The Experience of Religion

Ananda Sangha is based on a universal truth: that the greatest happiness and surest guidance come from God, experienced within us. Ananda follows the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda as interpreted by his direct disciple, Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters). 

Yogananda spoke of the need in religion for direct, personal  experience. He taught that meditation is the missing link in most people's practice of religion. Meditation allows us not only to talk to God, but to listen to His answers, which we receive as quiet intuitions.

Meditation stills the mind, removing the noisy static of restless thoughts and worries. Yogananda spoke of the "inner temple" of communion with the divine that one discovers naturally when the restless thoughts have become still.

The meditation method that members of Ananda community practice is Kriya Yoga, an ancient technique that Yogananda describes in his famous book, Autobiography of a Yogi. Yogananda brought Kriya Yoga to America in 1920. He said:

"I wasn't sent to the West by Christ and the great masters of India to dogmatize you with a new theology, but to teach you the science of Kriya Yoga, that people might learn how to commune with God directly."

The complete text of Autobiography of a Yogi is now online, at: http://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/.

The One Truth Behind All Religions

Yogananda taught the underlying unity of all spiritual teachings. He tirelessly lectured and wrote about the oneness of India's teachings, as expressed in the Bhagavad Gita, and the original teachings of Christ as presented in the Bible.

Yogananda said, "Self-realization has come to unite all religions." He didn't mean that all religions should be united under a single denominational banner, but rather that people can uncover the truth of all religions in their own hearts, using the key of meditation. Yogananda taught a non-dogmatic religion of love:

"Instead of peddling untested dogmas and urging people to 'Believe! Believe!', the churches should convert their premises into universities of living, where experiments are conducted in how to find the true fulfillment in life all people seek. Instead of gathering in God's name theoretically, people need to come together with the firm purpose of invoking His living presence in the temple of meditation."

Ananda Sangha respects and honors all paths. Ananda is a sanctuary for truth seekers, a place where all can come to experience God, free from proselytizing or narrow religious bigotry.

A Way of Life

Yogananda urged people to balance their lives between inward and outward activity. "One must be actively calm, and calmly active," he taught. "When, along with meditation, you offer your work to God, then meditation helps your work, and work helps your meditation."

Yogananda offered much more than a "Sundays-only" religion. He encouraged like-minded people to create "world-brotherhood colonies," small cooperative communities where they can discover "that simplicity of living plus high thinking leads to the greatest happiness." He predicted that small intentional communities would one day "spread like wildfire" and become the basic "social pattern of the future."

In 1989, Ananda founded a community in Mountain View where the residents live in accordance with Yogananda's ideals. A run-down 72-unit, five-acre apartment complex became an inspiring spiritual community. The community now has about 100 adult residents and 20 children. (Only a small fraction of the local Ananda Sangha membership live in the community.)

Ananda operates several businesses in the area. The Ananda-owned and operated East West Bookshop in Mountain View is one of the country's largest metaphysical book stores (http://www.eastwest.com). The Bookbuyers store, also in Mountain View, is the largest used book store on the Peninsula. Ananda members also run a construction company, Ananda Builders Guild.

In 1992, members of Ananda Sangha started Living Wisdom School (K-8), based on the principles in Swami Kriyananda's book, Education for Life. The school teaches academic subjects plus life skills. See www.livingwisdomschool.org.

 Ananda's members know that their success in building a church and community has come through the grace of God.

Other Ananda Communities

The first Ananda community, Ananda Village, is located in the Sierra Nevada foothills 17 miles outside of Nevada City, California. Started in 1968 by a handful of disciples of Paramhansa Yogananda on 72 acres, it is now home to approximately 200 adults and 100 children and has expanded to include 904 acres. The community has private homes, a school, many thriving community-owned and private businesses, and a year-round guest retreat, The Expanding Light. (See www.ananda.org and www.expandinglight.org.)

Ananda Sangha churches and communities are also thriving in Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, Dallas, Rhode Island, and Assisi, Italy. Ananda meditation groups are active in many cities across America, as well as in Italy, Germany, Russia, Croatia, England, Holland, Australia, Japan, and Africa.

Who was Paramhansa Yogananda?

Paramhansa Yogananda (1893-1952) was the first Indian yoga master to live and teach for an extended period in the West. (Yogananda became an American citizen in the 1930s.) During the 1920s, he crossed the country many times, lecturing on Kriya Yoga to standing-room-only audiences in major concert halls. His spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi, was published in 1946. The "Autobiography" continues to inspire thousands around the world. Yogananda entered mahasamadhi ("the great ecstasy," a yogi's final, conscious exit from the body) in 1948.

Paramhansa Yogananda's teachings are practical and sublime. They cover the spectrum of human endeavors from health, diet, and exercise to relationships, work, spiritual development, and emotional well-being.

Swami Kriyananda, Yogananda's Direct Disciple

J. Donald Walters was 22 years old in 1948 when he read Autobiography of a Yogi. Three days later, he was on a bus to Los Angeles to seek out the great guru. At their first meeting, Yogananda initiated him as a monastic disciple. Walters lived in Yogananda's ashrams for the last three and a half years of the master's life. He took final vows as a swami in 1955 and served as the chief public speaker and international vice-president of his guru's organization. He left that organization in 1962. The story of Swami Kriyananda's experiences founding Ananda is told in his book, A Place Called Ananda: The Trial by Fire that Forged One of the Most Successful Cooperative Communities in the World Today. (Complete text available online at: http://www.ananda.org/aplacecalledananda/.)