence.

A careful meditative study of Revelations can be spiritually transforming. My own experience of three months immersion in this book has been so. I have found myself reliving, on deeper and deeper levels, my own upbringing in the Christian tradition (so little appreciated at the time)—seeing key moments not just as anecdotes from the past but as stepping stones to a true understanding and experience of the Christ spirit.

The “son of man” and the “son of God”
One of the most fascinating, and important, of Paramhansa Yogananda’s insights into the Bible concerns two expressions, “son of man,” and, “son of God.” Kriyananda tells us that when Jesus spoke of the “son of man” he was referring to his own human self: to his egoic I-ness. But when he spoke of “the son of God,” he meant the Christ, the “anointed of God” —the Christ consciousness, the only reflection of the Supreme Spirit in creation.

Swami Kriyananda urges readers of the Bible to try to apply this distinction. If they do so, he writes, that will gain a much deeper insight into the true meaning of what Jesus said and taught.

As a lifelong student of English usage, I was particularly grateful to read Kriyananda’s explanation that “son of man” should have been written with a lower-case “s” to reflect the fact that when Jesus used that expression, he was speaking of his separate human expression of Divine Consciousness, and not of the Infinite Christ. That simple confusion of “Son” for “son” by the translators of the Bible had long stood in the way of my deeper appreciation of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Two prayers: the Holy Grail and AUM
Of his commentaries on the Bible, Yogananda writes, “I prayed to Jesus for confirmation: Was what I had written true to his actual meaning? Jesus Christ then appeared to me, after which the Holy Grail also appeared, touched his lips, then descended and touched my lips. Jesus declared, ‘The cup from which I drink, thou dost drink.’ ”

Kriyananda likewise prayed deeply for divine guidance in writing Revelations. Assurance came appropriately, as the Comforter, promised by Jesus to the faithful—The Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit—called AUM in the tradition of the East: Kriyananda writes:

When one hears the AUM…he knows with utter certainty that he could never tire of it through all eternity, for it is the vibration of his very being. Many times, while writing this book, I have been entranced to hear that sound within and around me, as if in divine corroboration and approval of what I had written.

What is communion with AUM?
Kriyananda concludes Revelations with a celebration of AUM, and leaves us, the readers, eager to learn the ancient techniques of meditation, techniques that open the door to communion with AUM, and through AUM, with the Christ Consciousness. Ever- deepening communion with AUM fulfills the mission that Jesus and Babaji together entrusted to the line of great masters of yoga, and ultimately to all of us who receive and practice these sacred teachings:

Communion with the Holy Ghost is, above all, a means of entering into, and flowing with, the stream of divine love. Love God, therefore. As a true Christian, love Jesus as your divine friend, who came down to earth for your upliftment. The more you tune into his deep message, the more also you will know that only one thing matters in life: selfless, divine love, like that of an eternal child for his heavenly Father, and for his Divine Friend.

Revelations, then, is a culmination of the line of descent from the original meeting between Jesus Christ and Babaji in the Himalaya. It offers hope for a lifetime of spiritual study and practice. A short review can only suggest the breadth and depth of the spiritual teachings contained in the book. Here, following, are some of the key subjects addressed:

• Why a mission to Christians from outside Christendom?
• Father, Son, Holy Ghost.
• “What does it mean, to be ‘saved’?”
• The Crucifixion.
• What is the “Fall”?
• “The Serpent Power”—Moses in the wilderness.
• “The need for a personal Savior”—Guru.
• Jesus’ mission to Judaism.
• “God alone saves”—what is Christ Consciousness?
• “What is it to be “born again”?
• The afterlife—Heaven and Hell.

Nayaswami Prakash is a long-time member of Ananda. He currently serves at Ananda Village doing forestry and landscaping work. To order Revelations of Christ click here

Also from Crystal Clarity Publishers: The Promise of Immortality by Swami Kriyananda. To order click here

And so began Swami Kriyananda’s work with Paramhansa Yogananda’s commentaries on The Rubaiyat—a work not completed until nearly 50 years later, with Crystal Clarity’s publication of Kriyananda’s edited version of Paramhansa Yogananda’s, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Explained. Kriyananda did not undertake the final editing until he felt fully ready spiritually to serve as Yogananda’s channel for this great poem that Yogananda called a “true scripture.”

“The soul of Omar Khayyam’s writings”
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Explained is organized to guide us as readers from enjoyment of the poetry itself to ever-deeper levels of understanding. In your own reading, take time to meditate on the poetry itself; especially try to tune into the joy Yogananda felt in his reading of the quatrains.

Yogananda saw that Edward Fitzgerald, in translating The Rubaiyat, “had been divinely inspired to catch exactly, in gloriously musical English, the soul of Omar Khayyam’s writings.” So moved was Yogananda by the “true soul-inspiration” of Fitzgerald’s original translation of the poem that he decided, even in preference to his own collaboration with a Persian scholar, to use Fitzgerald’s as the basis of his interpretations.

A soul-conversation between Omar and Yogananda
Each quatrain is followed by Paramhansa Yogananda’s “Paraphrase,” in which he gives his intuitive understanding of Omar’s meaning. As Kriyananda expresses it, the book is “like a meeting between old friends in God. One of them speaks; the other answers, calmly but enthusiastically, ‘Yes! Yes! And then here’s another point….’” While working on the book, Kriyananda realized that Yogananda had tuned into Omar’s consciousness and was, in his interpretations, allowing Omar Khayyam to speak through him.

In what Yogananda calls the “Expanded Meaning,” the third part of his interpretation of each quatrain, he takes his paraphrase to a deeper, more universal level of wisdom: Sanaatan Dharma, “The Eternal Religion”— as expressed in this soul conversation between a great Sufi mystic and a great master of yoga.

Next comes Yogananda’s “Keys to the Meaning”—explanations, in yogic terms, of pivotal phrases in the quatrains. The “Keys” help the dedicated reader more clearly and deeply to feel the consciousness behind each word and phrase of the quatrain.

Finally comes Swami Kriyananda’s “Editorial Comment,” in which we as readers can reap the fruit of Kriyananda’s more than half a century of careful study and practice of Yogananda’s teachings. Kriyananda’s comments take the inspiration and spiritual power of Yogananda’s interpretation, reach out to the unspoken questions of people everywhere, and provide not only answers but specific techniques to enable us to experience for ourselves the truth behind these teachings—to make them our own.

A springboard for spiritual practice
While reading The Rubaiyat, let the book serve as a focus and springboard for your spiritual practice. Read one quatrain a day. Take a moment to enjoy the imagery and musical cadences of the poetry. Pause frequently in your study to absorb in meditation what you are reading. If Kriyananda has included a specific meditation, end your practice with that meditation.

You will find that the loving clarity of the commentary will bring light to your understanding, and energy to your spiritual practice. You will feel that a stream of divine power is flowing from Omar Khayyam, through Paramhansa Yogananda and Swami Kriyananda, into your own consciousness. In Kriyananda’s words:

Every time you study this work, try to tune in more deeply to the consciousness of these two great poet-sages. Feel their silent blessings within, as you pursue the daily adventure of discovering the source of your own being.

The content of the book
To give you a feeling for the content of the book, here are a few of the practical applications contained in Kriyananda’s “Editorial Comments”:

•    The spine and nervous system: pathway to inner freedom.
•    The importance of an erect spine
•    How to be centered in the spine.
•    How to concentrate at the spiritual eye
•    Living for pleasure vs. living for eternity
•    How to overcome guilt
•    How to “be happy, now!”
•    How to relax
•    How to live in the Self
•    Meditation on freedom from the body
•    Meditation on freedom from worldly desire
•    How to “practice the presence”

In his final editorial comment, Kriyananda takes us to the very heart of the wisdom of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Explained:

The single greatest statement in this book: Yogananda describes the nervous system as, “the one and only path to spiritual enlightenment, regardless of a person’s formal religious affiliation.” This simple declaration contains the essence of true wisdom: Overcome addiction to worldly pleasures by withdrawing the life-force from the senses. Stimulate the nerves at their opposite extreme instead—at the inner source in the Self.

Bathed in the light of inner vision
In preparing to write this review, I looked up Edward Fitzgerald’s poetic translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in several standard references. Mainstream scholarship shows us that Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat was perceived by its Victorian readership as depicting an unjust God, with man pitifully snatching what pleasure he can from a transient, doomed existence. In late nineteenth-century England, the poem became a justification for a kind of melancholy hedonism.

How far from such a reading is Yogananda’s vision of divine joy, and from his description of the poem as a “true scripture.” In Yogananda’s commentaries, the “wine” becomes the bliss of God-realization; human love becomes the divine romance of  devotee and Infinite Beloved. Yogananda’s own introduction to his interpretation of The Rubaiyat shines a brilliant light on his true way of understanding the Sufi poet:

One day, as I was deeply concentrated on the pages of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, I suddenly beheld the walls of its outer meanings crumble away. Lo! Vast inner meanings opened like a golden treasure house before my gaze.

Yogananda’s interpretations are divinely intuitive, springing from inner vision:

As I worked on the spiritual explanation of The Rubaiyat, I found it taking me into an endless labyrinth of truth, until I was rapturously lost in wonderment. The veiling of Omar’s metaphysical and practical philosophy in these verses reminds me of “The Revelation of St. John the Divine.” Indeed, The Rubaiyat might justly be called “The Revelation of Omar Khayyam.”

Truth clothed in beauty
I grew up in a family of readers, and was myself immersed in reading great literature from an early age. I read hungrily, looking, quite literally, for guidance on “how to live.” My search for answers in literature during college and five more years of graduate school, far from illuminating my life path, left me all but incapable of discriminating.

Finding Paramhansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi placed my soul immediately in the presence of all that I had for so many years been seeking in wrong places. The book radiated light; what Yogananda was saying was simply, incontrovertibly, the truth. The same can be said for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Explained. Both books can be described as “truth clothed in literary beauty,” what literature worth reading can (and should) be.

Nayaswami Prakash is a long-time member of Ananda. He currently serves at Ananda Village doing forestry and landscaping work.

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

During my 28 years as an Ananda minister, I’ve seen that people’s life challenges generally fall into four categories: relationships, health, finances/job, and spiritual life. Of these, spiritual life is the most important. Even so, the marriage relationship is usually the focal point of the greatest tests a person faces, whether it’s wanting a relationship but not having it, or being in a relationship that’s not working out.

A handbook for relationships of all types
Self-Expansion through Marriage is very well named, because the book itself is so very…well, expansive! I describe it as a “handbook for relationships of all types, not just marriage.”

I suggest that if you are married, you get this book and read it often. If you already have the book, try to re-read it once a year at least (a perfect thing to do for your wedding anniversary). If you are contemplating marriage, then you too should read this book and insist that your fiancé read it also. And if you are in an intimate relationship that doesn’t involve marriage, the suggestions in the book are still applicable and will help you very much. (To complete the gamut of what may come along in a committed relationship, there’s even a chapter on “Expansive Child Raising.”)

Even if you are divorced, single, certain you don’t ever want to marry or re-marry, or are already happy in a marriage and don’t think you need any help — nevertheless, I still say you NEED to read this book. That’s how important it is. Relationships are God’s great gift to us. They serve as a mirror for self-improvement and help us “knock off our rough edges.” None of us is an island, disconnected from others. Relationships are how we grow and learn.

And OUCH, how that can hurt, especially in the most intimate of all relationships: marriage. A good marriage is a rare and wonderful thing. Keeping it good is HARD WORK! A bad marriage can fill your life with aching misery.

A not-so-good marriage and an excellent one
I know this from first-hand experience, because I’ve had both kinds of marriages. I met my husband of 30 years, Sudarshan, when I first moved to Ananda Village in 1978. At the time, I was separated from my first husband, and moving slowly and painfully toward a divorce.

Sudarshan and I were married in 1980 and it’s been a great blessing, though the marriage has been filled with many intense learning experiences—some of them very tough for both of us. We are both very strong-willed people!

What about that first marriage? My first husband and I married young and for all the wrong reasons. Our uneasy marriage lasted nine years. If I had read Kriyananda’s book beforehand and understood it well, we could have avoided a great deal of suffering. Nevertheless, I learned a lot from the marriage, to say the least, and he and I have been able to remain friends at a distance. He too has remarried.

One of the most important things I learned as I moved from a not-so-good marriage to an excellent one, is something Kriyananda emphasizes in the early pages of Self-Expansion through Marriage: Don’t expect marriage, or any other relationship, to fix everything in your life. It’s unfair to impose those kinds of expectations on another person; no relationship can possibly bear up under that load.

The only “ones” who can permanently change everything in your life for the better are God and Guru. If you really understand that part first, then your relationship has more chance of not just surviving, but of being filled with joy.

Why “opposites attract”
Another important point made in Self-Expansion through Marriage is that “opposites attract.” Often we feel attracted to someone who has qualities that we don’t have, or wish we had more of. Such attractions reflect an attempt to find balance and harmony in life.

Someone once asked my mother the primary reason she and my father had such a good marriage. She laughingly answered: “I think it’s because the knobs in his head fit the holes in my head.” Problems arise when we don’t appreciate the differences, even though the differences are what drew us together in the first place. Learn to appreciate those differences, or as the French say: viva l’différence! They add spice to life.

All the “big” questions
Self-Expansion through Marriage takes on all the “big” relationship questions—why marry at all, growing together spiritually, commitment on every level, sex, communication skills, intuition—and does so with grace and beauty, as well as down-to-earth practicality. At the end of each chapter are a dozen or so concise review statements, any or all of which would be great for a couple to sit and discuss together, or as an outline for a relationship seminar.

I found it interesting that Swami Kriyananda entitled the chapter discussing sexuality: “Sex in Marriage.” Immediately I wondered: is Kriyananda saying that sex should happen only within a marriage? I’ll let you read that chapter to find out the answer.

My favorite statement from this all-important chapter is one that Kriyananda often makes to couples when discussing this topic: “Let your physical union be an expression of love. To keep it that way, let it only be occasional; that is to say, let it be an occasion.” The society we live in is so confused about sexuality (due to media exploitation and other factors) that anyone would be hard-pressed to say anything about this subject in a clear and calm way. And yet Kriyananda does so gracefully and with true compassion for the wide gamut of feelings on the subject, including people’s perceptions of their individual needs.

Seek to please God first
To be able to go forward to the end of life with the love and support of a spouse is a noble goal and a worthy dream. But it’s a dream that becomes possible if our priorities are right. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God (within you)…and all these things shall be added unto you.” The “things” referred to in that Bible verse surely include joy-filled relationships!

In the chapter entitled: “For Those Who Are Seeking God,” Kriyananda comments: “The important thing in a marriage committed to spiritual development is to allot God the primary place in life…. [The spiritual seeker who is married must seek] to please God first and one’s wife or husband secondarily.” When married couples live this way, everything else falls into place.

*Self-Expansion through Marriage, by Swami Kriyananda, Crystal Clarity Publishers. Formerly entitled: Expansive Marriage.  Available 2011. You may place an advance order now.

Nayaswami Savitri is an Ananda Lightbearer and a 32-year resident of Ananda Village. She and her husband Nayaswami Sudarshan recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. Savitri is the Director of Ananda’s Meditation Teacher Training Programs. She also serves as administrative assistant to Ananda’s Spiritual Directors.

Transformation: Old concepts of marriage fail to embrace the expansive awareness of this age of energy-consciousness into which we have emerged after centuries of matter- and form-consciousness. Expansive Marriage, by Swami Kriyananda.

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

During my college years, my friends and I were in agreement on the deficiencies of the education we were receiving. In literature, art, and philosophy, we were subjected to the pervading influence of the French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who reveled in meaninglessness. For all of us, it was agonizing to imagine a sterile world bereft of meaning and inspiration.

Years later, I was thrilled to discover Out of the Labyrinth by Swami Kriyananda. That book answered all my questions about life’s meaning, and replaced the barren ideas of Jean-Paul Sartre with a vision of hope and inspiration. Later, when Kriyananda published Education for Life: Preparing Children to Meet the Challenges, I recognized it as the “cure” for the ills of our society because it explained how teachers and parents could give children a sense of life’s joyous possibilities, starting at the earliest age.

In Education for Life, Swami Kriyananda writes:

A growing child needs faith just as urgently as he needs to breathe. When he is stripped of his last vestige of faith, his disillusionment transforms itself into a desire for vengeance against those who have deprived him of something so precious to his very existence.

That “vengeance” is evident everywhere today and especially in nihilistic music, high suicide rates among teenagers, violence, and addiction.

An expansion of consciousness
At the start of the book, Kriyananda asks a fundamental question: What do people truly want from life? And the answer he gives is irreducibly simple: the underlying motivation behind all human actions, however disguised or misguided, is that we want to experience greater happiness, and avoid sorrow.

We cannot help children learn to be happy, Kriyananda continues, if we merely cram their heads with facts. We must show them that true happiness comes by expanding our awareness. He explains:

An expansion of consciousness has always, in the long history of civilization, been associated with an expansion of such feelings as sympathy, empathy, and love. Far from setting oneself apart from, or even against, other human beings, self-expansion naturally includes a concern for the well-being of all.

How different, this, from the teaching of Sartre, who wrote: “To be conscious of another is to be conscious of what one is not.”

Children’s hearts receive “equal time”
Most schools focus on developing the students’ ability to memorize facts and use their reason. Little attention is paid other important facets of their natures, which, Kriyananda argues, are indispensable to the search for happiness and success.

In Education for Life, he issues a clarion call for a more balanced approach, in which children’s hearts receive “equal time.” Developing children’s calm, sensitive feelings, he says, is essential even for academic success, since reason is wisely guided only when it includes intuitive feeling.

Education for Life offers methods for reintroducing the heart into education, without sacrificing academic achievement. That this approach works is abundantly demonstrated in Ananda’s Living Wisdom Schools, where the students consistently score well above average on standardized national tests of academic achievement.

The “Stages of Maturity”
Swami Kriyananda points out that every child is unique, and must be guided sensitively, with respect for his or her present awareness. With the concept of six-year “Stages of Maturity” he gives us a wonderful framework for understanding children, and how their needs change over time.

In the first stage of a child’s development, from birth to about age 6, the child’s primary developmental task is to master the body and senses. From 6 to 12, feelings come to the fore – this is a time when children are receptive to learning through the “media of feeling” – stories, art, music, and dance. The “feeling phase” is, Swami Kriyananda points out, the most important phase in a child’s development, because it lays the foundation for everything that follows.

From 12 to 18, teenagers flex the muscles of their will, in preparation for independent adulthood. It’s essential that they know how to use their will expansively, with a heartfelt sense of right and wrong, and with sensitive awareness of the realities of others. Similarly, the life of the mind, which dominates the years from 18 to 24, needs to be guided by calm, intuitive feeling.

Kriyananda devotes several chapters to understanding children’s special needs during each six-year phase, and he gives many suggestions for teaching them to use the “Tools of Maturity” – body, heart, will, and mind – to achieve ever-expanding awareness, happiness, and success.

A unitive approach to school subjects
Education for Life makes a powerful case for a unitive, expansive approach to traditional academic subjects, one that gives children a picture of the world that is rich in meaningful connections. It includes, for example, assigning new names to traditional subjects – science, for example, can be called “Our Earth – Our Universe,” while “Understanding People” is the name he proposes for history, geography, and psychology. He writes:

The relevance of every subject should be seen in the context of human needs and of our own ability to understand. Every subject studied in school should be studied also for its relevance to other subjects.

Science, for example, has evolved a method that can provide a new tool for understanding in all the branches of knowledge. For these other studies, the scientific method — hypothesis tested by experiment — needs only be restated as belief tested by experience.

What of “spiritual” values?
Since the introduction of “spiritual” values into public school curriculums would unquestionably be met by vigorous protests, Swami Kriyananda suggests that the principles of Education for Life be introduced in small, independent schools. (The Ananda Living Wisdom Schools have applied these methods for more than thirty years.) But he also suggests that teachers in public schools can at least introduce principles, since at no point does Education for Life require the support of sectarian claims.

Qualities such as humility are by no means sectarian dogmas. It doesn’t take much experience of life to see that pride does in fact “go before a fall,” as the wisdom of the ages has always told us. Humility, like countless other virtues, is a practical concept. Why not teach it as such in the classroom?

Role models of the expansive life
Children, Kriyananda says, need role models who exemplify the expansive life. In the Living Wisdom Schools, children live and breathe the examples of great human beings – not by merely memorizing facts and dates, but by absorbing their qualities.

An outstanding example is the yearly play produced by the Palo Alto Living Wisdom School. Now in its 18th year, the all-school theater event draws hundreds of students, teachers, and theater-goers from the surrounding community to be inspired by the lives of great world teachers such as Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Moses, Rumi, Quan Yin, and the Dalai Lama.

No pompous moralizing
Education for Life argues that children learn values most effectively by being shown how values operate in their own lives. A well-known incident in the lore of Ananda beautifully illustrates this practice. A winter storm blanketed Ananda Village with snow, and the teachers compassionately let the children go out to play. They soon started a snowball fight, in which several younger children were hurt and began crying. Later, when the children were calmer, they built a snowman.

The teachers recognized a priceless opportunity to help the students learn from their own experience. Back in the classroom, they asked them, “Which did you enjoy more – the snowball fight, or making a snowman?” The children replied, “The snowman!” One student said, “Yeah, the little kids got hurt and were crying, and it made me feel bad.”

No pompous moralizing or dry logic is needed when teachers are able to help children understand how values “work” in the laboratory of their lives. In this case, the lesson was clear – hurting others is contractive and makes us feel unhappy, while cooperating is expansive and fun and makes us feel wonderful.

How to be successful? How to be happy? The answer is simple: by using our God-given Tools of Maturity – body, heart, will, mind, and soul – in ways that expand our awareness. If children everywhere learned these skills, the cloud of meaninglessness would disperse, and the light of wisdom would shine once again on their lives.

Tyagi Rambhakta lives in the Mountain View Ananda Community. He is the author of a book on fitness and sports training by yoga principles as taught by Paramhansa Yogananda (see www.fitnessintuition.com).

To order Education for Life from Crystal Clarity Publishers click here

Growth: “Growth must come naturally, not in violence to one’s nature.” Art & Science of Raja Yoga by Swami Kriyananda.

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

I was browsing in a used-book store, not intending to buy anything, when I first saw this book. I picked it up and, with what felt like only natural curiosity, started to turn to the table of contents to look up “Gemini.” Instead, the first thing that caught my eye was Kriyananda’s statement dedicating the book to the reader “patient enough” to resist the temptation to “skip back and forth,” looking up specific signs.

Laughing at myself for having been caught red-handed, I simply purchased the book and took it home to read properly.

An emphasis on self-help
Many people think of astrology as simply describing the more-or-less fixed aspects of our personality: whatever “the stars” may have decreed for us. But as devotees, we know that a wise spiritual teacher can guide us in how to use our “pre-existing tendencies” to achieve further spiritual growth.

This is exactly what Swami Kriyananda has accomplished in this book. Your Sun Sign as a Spiritual Guide gives excellent advice on what we can do, given who we are, to achieve the highest spiritual expression of each of our qualities. With all there is to learn and practice on the spiritual path, it’s very helpful to have someone with Swami Kriyananda’s insight to recommend what we might need to focus on.

No sign, Kriyananda emphasizes, is inherently more or less spiritual than any other. We all have our strengths and our weaknesses, and since we are all children of God, we will all eventually make our way back to Him. But the next step on that journey is different for each of us. This book gives us specific concepts, techniques, and practices to work with to make that next step in the most positive direction possible. 

“What’s your sign?”
The sun sign is the one most people know about, the subject of the classic question: “What’s your sign?” My own sun sign is Gemini, and Kriyananda very accurately zeroes in on many of the qualities that make us Geminis such a mentally-oriented lot. For each sun sign, however, he offers a clear perspective on how any given trait can be either positively or negatively directed.

For Geminis, for instance, he emphasizes the importance of mental detachment, which for a Gemini may make the difference between wit and wisdom, or between true understanding and mere cleverness. Similarly, a Gemini tendency towards worry, fickleness, and unreliability is really just an expression of the same qualities that can be positively developed into adaptability, creativity, and, as Kriyananda puts it, “great subtlety of thought.”

Kriyananda also discusses various yogic practices that are particularly applicable to each sign. For Sagittarius, as well as other fire element signs, he offers a fire meditation for burning away ego attachments. Addressing the discriminating, critical faculty of Virgos, he recommends the practice of neti neti — “not this, not that” — for delving into the deeper source of all desires and experiences. And for regulating the constant rising and falling of a Gemini’s restless mind, he recommends the practice of Kriya Yoga.

Your moon and rising signs
Though the book’s title refers specifically to sun signs, Kriyananda also briefly discusses the moon and rising signs. Unlike your sun sign, which is the “public facing” aspect of your personality, your moon sign describes your inner system of value and meaning—what makes things important to you. Your rising sign, on the other hand, concerns what Kriyananda calls your “basic quality of receptivity,” how you form initial reactions and impressions.

If you know your moon and rising signs (or other components of your horoscope), you can simply read the analyses of the appropriate sun signs with a view to applying them to specific aspects of your personality. For example, my moon and rising signs both happen to be Scorpio, which adds a significant shading to my Gemini characteristics.

The moon in Scorpio gives me a strong sense within myself of what is right and important, and a disinclination to try to conform to other standards. Contrary to the talkative extroversion of a Gemini, this Scorpio influence will often have me behaving in a more introverted way. My Scorpio rising sign reinforces this introverted tendency, directing my initial reactions in an inward direction, particularly in new or unfamiliar situations.

Knowing this about myself, I find a great deal of helpful practical advice in the Scorpio chapter, particularly about balancing aspects of my nature. Since a Gemini can be prone to living too much in the mind, the intensity and control of Scorpio can be a powerful aid to focusing my thoughts and turning them into actual accomplishments.

An interconnected whole
Kriyananda does an excellent job throughout the book of presenting the entire zodiac as an interconnected whole. He shows how the different signs can be related to each other by season, by planet, or by element (earth, air, fire, or water). This gives us a variety of perspectives from which to understand any quality.

Gemini, for example, is one of three Spring signs, and therefore has a connection with the two other Spring signs, Taurus and Aries. Each of these signs manifests the Spring-like energy of new beginnings and growth in a different way, and each is necessary for success in any venture. Tuning into this overall flow of energy helps me carry my ideas forward, beyond the purely mental stage. I am able to see the subsequent steps in the process not as foreign to my nature but as an actual extension of it. 

Universal characteristics
While working on this book, Kriyananda wrote a letter to an astrologer discussing some of his ideas.* In it, he described what he was doing as “universalizing each sign by addressing myself not only to Geminis, Leos, etc., but also to the Gemini, Leo, etc., in all of us.”  He writes that one of the “fascinating” things about the signs is “how they pin-point basic universal characteristics in man.”

Kriyananda’s observations are worth keeping in mind as we read this book. We all manifest the various qualities of each sign to some extent. Indeed, the very qualities that describe each of us as individuals are often the same ones that connect us as brothers and sisters in God.

Graham Waldon became a part of Ananda in 2009 and now lives in the Palo Alto community. Currently unemployed, he has spent much of the last year doing volunteer work, meditating, and devouring books by Swami Kriyananda and Paramhansa Yogananda.

* See In Divine Friendship, Crystal Clarity Publishers, page 253.

To order Your Sun Sign as a Spiritual Guide by Swami Kriyananda,  click here

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

Kriyananda explains that there is a third, less well known state of awareness called the superconscious—the source of who and what we are in our highest spiritual reality, also known as the “soul” or “higher Self.”

Superconsciousness is that level of awareness that we experience when our mind is in a calm and uplifted state. It is the hidden mechanism at work behind intuition, spiritual and physical healing, and successful problem solving.

The physical center of superconsciousness is in the frontal lobe of the brain, at a point midway between the eyebrows, also known as the Christ center or spiritual eye. The more we are able to draw our energy and awareness upward to the Christ center, the higher our level of awareness.

Right attitude: key to effective meditation
Kriyananda points out that everyone has the potential to experience superconsciousness, but in most people it lies dormant. Meditation is the most direct way to awaken the superconscious, but to meditate effectively, we must first understand the goal of meditation and the important role of attitudes in attaining that goal.

Since the goal of meditation is to realize the oneness of all life, it’s important to live in such a way as to constantly affirm that oneness. Kriyananda writes that the first step in the development of right attitude for meditation is to learn to see others not as rivals, but as friends:

If I am willing to hurt the life in me as it is expressed in another human being, then I am affirming an error that is diametrically opposed to the realization I am seeking to attain. It is necessary if I would truly realize the oneness of all things, for me to live also in a way as constantly to affirm this oneness—by my kindness toward all beings, by compassion, by universal love.

The “right attitudes” discussed by Kriyananda are the universal moral principles of yoga, the yamas (the don’ts) and niyamas (the do’s). One of the best known of these is ahimsa, or non-injury, popularized by the protest movements of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Ahimsa addresses not only harmful actions, but also the harm caused by negative thoughts.

Passivity and mental blankness
Kriyananda cautions against passivity and the common misconception that meditation consists of making the mind blank. Mental blankness, he says, opens the mind to the lower vibratory influences and can be very dangerous.

And although relaxation is an important first step toward meditating, meditation is much more than just quieting the mind or sinking into subconsciousness.  Proper meditation requires deep concentration and sustained dynamic energy.

The distilled essence of Yogananda’s teachings
In Awaken to Superconsciousness, Kriyananda, a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, distills the essence of the original yogic science brought to the West by the great yoga master. He leads the reader step by step through the methods by which we can attain this state of heightened awareness and begin to transform our lives.

Written in clear easy-to-understand language, the book provides a wonderful overview of the nature and purpose of meditation. Each chapter is filled with insights and wisdom from Kriyananda’s lifetime of experience as a world teacher and foremost exponent of meditation and yoga practice.

Beginning with simple relaxation exercises, the reader will find an easy-to-follow approach that combines breathing exercises, affirmations, mantras, guided visualizations and centering techniques as a preparation for meditation itself. At the end of each chapter there are meditation exercises, which help one to become more attuned to the superconscious level of reality.

In addition, Kriyananda offers practical advice on concentration, keeping the spine straight and the body relaxed, the best times of the day to meditate, duration and regularity of practice, and how to organize our time for maximum benefit.

The most meaningful activity in life
Quite apart from the outward benefits, the practice of meditation is, in and of itself, one of the most rewarding of all human activities. Kriyananda describes meditation as “simply the most meaningful activity in my life—indeed, the most meaningful activity I can imagine.” 

Awaken To Superconsciousness is a complete course in meditation and can be practiced with equal effectiveness by anyone, regardless of religious affiliation, whether agnostic or atheist. One’s personal experience is the only yardstick of effectiveness. 

Nayaswami Nakin, a minister and longtime member of Ananda, lives at Ananda Village and serves in the Sangha Office in a number of capacities, including as editorial assistant for Clarity Magazine.

To order a copy of Awaken to Superconsciousness, contact Crystal Clarity Publishers click here.

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

A loving effort
It’s important to understand how God Is for Everyone came to be written. It is the loving effort by Swami Kriyananda to give substance to his Guru’s concepts of how to make God a dynamic concept. Yogananda’s original book, The Science of Religion, was ghostwritten in 1920 by one of his disciples, Swami Dhirananda, at a time when Yogananda was not yet fluent in English.

Meditating on The Science of Religion a few years ago, Swami Kriyananda felt that the ideas could be presented with greater attunement to Yogananda’s consciousness. He began to think of stories and illustrations that Yogananda had used which would enhance its message. From this blending of the Master’s teachings with the disciple’s understanding and experience came the book, God Is for Everyone.

A meaningful concept of God
God Is for Everyone has a dual purpose. First, it tries to present a concept of God that will motivate people to love Him and want to know Him. Second, it undertakes to show the common goal of all religions, which is to uplift the human spirit, not to polarize mankind into dogmatic intolerance.

The search for a meaningful concept of God begins by exploring the question: What is the goal of life? Distilling the myriad varieties of human undertakings down to a simple and essential one, Yogananda tells us that mankind is driven by a two-fold desire: to avoid suffering and to find happiness. Through countless experiences and many past lives lost to our conscious memory, we are driven from one desire to the next in a ceaseless effort to accomplish this goal.

At first we begin by merely avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. Eventually we begin to realize that the fulfillment of material desires in pleasure is merely counterfeit happiness—a passive state, dependent on the external world for its gratification. Happiness, by contrast, is an active state that is produced by our own will power and right attitudes.

“Happiness springs from within the self,” Yogananda writes. “It doesn’t depend on outer conditions. Nothing outside ourselves, therefore, can define or qualify our happiness except as we allow it to do so. Once this unalterable truth is realized, happiness becomes our permanent possession.”

A permanent escape from suffering
As we progress in understanding, even the state of normal human happiness fails to bring us a permanent escape from suffering and a lasting state of well-being. We exert our will to be happy under all conditions, but subconscious patterns and adverse circumstances block our attainment of a permanent state without pain.

Eventually we realize that what we thought of as happiness was really the soul’s native state of bliss directed outwardly to the senses and the world of relativity and change. True happiness, or bliss, is eternal and unchanging—it transcends all darkness and duality.

We are all seeking God
Finally, as our consciousness becomes even more refined, we begin to see that the true goal of life is the search for bliss and the avoidance of its loss. Here, at last, is the universal goal. And though the journey to this understanding is long and arduous, ultimately everyone must reach it.

The scriptures tell us that the very nature of God is ever-existent, ever-conscious, and ever-new bliss. Thus God Is for Everyone fulfills its first purpose by giving us a concept of God that will motivate us to seek Him—for God is the very bliss that everyone seeks!

The essence of all religions
To fulfill the second purpose of the book—to show the commonality of all religions—Yogananda discusses the universal inner essence of religion. This he defines as the science of working with the subtle energy flows that influence our states of awareness and uplift our spirit into direct experience of God.

“The true purpose of religion,” Yogananda writes, “is to teach the law as it applies to one’s spiritual life. No matter what religious tenets one holds, if he would know God, he must direct his feelings upward from the heart to the spiritual eye, and focus them there in the expectation of bliss.”

Yogananda thus distills the essence of all religions to that which is common to them all: the inner movement of energy that lifts us from the perspective of duality to the “single eye” of divine vision. This ultimate quest must be pursued individually and at best can only be aided by a religious institution.

As we learn how to work with this energy, which is present in every atom of creation, we can retrace our steps from suffering and sorrow, past pleasure and happiness, to our true nature: bliss.

Civilization’s driving force
After The Science of Religion was published in 1920, Paramhansa Yogananda spent the remaining thirty-two years of his life sharing the philosophy and techniques of yoga, which is the name given in the East to this exploration of consciousness. Once someone asked Yogananda, “Is this teaching a new religion?” “No,” he replied. “It is a new expression.” Similarly we can say that God Is for Everyone is a “new expression” of The Science of Religion, one that helps to fulfill Yogananda’s divine mission.

“True religion is a science,” Yogananda writes in the conclusion of the book. “It shows how to find permanent freedom from all sorrow in the attainment of Conscious Bliss. True, spiritual religion offers the only workable solution there is to humanity’s deepest needs, and for this reason deserves to be considered the science of all sciences. It is, indeed, the driving force behind all civilization.”

The truths presented here are even more important today than when they were first written over eighty years ago. They are humanity’s guiding light, showing us how to live at peace within ourselves and with our fellowman. Truly God is for everyone.

Devi Novak and her husband Jyotish are Acharyas (spiritual directors) for Ananda Village.

Other Clarity articles by Devi Novak are listed under “Nayaswami Devi.”

You can purchase God Is for Everyone online at Crystal Clarity Publishers.

The latest scientific research on the causes, diagnoses, and treatment of headaches, reviewed in the book, shows that that the techniques and approach of Ananda Yoga are especially effective in breaking the headache cycle. Ananda Yoga treats the underlying mental and physiological origins of headaches, using relaxation, stretching, breathing, and positive affirmation.

An epidemic problem
Roughly half the people in the United States have had a severe headache at least once in their lives. Chronic headaches over time tend to undermine the sufferer’s emotional and physical health. Ultimately, even close social relationships can deteriorate—people who suffer from recurring migraine headaches are three times more likely to develop depression than those without migraines.

Due to inadequate treatment options, treating chronic headaches can be a frustrating experience for both doctor and patient. A surprising number of headache sufferers are convinced that finding an effective treatment without side-effects is a hopeless task.

Ananda Yoga—an ideal headache treatment
Ananda Yoga works in three different ways to help prevent and treat headaches:

Gentle stretching: The postures promote deep relaxation through gentle, tension-relieving stretching, done with a meditative focus.

Affirmation: The affirmations accompanying each yoga posture help to realign thought patterns and release mental tensions.

Breathing: The Ananda Yoga breathing exercises deepen the level of mental and physical relaxation.

Stretches for the neck and shoulders
To prevent or relieve tension headaches, the neck and upper back need to be kept flexible. Many types of neck stretches are helpful, but most people won’t do them regularly enough to gain any real benefit. The Ananda Yoga system offers a balanced set of stretches that are safe, beneficial, and pleasant to do, making it easier to maintain a regular practice.

Eagle arms
Bring your left arm up in front of you and bend it at the elbow, with your upper arm horizontal, and forearm vertical in front of your nose. Wrap your right arm underneath and around the left, until the palms come together.

Keeping your chest lifted and open, raise and lower your elbows until you find the position that affords the best stretch of your shoulders and upper back. As you hold the position and breathe easily feel the release of tension throughout your upper body: shoulders, upper back, arms, and wrists. With each exhalation, visualize the released energy pouring into your spine, your center.

Affirm mentally: “At the center of life’s storms I stand serene.”

Hold this position for at least 30 seconds, continuing the affirmation. Repeat on the other side, with left arm wrapping underneath right, for the same amount of time.

Variation
If you cannot bring your palms together (this is quite common), drape a yoga strap between your left thumb and forefinger. After wrapping your right arm as far as it will go around the left, grasp the strap with both hands and as your shoulders relax, gradually work your hands closer together.

To order, call 800-424-1055 or go to www.crystalclarity.com.

Peter Van Houten, M.D. is the founder of the Sierra Family Medical Clinic and has been practicing medicine for more than 20 years. He has written articles and lectured extensively on the brain and the human nervous system.

Rich Gyandev McCord, Ph.D. is worldwide director of Ananda Yoga, one of the largest schools of yoga in the United States. He has been practicing yoga for over 23 years.

Included also are easy-to-follow guidelines for successful cooking, healthy diet, as well as tips on shopping for food and utensils.

Diksha has selected from her extensive repertoire of outstanding recipes dishes that are not only delicious and imaginative, but also healthy and easy-to-prepare. Rich in taste and texture, these dishes will please the most discriminating gourmets.

Crispy Herbed Tofu
This wonderfully textured tofu can be served as a snack, mixed with salad, or as a main dish for lunch and dinner.

Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2-3
Drain and wrap in a paper towel to absorb excess water:
1 lb. firm tofu
Cut tofu into 1 inch cubes
Sauté  in a pan, on medium-high heat for 5 minutes:
2 tablespoons safflower oil
tofu cubes
1 teaspoon garlic powder, sprinkled on top
Sprinkle on tofu pieces and stir:
1 teaspoon dried thyme (optional)
1 ½ tablespoons nutritional yeast
Sauté, stirring frequently, until tofu pieces are golden and crisp on the outside, about 10-15 minutes. Turn heat off and add:
1 ½ tablespoons tamari or Bragg (or to taste)
squeeze of fresh lemon juice (optional)

Spiritualize Your Relationship with Food

• Eat only when you are hungry. Learn to distinguish between true hunger and trying to fill a void caused by emotional upset, stress, or boredom.

• Don’t overeat. When you finish a meal you should feel comfortable, and as if you still have room in your stomach.

• Avoid eating late at night. Falling asleep shortly after easting causes food to lie in the stomach without being properly digested.

• When you eat too much, or too little, or too quickly, accept it with humor and understanding. Resolve to keep trying to improve, and move forward.

• Be creative, patient with yourself, and enjoy the process of transforming your diet.

• Remember that food is not just a bunch of nutrients; it’s part of Spirit.

—From Vegetarian Cooking for Starters.

Blanche McCord, a Lightbearer and Ananda Village resident, is the author of The Expanding Light Cookbook and teaches at The Expanding Light guest retreat.

To order Vegetarian Cooking for Starters and The Intimate Vegetarian, call 800-424-1055 or e-mail clarity@crystalclarity.com.

Says Nancy: “Whether simple or elaborate, meals that are delicious, colorful, and made with high quality ingredients are a delight to eat and will add enjoyment to your life. I’ve also discovered that the most essential ingredient in making the finest meals in the world is cooking from your heart.  Food that is lovingly prepared is the most deeply nourishing, comforting, and healing of all.”

The Intimate Vegetarian is full of wonderful tips and techniques for shopping, storing and preparing foods such as:

Cutting onions without “crying”:
“There are all kinds of methods that are supposed to prevent your eyes from watering and burning while cutting onions, and I’ve tried a lot of them over the years without notable success. However, there is one technique that helps immensely. Splash some vinegar (any vinegar will do) over the surface of your cutting board and rub it in before you start cutting. Your eyes will barely notice the onion’s airborne irritants.”

Cheese Enchiladas
A simple, colorful main course, these enchiladas take only minutes to prepare, have a fabulous flavor, and are a delight to behold. Add a side dish of warmed Mexican Bean dip and another of plain brown rice, and you have an exciting yet wholesome meal.

For 1 person:
Prep time: 10 minutes
Baking time: 20 minutes
Makes: 2 enchiladas
2 6-inch corn tortillas
2/3 to 1 cup grated sharp
Cheddar or Jack cheese
2 Tbs. finely chopped red or
yellow onion (optional)
1/2 to 2/3 cup enchilada sauce,
divided
2 Tbs. sour cream
1 tsp. finely chopped green onion
1 Tbs. sliced black olives

For 2 people:
Prep time: 10-12 minutes
Baking time: 20-25 minutes
Makes: 4 enchiladas
4 6-inch corn tortillas
1-1/3 to 2 cups grated sharp
Cheddar of Jack cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped red or
yellow onion (optional)
1 cup enchilada sauce, divided
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tsp. finely chopped green onion
2 Tbs. sliced black olives

To prepare:
1. Set oven to broil. Place tortillas  flat on a foil-covered baking sheet (for easy cleanup). Spread cheese evenly over tortillas.

2. Set under broiler for a minute or so until cheese is almost melted and tortilla is soft. Remove from oven. When tortillas are still warm and soft, sprinkle with onion (if desired) and gently roll into a loose cylinder shape. Set aside, flap side down.

3. Preheat oven to 400° F. Pour half of the enchilada sauce in a loaf pan or 7-inch, round baking dish. (8” x 8” dish for 2). Place rolled tortillas in pan or dish, flap side down, and cover with remaining enchilada sauce. Spoon some of the sauce over each enchilada to thoroughly moisten tortillas.

4. Cover pan or dish with foil. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until bubbling hot. Garnish each enchilada with a dollop of sour cream and a smattering of green onions and black olives.

Note to the cook
Leftover enchiladas reheat nicely in the oven or in a covered frying pan with a little water in the bottom.

Nancy Mair, a Lightbearer and Ananda Village resident, works as a writer, carpenter and landscape designer.

To order Vegetarian Cooking for Starters and The Intimate Vegetarian, call 800-424-1055 or e-mail clarity@crystalclarity.com

History’s great theories don’t work
Walters states, unequivocally, that change begins with the individual, not with grandiose theories that don’t take into account flesh and blood human beings. Much of the book is devoted to analyzing the theories of great thinkers such as Plato, Copernicus, Machiavelli, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud. Walters shows not only how their influence has proved adverse, but also offers deeply considered alternatives.

Yet, as Milton Staackman says in the introduction, “This book…doesn’t reject the wisdom of the past. It is even-handed, intelligent, and respectful of the genius every culture possesses. At the same time, it repeatedly asks a very simple question: ‘Does it work?’” This key question shows why the great theories of history have failed to create the perfect world.

Communism, for instance, while promising a utopia, has inflicted only misery on large segments of humanity. Machiavelli’s book, The Prince, which advised rulers to behave ruthlessly, became a virtual bible for men like Napoleon and Hitler and ultimately led to their downfall. Sigmund Freud offered learned theories, but concentration on one’s problems, as distinguished from positive life goals, is clearly not the best way to reach a solution.

A need for practical solutions
In a recent interview Walters said of these authors, “I realized that most of them had simply asked the wrong questions. It wasn’t so much that they were wrong given their own contexts.  Rather, it was that the contexts were too narrow. And the conclusions they came to were discouraging, not hopeful. I saw in every case that their vision was limited.”

Walters goes on to say that first and foremost what cooperative communities have to offer is practical solutions, not mere theories. What is needed, according to Walters, is a change in consciousness, something that small groups in particular can demonstrate. As people see changes in action, they will be convinced. The beauty of conducting small experiments is that they can be adjusted as necessary by those interested in doing so, instead of trying to force the experiments on people who aren’t interested.

Cooperation: a key to success
The “great thinkers” of the past based their theories upon the idea of competition between individuals, but Walters shows that cooperation is the key to success in any field of endeavor. Drawing upon his personal experience in developing communities, he describes how, by fostering a spirit of cooperation, communities can inspire people to fulfill their own higher potentials and to deepen their relationships with others.

Walters argues persuasively that just as the Wright Brothers persuaded people that a heavier than air object could fly, even though all the experts said it was impossible, so also will people be convinced of the value of small communities when they see for themselves the kinds of changes communities make possible.

Hope for a Better World! offers compelling solutions to many of the challenges that face humanity today. In so doing, it succeeds in offering real hope for a better world.

Hope For a Better World can be ordered by calling 800-424-1055.

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

Most alternative approaches to healing address only the conscious or subconscious mind, but Meditation Therapy™ introduces the power of the superconscious mind, thus attacking the root causes of our problems.

Only when we change our energy patterns at the deepest levels of consciousness can there be lasting outward results. What Novak offers is not a temporary fix, but an empowering healing process heavily dependent upon our own perseverance, patience, and sense of spiritual adventure.

Life’s experiences are not accidental
Novak begins each video with a discussion of the nature and causes of the problem and offers practical solutions for prevention. He stresses that the things that happen to us in life are not random or accidental. We draw them to ourselves by a subtle process of magnetism because they are the lessons we need in order to grow.

For instance, in Meditation Therapy™ for Health and Healing, Novak points out that, “illness is nature’s way of showing us that we’re out of harmony with universal law, just as jumping out of a window shows that we can’t defy the laws of gravity.” He emphasizes the need to deal with the underlying causes of illness rather than the symptoms, otherwise there is the tendency to repeat the same patterns of ill health again and again.

An attitude of dynamic acceptance
In Meditation Therapy™ for Stress and Change, Novak explains similarly that unhealthy levels of stress, like all chronic health problems, begin in the mind. Practical changes in our outward circumstances may be helpful in reducing stress, but more important is right attitude. Our real power lies in how we respond.

Instead of pushing life away, we can eliminate stress and tension by an attitude of dynamic acceptance and the determination to be even-minded and cheerful at all times.

Finally, Meditation Therapy™ for Relationships emphasizes the need to see relationships in a more expansive way. “For most people,” Novak says, “relationships are one of the greatest sources of fulfillment, and can also be the cause of life’s greatest pain.”

A solution-oriented approach
The practice of meditation and complementary techniques is central to the effectiveness of meditation therapy. Pain is the result of contracting in upon ourselves through excessive self-focus. Expansiveness, however, brings joy and fulfillment as we expand our sense of self and happiness to include the needs of others.

Eventually, in the expanded states of consciousness found in meditation, we can discover an underlying joy that doesn’t change under any circumstances. Each video describes these techniques in four easy-to-use sections.

A complete teaching
This new video series offers a complete teaching, one that draws upon Novak’s thirty plus years on the spiritual path as counselor, teacher of meditation, and spiritual leader.

Most self-help therapies tend to be limited in scope because they lack a strong spiritual foundation. Meditation Therapy™ is solution-oriented. It is based upon the ancient yogic traditions brought to the West by Paramhansa Yogananda and embraces every level of human experience. For anyone seeking long-term solutions, these videos are a must.

Jyotish Novak and his wife, Devi, are Spiritual Directors of Ananda Sangha Worldwide.

Meditation Therapy™ videos can be ordered by calling 800 424-1055.

Indeed, Kriyananda shows not only that their deep truths are one and the same, but that these precepts are so universal and fundamental that they must underlie all true religions. Kriyananda credits the deep insights expressed in his book to his guru, Paramhansa Yogananda. Stories from Yogananda’s life clarify many of the topics.

The message of this book is especially timely in the aftermath of the recent terrorist attacks, involving such blatant examples of intolerance and hate. These acts result from different cultural and religious traditions that see each other as “not-like-us,” and thus as enemies.

The Promise of Immortality gives us hope that understanding and mutual acceptance can eventually prevail over the concepts of separateness and enmity. It helps to show us that under our different ways of living and worshiping, we have, on the deepest level, the same ideals of truth. Kriyananda writes: “One of the most urgent needs in the world today is for the major religions to be presented from a perspective of the truths they have in common, and not of the teachings which, their proponents insist, make them unique.”

Although this concept of hope for international peace and understanding is very important, The Promise of Immortality is aimed primarily at bringing spiritual clarity and understanding to individual truth-seekers. As Kriyananda says, “The chief purpose of religion is the upliftment of human consciousness.” The book seeks mainly to convey the truth that everyone can experience that upliftment by attaining a deep experience of God’s inner presence.

To show how the Bible furthers this purpose, Kriyananda gives the deeper meanings of many Bible verses, which he presents as the original, true teachings of Jesus Christ. He explains that Jesus often used mystical and symbolic references that are not generally understood. Thus, when Jesus said, “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light,” he was referring to the spiritual eye, a symbol of God’s light, seen in deep meditation. Kriyananda explains that this and many other verses in the Bible are misunderstood because they describe inner experience, not physical phenomena.

Another example is the widely discussed, “second coming of Christ.” Kriyananda explains that the phrase describes an inner event, the experience of becoming one with Christ consciousness. Similarly, the phrase, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,” refers to a deep and profound inner awakening, and not to mere outward acceptance of Jesus as one’s “savior.”

The Promise of Immortality offers many practical suggestions to help the reader’s spiritual development. The benefit of spiritual living, Kriyananda explains, is “that it lightens the consciousness, loosens the shackles of ego- and matter-consciousness, and attunes one more sensitively to the redeeming inner light.” If studied sincerely, The Promise of Immortality can serve as a superb manual of how to live to experience more of the “redeeming inner light” in our own lives.

SRF: ensnared in karmic patterns
Kriyananda’s book is much more, however, than the story of his treatment by SRF. A Place Called Ananda focuses on the universal principles at stake in what appears on the surface to be a personal drama between him and SRF. The book presents in fascinating detail the longstanding karmic patterns that Yogananda came here to change, and which SRF, ironically enough, seems determined to perpetuate. Amazingly, Kriyananda endured 40 years of scorn and ridicule from SRF before publicly disclosing the extent to which SRF has departed from Yogananda’s fundamental goals for his mission.

Yogananda repeatedly emphasized how the Christian churches have crucified Jesus’ teachings by supplanting them with “Churchianity” or institutionalism. Kriyananda shows how SRF is repeating this same karmic error by making the organization the mediator between the individual and God, even though Self-realization, based as it is on the individual’s direct communion with the Divine, requires no such mediation.

Yogananda’s mission is to help “starving humanity” achieve a balance between material and spiritual prosperity. SRF, however, has put the interests of the organization ahead of reaching out to those living in the world.

Increasingly, it has fallen to Ananda to fill the void. By reaching out to householders, starting communities, creating schools, and transmitting Yogananda’s message through books and music, Ananda has created a dynamic expression of Yogananda’s teachings and a lifestyle that takes people to God.

People are more important than things
A Place Called Ananda has much to tell us about how to live our lives as disciples and avoid the pitfalls of delusion that can so easily ensnare us. We see, for example, how Kriyananda could continue to love and care about the SRF leaders who scorned him: he was simply looking at a much bigger picture. To his way of thinking, it wasn’t simply fellow devotees attacking him unjustly; it was Satan trying to keep the old karmic patterns in place.

It becomes very clear, also, why Ananda’s guiding precept is that “people (and their spiritual growth) are more important than things.”  What is the result of SRF having the contrary precept that the institution comes first?

The book answers the question by allowing us to watch events unfold until they reach the point where SRF sacrifices Swami Kriyananda, a fellow devotee and friend, to what is perceived as the “needs” of the institution. From the details of this great drama, the reader learns the importance of living life in deep attunement with the guru, without regard for the approval of others, even those we hold dear.

A Place Called Ananda contains many new and interesting facts that add greater dimension to the story of Kriyananda’s ouster from the organization. One of the most surprising is an after-death message from Tara Mata, one of Kriyananda’s main SRF accusers.

By the end of the book, Kriyananda emerges as a friend on a soul level, one willing to share with the reader the ups and downs, the trials and triumphs, of his soul’s journey to God.

A Place called Ananda can be ordered from Crystal Clarity, Publishers. Call: 800-424-1055

In these pages you will meet such great souls as Anandamoyee Ma who, through divine intervention, saves Devi’s life; Bhupendra Sanyal, a direct disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya and a source of life-long inspiration for Devi; and Tulsi Bose, Paramhansa Yogananda’s close boyhood friend and confidante, and the father of Devi’s wife, Hassi.

Devi also introduces us to many obscure characters, both saintly and “fallen,” like the ‘Pistol Swami’ who enjoyed scaring his guests literally ‘to death,’ and Kailash Pati, so full of divine love that he was able to pet wild tigers.

Devi finds his guru, Paramhansa Yogananda
Devi (Karuna) Mukherjee was born outside Calcutta in 1927. After graduating from college he worked five years as a salesman for a large Calcutta refrigeration company and “thus, perhaps,” Devi says, “ began my ‘career’ as a traveler!”

In 1955, after seeing the photograph of Paramhansa Yogananda in a local Calcutta newspaper, Devi sought out devotees of this Indian Master. Devi tells us, “Even though I had met a few highly advanced yogis in my travels, until now I had never been drawn to accepting anyone as my guru….How [these yogis] all impressed me! In their shining simplicity… it was obvious that they led their lives guided by divine teachings.”

As Devi traveled to the Himalayas, it was by keeping his mind focused on his own guru that he was able to find deep inspiration from the saints he met without getting pulled away from his chosen path. With his great openness of heart, humility, and love of spiritual truths, Devi was easily able to recognize souls who lived for God alone.

Advice from the saints: “Love God!”
In one of his travels, Devi tells us, “…I saw a swami taking his bath at a hot springs nearby…. I took a bath there also [and later] he asked me to follow him. Soon we reached his large cave. A fire blazed inside in a deep pit…we meditated for four hours…  [As I was leaving I asked him to bless me.]

By way of reply he said, “You see the Alakananda [River] below us? It flows from Nil Kanta on its way to the ocean—such a long way away! What tremendous love she must have for the ocean! It takes so long to reach it, but no one can stop her owing to the force of her love. Your love for God should be like that: patient, constant, undeterred.  Like a mighty river, the force of divine devotion will wash away any obstructions on your way. Keep on, with love, until you reach God’s ocean.”

Shaped by Saints is not a long book yet one you will want to read many times over, not only for its guidance on how to set our hearts and minds on the straight path to God, but also for its sweetness. Devi’s own quest for spiritual insight and growth, including his years as a monk with Yogoda Satsanga Society, Self-Realization Fellowship’s sister organization in India, forms an integral part of his story. His previously unpublished stories about his guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, draw the great Master a little closer through new glimpses of his courage, generosity, and loyalty to friends.

Shaped by Saints can be ordered from Crystal Clarity, Publishers. Call: 800-424-1055.

Lila Devi writes convincingly of pets as feeling creatures, capable of love, anger, grief, and sadness and, like humans, part of an expansive, cosmic reality. For the dog who barks incessantly, for the cat who soils and sprays, for the pet tortoise who is confused by a weather shift while preparing for hibernation, Flower Essences for Animals presents loving, sensitive solutions.

Animals are free from mental blocks
The Master’s Flower Essences profiled in this book are the second oldest essence line in the world today. Developed in 1977 by the author, these herbal tinctures are a safe, nontoxic, gentle yet powerful holistic therapy. Through numerous examples, Lila demonstrates that these essences are especially effective when administered to animals. She explains that animals are free from the mental blocks of doubt, skepticism, and subconscious resistance that plague many people. As a result, they respond to flower essences more quickly, and often, dramatically.

In eight chapters, the reader finds not only remedies for addressing animal behaviors and crises, but also an index of emotional states and behaviors of pets and their owners. Other topics include new definitions of pets and owners, new ways to understand your pets, how to communicate with animals, and supportive measures for when a pet dies.

A compassionate glimpse
In the book’s concluding chapter, the author writes: “Those who share with me their flower essence stories about their pets do so with animation, excitement, and enthusiasm. It is never “just a cat” or “only a dog” whose story they are recounting. It is a beloved, respected life companion.

Flower Essences for Animals is not a book to convince you that animals deserve better care. Its purpose is to give you, a loving pet owner, the very tools with which to do it. Lila Devi’s compassionate glimpse into the animal kingdom is a reminder that pets can bring us many years of happiness, and that we, through our loving service, can return the favor.

Flower essence—“Pear.”
A livestock ranch’s yearly roundup creates a climate of general chaos and disorientation. The calves are separated from their mothers for cattle branding and dehorning. Last spring, a woman visiting the ranch during roundup time “just happened” to be carrying a bottle of the flower essence, “Pear,” in her pocket. She poured the remedy into the calves’ watering troughs and in less than an hour she observed that the calves had all settled down. She said this was very unusual. Normally, the calves would have remained restless and inconsolable until the procedure was completed.

Lila Devi, lives at Ananda Village and has lectured extensively both nationally and abroad. She is also the author of The Essential Flower Essences Handbook.

This unique “autobiography” of John Muir, which is told in his own words, is brimming with Muir’s soaring spirit and unique adventures. The text was compiled and edited by naturalist Joseph (Bharat) Cornell, author of Sharing Nature with Children, and well known for his ability to help others experience the joyous quality of nature. The result is a book filled with Muir’s warmth, goodness, enthusiasm, love of all creatures, and remarkable courage and will power —the portrait of a true hero.

While in the wilderness, John Muir constantly worshipped God’s presence in creation. Muir often felt his spirit soar through the canyons and peaks of the Sierras. At these times, he experienced to the very depth of his being the truth that “the contents of the human soul contains the whole world.” Reflecting on the mountains Muir writes:

“O these vast, calm, measureless mountain days …Days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God.”

Born in 1838, Muir is remembered as the father of America’s national parks and the most influential conservationist of modern times. It is said that no one brought nature to life like John Muir. When Muir spoke of his encounters with wild animals, trees, and mountain storms, his listeners said it felt as if they were there, experiencing the adventure with him. After reading Muir’s report on America’s forests, thrilled readers said that Muir was the only one who could make a federal report sing like poetry.

Cornell chose the most captivating stories in Muir’s life and used Muir’s own words, somewhat adapted for younger readers, to tell Muir’s story. Although targeted at young adults, a book so filled with humor, adventure, and inspiration lights the way for young and old alike. Muir writes:

I have tried to tell not what I have done but what Nature has done—a much more important story—in the hopes that you’ll go to Nature yourself and learn her secret ways. I also wanted to make the mountains glad. For nature was made not just for us, but for itself and its own happiness, and is the very smile of God.

The book concludes with an activity section that encourages young people to look more closely at Muir’s life and find its relevance to their own.

With Beauty Before Me
Also coming out this summer is a second book by Joseph Cornell, With Beauty Before Me, a pocketbook of inspirational quotations and activities to take with you on your nature walks.

From the book:
Breathe in the fresh air surrounding you. Exhale and observe the flow of air around you. Follow it as it passes through nearby trees and over wide-open fields. Continue to follow the wind as it carries the distant clouds across the far blue sky. Close your eyes and listen. Can you hear sounds from every direction?…Feel that everything you see and hear is a part of you.”

The author is donating 100% of the proceeds from sales of these two books   toward the purchase of a wide variety of indigenous trees for planting at Ananda Village. To order, please make your check to “Ananda Forest Fund” and mail to the Ananda Sangha Office.  The cost, including shipping and tax, is $12.00 for John Muir, My Life with Nature and $9.00 for Beauty Before Me.

Joseph (Bharat) Cornell is one of the world’s leading nature educators. H serves as an Ananda Lightbearer and resides at Ananda Village.