On March 7, 1952, Paramhansa Yogananda left his body as he concluded a speech in honor of the Indian Ambassador at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Swami Kriyananda, who was present that evening, describes what occurred in his book, The New Path:

Master was scheduled to speak after the banquet. His brief talk was so sweet, so almost tender, that I think everyone present felt embraced in the gossamer net of his love. Warmly he spoke of India and America, and of their respective contributions to world peace and true human progress. He talked of their future cooperation. Finally he read his beautiful poem, “My India.”

Throughout his speech I was busy recording his words, keeping my eyes on my notebook. He came to the last lines of the poem:

Where Ganges, woods, Himalayan caves, and men dream God.

“Sod” became a long-drawn-out sigh. Suddenly from all sides of the room there came a loud cry. I looked up.

“What is it?” I demanded of Dick Haymes, seated beside me. “What happened?”

“Master fainted,” he replied.

Oh, no, Master! You wouldn’t faint. You’ve left us. You’ve left us! the forgotten playwright in me cried silently. This is too perfect a way for you to go for it to mean anything else! I hastened to where Master lay. A look of bliss was on his face.

March 7, 1952, just before Paramhansa Yogananda left his body as he concluded a speech in honor of the Indian Ambassador at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

Jyotish and I are now in the last few days of two months in India during which we shared Master’s teachings in many different cities throughout this wonderful country. We’ve connected with a great number of dear friends, some of whom we’ve known for years, and made many new friends of people discovering Master’s work through Ananda. What a joy it has been to bathe in the spiritual vibrations of India.

We want to take this opportunity to thank all those with whom we’ve connected. The kindness and heartfelt appreciation that you showered on us will remain forever as a radiant warmth in our heart. Everywhere we went, we were greeted with such loving respect, not for ourselves, but for the great master and his teachings that we follow. It was like a great dance of love in which God was showering His blessings down on His children as they gathered together in devotion and service to Him.

As I think lovingly of the depth and subtlety, the personal closeness and acceptance of others, the spiritual wisdom and teachings of this glorious country, my mental vision expands beyond India’s boundaries. Like a film camera panning back, I begin to see a family of souls with joined hands and hearts circling the globe.

I see those with whom we connected throughout Europe in the month before arriving in India—from Italy, Germany, Estonia, Serbia, Belgium, Holland, France, Latvia, England, Russia, and Ukraine. Expanding back further, I see the many souls in America who gathered together with Swami Kriyananda beginning some fifty-eight years ago and continue to this day to help him build Ananda in dedication and devotion to our Guru.

And yet, India is the starting point for human upliftment during this cycle of time. It was here that the science of yoga was born. It was from here that our line of gurus sent Paramhansa Yogananda to America to begin uniting East and West. During our time spent in India this year, I caught a tiny glimpse of God’s plan to help His children everywhere awaken from delusion. I began to understand Master’s power to create magnetic spiritual families to carry forward his work. I see that work growing in purity of heart, clarity, and strength throughout Ananda globally. Swamiji describes this expansion in The New Path:

The stronger the family, spiritually speaking, the greater its attractive pull on new souls that may still be wandering in search of an identity of their own. A family evolves with its individual members; at last it, too, becomes a “star” in the firmament of humanity, and begins to produce great souls of Self-realization.

As spiritual “stars,” such great families become powerful for the general upliftment of mankind. Like stars, too, they then draw “planets” of less-evolved families into their beneficial auras, vitalizing them with rays of divine truth. Such families are like mighty nations. To them is given the real task of guiding the human race—not in the way governments do, by official ordinances, but by subtler, spiritual influence.

So, my friends, my brothers and sisters in God, let us not limit our vision to our individual spiritual search, or to the challenges in our daily life. We are a part of a great family of God, come together to help others, too, to find their way to truth. Master closed his Autobiography of a Yogi with these words: “Lord, Thou hast given this monk a large family!” United in his love, let us carry his banner forward.

With love and blessings in God,

Nayaswami Devi

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We live in a world in which the use of power to control others seems to rule supreme. Yet there are many kinds of power. The dictator’s ability to exert force over others may appear indomitable, but history shows us that such rulers rise and eventually fall like waves on the sea.

Then there’s the use of supernatural powers. Once someone said to Paramhansa Yogananda, “Your detractors are saying that you’ve lost your powers.” He replied, “I don’t know that I ever had any powers.” As a fully enlightened soul, he understood that any “powers” he manifested were God’s doing, not his. And he counseled people against focusing on such things. “The path to God,” he said, “is not a circus!”

High souls like Master have developed a third kind of power which is a true expression of spiritual greatness: inner power. This is the ability to live in complete attunement with God, so that one’s actions reflect, not one’s own desires and attachments, but only divine consciousness.

During our travels in India over the past two months, we’ve been launching the latest compilation of our blogs, Touch of Inner Power. Recently at the Ananda center in Pune, Jyotish and I spoke about different expressions of inner power and how they can uplift our life. Here are a few of the thoughts that we shared.

The power to accept whatever comes in life with equanimity and a positive attitude develops within us unshakable inner strength. Every test that we face with the resolve to remain unperturbed helps build within us the realization that we, too, can “stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking worlds.” Looking at the lives of spiritual heroes, you can see that they reached a point where no more testing was needed, and they stood firmly, unwaveringly in God.

The power to forgive others under all circumstances is a reflection of God’s unconditional love for all. Is this easy? Of course not, but this inner power frees our consciousness from the shadows that delusion casts on our minds. Forgiveness allows us to feel God’s light shining unobstructedly through us.

There’s an inspiring book, The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom, which tells the story of how she and her family hid Jewish families in Holland during World War II. Eventually they were arrested and put into a concentration camp themselves. Corrie and her family were devout Christians, and they never lost their faith in God. Unfortunately, she was the only member of her family to survive the privations of the camps.

After the war, Corrie began a ministry traveling throughout the world sharing the power of God’s love. After one such gathering in Germany, a man approached her; instantly she recognized him as one of the cruelest guards in the camp in which her family had died. He, however, did not remember her. Identifying himself as a former guard at that camp who’d since become a Christian, he said, “I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein,” his hand came out, “will you forgive me?”

Her initial reaction was one of revulsion, filling her with the desire to turn and run from him. She prayed to God for help. Willing herself to do what she knew she must, she thrust her hand woodenly into his. “And as I did,” she later wrote,

an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!” For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.

The power to help others, even at our own expense, enables us to break down the imaginary boundaries of ego and realize our oneness with all. Swami Kriyananda has an affirmation on “Sharing” from his book Affirmations for Self-Healing: “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.” The inner power to think of others’ needs before one’s own is a big stepping stone towards dissolving the ego and attaining spiritual freedom.

And finally, the power to align our will with God’s will is a moment-by-moment choice that requires vigilance, awareness, and dedication. Swamiji told us that when he was uncertain about which course of action to take, he always asked himself, “What would Master do?”

The question is easy enough to ask. But having the inner strength to cast aside egoic desires and follow the higher guidance one receives in reply is another matter. The more we succeed in aligning our will with God, however, the more His consciousness and power flow through us and bring us inner joy and freedom.

There is a beautiful prayer on “Will Power” from Affirmations for Self-Healing: “O Infinite Power, I will use my will, but guide Thou my will in everything I do, that it reflect Thy will.”

We are all so much stronger than we realize. Let’s all strive to awaken our inner powers and realize our oneness with God.

With joy,

Nayaswami Devi

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I am always amazed at how God continually gives us different “assignments,” or areas of inner exploration, to deepen our understanding of life. Recently I was reading an article by Paramhansa Yogananda on reincarnation in which he talked about forgiveness. “Forgiveness,” he wrote, “is more powerful than revenge. I have forgiven everyone who has knowingly or unknowingly tried to annoy or hurt me.”

After reading his words, it was as though a light bulb turned on in my mind. I knew that I needed to deepen my understanding of the true meaning of forgiveness. So I did a little research and came up with a very good definition: “Forgiveness is a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment toward someone who has harmed you.”

This motivated me to explore areas in my life in which, consciously or unconsciously, I was harboring feelings of resentment towards others. I was surprised to discover that, like snakes rising to the surface when boiling water is poured down their hole, many little hurts and grievances from the past now arose to the surface of my mind.

Master also wrote in that same article, “In the vault of the mind lie all the chains of bondage, as well as the keys to freedom.” Again, his simple words were deeply motivating. I decided it was time to break those mental chains and, using inner tools, to release all resentment I felt towards others.

Even in making this decision, I began to feel freer inside. Then, in meditation, I tried bringing to my conscious awareness little incidents or recurring patterns of hurt from the past. As if I were watching a movie in which it was someone else who was hurt, I tried to concentrate on different past experiences with detachment, until I could clearly isolate and experience my feelings of resentment.

In the stillness of meditation, I focused on offering these feelings up at the spiritual eye. After a few days, I could actually feel the negative patterns becoming fainter and fainter, until they finally seemed to dissolve altogether. Honestly, friends, I was both shocked and amazed at the mental freedom I felt.

Then, I experienced a shift in how I thought about those situations. It became clear to me that those who’d hurt me had actually always been my friends, and that their unkind behavior had not been directed at me personally. It reflected, rather, problems they’d been facing within themselves.

God wasn’t yet done with my lesson on forgiveness. At a recent satsang we gave in Delhi, someone asked us the question: “When I forgive someone, does it change them?” I remembered a story that Swami Kriyananda related in The New Path, about a dream he’d had in which he came to feel deep bitterness towards a beloved friend who’d treated him with condescension and even contempt. He realized that if he died with this attitude, his bitterness would draw the two of them back into similar, but reversed circumstances, in which he’d have the opportunity to treat his friend as badly as he had treated Swami. And that if he did so, bitterness on his friend’s part might draw them back yet again, leading perhaps to a succession of such “return engagements,” as he put it. He continued:

“Why take so long?” I asked myself. “Isn’t it possible to escape these waves of retribution right now? Whatever the lessons my friend needs to learn, surely I, at least, can free myself.” Then, from the depths of my heart, I cried, “I forgive him!” At that moment, with a feeling of ineffable relief, I awoke. In that simple act of forgiveness I felt that I had actually freed myself of some karmic burden.

How did this affect the other man? As Swami indicated, his personal victory did not absolve his friend of the need to learn his own lessons. And yet it did help him to this extent: When we don’t hit the tennis ball back over the net, there is no game for the person on the other side of the court to play.

Something more is involved. In the article by Master to which I’ve referred, he wrote, “Those who do evil stew in their own evil. They can’t really hurt you unless you let them. Love and forgiveness have a healing effect on yourself and on your enemies.” So our forgiveness can have a transforming effect also on those who have hurt us.

I felt to share with you my journey with forgiveness in the hope that it will help you, too, to experience the release of subconscious negative feelings. The goal of life is to find freedom from every pattern of action or thought that keeps us in bondage.

In the Astral Ascension Ceremony that Swami Kriyananda wrote, he instructs the minister to address the departed soul with these words: “Claim your soul’s freedom! Bless all who ever harmed you, or ever wished you harm. Give them your love, and your prayer for their freedom in God.” Forgiveness is truly the first step towards that unconditional love for all that the masters in every religion have demonstrated for the world.

In divine friendship,

Nayaswami Devi

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The words of a spiritual master aren’t limited to a specific time, place, or even individual. Spoken in divine wisdom, such words are eternal and universal, and can apply to each of us.

Jesus Christ said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” He wasn’t speaking only to those who were gathered with him at that time, but equally to you and me today.

Similarly, in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says to Arjuna, “Absorb yourself in Me; be wholly devoted to Me; worship and bow to Me alone: So shall you undoubtedly reach Me. This I promise you faithfully, for you are dear to Me.” He, too, was talking to each one of us.

Jyotish and I are now in India, where we recently celebrated Swami Kriyananda’s spiritual anniversary. On September 12, 1948, when Swamiji knelt before Paramhansa Yogananda and was accepted as his disciple, a spiritual wave was set into motion that has touched and often transformed the lives of countless hundreds of thousands.

During the years that Swamiji spent with him, Master made three significant statements that we can use to deepen our own discipleship. In The New Path Swamiji recounts their first meeting:

What large, lustrous eyes now greeted me! What compassionate sweetness in his smile! Never before had I seen such divine beauty in a human face.

“What may I do for you?”

“I want to be your disciple!” The reply welled up from my heart irresistibly. Never had I expected to utter such words to another human being. . . .

There ensued a long discussion, interspersed by long silences. . . . “All right,” he said at last. “You have good karma. You may join us.” . . .

Gazing at me now with deep love, he said, “I give you my unconditional love.”

This promise is given to every one of us when we sincerely open our heart, for one of the guru’s roles is to be a channel for God’s love to all of his spiritual children. True discipleship is much more than just following the guru’s teachings and practices. It is the knowing from deep within that we’ve been given a love unconditioned by time or events. This love will eventually become, as it did for Swamiji, the fulfillment of our heart’s longing and the central reality of our life.

The second significant statement that Master made to Swamiji is also related in The New Path:

One day I was standing with Herbert Freed, one of the ministers. . . . Herbert was to leave that afternoon to become the minister of our church in Phoenix, Arizona, and Master was giving him last-minute instructions. After a pause, Master said quietly:

“You have a great work to do.”

Turning to Herbert, I smiled my felicitations.

“It is you I’m talking to, Walter [Swamiji].”

The “great work” Master referred to was Swamiji’s life work of spreading his guru’s teachings. This Swamiji did through starting communities, writing books, lecturing, and in many other ways also making the spiritual path accessible to people around the world.

This work is ours as well to do, not with a sense of self-importance, but with the understanding that our life has a deeper purpose. We have joined our energy to the wave of uplifting consciousness that Master brought to the world. In so doing, we, too, are a part of his mission.

This “great work” on our part entails first and foremost our wholehearted dedication to achieving life’s true purpose: union with God. In this pursuit we become, like Swamiji, living examples to all of true discipleship.

Finally, Swamiji shares a third significant statement that Yogananda made to him, three days before the Master’s passing on March 7, 1952:

. . . For some months I had been hungering for a few words of approval from him.

Now, alone with me, he gazed into my eyes with deep love and understanding, and said, “You have pleased me very much. I want you to know that.” What a burden lifted from my heart at these few, simple words!

I think it’s fair to say that every spiritual seeker has felt that his or her striving falls short of the goal that we set for ourself. But remember, God knows our heart. Every test that we face with courage; every attempt at deepening our meditation; even, in fact, every failed effort is received by God. Don’t judge yourself for your failures. Rejoice, rather, that God and Guru are pleased with you for making an effort.

In celebrating Swamiji’s discipleship we are really celebrating the great gift to ourselves as well of the guru-disciple relationship. Swamiji’s experiences with Master can be guiding lights for our own life. In fact, the more we deepen our attunement with the guru, the more Swamiji’s discipleship becomes our own.

With divine love in God and Guru,

Nayaswami Devi

Watch a video by a devotee created in honor of Swamiji’s discipleship anniversary here.

Listen to Devi as she first reads the blog, then expands on its meaning and messages for readers with behind-the-blog commentary. Subscribe to the podcast or download the audio recording by right-clicking here. Or listen to it here (9:26):

When Paramhansa Yogananda came to Europe in 1935 on his way to India, he stopped to visit Assisi, Italy. While there, Master made a special trip to a place sanctified by the presence of St. Francis, called “L’Eremo delle Carceri.” Roughly translated, this means “Hermitage of Secluded Places,” though over time “carceri” came also to mean “prison.”

Deeply inspired by his visit there, Master called St. Francis his “patron saint,” and later said, “I felt Christ’s presence everywhere in Assisi, but on the little forest paths of L’Eremo, I saw him walking by my side.” What is the story behind this holy place?

In 1205 Francis and a few of his fellow monks were walking, as was their wont, through the countryside outside of Assisi. As they began climbing the forested slopes of Mt. Subasio, which rises high above the town itself, they discovered an area that was dotted with many small caves. Francis found a tiny cave that would be perfect for seclusion and prayer. Brother Leo and the others soon followed his example, and each of them chose a little cave in which to dwell and focus his thoughts on God. Here they happily lived deep in prayer and contemplation.

Francis and his brothers could easily have remained there for the rest of their life, but at a certain point after deep prayer, this humble saint knew that Christ wanted him to leave his place of seclusion. His mission was to share his joyful love for God and all of creation with others, and so he did for the remaining twenty years of his life, until he died at the early age of forty-six.

Many miraculous events took place during Francis’s life. At one point, he asked his spiritual sister, Clare, to join him to discuss how to bring a life of prayer and simplicity to those who had followed them. St. Clare, who like Francis was canonized as a saint, was the founder of what is now known as the Order of Poor Clares, and was the first woman to write guidelines to create a monastic order.

During their discussion, they became so enrapt in the presence of God that a light began to emanate from them, filling the countryside. The people of Assisi saw this brilliant light and feared that a great fire had started. They raced towards this blazing light to find, not a conflagration, but Francis and Clare sitting quietly, lost in contemplation of God.

Over the centuries a small monastery and chapel were built near the caves, but L’Eremo remains essentially as it was in St. Francis’s time. The huge grey stones and little caves of Mt. Subasio are millions of years old, yet they are alive still with divine consciousness. Timelessly, they carry the inspiration of the great saints who once dwelt there.

Jyotish and I, along with our dear friends Anand and Kirtani, decided to visit L’Eremo during our last few days in Assisi. This past month has been a very busy one here, filled with many classes, satsangs, and joyful social gatherings. As soon as we entered those holy grounds, we were struck by the spiritual power and pristine beauty there. But most of all, we felt enveloped by a wave of interiorization and peace that emanates from the very stones. Thinking of Master as we walked the forest paths, we were spiritually refreshed by the spirit of God that remains there to this day.

All of us, in the midst of the busyness of life, need to remember to find times and places to which we can withdraw in solitude and renew our souls. This interiorization, through meditation and prayer, enables us to live in the spirit of the great souls who have come before us.

St. Francis walked the forests of L’Eremo nearly a thousand years ago, and ninety years have elapsed since Yogananda’s visit. But the power of great saints remains in such places, blessing and guiding all who come there to follow in their footsteps until we, too, find the inner kingdom of God.

In his beautiful song, “God’s Call Within,” Swami Kriyananda wrote:

Turn, turn, turn within:

With love and joy,

Nayaswami Devi

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Jyotish and I are presently at Ananda’s Assisi community helping with programs here during their busy month of August. This week we’re taking part in a course called “Ananda: A Spiritual Lifestyle,” sharing the principles upon which cooperative communities are based. “World brotherhood colonies,” as Paramhansa Yogananda called them, are an important aspect of his world mission, one that he said would be the “lifestyle for the New Age.”

Whether or not you are a part of such a community, its guiding principles can enrich and enhance every aspect of your life. Swami Kriyananda called this approach to living “Crystal Clarity,” and he defined it in this way:

To live in Crystal Clarity means to see oneself, and all things, as aspects of a greater reality; to seek to enter into conscious attunement with that reality; and to see all things as channels for the expression of that reality.

It means to see truth in simplicity; to seek always to be guided by the simple truth, not by opinion; and by what IS, not by one’s own desires or prejudices.

It means striving to see things in relation to their broadest potential.

In one’s association with other people, it means seeking always to include their realities in one’s own.

Here are five practical ways to express this key concept, Crystal Clarity, which is at the heart of Ananda communities: Cooperation, Communication, Concentration, Creativity, and Conscious Awareness. Ananda means “joy,” and by expressing each of these aspects, you will find an increasing level of joy in your life.

Cooperation is based on the effort always to include others’ realities in your own. At Ananda we recognize that there is a broad spectrum of individual realities. When making decisions we ask not, “What do I want?” but rather, “What is trying to happen?” The result—be it in a family, an office staff, or an entire community—is that each individual feels respected and harmony prevails.

True Communication requires that everyone listen to others, and feel heard by them as well. It becomes possible when truth, not opinions, is made its underlying basis. When people live in accordance with these high principles, group consensus can easily be reached. An unspoken understanding and trust develops among people who have this kind of open, honest communication.

Concentration often results when we can see the big picture, and how our own little part fits into it. This kind of concentration is born not of self-focused tension, but of a calmness that comes when we see ourself as a channel for a higher power. Action undertaken with this kind of attentive awareness is usually highly effective, and brings with it inner joy as we experience ourself as part of a greater reality.

Creativity is a natural offshoot of living in Crystal Clarity, because it helps you to tune in to God’s endless variety as expressed in His creation. We’re having great fun during our visit here watching snails crawl across the patio of the apartment in which we’re staying. As we observe the unique beauty of each shell, the thought arises, “If God can express creativity in every tiny aspect of life, surely we can bring fresh eyes and energy to everything that we do.” Creativity and joy go hand in hand.

And finally, there is Conscious Awareness, in which we seek attunement with a greater reality. Increasingly I realize that expanding awareness is the hidden goal for all of life: from a little moth, to a beautiful snail, to you and me. When we begin to understand—through meditation, devotion, and a conscious effort to know God—that we are so much more than our little ego, true joy naturally begins to fill our life.

When we join together with others in a shared understanding, we magnetically draw divine grace that uplifts each of us beyond our own efforts. This is the true essence of Ananda’s spiritual lifestyle, which is available to anyone who strives to live by these principles.

We invite you to join us in this great community of Spirit.

Nayaswami Devi

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Swami Kriyananda once shared a remarkable experience he’d had while giving a Kriya Yoga initiation. After the ceremony he told a small group of us who had gathered around him, “As each one of you came up for the blessing, I could feel your unique path to God.” His words were thrilling on two levels: first, that we would find God; and secondly, that our path to soul freedom lay before us and could be seen by one with higher awareness.

This is true for all of us. Though we may seem caught in the complex web of our life and the pull of the world, our bondage is temporary only. Our individual path to God actually stretches out already before us.

So the question arises, “Why is each of our paths unique?” One reason is that through past choices in many lifetimes, we have created a karmic maze from which we must find the way out. The constellation of behavioral patterns and mental attitudes that keep us bound is uniquely our own, as is the road we must follow as we do the work required to find our freedom.

It’s actually an expansive thought to consider that each person on earth is, like each snowflake, a unique creation. So it is that each one of us, from an enlightened saint to an unrepentant sinner, has a personalized path to inner happiness. Just imagine the vastness and complexity of this great drama!

There are also basic differences in human nature. Taking these into account, the great proponents of yoga have given us different paths to enlightenment: karma yoga, the path of right action; bhakti yoga, the path of devotion; gyana yoga, the path of wisdom; and raja yoga, the path of meditation. Though normally one of these is predominant, we are typically a mixture of all four approaches, and that precise mixture is different for everyone. Even if we try to walk someone else’s path, our own nature will draw us back to what is right for us.

Then there is the beautiful thought that God’s love for each of His children is particular. Each one of us is special to God, and like the prodigal son, when we return home, He/She rejoices. This truth is reflected in the beautiful image often depicted in paintings of Krishna dancing with each of the gopis. Master explains that the gopis were much more than mere milkmaids—they were enlightened sages who had come to be with the Lord, in the form of Krishna. As God loves each of us uniquely, so does the spark of divine love in our heart draw us forward in our own way to find union with that love. Another wonderful thought!

Jyotish and I are now at our community in Assisi, Italy, enjoying the devotion and joy of our family here. We’ll be in Italy for the month of August, before continuing our travels to Germany, and then to India.

Yesterday, as we sat in the Temple of Light at a wonderful kirtan, the fluttering of little wings caught my eye. It was a moth inside the temple that was repeatedly flinging itself against a closed window in an effort to escape into the beautiful garden outside. Inches away from the windowpane was an open door through which it could easily have flown out. “How like this little moth we all are,” I thought. The barrier of the physical world and our attachment to the senses keep us trapped here, unable to enter the garden of soul bliss.

Finally, a breeze through the open door enabled the moth to fly to freedom in the garden. Similarly, the breeze of grace reveals to us the way out of the suffering and confinement of this world. Though our way is uniquely our own, and we must walk it alone, still we share this journey with all of life. This is the divine drama. Through His love, God dances individually with each of us and shows us our way to freedom.

Joining with you in our journey,

Nayaswami Devi

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Swami Kriyananda lived with his guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, for the last three and a half years of the great master’s life. The teachings and training that Swamiji received from him during that time have inspired and guided the work of Ananda, which now reaches countless souls throughout the world.

Here are two stories from Swamiji’s early days with his guru that can help us in our spiritual as well as our everyday life. Kriyananda wrote that he worked as hard at meditation as he did during the day at his various jobs. But at a certain point, he began to get discouraged with the progress he was making in meditation. He had the opportunity to ask Master, “Am I not trying hard enough?” Yoganandaji replied, “Too hard. It’s creating tension. In meditation you should emphasize relaxation more.”

The companion story is this. Some time had passed after the first incident. Following Master’s advice, Swamiji began to focus more in his meditations on devotion to God. He spent long hours chanting and feeling God’s love. He writes: “Gradually I found myself becoming transformed inwardly. I began to feel I had some cause for self-congratulation, when one day word came to me that Master had been talking with a group of the monks in Encinitas. During the course of the conversation he had remarked lovingly: ‘Look how I have changed Walter [his name for Swamiji]!’”

What these two stories illustrate is the difference between tension and intention. When we do anything with tension, it reflects inner resistance. This can come from a variety of causes: subconscious doubts, unwillingness, fear of failing, or attachment to the results of our actions. Whatever the cause, the tension created by inner resistance blocks the flow of our energy, and limits our ability to accomplish our goals.

On the other hand, working with intention implies a positive commitment of energy to achieve some end. This involves a willingness to try; freedom from attachment to the results; and clear, steady focus on our goal. Working with intention rather than tension produces a powerful flow of energy that can uplift our consciousness no matter the outcome of our efforts. It also is the secret key that opens the door for God’s grace to flow into our life. This is what the two stories from Swamiji’s life are meant to illustrate.

We might say that when we approach any activity with tension, it implies an ego-based attitude of “I am the doer.” But when we act with intention, it reflects the thought, “I will try my best, but the results are in God’s hands.”

When you sit to meditate, relax with the thought, “God, I love You and joyfully offer my life to You. It is Your love within me that enables me even to think of You. Let me feel Your presence.” The time will come when your sincere intention will draw His grace, and you will realize His presence with you.

In daily life, look at what you are trying to accomplish and why. Analyze objectively any obstacles that lie before you, but then, willingly and joyfully, let your energy flow steadily towards your goal. Don’t be deterred by setbacks, but keep your intention shining before you. This is not to say that you’ll always accomplish everything you set out to do, but whether you succeed or not, your intention will draw the grace to transform your life.

I’ll close with these words written to me by a friend who was diagnosed a few months ago with an early stage, but aggressive form of breast cancer:

“I just completed infusion #13. Three more to go. Then a week of radiation around the end of August. That will complete the in-person treatments. After that, I’ll begin hormone suppression therapy through medication, which will be ongoing, possibly for years.

“Reflecting on what I am learning from this journey, I am grateful: How to face a test without identifying with it. The importance of positivity and saying YES. The choice between stress or inner peace. How the loss of identity brings greater freedom.

“Behind it all is grace. Until this dramatic experience, I never realized the extent to which grace is responsible for everything in our lives. It feels like even the willingness and fortitude that are needed on my part come from grace.”

May your divine intention lead you to God’s presence in all things.

Nayaswami Devi

Listen to Devi as she first reads the blog, then expands on its meaning and messages for readers with behind-the-blog commentary. Subscribe to the podcast or download the audio recording by right-clicking here. Or listen to it here (9:23):