Most of the stress and pain associated with change is the result of wishing that things were other than they are. Learn to accept life and much of the anxiety associated with change will disappear.

One of the main challenges facing teens and young adults today is resisting the message that happiness can be found outside of oneself—in money, material possessions, fame, popularity, or other worldly achievements. There is so much suffering because of that idea.

All delusions endanger one’s peace of mind, strengthen the ego, and deepen one’s sense of isolation from others and from any sense of support from the universe. Worst of all, they cause us to seek fulfillment in means that always prove to be, in the end, mere shadows.

What is the spirit of gardening? It is the more expansive and inspiring approach to life gained through your contact with flowers, trees, and shrubs, through caring for the soil, and through bringing beauty, harmony, and upliftment into your surroundings. Such experiences help you to grow and flourish.

Remember that your difficulties did not come to crush you, but to strengthen your determination to use your limitless divine powers to succeed. God wants you to conquer the difficult tests of life and to come back to His home of wisdom.

A great sense of relaxation comes as we realize that relationships are given to us primarily to help us learn and grow, especially in our ability to accept and to love. Relationships lived in this manner hold the promise of deep fulfillment.

One of the great blessings of meditation is that I am less reactive emotionally and can now view situations more objectively. Gradually I am learning that it’s possible to remain centered and act with kindness even in harsh or chaotic circumstances.

Rather than be resentful of what appears to be more than my fair share of injuries and illnesses, I choose to be thankful for what I have learned and for the blessing of being able to help others reach for optimal health—physically, mentally and spiritually.

It is a mistake to think that you will ever find the perfect mate. Life, outwardly, cannot be other than a compromise between the ideal and reality.

Courtesy is a healing balm; it can soothe troubled hearts, and win cooperation even from the hostile.

As devotees, the pitfall is to decide that we have only so much energy—and no more. Just when I think I’ve done everything I can do, Divine Mother often says, “But there’s so much more you can do,” and then shows me that’s true.

How do you react when a test comes? You won’t be worthy of God if you try to run away from your difficulties. To succeed on the spiritual path you need that level of courage that allows you to think, “No matter how long this test lasts, it will pass in time so why worry about it?”

Often the most successful people are those who have had the most to overcome because they’ve had to put out a great deal of energy to transcend their challenges.

When I came onto the spiritual path my life became consciously God-centered. There was a feeling of restfulness and calm as I let go of anxiety about myself.

To activate the law of success, we needed to remain open to what God was trying to teach us and attune to His will, not our personal desires.

Quiet Bodies is simply sitting cross-legged, with eyes closed, and not moving for a few minutes. In order to get the children to do Quiet Bodies, I needed to create an aura of specialness around the experience; making an activity “magical” and fun gets them to saying “yes.”

I was reflecting on how it had been such an unusually stressful afternoon that I could have easily keeled over with a heart attack. Yet I knew my current job was exactly what God wanted of me. I had hung in there and seen to it that each patient received the proper treatment. As much as possible, I had acted with the sense that God was the Doer. That was a victory.

In this 40th anniversary commemorative issue, we review events and developments that have shaped Ananda’s 40 year history and look ahead to future directions.

Parents and children should understand that their relationship is not fortuitous, but is due to a divine plan. Family life is the laboratory in which human love can be transformed into God’s perfect love.

I recall a time when I felt like I was being crushed by a certain experience. Then it suddenly occurred to me, “Well, what did you expect? As a devotee, you’ve ‘signed on’ to go through this process, and others like it, to become more spiritual and of course it’s going to be challenging.”