There are miracles, yes, but magnetism is what draws those miracles. Magnetism is the most important thing in life. I believe we’re on the eve of difficult times but if you have the right kind of magnetism, even if there’s a depression, it won’t be a predicament for you. Success in every aspect of life depends on the power of your magnetism to attract it. By developing “success magnetism,” you will find victory in all situations even in the midst of widespread difficulties.

Step One: Will Power and Concentration
How does magnetism work?  Magnetism is generated by the strength and quality of your energy flow. When you pass electricity through a wire, it generates a magnetic field. The more electricity passes through the wire, the stronger the magnetic field.

Human magnetism works on the same principle. Whenever you will something to happen, a ray of energy goes out, projected by the power of your thought. That energy generates a magnetic force-field which can attract to you the objects of your expectations. The strength of that magnetism depends on your level of energy. People of low energy generate very little magnetism. Those with high energy can perform miracles.

“The greater the will, the greater the flow of energy” was one of Paramhansa Yogananda’s oft-stated maxims. The more you focus your energy one-pointedly, the stronger your magnetism to attract what you need. Concentration is thus the first necessity in developing that kind of will power. If your energy goes out in many different directions, you have very little magnetism. When you can focus your mind one-pointedly, you are already far on the way to developing a powerful will and the magnetism to attract success.

Step Two: Enthusiasm
For your magnetism to gain power, it is vitally important to summon up strong feeling for what you want to accomplish. Whatever you are doing, do it with all your heart. Magnetism is the result not only of focused energy but also of enthusiasm.

It has been said that nothing great has ever been accomplished without enthusiasm. Thomas Edison, for example, went through 43,000 experiments before he found the right filament for the light bulb—such was his deep feeling for the work he was doing. If you look at the lives of great scientists, you will find that they were passionate men and women and absolutely dedicated to the search for scientific truth. They could never have accomplished what they did without enthusiasm.

Always be careful to keep your enthusiasm from spilling over into excitement. For the will to become will power, it must be directed calmly, with control. As that happens, even when others have failed, somehow you will succeed.

Step Three: Positive Thinking
To develop magnetism, always be positive in your thinking. You will attract success if your mind is positive, and you will attract failure if it isn’t. A positive attitude will bring a positive response.

I had a very interesting experience of this principle at the airport in 1955, when I was leaving for France. When checking in at the airline counter, I stood behind a man whose baggage was obviously overweight. This man, when told he had to pay more, became very upset and made threats about not using that airline in the future. He even asked to see the manager. The angrier he got, the firmer the airline official became in his refusal to back down.

My baggage was much heavier than this man’s, but as I went up to the counter I thought, “This man is a friend. God is in this form,” and with that positive thought, I smiled at him. He looked at my baggage and said, “Well, what have we got here?” And without another word he allowed my baggage to go through. When your thoughts are positive, when they’re kind and helpful, you will find that others will want to help you.

I passed my music composition exam in college using this same principle. I didn’t go to any classes, but right before going in to take the exam, I read the bold print rules in the textbook. Two rules stuck in my mind, one of which was that a bass line should go in the opposite direction to the melody. Armed with this information, and with a very positive, cheerful outlook, I went in to take the exam.

We were asked to write a melody for a bass line. Suddenly, into my mind came a beautiful oriental melody. Later, the professor told me that it was on the strength of that melody that he gave me a good grade in the course.

The inspiration for that melody came because I was positive in my expectations and free of doubt. If you have doubt, if you think, “Well, gee, I don’t know if I can do this,” inspiration won’t come. But if all your energy is strongly focused in a positive direction, you will develop the kind of magnetism that will attract inspiration, answers to questions—all sorts of things. Even the right, pertinent knowledge can be attracted by the right, magnetic expectation.

Step Four: Solution Consciousness
“Solution consciousness” is another important aspect of magnetism.  Many people have “problem consciousness.” You ask them to do something and their response is always: “Yes, but!”  People like that never succeed. Whenever you have a problem, don’t think of it as a problem. See it as an opportunity. You will be amazed how much you can accomplish when you eliminate the word “can’t.”

Yogananda was very strong on solution consciousness. During World War II, he wanted to build a church in Hollywood, but new buildings were not allowed in Los Angeles.  Everybody told him, “It’s not possible.” He said, “Oh, yes it is.” Since there was no law against renovation, he found an old building that was barely standing and moved it on to property he had bought. The neighbors complained bitterly but he developed the building into a beautiful church.

Don’t dwell on difficulties longer than it takes to define them clearly. With solution-consciousness you can have success. Solution-consciousness actually attracts right answers to itself, whereas problem-consciousness prevents answers from even arising in the mind.

Step Five: Kindness
An attitude of kindness is also important for magnetism. Kindness is very magnetic. When people are kind, they draw other people’s help in return. In true kindness, there is much more giving than receiving. True kindness is an all-giving energy.

Paramhansa Yogananda was all-giving in just this way. Once he went to a cane shop, and being a representative of an organization, he wanted to spend the organization’s money wisely, so he bargained. After bargaining and getting the best price he could, he thought, “This man has such a poor shop. I want to help him.” And he gave him back more money than he had saved!

The shopkeeper said, “You are a gentleman, sir.” He gave Yogananda the best cane he had. When Yogananda came home, he said, “What a poor floor that man had. I think I’ll get him a new floor.” That kind of kindness is what you need to develop.

The more you give generously of yourself—to God, to life, to other people, the more the karmic law supports you in return. Your ability to succeed in business, or in any other endeavor, increases to the extent of your awareness of your kinship with the great web of life.

Step Six: Non-attachment
One of the basic teachings in the Bhagavad Gita is nishkam karma: action without desire for the fruits of action. Many self-help books say you should desire intensely whatever you want, for that very intensity will draw to you the object of your desire. When desire and attachment exist, however, what you attract may not be what you need or it may be much less than you could have had. When putting out energy to achieve a goal, it is much better to focus on the energy flow itself, not the specific objective, even when your need is for a specific sum of money.

Years ago members of Ananda Village were invited to pledge different amounts of money to help with the enhancement of “downtown Ananda.” We needed $3000 to pave the entrance driveway. I knew that no one else could come up with that kind of money so I decided (secretly) to pledge the whole amount myself, even though I didn’t have nearly that amount. The money was needed in two weeks.

Although I made a request for a specific sum of money, in praying to Divine Mother I concentrated on the energy of the prayer, rather than the specific request. With great will power, I projected the energy of the prayer upward from my heart and then out through the spiritual eye. I didn’t visualize a specific sum of money or how the money might come. Instead I focused on the purpose this money was meant to serve with the thought, “Divine Mother knows more than I, and will take care of that end of things.”

One morning nearly two weeks later I saw an envelope lying on the floor inside my front door. In it was a letter and check for $3000 from a friend who had once lived at Ananda and had recently received an inheritance.

When you act with non-attachment, you can be sure of one thing: when success comes, it will be in the best possible way. Whatever you need, send energy outward as a “loving demand.”  Energy flows much more forcefully when you think of it as a flow, without fixed and definite goals.

Step Seven: Attune to a Greater Reality
The power to attract success of every kind increases in direct proportion to your ability to recognize, and attune yourself to, a reality greater than your own. The more you unite your awareness to the Infinite Consciousness, the more effective your power will be. What you can on your own do is limited but what God can accomplish through you is limitless.

It’s absolutely thrilling to live life this way and to experience how much can be accomplished. I want to assure you of this because in hard times, there will be a lot of suffering. But you don’t have to suffer if you put out the right kind of energy.

From an April 2011 talk in Los Angeles, California.

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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.

How to raise the money?
When I moved to Ananda Village in February 1976, the community’s photographer had recently left. A big event, a “Village Fun Faire,” was being planned. It promised to be photogenic, with colorfully costumed performers and an elephant. I wanted to take good pictures, but my camera wasn’t up to the job.

In the early years at Ananda Village, many of the single people lived a very simple life, earning just $50 a month plus room and board. Wondering how I could raise the money for a camera, I reached in my pocket and found 34 cents – my entire net worth at the time. But I sensed that if a camera was truly needed, the money would come. I told God that I would do my part, if He would show me how to make the money.

The next day, a friend called to say that he had written a book for bicyclists, and he needed photos. Could I do them? The amount he offered was just enough for a camera that would serve Ananda.

“Go see the podiatrist!”
Fifteen years later, I was training for my first ultramarathon, when an injury threatened to end my running career altogether. I tried all manner of remedies, from anti-inflammatory drugs, to massage, icing, cheap shoe inserts, and special exercises, but nothing worked. I even stuffed leaves in my shoes!

Finally, feeling desperate, I prayed for help. And then I heard an intuitive voice that I recognized as Swami Kriyananda’s. It said, “Go see the podiatrist.”

I said, “But I have no money, and the podiatrist will prescribe shoe inserts that cost $400, plus he’ll charge $40 for the office visit.”

The inner guidance was unrelenting. Again, it said, “Go see the podiatrist.” Seizing my faith in my hands, I made an appointment, and sure enough, the doctor wanted $40 for the visit and $400 for inserts. I asked him to bill me, and the next day I received a phone call from the same friend who had “come through” 15 years earlier. “I’ve written another book,” he said. “Can you do the photos? I need them quickly, and I’ll pay $500.”

This story has repeated itself endlessly in my life as a devotee – not always as spectacularly, but often enough that I’ve come to understand that certain principles are at play. I’ve seen, for example, that when the need is real and we humbly ask for God’s help, He willingly provides.

A job in response to a prayer
But I evidently still had much to learn about money and grace, and in due time God taught me a difficult lesson.

In the late 1990s, I was able to make a living as a writer and editor in Silicon Valley. But when the high-tech industry experienced a down-turn in 2001, the company I was working for struggled and my work fell by the wayside. Following 9/11, my other clients reduced their spending, and I found myself essentially unemployed.

I prayed for help, and the next day a friend told me of an opening in the department where she worked at Stanford University. I happily took a part-time job helping the department manager.

My boss was a wonderful person. Before work each morning, I would pray to be able to make her day easier by being supportive and cheerful, and offering her God’s friendship. I loved that job, and I stayed for two years. But then the department trimmed its budget and my job was eliminated.

Both a wonderful and confusing time
For the next six years, I had a terrible time making a living. Why? I can think of at least six reasons, all related to mistakes I had made in the past. But I don’t think it helps to dwell on our mistakes, since what ultimately matters is the lessons we learn from them.

After I left Stanford, I applied for hundreds of jobs for which I was highly qualified. I went to dozens of job interviews that seemed to go well – yet nothing resulted. I had countless responses to my ads on Craigslist, but I was never hired. I began to run up debts.

I had a reading with a Vedic astrologer whose predictions had proved accurate over the years. He told me that I was in an inward period of my spiritual life – “on pilgrimage” – and that I was “invisible” to employers.

It was a wonderful, yet a deeply confusing time. I was writing a book on fitness, based on Paramhansa Yogananda’s teachings, and my work on that project brought me joy. But the satisfactions were balanced by a growing sense of frustration over my inability to make a living. Over the years, I had developed an excellent resume, with testimonials from respected companies, and two degrees from Stanford. I had a handful of regular clients who gave me just enough work to keep food on the table, but little more.

I reach the end of my rope
The time of testing stretched to six years. After five years, I had another astrology reading and learned that I had entered a period when it would be possible to make a living. Yet months passed after I entered the “money period,” with no change. I realized that my Guru was capable of holding up my astrology chart, and with a gentle smile, ripping it to pieces, if it would help me learn a needed lesson.

Just when I felt that I had reached the end of my rope, I had a vision in meditation. I saw a young man with brown skin and long black hair standing in front of a gray stone hut, high in the Himalayas. He wore a simple wool robe, and it was obvious that he had nothing, only a crude rock shelter and food. But the smile on his face was radiant. I realized from this vision that it was possible to be sublimely happy while having almost nothing materially.

The vision reminded me of how I had lived 30 years earlier, in the early days of Ananda Village. At the time, I owned just two pairs of pants and two shirts. When one set of clothes was dirty, I washed them in the shower and set them on a fence to dry. At Christmas one year, Swami Kriyananda drew my name in our Divine Mother gift exchange. Someone told him that I only had two shirts, and he gave me a pale-blue long-sleeved cotton turtleneck. I loved that shirt – it felt wonderful to wear it, and I was sad when it finally wore out.

Two important realizations
Whatever the lesson of this test was, I wanted to learn it completely, so that I wouldn’t have to return to it again. I wrote to Swami Kriyananda, “I am glad that my Guru is uncompromising.” His secretary replied that Swami had read my email, and had said he understood.

Some weeks later, I had a further realization. I wrote to Swami Kriyananda, “I have come to understand that I am in this world for only three reasons: to love God, to serve His work, and to live simply.” I sent the email and forgot about it. I would have been content to receive no reply. Even if I became homeless, I felt that I had learned an enduring lesson.

A week later, nothing had changed. Then I received an email from Kriyananda’s secretary. He said that Swamiji had read my latest email, and that he had said, simply, “Very good.”

I can’t tell you how much those words meant to me. It was the most precious message of my life.

A regular flow of work
The sequel is that, bright and early the next morning, the phone began to ring off the hook. The same Craigslist ad that had failed to elicit a job for six years was unleashing a torrent of offers. It was scary how many people were calling and asking me to work for them.

From then on, I’ve had a steady flow of work. But the lesson, of course, didn’t end there. It wasn’t as if Divine Mother said, “You’ve learned your lesson – now you’ll be able to find work easily.” I found that the flow of work continued to the extent that I affirmed, over and over, the purpose of my life: to love God, to serve His work, and to live simply.

Reflecting on the loving help that Swami Kriyananda and Ananda had given me over the years, I felt a strong desire to give back. I began participating more in Ananda’s work, by singing in the choir and two small groups, by writing, by volunteering in the Ananda community garden, by helping the community manager, and by tithing. And to the extent that I offered my service cheerfully, from my heart, I found that I was blessed.

The most difficult, yet rewarding lesson
At age 69, I see that one of the most rewarding lessons we can learn on the spiritual path is to go along with God’s way of doing things. We naturally would like to think that we can plan our lives logically. “I will invest so much energy, and I’ll receive this much in return.”  We hope to find security by gaining control over the material circumstances of our lives.

My six-year test showed me that all the money in creation is contained entirely within Divine Mother’s purse. When I serve God’s work, the sense of abundance increases. But when I forget the threefold purpose of my life, I find the flow of opportunities reduced to a trickle. Abundance, I realize, comes by opening ourselves to its only source, in God, through our love and service to Him.

Related reading:  Money Magnetism – How to Attract What You Need When You Need It by Swami Kriyananda. To order click here

30 Day Essentials for Career by Jyotish Novak. To order click here

Nayaswami 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. To go to his website click here

Who among these, then, was the more truly wealthy? It isn’t merely a matter of how much you have, but rather of how well you know how to use what you have. Wealth cannot be equated with some fixed quantity. If one is wealthy in his mind, or in his spirit, he may require very few material possessions to be perfectly satisfied with life. If, on the other hand, one considers himself wealthy only for his material riches, he may be convinced he is poor even if he has fifty million dollars, perhaps only because some former classmate of his has ninety million.

Wealth is the consciousness of abundance. And poverty is the consciousness of lack. Wealth and poverty are both states of mind. You are as rich, or as poor, as you believe yourself to be.

Essential to my theme in this book is the importance of the right mental attitude, not only for defining the parameters of happiness intelligently, but also for attracting wealth in the first place.

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.

*Excerpted from Money Magnetism by Swami Kriyananda

Resource:
To view Crystal Clarity Publishers’ “Leadership & Money” section, click here

All the wealth of this earth
All the riches of the universe
Belong to Thee, belong to Thee.

I am Thy child.
The wealth of earth and universe
Belongs to me, belongs to me,
O belongs to me, belongs to me.

I lived in thoughts of poverty
And wrongly fancied I was poor
So I was poor.

Now I am home and Thy consciousness
Has made me wealthy, made me rich.
I am success, I am rich.

Thou art my treasure, I am rich, I am rich.
Thou art everything, Thou art everything.
Thou art mine.
I have everything, I have everything.
I am wealthy, I am rich.

I have everything, I have everything
I possess all and everything
Even as Thou dost, even as Thou dost.
I possess everything, I possess everything.

Thou art my wealth.
I have everything.

From Scientific Healing Affirmations, 1924 edition.

Even the smartest businessmen became children in the hands of destiny. Businessmen who were certain of their ability to invest properly and preserve their fortunes lost everything. When a materially-minded businessman’s brain is befuddled with greed, his mind causes him to initiate one failing plan after another. This is the price all selfish, materially-minded people are bound to pay eventually.

However, even in the worst depression, an unselfish businessman who keeps his mind concentrated principally upon God, the Giver of all things, will never lose everything, unless it is a divine test intended to help him spiritually. And those who consider the world their home, and work for the advancement of group or world prosperity, will find prosperity even in poverty-stricken environments.

It is a popular error to think that unselfishness involves tormenting sacrifice and loss. Unselfishness is the only lasting way to secure individual prosperity.

Vibrations travel through the ether
We are all indissolubly linked together and bound up in a common fate. Vibrations travel through the ether from one place to another; when depression starts in one place, it starts everywhere. No one can get away with disturbing one part of the world and preventing the disturbance from moving through the ether waves to other parts of the world.

That is why such a monumental disaster as recently occurred in Florida* from the devastating two-day hurricane deserves our universal sympathy and financial assistance. It was occasioned by the sum total of wrong human thoughts. As a world race, we are all responsible for it.

The wrong vibrations of war and industrial selfishness invariably bring about natural calamities. The death struggles of those killed by the civil war now raging in Spain** are floating in the ether, causing floods in America, storms in England and Portugal, and earthquakes in India.

We are the creators of this universe. Our thoughts and deeds have contributed throughout the ages to the making of tidal waves, forest fires, and volcanic upheavals, just as they have flowered forth in spiritual giants, innocent children, and the soft petals of flowers. The more spiritually civilized we grow, the more we control Nature. But Nature rebels when the master of the house of civilization sleeps.

The root of all troubles
Selfishness is the root of all troubles, whether individual or national. National selfishness is just as evil as personal selfishness. The state of Texas in America could produce enough wheat and corn to supply the whole world. Why, then, is there any starvation in the world today? Because of man’s national and industrial selfishness, which is against the divine law of cooperation, mutual service, and sharing God-given prosperity with other nations of the world.

When a member of a family becomes sick or disabled, he honorably shares the family food and wealth; he is not the object of charity. The same should hold true for each member of the world family. No one should starve because he has no job, or is old or disabled. If individuals and nations followed the law laid down by Christ, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” starvation would cease to exist.

The competitive spirit in business
The competitive spirit in business kills the spirit of unselfishness. It breeds the attitude: “Get the money anyway you can, just for yourself and not for your country or your suffering world.”

In business there should be cooperation, not competition and cut-throat methods. If each one of two thousand people in business were to help one another, then each one would have one thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine helpers. But when each member of the business community tries to take away money from his neighbor, then each one lives surrounded by one thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine business sharks.

The competitive spirit in business must focus on the superior desire to do universal good.  Only when business competition awakens the desire to do the greatest good for the greatest number will there be a real foundation for lasting prosperity and happiness.

The meaning of “neighbor
Always avoid the evil of selfishness. Any person who lives selfishly for himself does not really live at all, for he chokes the expansion of his life. But when a person extends his sympathy from his family, to his neighbors, and to the world, he expands and connects his little life to its source in the eternal life of God.

In the parable of The Good Samaritan, Jesus marvelously shows the meaning of “neighbor” and every person’s duty to his fellow man: Thieves had robbed and wounded a man, leaving him half-dead on the road. Two people later passed on the same road, but each crossed to the other side. The third person, a Samaritan, had compassion for the wounded man. He cleaned and bound his wounds, took him to an inn, and cared for him.

Here Jesus is saying that you should help any afflicted person who is thrown in your path. If you see someone meet with an accident, you should consider him a neighbor and assist him in every way possible, just as you would like to be assisted if you were in the same position. Helping any such person who happens to be near you, whether in your own neighborhood, or in a foreign land, is to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Thomas à Kempis once said, pointing to a condemned criminal, “There, but for the grace of God, goes myself.” That is true from a limited standpoint, but from a universal, spiritual standpoint, we may well say of every man, “There goes myself.”  From a spiritual standpoint, everyone is your neighbor for God is our Father and we are His children, one with Him

Universal sympathy and love
Disease, universal depression, war—all these are making nations realize more and more that national security, prosperity, and health are dependent upon international development and world unity. We are a part of the world family and cannot exist without it.

To seek world unity only for its practical usefulness to individual nations will give us, at best, a temporary peaceful life on earth by preventing wars. But unless we can unite our consciousness with the cosmic consciousness of God and find the cord of one life, one law, and one wisdom uniting us all, we will not have real world unity. Real world unity and permanent prosperity, peace, and joy require that we feel that we are all children of the One Father, God.

You can only develop this kind of universal sympathy and love through meditation and spiritual effort. Actual steps must be taken to live the brotherhood preached by Christ and the masters of all religions, and to learn to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

From articles and lessons, 1926-1942.

*A hurricane of great magnitude hit downtown Miami, Florida, September 17-18, 1926. There were sustained winds of seventy-six miles an hour for twenty-four hours, resulting in 240 deaths and 115 million dollars in damage. It’s said that the hurricane gave Miami a three-year head start on the Great Depression.

**The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, involved the Popular Front, a coalition of left-wing parties, on one side, and the Nationalist Party led by the fascist General Francisco Franco, on the other. The Nationalist Party prevailed and Franco became the de facto dictator of Spain until 1975.

A proud prince and his large retinue galloped into a Hindustan jungle on a hunting expedition. After bagging many game birds and animals, the prince and his party lost their way in the jungle. They had food but no water, and though they searched frantically, they found no water.

As the danger-filled tropical night approached, the prince and his retinue rode even faster, now seeking shelter. Just as the sun was silently fading away, they came upon a crumbling old cottage. The prince dismounted, pushed open the unlatched door, and went in. The cottage was dark except for a faint glimmer of sunlight coming through a hole in the roof.

Looking around, the prince saw the hole in the roof and despaired at the thought that the cottage was deserted. He was about to leave when he decided to call aloud: “Hello, anybody here?” To his surprise, a calm, firm, peaceful voice replied, “I am here. Do you want water?” The prince was astounded that this person knew his thoughts even before meeting him.

Soon the prince and his retinue were joyfully partaking of the water and fruits offered by the holy man who lived in this lonely jungle retreat. “Who are you?” the prince asked the hoary gentleman, who replied, “I am a poor, old hermit.”

“Aren’t you afraid of tigers and snakes?” the prince asked. “Oh, no,” the hermit replied. “The tigers are my pussycats, and the cobras are my pets. We are friends, ever basking in the sunshine of Love, which is in everything.”

The prince scrutinized the hermit and was taken aback to see two cobras hanging from his neck in the shape of a garland. The prince tried to get a closer view of the snakes but, sensing his fear and vengeful spirit, they hissed and lifted their hooded heads, ready to strike at his approach. Just then, a huge Royal Bengal tiger came into the cottage and calmly sat down at the hermit’s feet, causing a near panic among the prince’s retinue. After the hermit petted the tiger on the head, it slunk slowly away into the dark jungle.

Amazed still more, the proud prince thought, “This old hermit is good and kind and saved us from wild beasts and parching thirst, so I want to make him rich and prosperous.” To the hermit he said, “Hoary hermit, your face is beaming with kindness and sincerity. Because I appreciate all you have done for us, I am going to tell you a secret of becoming very rich, a secret I am revealing for the first time.

With this, the prince pulled out a Philosopher’s Stone from beneath his garment. He said to the hermit, “I am going to entrust you with this Philosopher’s Stone for a year so that you may become rich by using it. A great mystic alchemist gave this stone to my father, and it has the power to convert into gold anything you touch with it. Use it every day for a year to convert all the rocks into gold, and then build a golden palace.

“I will return in a year to get my precious Philosopher’s Stone, which I value more than my life. And for heaven’s sake, don’t lose it!” The hermit did not want to accept the responsibility, but at the prince’s repeated insistence, he agreed to keep the stone and tucked it under the light band of clothing at his waist.

The prince and his retinue left and returned again after a year. The prince was stricken with horror when he saw, not a golden palace, but the same cottage in a greater state of decay. Getting down from his horse, he rushed through the open cottage door and shouted, “Hey, hermit, are you alive?” A deep, sonorous voice responded, “O yes, prince. Welcome to my humble home.”

Without pausing, the prince rudely shouted, “What did you do with my Philosopher’s Stone? Why didn’t you use it to become rich?” Scratching his head, the hermit replied, “What’s this about my using a stone? I don’t want to be richer.” Beside himself with rage and terror, the prince demanded, “Don’t you remember the gold Philosopher’s Stone I gave you a year ago? What have you done with it?”

“Oh yes, now I remember that precious stone of yours. It must have dropped out of my waistband the day I went to bathe in the river while immersed in the deep thought of Spirit.”

The prince cried, “I have lost everything” and fell into a swoon, but the hermit sprinkled cold water on his face and brought him back to consciousness. When the prince’s retinue demanded the death of the “careless thief of a hermit,” as they called him, the hermit laughed and said, “I didn’t know you would make such a fuss about a stone. Come along with me to the river and let me search for it.”

The prince replied derisively, “What? Search for the stone when it slipped in the swift currents of the river a year ago?” The hermit, undaunted, commanded in a loud voice, “Princeling and all the rest of you, come! Don’t make another fuss until we have searched the river bed.”

Under the spell of a strange magnetism, the prince and his retinue followed the hermit to the river without saying a word. At the river, the hermit asked the prince to pull out his handkerchief, hold its four corners with his hands, dip it into the waters of the river, and cry out, “O Prince of the Universe, Maker of all precious stones, give me back my Philosopher’s Stone.”

The prince followed the hermit’s instructions and as he raised his handkerchief out of the water, he beheld two-dozen Philosopher’s Stones, exactly like the one he had lost. With unbelieving eyes, he came out of the water and tested each stone and found that each one could convert other stones into gold.

The prince then tied all of the gold-making stones in his handkerchief and threw them back in the river. The prince’s retinue cried out, “Hey, why did you do that?”

The prince turned to the hermit and fell at his feet. With folded hands he said, “Honored Saint, I want whatever you have that causes you to regard gold-making stones as worthless pebbles.” And the prince left his earthly kingdom to acquire the imperishable kingdom of Spirit.

*        *        *

Moral: This story shows that you should not waste time striving only for perishable earthly riches. Use the precious stone of your God-given creative ability to store up the imperishable riches of God.

From the Praecepta Lessons, 1935.

The divine law of supply
You must show God that you are not attached to your God-given possessions, and that you are ready to share them with others. Most people are willing to offer advice and sympathy, but when it comes to sharing their hard-earned money, they become “tightwads,” believing only in family happiness — “us four and no more.”  As you naturally and joyously buy things for yourself, so also must you learn to do the same for others.

There are people who don’t hesitate to buy yachts and costly new cars, but become very tight when it comes to giving a hundred dollars to a needy cause — they feel righteous when giving five or twenty-five dollars to needy causes. The primary lesson to be learned on earth, as exemplified by God, is to share either possessions or money with worthy, needy people or, even better, with worthy, needy divine causes. The divine law of supply will secretly work for you once you learn to give to others as freely as you give to yourself.

Self-expansion through others
You must learn to give gifts to others in secret, even as God gives sunlight, air, food, life, love, and wisdom shrouded in utmost secrecy. If anyone gives money to another and brags about it, he destroys its sanctity. The divine law does not give the reward of revelation to bragging souls. God wants all gifts to be presented in secret, unmarred by pride or publicity. The greatest givers are those who are so engrossed in giving that they have no time to think of their giving.

To present gifts to others silently, and in the spirit of seeing their needs as your own, expands your self-identity: you begin to feel God’s omnipresence in other hearts. The boastful, egotistical giver is better than the miser, and reaps some benefit from his giving, but he misses the reward of Heaven: self-expansion in the hearts of others.

Proud giving concentrates the mind on the false, insincere applause of men, but humble, silent giving unites the heart of the giver with the heart of the one benefited and with the spirit of God. If you present material and spiritual gifts to others silently, as if you were giving to yourself, God will reward you with the perception of Omnipresence.

The gift of love and peace
Always be sure that love and good will go with your gifts. What God receives when you give material gifts to a temple or church is not only the gifts but also the devotion that prompts one to give. More than material gifts, God loves the gift of love, peace, and devotion offered in the temple of one’s heart.

That is why Jesus said that before you offer a gift to God in a temple, you should become reconciled with an estranged brother so you can offer God a temple of your own love and peace. To behold an enemy in any soul is to eclipse God’s presence there. Never lose the consciousness of God’s omnipresence by failing to see Him hidden in an enemy-brother’s heart.

A spirit of sacrifice is important
In God’s eyes, the nature and amount of the gift are unimportant, only the quality of devotion infusing those gifts. Small gifts saturated with selfless devotion and given in a spirit of sacrifice are more pleasing to God than large gifts given without similar difficulty. True devotees find their highest fulfillment in giving and sharing all they can, even at the cost of personal sacrifice. Indeed, for such devotees there is no sense of sacrifice, only joyous self-offering.

Devotees should ask themselves from time to time: “In what spirit am I giving?” It’s important to always give in a spirit of love and sacrifice, and not according to what you can easily afford.

Expressing gratitude helps us
We should be thankful each day for all the gifts of life–for sunshine, water, and the luscious fruits and greens we receive from the Great Giver. God makes us work so that we may consciously and gratefully receive His gifts.

There are millions of people who, drunk with egotism, think they keep themselves alive with the money they earn. They never stop to think that man can make neither a grain of wheat nor a green leaf. Nor can he create the life force that gives power to life.

The All-Sufficient One does not need our thankful hearts, but when we are grateful, our attention is concentrated upon the Great Source of all supply, which alone can bestow upon us the gift of abundance and the lasting gifts of love, joy, wisdom, and peace.

From articles and lessons, 1934-1942.

Being at Ananda accelerated our spiritual growth tremendously; our inner life was deeply blessed. But our family was also growing (three children eventually), and we soon had new responsibilities to fulfill.

The challenge of earning a living
In the days before the internet, it was tough making a living in an extremely rural area. We lived very simply: we had a large garden and I sewed many of our clothes. I was mostly a stay-at-home mom and did childcare, sewing, or baking to bring in a little income, but for years, there was no money to cushion against the unexpected.

This gradually created a sense of “lack,” which developed its own magnetism. Our family had to experience several episodes of extreme financial difficulty before Tim and I found the right balance between living simply and being able to joyfully attract the money we needed. In fact, we focused so much on “spending less” that it was a “light bulb moment” when we realized we actually needed to “earn more.”

The cabinet shop: a hard teacher
The vehicle for much of our “instruction” was the Ananda cabinet shop. As a capable craftsman, Tim soon became manager. At that time, however, small cabinet shops tended to be high overhead and low profit; the least little breeze of a housing recession would nearly blow them over.

In a very serious recession in the early 80’s, two thirds of all the cabinet shops in the county went bankrupt. Tim was the last to throw in the towel.

Tim found other work in town, but eventually started getting calls for his beautiful cabinetwork. He started up again privately, renting the old cabinet shop space. We had some good years and also some bad years.

Suffice it to say, the bad years gave us a taste of real hardship. Through it all, our family life was happy and we retained our inner peace. But when simplicity goes too far, it starts to feel like poverty.

To disconnect from the unpredictable housing industry, Tim began making meditation benches.* Later, he also made hammer dulcimer musical instruments, and some wonderful recordings. These ventures started slowly, however, and we were still primarily dependent upon the cabinet business.

A mounting stack of bills
In the early ‘90s, there was another housing slowdown, and the cabinet business really took a hit—we were right back into the same struggle to survive. I was then running the fledgling Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry from home.

One day, in desperation, I placed my hands on a mounting stack of bills and prayed, “Divine Mother, I have no idea how we are going to pay these bills. You will have to show me how.” I then sent divine healing energy into that pile of bills.

An hour later, I was offered a nurse’s aide position three nights a week for an elderly couple nearby. I slept in a private room but would answer their bell as needed in the night. I got $100 a night, and was home with my kids by breakfast! The pile of bills soon disappeared.

“This isn’t about the economy”
Things were better for a little while, but Tim’s business still struggled. At this point he said, “This isn’t really about the economy, it’s about my karma. I’m going to do Master’s ‘material success affirmation’ until this karma is GONE!”

Previously, I couldn’t relate to this affirmation, but now it was quite obvious we needed it. At first Tim and I simply read it aloud together, but once we memorized it, we felt its deep power. Tim would say it 30 times a day. He described the process as “removing cobwebs of disbelief from my mind.”

One day, soon after we memorized it, I was feeling anxious about some upcoming bills. But now Yogananda’s powerful words were implanted in my mind, right beside that fearful sense of lack. I realized I had a choice. So I said the affirmation again, with power! Things improved immediately.

A huge turning point
This period was a huge turning point for us. We felt many inner blocks dissolve. Tim felt the inner guidance to “hold up each business decision to the spiritual eye.” In the past, his business struggles often came after taking on a “bad” client when cabinet jobs were scarce. Now that he trusted his intuition, there were no further financial setbacks.

In time, Tim’s meditation bench business became the family’s primary source of income, especially once he had a good website. We were able to meet our obligations and even save a little. Life was still fairly simple, but at a higher level.

An opportunity to expand
In June 2006, Swami Kriyananda invited Tim to perform one of the main roles in his play, Jewel in the Lotus, during the 2007 International Mahasamadhi Retreat in India. Tim wanted me to go, and also our youngest son, David, who still lived at home.

All of a sudden this looked like a very expensive trip! How were we to pay for it? We didn’t have money for international travel for three people, and I didn’t want to go into debt again. I found myself almost resenting the expense of the trip, yet I wanted to be receptive to God’s flow.

Swami Kriyananda’s new course, Material Success through Yoga Principles, teaches how to magnetize abundance as needed, without getting trapped in the desire for luxury.  Studying these lessons helped dissolve a few remaining blocks about money, giving me inner “permission” to receive God’s blessings to meet any needs in life.

So, I prayed, “Divine Mother, I hope you have a plan, because we sure don’t…”

A “thank you” from Divine Mother
In July, I received a number of unsolicited donations earmarked for the trip, almost the exact amount of my plane ticket. Based on what the donors said, the money seemed like a “thank you” from Divine Mother for my years of service through Ananda’s Healing Prayer Ministry.

In September, Tim was given some “free miles” to cover his plane ticket, but we were wondering how we would manifest the rest of the money for the trip (David’s plane ticket, hotel costs, etc.). Later in the month, when Tim and I were visiting beautiful Lake Tahoe and gazing down at the expansive view, I started to affirm with him half-jokingly, “Who brings in the orders? God brings in the orders!”

Suddenly, we were joyfully invoking God’s support to flow through Tim’s meditation bench business. September was Tim’s biggest month ever, October was even bigger, and so it continued….

A desire to serve others
At the heart of our affirmations was the desire to serve others—by taking the play to India and by energizing the new Indian healing prayer ministry. This expansive motive inspired us to affirm exuberantly, much more so than if the trip had been only for ourselves.

Later that fall, when I was asked to teach piano lessons to Gaurja, an exchange student from India, I realized I had really begun to trust Divine Mother’s “financial flow.” Since Gaurja’s funds were limited, I didn’t charge for the lessons even though we still lacked all the money for the upcoming trip. Surprisingly, giving these lessons proved to be great fun, and a joyful balance to my service in the healing prayer ministry.

To teach Gaurja, I used the piano in the Ananda Village thrift store—years ago, I had sold my old, worn-out piano and never replaced it. I soon realized, however, that I needed my own piano for the convenience of teaching at home and to brush up on my playing.

Searching online, I found a very high quality electric piano priced 80% below retail, but still much more than we wanted to pay. Amazingly, it felt right to Tim and me to buy this piano. It made no sense! I was giving piano lessons for free, and we were leaving for India soon, yet the inner feeling was calm and very expansive. We ordered the piano.

Almost the exact amount
Soon after, we left for India. After two nights in the hotel, I casually mentioned to Sangeeta, Gaurja’s mother, that I felt lonely at the hotel and missed being with other devotees. Before I even knew what was happening, Sangeeta had arranged for us to stay in the homes of two devotee families in India, only a short car ride from our ashram. This turned out to be a delightful highlight of the trip.

Once back home, we realized that without hotel bills to pay, we now had enough money to pay for the piano. It almost worked out to the exact amount.

A growing sense of trust
I am deeply grateful to be more in tune with this expansive flow of abundance. My heart is more openly trusting of God’s flow, even when I don’t know how it will all work out.

As this grows trust grows, I am able to serve in more and more ways, with fewer limits. It’s time to let the music, the healing prayers, and the abundance flow.

*meditationbench.com

Mary Kretzmann, a Lightbearer and Ananda Village resident, serves in the Sangha Office as Director of the Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry.

Material Success Affirmation
by Paramhansa Yogananda

Thou art my Father
Success and joy
I am Thy child
Success and joy.

All the wealth of this earth
All the riches of the universe
Belong to Thee, belong to Thee.

I am Thy child.
The wealth of earth and universe
Belongs to me, belongs to me,
O belongs to me, belongs to me.

I lived in thoughts of poverty
And wrongly fancied I was poor
So I was poor.

Now I am home and Thy consciousness
Has made me wealthy, made me rich.
I am success, I am rich.

Thou art my treasure, I am rich, I am rich.
Thou art everything, Thou art everything.
Thou art mine.
I have everything, I have everything.
I am wealthy, I am rich.

I have everything, I have everything
I possess all and everything
Even as Thou dost, even as Thou dost.
I possess everything, I possess everything.

Thou art my wealth.
I have everything.

From Scientific Healing Affirmations, 1924 edition.

This book clarifies the subject of renunciation and sets a direction for Ananda’s future. Its few short chapters provide one of the clearest, most practical road maps for the spiritual path that we have ever read.

Renunciation—the first duty of every soul
Kriyananda makes it crystal clear that renunciation should be practiced no matter what your circumstances might be.

He writes:

The first duty of every soul is to release the hold that ego consciousness has on it. All spiritual practices are subservient to this one supreme obligation…I address ego-transcendence as the first, and indeed the only, challenge on the spiritual path, whether one be a renunciate, a householder, or living for God in some other way.

Ego transcendence means to transfer the sense of “I” from the body/personality to the soul, and to realize that in our larger self, we are a part of everything in existence. Over many, many lifetimes, we reach the point where the soul is no longer interested in enclosing itself in the ego—and we merge, finally, into our Infinite Self.

Humility is self-forgetfulness
Kriyananda begins with the topic he considers the most important—humility. True humility, he says, is not self-abasement; it is self-forgetfulness.

The traditional paths of yoga give us different approaches to self-forgetfulness. A bhakti yogi, one who follows the path of devotion, can become so focused on God or guru that he ceases to think about himself. Similarly, a karma yogi can become so focused on serving, without any thought of receiving anything in return, that he becomes more or less oblivious to the little self.

Kriyananda, however, takes the subject deeper. He shows that the essence of humility is to give up, even subconsciously, the desire to refer things back to oneself. Ultimately, humility is to have no desire for an identity separate from God.

Ways to diminish self-focus
Sadhu Beware! gives thirty-two extremely helpful techniques to diminish self-focus and develop self-forgetfulness. Paraphrasing a bit, here are a few examples:

1) When people fail to give you credit for something you did, say nothing. In your heart give the credit to God.

2) When people praise you, give the credit to God.

3) If someone has a good idea that you’ve already had, let it go.

4) If someone scolds you for something you didn’t do, say nothing.

5) Never place yourself, mentally, in competition with others.

6) Never belittle anyone.

7) Don’t feel badly when you make a mistake—God is the Doer.

The last of the thirty-two techniques deserves to be read in full:

Don’t let your mind play with the thought of where and how you fit into any picture. Don’t toy with flattery by entertaining it even lightly in your mind. Reject sternly any thought of self-importance, self-praise, self-justification, or blame. This subject is as important for you as your own salvation, for your spiritual liberation depends on release from ego-consciousness.

These simple but profound thoughts will help us enjoy our own unimportance.

Sexuality: one of nature’s strongest forces
Kriyananda also discusses sexuality and how to work with the creative force. You might wonder, “What does this have to do with ego-transcendence?” He explains:

To the extent that men and women find their unity on a lower level rather than in God, what they receive from each other, in varying degrees, is egoic in nature.

Paramhansa Yogananda defined ego as the soul identified with the body and personality. To overcome ego-consciousness, we must resist those pulls, such as sexuality, which increase body-identification.

Sexuality is one of nature’s strongest forces. Many biologists view the attractive force between male and female as the primary motivation for all behavior. Whether we are married or single, we need to learn to work with this powerful energy.

Suppression doesn’t work
In Sadhu Beware! Kriyananda emphasizes that suppressing the sexual force does not work, even in traditional monasteries with strict rules about behavior. He writes that with suppression, “the ego is held temporarily in abeyance but will break out anew, like a disease, when circumstances permit.”

Suppression is like putting a lid on a pressure cooker. Even though the heat of sexual desires may wax and wane, unless we remove the repressive lid from the pot there cannot be permanent relief. Rather than simply capping a boiling pot, we need to reduce the heat (of sexual desire) and re-channel the pent-up energy toward soul freedom.

Transmutation—a conscious effort of will
In other words, what is needed is not repression, but a conscious effort of will to transmute energy from lower to higher forms of expression. All of the techniques given in Sadhu Beware! for transmuting the sexual force involve using the will to counterbalance and re-direct its intensity. Here are a few examples:

1) Be ever mindful of your thoughts—sexual attraction starts in the mind.

2) Watch the flow of your attention. If you are beginning to focus on a person, picture, or scene, look away impersonally.

3) When you feel your energy going out to anything, internalize it. Realize that the source of joy is within yourself. Try never to get excited about anything—not even a meal that you expect to enjoy.

4) Try to be controlled in your physical contact with the opposite sex. “Touch,” he writes, “is the principle channel of sexual magnetism.”

He suggests that devotees, assuming they are intent on diminishing the ego, try to avoid the practice of embracing, which has become a common form of greeting in our society today. Try, instead, to greet others in a more dignified manner such as the namaskar used in India. As people begin to understand the deeper meaning behind the namaskar (my soul bows to your soul), they not only accept it, but even come to prefer it.

Practice with joy and freedom
Techniques to channel the sexual force should be practiced with a sense of joy and freedom. For married couples, what may be a comfortable level of self-control for some might seem repressive for others. The best standard is to feel that you are making a sustainable effort to direct your energy toward freedom from ego.

“Those who tithe, thrive!”
Money is another powerful attraction we need to channel properly. Kriyananda writes that, “money strengthens ego-identification by increasing one’s sense of power and importance.” The attraction to accumulating money and possessions draws the energy down into the lower chakras, where the ego-consciousness grows stronger.

The techniques he gives to counterbalance this downward flow help increase the feeling of non-attachment. For example, if you are attracted to having possessions, then buy what you want, but give it away. If you are attracted to wealth, then make money but give it away.

Giving it back—to God, or to help other people—keeps that energy moving upward and expanding. Over the years, we have seen that those who tithe, thrive!

Don’t run around in rags
At Ananda Village we have evolved certain practices that help counteract attraction to money. Members receive modest wages and are responsible for their own housing, food, and other living expenses.

We try to live on a simple level, but also accept that people have different definitions of simplicity. Individuals also have varying karma regarding money—some have a considerable flow of resources, others not—so we’ve left financial choices up to each individual.

Certain practices have been very, very important in helping develop expansive attitudes. One example is that wages are determined according to need rather than position. In many cases a supervisor earns less than the people under him or her. At Ananda we are free of the delusion of judging a person’s importance by how much money they have.

Kriyananda is very clear, however, that simple living does not mean that everybody should run around in rags or pretend to a kind of false poverty. It means to fulfill your needs but be disciplined about having excessive desires.

A person once asked Kriyananda, “What is Ananda’s mission?” He said, “Ananda’s mission is to equalize the world on the spiritual plane.” In other words, we’re trying to create an alternative to the material consciousness and egoic awareness of this world. Our approach to money and finances is one example of this.

Worthy of study over and over
Sadhu Beware! is a book worthy of repeated study. It would be very helpful for all of us to regularly review the techniques, and try to figure out how to best apply them to our own behavior patterns.

If we work diligently on true renunciation, the renunciation of ego, and get more into a flow of self-forgetfulness, we will feel a great increase of contentment and joy.

Jyotish and Devi Novak are Acharyas (spiritual directors) for Ananda Sangha Worldwide. Jyotish is also Acharya for the Ananda Sevaka Order  Worldwide.

Other Clarity articles by Jyotish and Devi Novak are listed under “Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi.”

Resources: Sadhu, Beware!
A New Approach to Renunciation

THE STAGES OF SUCCESS

The stages of success are the following: (1) Choosing a vocation that suits you. (2) Performing your work with attention, interest, and love. (3) Developing unfailing patience and ongoing interest.

1. Choose a vocation that suits you
Select your vocation according to your inner inclination and intuitive meditative guidance. Don’t seek success in a business you hate. Someone who is a vegetarian out of spiritual conviction, for example, should never go into a business of butchering animals or selling meat.

In my own case, it would have been folly to become a railroad man as was planned for me.  I loved philosophy and religion from boyhood, and I made up my mind to establish my own schools and institutions and never hold a job under anyone.

By developing your concentration and creativity, you can learn to love any kind of work and succeed in any field. But it is better to use your creative ability in work to which you are instinctively attracted.

2. Perform your work with attention, interest and love
Developing your usefulness is the surest way of succeeding in any job. Take as much interest in the business as the owner. By “business” I mean any systematic plan to achieve a goal through self-help or the help of others. To lecture, run a religious organization, earn money, or sell something requires the application of business principles.

It’s important each day to add to your knowledge of your job. One of the most effective ways to do this is through creative thinking. By this I mean meditating and putting your entire concentration on how you can improve your performance, and how the business overall can be enhanced.

If you do this every day for at least a half-hour, your understanding of what will make for success will increase a hundred-fold. For me, understanding and success came mainly through trust in God, meditation and creative thinking.

For example, in 1925 when I was beginning a lecture series in San Francisco, I had only $200 in the bank and no other funds. When I mentioned this to my secretary, he nearly collapsed. I said: “What is the matter with you? God is with us. He won’t leave us now. In seven days He will give us all the money we need.”

Sure enough, a few days later a man walked up to me and said: “I would like to help you.” I argued: “But you do not even know me.” He replied: “I know you from your eyes.” Then and there he wrote me a check for $27,000.

Remember that your real employer is God. Anyone who works for God and respects those for whom he works can never fail. No matter how your small your duty, do it with the cheerful, careful consciousness of pleasing God.

Many people think that unless they are “at it” in their jobs day and night they will not succeed. That is not true. Success comes from living in a balanced way and never sacrificing your daily engagement of meditation. Don’t let your business engagements always come first.

3. Develop unfailing patience and ongoing interest
Learn to tolerate a cranky employer by increasing your kindness and courtesy and inwardly ignoring his behavior. During meditation, concentrate at the point between the eyebrows and broadcast the following: “Father, calm my employer.”

Avoid the pitfalls of mechanical habit by always thinking of how to improve what you are doing. You must express the limitless power of the soul in everything you do. Be in love with your present work but strive always to advance.

In striving to get ahead, take advantage of every opportunity for advancement but never infringe upon the rights of others. In Boston, I once had an experience that illustrates my point. The sidewalks were jammed with people coming home from work.

I said to myself: “Thousands are walking ahead of me, but I must be at the head of this crowd. If there is a little opening anywhere, I shall go through it.” And so, wherever there was a space I went through it until I got to the head of the crowd.

This was fine because all I did was take advantage of my opportunity. I only went through where I saw a space. I never tried to push anyone out of his place.

Use your creative ability to develop your employer’s business so as you can continue to learn or advance to a higher position. If your work becomes mechanical and there is no opportunity to advance, secure a position in a business where you can continue to grow creatively.

Material versus spiritual work
Destroy the false division between material and spiritual work. Only work done with a purely selfish motive is material. All work is spiritual if done with the goal of serving others. Businesses that concentrate on serving their customers with the best items at the lowest cost will always succeed.

Choosing the Right Business Associates
by Paramhansa Yogananda

Most businesses concerns fail because due to hiring the wrong people. In selecting business associates, look for people who are creative, intelligent, efficient and, above all, trustworthy.

1. Test the character and ability of applicants
Find out confidentially from the previous employer all you can about the character and ability of the person you are thinking of employing. Don’t take the integrity of a prospective business associate for granted.

If possible, test him directly or indirectly through friends or detectives. Place temptation before him and see how he reacts. Have your friends try to make him talk against you.

2. Read character through the eyes
Remember, an individual’s mind, character, and habits are reflected in the eyes. Look penetratingly into the eyes of the business applicant the first time you meet him. Your first impression will be correct if you remain calm, receptive and open-minded. If you feel an automatic shrinking, beware of that person. Always beware of people with shifting, crafty, sarcastic, or revengeful eyes.

After meditating deeply, visualize the eyes of your prospective employee at the point between the eyebrows and study the feeling in your heart. If you experience fear, don’t employ that person.

3. Pitfalls to avoid
Don’t employ anyone who is mentally and physically lazy or slow-to-understand. Mentally lazy people consider it an imposition to plan creatively or to think about the success of your business.

Business must be conducted strictly on business principles. Never take into business a friend who is apt to be too familiar and not take orders or follow your advice. It is good, however, to employ young people and train them in the business if they agree to cooperate with you fully.

4. Keep control in your own hands
As a business owner, no matter who your associates are, always keep control of the business in your own hands. After all, the biggest responsibility lies with the owner of the business.

5. When to discharge a person
If a business associate dissipates or drinks too much, excuse him several times and give him a chance to reform. If he fails to show signs of remorse and improvement, discharge him.

Forgive every minor fault two or three times but never overlook treachery. A treacherous business associate will cause irreparable damage when you least expect it. Similarly, don’t keep a dishonest person in your employ. You can never tell what such a person might do.

Praecepta Lessons, 1935, 1938.

O Adorable Boss of the Blue
by Paramhansa Yogananda

Adorable One, you are the most colossal businessman, running the factory of the cosmos, yet you never speak about your great work. You have caparisoned this cosmos with the paintings of ever-changing scenery, yet you have made yourself very unimportant and your mansion of space obscure and invisible.

You work hardest of all, since you produce everything, but we have to work hard to fulfill the unending needs of our lives. We work hard and chisel things to suit our pampered desires and doing so, falsely imagine that we are the makers of everything.

We know that we have been very rowdy and intoxicated with ignorance, but O, Adorable Boss of the Blue, it is you who can mend our manners. It is your unlimited power alone that can help our meager faculties and spur our battered wills to make the effort to redeem ourselves.

We do not mind working for you, but do not let us be strangers. Help us to know that we are all your children, equally loved by you. You must forthwith leave your business and attend to the most important business of awakening us.

Praecepta Lessons, 1938.

When born, this baby was named Sukdeva. Because of the training he received while still in his mother’s body, he proved to be a most unusual child. At the age of seven he was well versed in all the difficult Hindu Scriptures and ready to renounce the world and find a true master.

When Sukdeva decided it was time to go in search of his spiritual teacher, his father, Byasa, advised him to go to King Janaka, the ruler of the province. As Sukdeva entered the palace grounds, his eyes caught sight of the king sitting on an emerald and diamond-studded golden throne, smoking a big oriental pipe, surrounded by flatterers. As is the custom in India during the hot season, scantily clad ladies were fanning him with large palm leaves.

Shocked by the sight, Sukdeva turned and walked briskly away from the palace grounds, muttering inwardly: “Shame on my father for sending me to that matter-soaked king. How could that object be my teacher?”

But King Janaka was both a king and a saint. He was in the world, but not of the world. Because he was highly advanced spiritually, he knew the thoughts of the fleeing Sukdeva. So the saint-king sent a messenger after the boy and commanded him to return.

Thus the Master and the devotee met. The king sent all his courtiers away and he and Sukdeva entered into an absorbing discussion of the all-protecting God. After four hours, Sukdeva was getting restless and hungry, but dared not disturb the God-intoxicated king.

Another hour had passed when two messengers came running to the king and exclaimed: “Your Highness, the capital of your kingdom is on fire! The flames threaten to spread to your palace. Won’t you come and supervise the efforts to extinguish the flames?”

The king replied: “I am too busy discussing the all-protecting God with my friend. I have no time. Go and put out the flames yourselves.”

When another hour had passed, the same two messengers came running to the king and cried: “Your Royal Excellency, please flee, for the flames have reached the palace and are fast approaching your chamber.” The king replied indifferently, “Never mind! Don’t disturb me, for I am drinking God with my friend. Go, do the best you can.”

Sukdeva was puzzled at the king’s action. Another hour passed and now two scorched messengers leaped in front of the king, shouting: “Mighty King, behold the flames approaching your throne! Run, before you both are burned to death!”

The king replied: “You run and save yourselves. I am too busy resting in the arms of the all-protecting God to fear the audacity of the destructive flames.” The messengers fled. The flames had nearly reached Sukdeva’s books, piled by his side, but the king sat motionless, indifferent to everything except discussing God.

At last, Sukdeva lost his poise and slapped at the flames to prevent them from burning his precious books. Satisfied, the king waved his hand and the flames disappeared. In a kindly manner, he spoke: “O young son of Byasa, you thought of me as a matter-drenched king, but look at yourself. You forsook the thought of an all-protecting God to protect a pile of books, while I paid no attention to my burning kingdom and palace.

“God worked this miracle to show that you, though a renunciate, are more attached to your books than to God, and that I am not attached to my kingdom, even though I live in the world.”

This humbled the young Sukdeva, who then accepted King Janaka as his guru. The king then began to teach Sukdeva the art of living in the world without misery-making attachment to it.

One day the king gave his new disciple two cup-shaped oil lamps filled to the brim, and said: “Hold a lamp on the palm of each hand and visit all the beautifully furnished rooms of my palace. After you have seen everything, return to me but remember, I will send you home and refuse to train you if you spill a drop of oil on my carpets.”

The king instructed two messengers to accompany Sukdeva and to keep the lamps full of oil as they burned. The king’s assignment proved very difficult for Sukdeva. Nonetheless, after two hours he returned triumphant.  He had not spilled any oil.

Then the king said “Young Sukdeva, tell me in detail what you saw in each chamber of my palace?” Sukdeva replied: “Royal Preceptor, my mind was so concentrated on the thought of not dropping oil that I could not possibly see anything in the rooms.”

The king cried out: “I am disappointed! You have not completely passed my test. My order was that you should see everything in all the chambers of my palace and, at the same time, not drop any oil from the lamps. Go back with the lamps, and remember, no spilling of oil as you look carefully at everything in the palace.”

After ten hours Sukdeva calmly returned, and behold, he had not dropped any oil. Nor was he sweating with excitement as before. And he could answer all the king’s questions about the most minute contents of all the palace chambers.

Then the king gently whispered: “My son, attachment to possessions — not possession — is the source of misery. In this world we do not own anything; we are only given the use of things. Some have more to use than others, but remember, the millionaire and the poor man alike have to leave everything when death comes.

“People must not live one-sided lives, as during your first trip when you concentrated on the oil lamp without seeing my palace. But, on the second trip, you kept your attention principally on the oil lamps without spilling oil, while seeing in minute detail everything in the palace. So also must you keep your main attention on God, without letting a drop slip away, while thoroughly performing your God-given duties of maintaining yourself and those in your charge.”

Excerpted from Praecepta Lessons, 1938.

Mr. Sham was unfaithful to his wife and indulged in unbridled sin, yet he had a loyal, beautiful, spiritual wife who put up with his cruel ways. It seemed that the more Mr. Sham sinned and caroused, the more he prospered, and grew strong and healthy.

On the other hand, Mr. Honest was strictly loyal to his wife, even though she was ugly, nagging, and unfaithful. Yet, it seemed that the more Mr. Honest absorbed himself in metaphysics and meditation, the worse his misfortunes became. Loss of friends, bad investments, and extreme poverty doggedly pursued him.

Mr. Sham often said: “Mr. Honest, look here, if you will forsake all religious and metaphysical nuttiness, I will give you a financial start and you will then attract riches and friends.”

Mr. Honest, in reply, would remonstrate, saying: “Nay, my friend, thank you for your offer, but I have no intention of giving up my virtuous ways, which give me an inner satisfaction, even though they do not yield a harvest of wealth and prosperity.”

One evening Mr. Sham forced an issue on Mr. Honest in the house parlor. Mr. Sham gravely said: “Don’t you see that I live a natural life? I take a drink when I want it. I do what my impulses move me to do, and see, I am as healthy and happy as a lark.

“Your metaphysics have paralyzed your will power and creative ability, and you have become queer in your mind. Your sick mind keeps you physically and financially sick. Look here! Give up God and follow me, and you will be happy. There is no God, and there are no laws of life except what you create.”

Mr. Honest, who was beside himself with wrath, shouted: “You ignorant man, there is a God and He listens to prayers. He has mysterious ways of rewarding His devotees after they pass His earthly tests. I bet I can show you that God exists and that He responds to prayers.”

Mr. Sham shot back a quick challenge: “Well, Mr. Super-Favorite of a non-existent God, why don’t you coax your Almighty Nothingness with your prayers to demonstrate something tangible to me?”

Mr. Honest, with perfect assurance, answered back: “All right, I accept your challenge. I will start praying to God night and day for a month. I am confident God will answer my prayer through all that happens to you and me on Friday, a month from now.”

Mr. Sham retorted: “What do you mean by all that happens to you and me on Friday a month from now?’”

Mr. Honest responded: “If God sends fortune to you and misfortune to me on that Friday, then you win and we shall know there is no God. But if He sends fortune to me and misfortune to you, then you will know that God exists and has responded to my prayers. If I lose, I will follow your ways of living, and if you lose, you must follow mine.”

Mr. Sham burst into a torrent of laughter and said: “All right, Archangel, I will wait for your prayers to bring God’s action on the appointed Friday. And remember, if I win, you must follow my natural ways of living.”

Mr. Honest prayed to God night and day for a month in the following manner: “Heavenly Father, my own dear God, if You exist, please punish Sham on Friday and bring me good fortune, so that I may win for Your sake.”

When that telltale Friday arrived, Mr. Sham was in high spirits. He felt he was sure to win the bet and, led by a strange hunch, went to a near-by forest to hunt. Ruthlessly he killed more birds than he needed to feed his family and packed them on his horse.

On his way home, Mr. Sham stopped under a shady tree to rest. As he lay on the ground, he began to strike absent-mindedly at the sod with his knife. Suddenly he heard a metallic sound. Curious, he began to dig and struck an iron chest. Opening the lid, to his amazement, he beheld three million dollars in pirate-plundered gold coins.

Mr. Sham was beside himself with joy and, emptying his sacks of the dead birds, filled them with the gold coins. On his arrival home, to his great astonishment and merriment, he heard that Mr. Honest, while walking in a prayerful mood, had nearly been killed through a collision with a horse and carriage, and had been carried unconscious to the hospital.

Exultingly Mr. Sham said to himself: “Now I know that there is no God. I hope Mr. Honest recovers from his accident and lives long enough to realize this.”

On his return from the hospital, Mr. Honest heard about his friend’s luck that Friday afternoon. In response he threw all his metaphysical books into the fire and rushed out of the house into the forest, determined to end his life. He could not believe in God any longer, but neither could he relinquish virtue or deliberately become evil. So he went to a lake in the jungle and was tying himself to a stone to drown himself, when God sent a plainly dressed saint to explain matters to him.

The saint gently but firmly accosted him: “Mr. Honest, what are you doing there on this glorious God-ordained day?”

Mr. Honest angrily replied: “Get away. It is none of your business what I am doing. I don’t ever again want to hear that meaningless word ‘God.’”

To this the saint replied: “Why? Is it because you bet about God and lost by being run over by a horse and carriage?”Mr. Honest was astonished that this stranger knew about the bet.

Softening he said: “Honored sir, can you tell me why I, who have zealously studied metaphysics and faithfully meditated, should grow physically and financially poorer in every way. And why did God not only turn a deaf ear to my prayer, but made a fool of me before Mr. Sham, seemingly proving to him the truth of atheism?”

The saint replied: “Mr. Honest, you could not bribe God by your prayers. You must never bet about God, and whenever you pray, you must not decide that He has to answer your prayers. You should depend upon His wisdom to determine whether your prayers should be fulfilled.

“Do you know, Mr. Honest, that in your past incarnation you were a great sinner, and thus sick all the time, and that you made up your mind to be a virtuous man only just before your death? That is why, in this life you were born with a strong resolution to study metaphysics and to meditate. But because you were a sinner before, you have met with many physical, mental, and spiritual reverses in this life. You also had a very good, forgiving wife whom you never appreciated and tortured with your evil ways.

“For all the sins of your past life it was ordained that on Friday you were to die, but because you have been virtuous in this life, your life was spared and you escaped with only an accident. All the evil seeds of your past actions have now sprouted and are dead, and the balance of virtue in you has become greater than the evil. Return home, and henceforth luck will seek you in everything.”

Mr. Honest sobbed with gratitude and burst forth: “O God, my Beloved. I crave your pardon. Forgive my ignorant blasphemies against you.”

Then Mr. Honest inquired: “Honored saint, will you satisfy my curiosity as to why all good things were attracted to Mr. Sham, and why even on that Friday he found three million dollars?”

“Well, my son,” the saint replied, “Mr. Sham in his past life was a tolerably virtuous man, but in time became tired of his virtuous life and made up his mind to live according to his evil impulses. And it was just about then that he died.

“So, Mr. Sham was born a sinner due to his resolution before death. But because he was virtuous for most of his last incarnation, he automatically reaped the results of his past good actions. Thus he attracted to himself a good wife, friends, fortune, and health.

“Now, however, the balance is turned and the sins of this life have grown heavier than his past virtue. The treasure he received that Friday is nothing compared to the imperishable virtue you have acquired in this life by constant hard labor.”

Saying this, the saint vanished. Mr. Honest returned home to find his nagging wife stricken with a terrible disease. After she died, he met a sweet and spiritual woman, whom he married. His ill health disappeared and he received a large inheritance from a rich aunt, who changed her will a few hours before her death.

On the other hand, Mr. Sham found himself suddenly stricken with paralysis. Shortly after this, his wife died. Mr. Sham had buried all of his money in a secret chamber beneath the floor under his bed, but a disgruntled servant got scent of it and arranged for masked robbers to steal the money while Mr. Sham lay helpless. After that, Mr. Sham lived the rest of his life on the charity of his friend, Mr. Honest.

From the Praecepta Lessons, 1938.

If You Die Trying You Will Be Reborn
with the Determination to Succeed
by Paramhansa Yogananda

According to the law of cause and effect, the mental state of an individual preceding death follows him in the after-death state.

The individual who dies battling his evil tendencies is reborn with a strong tendency to resist evil until success is achieved.  But when a man dies in the consciousness of his inability to conquer temptations, he finds that formidable negative tendencies dictate the moods and habits of his new life.

Every individual should continuously fight his prenatal or acquired bad habits. All evil tendencies, no matter how strong, are only mental grafts and can never destroy the power of the soul.

Even if a person is overpowered by evil tendencies, he can strengthen his virtuous tendencies by contacting the soul’s power of goodness in meditation. With a little spark of deep meditation, he can ignite the dynamite of eternal goodness within himself and explode mountains of self-created evil.

Devotees who achieve scant spiritual progress after years of regular but absent-minded meditation often become discouraged for not having gained a foothold in the kingdom of cosmic consciousness. Such souls fail to perceive the depths of their accumulated ignorance, and how it compares with the indifferent spiritual efforts of a few years of one life.

A person can rouse his spiritual powers by continuously fighting restlessness with the silence of meditation. One who dies while making a strong spiritual effort will be reborn with spiritual tendencies and a great determination to win the kingdom of bliss and immortality.

Bhagavad Gita Commentaries: Chapter 2, Stanza 37, Section 2.

Q: You own a successful construction business that has built many beautiful buildings at Ananda Village and elsewhere. When you moved to Ananda Village in 1970, did you have any idea that you would be starting a business?

Nakula: When I arrived at Ananda, everything I owned was in a backpack made out of a used gunnysack. I didn’t even have enough money to buy lunch after Sunday service.

Q: How did you survive?

Nakula: At first I did odd jobs. Then I began making a granola cereal which I sold to friends and later to a health food store. Eventually I sold it to 35 health food stores in Northern California.

“You should buy those cows!”
Q: You started the Ananda Dairy in 1972. What caused you to move in that direction?

Nakula: By 1972 quite a few of us were buying milk from a local farmer. One day he told us that he had to sell his two cows. Later in meditation, I heard Paramhansa Yogananda’s voice say very clearly, “You should buy those cows!”

So I created a plan. A number of Ananda families agreed to pay me in advance for a year’s supply of milk, which enabled me to buy the cows and start the dairy.

Q: Had you planned to go into business?

Nakula: My plan was to follow Yogananda’s guidance. And I trusted the guidance. Money was very scarce in those days and the dairy was meeting a real need by providing an inexpensive source of nutrition. The dairy later made cheese, butter, yogurt and other products, and employed half a dozen people.

My real education in construction
Q: The dairy closed down in 1987, but before that you had moved to the Ananda community at Ocean Song?

Nakula: Yes, in 1980, and after that to the Ananda ashram in San Francisco. In 1984 I moved to the Washington D .C. area in order to learn more about architecture and construction.

My big break came when a large construction company hired me as a draftsman. I believe this was Yogananda’s way of giving me a chance to learn because this was the beginning of my real education in construction.

The company was building an airport car rental facility that had to be finished in record time. I’d been working on drawings for a month when the man in charge quit. The owner said to me, “Well, you know more about it than anybody. You’re in charge.”

Q: And you agreed?

Nakula: I took it on! I went to all the subcontractors and asked, “Can you do this?” They all said yes, and the bricklayer—who was a key player—was just as excited about the challenge as I was. He hired 30 extra men. And it became a big fun thing, with all the trades working all the time. We worked and worked and worked. And we finished on schedule.

Q: It sounds like you worked with a lot of joy.

Nakula: There was a lot of joy, and I was learning! The car rental company later hired me as a contractor, and that’s how the N. Paul Cryer Construction Company was founded.

Q: You were on your own as a devotee. Were you able to practice karma yoga—non-attachment to the results, seeing God as the Doer, and seeing yourself as serving God?

Nakula: My motive was always to serve God, to do the best I could with every opportunity He gave me, to see Him in everything I did. When I’m doing it for God, then I feel His energy flowing through me. And yes, most of the time I felt His flow.

Tuning into Yogananda’s teachings on success
Q: Was your experience at the Ananda Dairy a factor in your success?

Nakula: The dairy taught me self-discipline and many other things, but I trace my success in Washington D. C. to an inner call to go more deeply into Yogananda’s teachings.

Q: How did that come about?

Nakula: Before moving to Washington D.C. I was involved with multi-level marketing, and I went to motivational seminars and bought motivational tapes. So in Washington, when I saw an ad for a 14-cassette motivational course, I ordered it.

I was listening to one of the cassettes when I recognized concepts similar to Yogananda’s teachings. And I thought, “Why go to a second-hand source when I have my own Guru’s teachings on how to succeed?”

So I read out loud onto a cassette Yogananda’s The Law of Success. I also recorded myself repeating his affirmation for psychological success from Scientific Healing Affirmations, which is for overall success—material, psychological, and spiritual.

I played that cassette for months!  Whenever I was in the car, I listened to that tape. And I applied what I was learning to all the work opportunities that came to me. That was the turning point. From then on I got more jobs, better jobs.

Working night and day
Q: Exactly how did The Law of Success and the affirmation help you?

Nakula: The Law of Success taught me the importance of doing everything with total dedication. Yogananda stresses the importance of doing everything with 100% of your energy. So if my job was to build a car wash building, then my whole focus was to make that car wash building the best it could be.

And looking back to the early days of Ananda, I remembered that was how Swami Kriyananda built Ananda. Whatever he did, it was with all of his energy. When he needed money to pay for the land, he was on the road nearly all the time giving classes. When he wrote books, he would put all his heart and energy into writing, staying up late many nights.

So I worked night and day on that project. When there was something wrong with the welding, I’d bring in an extra welder at night so the regular crew could start in the morning without missing a day.

But success is multifaceted. Not everyone has the karma to succeed outwardly. Yogananda teaches that when you do your best in everything you do, whether you succeed or fail outwardly, inwardly you gain. I believe I also gained in courage, willingness and attunement to Yogananda.

Drawing Yogananda’s grace
Q: What do you see as the main difference between relying on the motivational speakers and relying on The Law of Success and Scientific Healing Affirmations?

Nakula: When we embrace Yogananda’s teachings with devotion, we’re tuning into a dynamo, something much bigger than we are. Our efforts are quadrupled by the power coming from God and Guru.

The motivational talks contained some spiritual truth, but without the power of the Divine behind you, that only takes you so far. And if I’ve turned to another teacher, then the magnetism isn’t there to draw Yogananda’s grace.

Q: Why did you leave Washington D.C. in 1989?

Nakula: I had learned all I could and I was eager to build for Ananda, either at Ananda Village or at one of the colonies that were getting underway. When I moved back to the Village I joined the Ananda Builder’s Guild, a private business.

I became head of the Guild in 1993, a time when it was facing bankruptcy. We had a big debt, over $100,000, caused by one of our clients going bankrupt.

Q: Did Yogananda’s teachings help you meet this challenge?

Nakula: I believe he guided me to the solution. Guild members had a meeting and it was suggested that each member be personally responsible for part of the debt. But I felt it would be difficult for everyone to do that.

So after the meeting I prayed to Yogananda, “What shall I do?” And I felt him say, “Take responsibility” as clearly as if he were standing next to me.

And I did. A few others joined me. I contacted every creditor and said, “We don’t have the money to pay what we owe, but we will pay you as much as we can every month.” And we paid every debt in full. It took three years.

I’ve since started my own company and I doubt that I would be having financial success today if I hadn’t honored those debts. That success has also made it possible for me to give more money to Ananda.

Q: Do you see a relationship between generosity and prosperity?

Nakula: Generosity keeps the flow going. God is the source of everything we have and we complete the circuit when we give to His work. No matter how tight my money situation is, I never cut back on giving.

Putting myself last
Q: Has it been smooth sailing since you started your own company?

Nakula: No. In the first few years I sometimes had barely enough money to pay salaries. For several months I took no pay so that our employees could be paid.  My family went without nice clothes, a decent car, and even haircuts because the higher dharma was to pay others.

In this instance, it was one of the principles in Kriyananda’s book, The Art of Supportive Leadership, that helped me. It says that the true leader puts his personal needs last—the employees come first.

But putting myself last wasn’t a hardship—I felt an increase in inner freedom from meeting those challenges in a dharmic way. Now, all the managers in my company read Kriyananda’s book, and we discuss it.

Q: Do you think that more people at Ananda should try to start businesses?

Nakula: Absolutely! We need more businesses. Not everyone is entrepreneurial but if that’s what God wants you to do, you’ll find joy in it and you’ll grow spiritually. You can see God in every action you take, even if you’re making sandals.

There’s a man at Ananda Village who feels Yogananda’s guidance to clear the dead brush and make the land beautiful. He works around the clock, even in hot seasons when he has to wear cloths on his face because of the dust. He puts his whole self into clearing the dead brush, and he’s a soul of joy.

Nakula Cryer is a Lightbearer and resident of Ananda Village. He is the owner of Ananda Design & Construction, and president of the newly formed, Ananda Institute of Alternative Living. With his wife Sara, he also manages the Ananda Meditation Retreat and the “Building with Spirit” work/study program at the Retreat.

To love money is to be lost. That is the snare. You must use it rightly. You must use the right voltage of prosperity in the bulb of your life. If you have a mad desire for prosperity, the bulb of your life will burn and become dark with money-lust.

Money is the source of infinite evil to those who rely on it as a lasting means of happiness. To them it promises much until they have it. When they have it, they find themselves spent out—realizing too late that they have served a false god.

Yet money gives power. If held with non-attachment, one can use it to bring happiness to many and, in the process, outgrow the desire for material happiness.

To earn money unselfishly, honestly, and quickly for God and God’s work and to make others happy, is to develop many sterling qualities that will aid one on the spiritual as well as the material path.

Excerpted from East-West magazine, July-August, 1928.

What I give to others I give not
away, for in my larger reality it
remains ever mine. I am happy
in the happiness of all.

Prayer

O Infinite Giver, teach me to find
happiness through others.

From Affirmations for Self-Healing by
Swami Kriyananda.