Nayaswami Jyotish and Nayaswami Devi — Talks and Classes

Watch this inspiring Sunday Service with Nayaswami Devi, recorded at Ananda Village on July 26th, 2026.

Devi first addresses why we need a guru: not to weaken the will through blind obedience (which the path of self-realization actually rejects), but to strengthen it. The guru is illustrated as a gemologist who distinguishes real from false, the thread that leads us out of the labyrinth of karma, and a transformer making God's infinite power accessible. When the soul first sparks forth from God, it's given a guide and planted with a quenchless yearning for reunion — a longing God plants in his own heart too.

Devi recounts the meetings of Yogananda with Sri Yukteswar and of Lahiri Mahasaya with Babaji, both moments of the guru saying "I have waited for you," to show the guru longs for our return. Using the image of a canoe caught in eddies along a river, she urges listeners to paddle with strength of will into the current of the guru's grace and not to waste this lifetime.

The reading for this week from Swami Kriyananda's book Rays of the One Light is

Do You Need a Guru?

Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.

The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

Many people scoff at the idea of having a guru. True to human nature generally, they make a virtue of their scoffing. “I am responsible for what I do,” they announce, “responsible for my mistakes as well as for my victories. What would I ever learn if I handed over my development to someone else? To depend on another for guidance would be an act of spiritual cowardice.”

It would be understandable for someone gifted with some trivial ability, for instance with words, to insist on doing his crossword puzzle himself without letting anyone else help him. But supposing, even in such trivial matters, he had no such gift? What virtue would there be in refusing to learn? For that matter, where would the gift itself come from? That which is a gift is not a native ability. Still, crossword puzzles are hardly an important challenge. What if a person wanted to do something daring: to climb a cliff, for instance, but refused to study the art of mountain climbing? He would climb at the risk of his life.

And how much more is risked than physical life in the great adventure of the divine search, where the risk is to salvation itself! Where is the sacrifice in seeking guidance? Even a mountain guide wouldn’t presume to do one’s climbing for one; his purpose would be only to help the neophyte to climb safely. To have a wise guru is not a sign of weakness, but of plain common sense.

All the saints, aware as they are of the hazards of the adventure, agree on the importance of having a guide, or guru. And these are the heroes speaking, not cowards or spiritual weaklings.

Jesus emphasized the importance of having a teacher by asking John to baptize him. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 3, we read of his coming to John. “Thus,” Jesus said to John, “it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.”

In the Bhagavad Gita, the fourth Chapter, Sri Krishna says:

How is the devotee to recognize one who has attained wisdom? The Bhagavad Gita gives us this inspiring description of the sage:

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

Watch this inspiring Sunday Service with Nayaswami Devi recorded at Ananda Village on May 17th 2026. The reading for this week from Swami Kriyananda's book Rays of the One Light is

Activity vs. Inner Communion

Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.

The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

Last week we contemplated the well-known story of Martha and Mary. Traditionally, this story has been offered to show the two classic approaches to salvation: the first, through action, and the second, through prayer. The excuse of the Marthas of this world has always been, “The church needs its Marthas, too.” Treatises, moreover, have been written to justify the Martha approach to piety, praising her self-sacrifice as, perhaps, an even higher demonstration of devotion. (Thus do the unmeditative workers in religion try to justify themselves!) Yet the fact remains that Jesus rebuked Martha. Elsewhere, moreover, he spoke of the virtue of feeding the hungry, curing the sick, and housing those who were homeless. It wasn’t that he disapproved of serving people.

Wrong attitude was the object of his criticism. What he was criticizing was forgetfulness of the true goal of right, spiritual action. Good deeds, outwardly, without inner communion with God, will result in good karma but will not bring final freedom from all karma.

The Path to inner freedom was described by Paramhansa Yogananda in these words: “Be always calmly active, and actively calm.”

As it says in the Bhagavad Gita, the second Chapter:

Do your duty in life – so counsels this great Scripture elsewhere – but never lose sight of Him to whom all action should be dedicated.

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

Nayaswami Devi shares the story behind a statue of Yogananda at Ananda and then focuses on the spiritual path from dogmatic belief to direct, intuitive experience of God.She explains that true understanding doesn’t come from blind belief or even reasoning alone, but from developing inner intuition through meditation and personal experience. By deepening this intuitive awareness, we can perceive God’s presence everywhere and gradually realize our unity with the divine.

Watch this inspiring Sunday Service with Nayaswami Devi, recorded at Ananda Village on March 8 2026. The reading for this week from Swami Kriyananda's book Rays of the One Light is

Dogmatism vs. Common Sense

Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.

The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 7, Jesus warns:

Jesus here, as indeed many times during his teaching, counsels people to use their God-given common sense, and not to rely on high-flown but undemonstrable claims. Common sense goes beyond abstract reason, for it is rooted in actual experience.

Even common sense, however, is deficient when the judgment called for goes beyond sensory experience. Ultimately, what he emphasized always, therefore, was intuitive perception.

Thus, he expected more of his disciples than crude common sense, and often scolded them for being too literal-minded – as he did, elsewhere, when they thought his statement, “I have meat to eat that you know not of,” meant that he had steaks or sandwiches secreted about his person. His reference, of course, was to spiritual, not material, substance.

Words, even though appearing in the scriptures, are no substitute for direct perception of truth. Therefore the Bhagavad Gita says, in the second Chapter:

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

Watch this beautiful and moving devotional program honoring the anniversary of Paramhansa Yogananda's Mahasamadhi, recorded March 7th 2026. With Nayaswami Jyotish and Nayaswami Devi at the Temple of Light at Ananda Village.

ABOUT PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA

Paramhansa Yogananda, born in 1893, was the first yoga master of India to take up permanent residence in the West. Yogananda arrived in America in 1920, and proceeded to travel throughout the United States on what he called his “spiritual campaigns.” Hundreds of thousands filled the largest halls in major American cities to see the yoga master from India. Yogananda continued to lecture and write up to his passing in 1952.

Paramhansa Yogananda’s initial impact on the western culture was truly impressive. But his lasting spiritual legacy has been even greater. His Autobiography of a Yogi, first published in 1946, helped launch a spiritual revolution in the West. Translated into more than a dozen languages, it remains a best-selling spiritual classic to this day. [Read free at http://ananda.org/autobiography.]

Yogananda brought the path of Self-realization and universal spirituality for daily life. “Self-realization is the knowing in all parts of body, mind, and soul that you are now in possession of the kingdom of God; that you do not have to pray that it come to you; that God’s omnipresence is your omnipresence; and that all that you need to do is improve your knowing.

As the means of attaining this exalted spiritual state Yogananda initiated his followers into the ancient technique of Kriya Yoga, which he called the “jet-airplane route to God.” The path of Kriya Yoga, which combines the practice of advanced yogic techniques with spirituality in daily life, can be learned at http://ananda.org/kriya-yoga.

With Nayaswami Jyotish, recorded at Ananda Village on February 8, 2026.

He discusses the central importance of attunement to God and the guru as the heart of the spiritual path. Using a prayer for illumination from Yogananda's Whispers from Eternity, he explains that spiritual progress comes not through outer knowledge alone, but through aligning one’s will with God’s will. The guru is described not as a person, but as a divine consciousness assigned to guide each soul back to enlightenment.

While many teachings exist to guide life and meditation, the “skeleton key” to spiritual freedom is attunement—offering one’s love and self-will to God. The main obstacle is not lack of knowledge, but the ego’s resistance to surrendering its attachments and desires. God does not force anyone; through the law of love, He gently draws souls back when they are ready. True attunement is vibrational and intuitive, like tuning an instrument—not merely intellectual. By loving, serving, meditating, and inwardly offering oneself to the guru, one gradually aligns with divine guidance.

Nayaswami Jyotish concludes that everything on the path comes down to this: freely offering one’s love and will to God. Through that attunement, divine guidance becomes clear, and the soul is led toward lasting fulfillment and union with God.

The reading for this week from Swami Kriyananda's book Rays of the One Light:

The Importance of Soul-Receptivity

Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.

The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

Chapter 1 of the Gospel of St. John states:

This was a passage Paramhansa Yogananda often quoted to his disciples. “Be in tune,” he would tell them. “Delusion can’t touch you, if you will keep in tune.”

“A few of you will fall,” he said once. “But it needn’t be, if you would stay in tune.”

Of a disciple who became highly advanced, even though she didn’t meditate much, he said, “She got there by attunement.”

To one who found meditation difficult, he said, “I will meditate for you, as long as you stay in tune.”

Truth is a state of consciousness, not a well-worded definition. It is in that consciousness, above all, that our lives are transformed. Therefore the Bhagavad Gita says, in the tenth Chapter:

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

Watch this beautiful program with Nayaswami Jyotish and Nayaswami Devi recorded at Ananda Village January 5th 2026.

ABOUT PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA

Paramhansa Yogananda, born in 1893, was the first yoga master of India to take up permanent residence in the West. Yogananda arrived in America in 1920, and proceeded to travel throughout the United States on what he called his “spiritual campaigns.” Hundreds of thousands filled the largest halls in major American cities to see the yoga master from India. Yogananda continued to lecture and write up to his passing in 1952. Paramhansa Yogananda’s initial impact on the western culture was truly impressive. But his lasting spiritual legacy has been even greater. His Autobiography of a Yogi, first published in 1946, helped launch a spiritual revolution in the West. Translated into more than a dozen languages, it remains a best-selling spiritual classic to this day. [Read free at http://ananda.org/autobiography.]

Yogananda brought the path of Self-realization and universal spirituality for daily life. “Self-realization is the knowing in all parts of body, mind, and soul that you are now in possession of the kingdom of God; that you do not have to pray that it come to you; that God’s omnipresence is your omnipresence; and that all that you need to do is improve your knowing. As the means of attaining this exalted spiritual state Yogananda initiated his followers into the ancient technique of Kriya Yoga, which he called the “jet-airplane route to God.”

The path of Kriya Yoga, which combines the practice of advanced yogic techniques with spirituality in daily life, can be learned at http://ananda.org/kriya-yoga.

Nayaswami Devi reminds us that our true identity is light, not our past mistakes, habits, or limitations. Drawing from Rays of the One Light, Songs of the Soul, the Bible, and Autobiography of a Yogi, she explains that true success and spiritual growth come not from striving alone, but from receptivity to divine light.

The New Year is a fresh beginning—an opportunity to release old worries and plant seeds of joy, right action, noble desires, and spiritual aspiration in each new day. Through personal stories and examples from the life of Swami Kriyananda, Nayaswami Devi shows how offering our whole self to service allows divine energy to flow effortlessly, dissolving ego and bringing humility and peace. A powerful story of spiritual awakening illustrates how the light is always present, even in moments of confusion or darkness.

She concludes with a call to live consciously as children of light, sharing kindness, compassion, and spiritual awareness with others. In a world experiencing growing tension between light and darkness, the New Year becomes an invitation not only to awaken ourselves, but to help awaken the light in everyone we meet.

This inspiring Sunday Service talk with Nayaswami Devi was recorded at Ananda Village on January 4th, 2026. The reading for this week from Swami Kriyananda's book Rays of the One Light is

At the Heart of Silence – the Eternal Word

Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.

The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

In the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 1, these immortal lines appear:

Human vision beholds individuality and separation everywhere. Divine vision beholds the oneness of cosmic vibration, of which all things, no matter how diverse, are manifestations. Cosmic Sound – the “Word” of God – and Cosmic Light: These are eternal. The world, as revealed to us by our senses, is illusory.

In Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramhansa Yogananda relates an early experience he received of the divine aspect of reality:

Sitting on my bed one morning, I fell into a deep reverie.

“What is behind the darkness of closed eyes?” This probing thought came powerfully into my mind. An immense flash of light at once manifested to my inward gaze. Divine shapes of saints, sitting in meditation posture in mountain caves, formed like miniature cinema pictures on the large screen of radiance within my forehead.

“Who are you?” I spoke aloud.

“We are the Himalayan yogis.” The celestial response is difficult to describe; my heart was thrilled.

“Ah, I long to go to the Himalayas and become like you!” The vision vanished, but the silvery beams expanded in ever-widening circles to infinity.

“What is this wondrous glow?”

“I am Iswara. I am Light.” The voice was as murmuring clouds.

“I want to be one with Thee!”

Out of the slow dwindling of my divine ecstasy, I salvaged a permanent legacy of inspiration to seek God.

Wise are we if we meditate on that experience of Yogananda’s, and salvage from it even a breath of his inspiration. For, quite simply, there is nothing else! As the Bhagavad Gita says in the seventh Chapter:

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

Watch this inspiring Sunday Service talk with Nayaswami Jyotish, recorded at Ananda Village on December 21st, 2025. It begins with an inspiring Christmas children story by Janaka. The reading for this week from Swami Kriyananda's book Rays of the One Light is

What Was the Star of Bethlehem?

Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.

The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

Divine vision is the opposite of worldly sight. Divine vision sees God’s presence behind all outward appearances. Worldly sight sees appearances, merely, coating even the blazing wisdom of a saint. A master, to the worldly man, is a human being with, perhaps, a slightly better attitude than the norm. The Scriptures therefore strive to demonstrate how the divine consciousness, when openly active among men in the lives of great masters, must never be viewed as an expression of ordinary human consciousness. To seek the presence of Divinity behind the life of a great master is to prepare oneself to recognize that same Divinity also in lower manifestations until at last one beholds God everywhere.

Thus it was that Paramhansa Yogananda, on observing his new disciple Swami Kriyananda struggling with the contrast between the guru’s human appearance and his inner, divine reality, looked at him deeply one day and said, “If you only knew my consciousness!”

The story of the birth of Jesus Christ contains an account in the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 2, of the star of Bethlehem. The wise men who sought Jesus in his manger said,

This account was important, for it showed all mankind that Jesus was a divine incarnation, and no ordinary man – that he brought divine consciousness to earth,even though he would play a human role among human beings, and that others, too, by “receiving him” in their inner hearts, would acquire power, as the Bible puts it, to “become the sons of God.”

The Scriptures enjoin us to meditate on the lives of great souls, that we may discover our own latent spiritual greatness. As the Bhagavad Gita puts it in the fourth Chapter:

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

Watch this inspiring Sunday Service talk with Nayaswami Devi, recorded at Ananda Village on November 23rd, 2025. The reading for this week from Swami Kriyananda's book Rays of the One Light is

Reincarnation – the Spiral Staircase

Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.

The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

In the Book of Revelation, Chapter 3, Jesus Christ tells us: “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out.”

There is a difference between Church dogmas, which are based on reasoned deductions from Scriptural statements, and the pronouncements of wisdom, which are based on the inner realization of Scriptural truths. Reason, like a train, can only follow already-existing tracks of human experience. Human memory, being short, is seldom able to cross back over the threshold of a person’s present existence. Biblical references to previous lifetimes on earth are overlooked in the deductive process, and we find them therefore excluded from the body of official dogma. Nevertheless, such references exist. The Bible itself presents them – as does Jesus in this passage – not as abstract teaching, but as direct, personal perception of truth.

In the same way Krishna, in the Bhagavad Gita, silences Arjuna’s reasonable doubts on the subject not by reasoned argument, but by the frank statement contained in the fourth Chapter of that great Scripture:

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

Watch this inspiring Sunday Service talk with Nayaswami Jyotish recorded at Ananda Village on July 27th 2025. The reading for this week from Swami Kriyananda's book Rays of the One Light is

Do You Need a Guru?

Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.

The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

Many people scoff at the idea of having a guru. True to human nature generally, they make a virtue of their scoffing. “I am responsible for what I do,” they announce, “responsible for my mistakes as well as for my victories. What would I ever learn if I handed over my development to someone else? To depend on another for guidance would be an act of spiritual cowardice.”

It would be understandable for someone gifted with some trivial ability, for instance with words, to insist on doing his crossword puzzle himself without letting anyone else help him. But supposing, even in such trivial matters, he had no such gift? What virtue would there be in refusing to learn? For that matter, where would the gift itself come from? That which is a gift is not a native ability. Still, crossword puzzles are hardly an important challenge. What if a person wanted to do something daring: to climb a cliff, for instance, but refused to study the art of mountain climbing? He would climb at the risk of his life.

And how much more is risked than physical life in the great adventure of the divine search, where the risk is to salvation itself! Where is the sacrifice in seeking guidance? Even a mountain guide wouldn’t presume to do one’s climbing for one; his purpose would be only to help the neophyte to climb safely. To have a wise guru is not a sign of weakness, but of plain common sense.

All the saints, aware as they are of the hazards of the adventure, agree on the importance of having a guide, or guru. And these are the heroes speaking, not cowards or spiritual weaklings.

Jesus emphasized the importance of having a teacher by asking John to baptize him. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 3, we read of his coming to John. “Thus,” Jesus said to John, “it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.”

In the Bhagavad Gita, the fourth Chapter, Sri Krishna says:

How is the devotee to recognize one who has attained wisdom? The Bhagavad Gita gives us this inspiring description of the sage:

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.