I owe so much to Swami Kriyananda. While living in Bangalore in 2006 — my husband was on an expat assignment with Texas Instruments at the time — I was so eager, even desperate, for the techniques taught by Paramhansa Yogananda, especially about meditation and Kriya. I was already on the path of Transcendental Meditation, had even started a TM group at my university, but now this path felt dried up for me. I had already met the Master Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda when I lived in Pittsburgh, and was invited to visit his ashram in nearby Mysore, but I did not feel the pull. In Bangalore itself there lived two saints, the famous Sathya Sai Baba and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, but I could not bring myself to visit their ashrams either. No, I wanted Yogananda with all of my being — but could not find more than what was offered on the shelves of the local bookstores. Outreach to YSS and SRF yielded nothing.
Luckily for me, Swami Kriyananda had recently returned to India to spread the work of Ananda. A Google search, an email address, and a short but heartfelt request, and in a few days I had Lessons in Meditation and The Art of Raja Yoga in my hands before I could even send payment. My raft across the ocean of delusion is Yogananda, but Kriyananda gave me my ticket, so to speak.
So,when we recently celebrated his birthday, as an Ananda global family, I also celebrated Kriyananda’s ray of Paramhansa Yogananda’s legacy in this world (which is lavender, and yang, to name two of its unique qualities). Our friend Asha Nayaswami, who visited us last October, and who spent most of her life under his training, told me she considers Swamiji to be an enlightened master, who taught us one of the most difficult lessons of all — how to be a receptive disciple of a great saint.
So, let us set a new intention on tonight’s new moon in Taurus, which is also an apt way to describe Swami Kriyananda, for whatever it is that will move us forward on our path to greater spiritual awareness.