Treasures Along the Path

6/17/1979

Ananda Community Goals – helping people develop a cooperative spirit

Swami Kriyananda participated in a conference on communities in 1979. He met Peter Caddy who founded Findhorn and other community leaders. He returned to Ananda Village and gave this talk to residents.

Ananda community living is a way of life to bring about harmony and peace. The community lifestyle can be an example to others.

One of the primary goals of Ananda communities is to provide an environment to inspire individuals to become centered in themselves, centered in God consciousness and to become more and more giving. Kriyananda explains that we are happier when we share with others and realize that everything we do is for God.

The Ananda communities try to reach people on all levels to give them an incentive to grow through avenues such as education, healing, and retreat programs and classes.
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/

Circa 1978

Karma yoga – service to God as an extension of meditation

• We tend to compartmentalize our work and meditation, but the two are really complimentary. Work is extremely necessary to mediation until a person has reached the point where his meditations are so deep that the idea of work and meditation have blended and become one.

• The closer we are to God, the more good we can accomplish in the world.

• The real purpose of karma yoga is not so much what we do, but rather the way in which we do it – do outward tasks while in communion with God. Do your job well, and do it as an expression of Divine love.

• Your words and actions should express what you have inside. Try to express God’s joy, love and peace.

• When you are wholeheartedly expressing God’s joy in your relationship with others, you will also feel a deepening in your meditation, because you realize that everything and everyone is an expression of God’s consciousness.
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11/1/04

The vibration behind all words is Aum.

When we chant Aum we are connecting with the vibration that created the entire universe

Kriyananda emphasizes that merely chanting God’s name or repeating mantras is not enough. We must tune into the deeper meaning behind the words if we want to gain the inner peace, joy, and love we are all seeking.

We can learn to connect with the essence of words, and especially names of God. This can bring self-realization.
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/

11/1/04

Tools for Deepening Meditation include calming the mind and becoming still enough in body and mind to receive higher consciousness.

Become one pointed in your goal to be still.

If possible, take one week a year for seclusion to help break the outward pull of the world. Kriyananda gives specific tips on how to seclude.
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/

1/17/84

How to be a Channel of Light in Challenging Times

We can and must be channels of light in challenging times.  Although given 27 years ago, this talk is just as relevant today as it was then. Swami Kriyananda expresses the importance especially now when this world is on the cusp of a great change.  He tells us this is actually one of the most wonderful times in history to be alive! There is great opportunity for spiritual growth.  We can tune into the Divine Light that is awakening on our planet right now.  Swami Kriyananda points out that one doesn’t have to be spiritually advanced to be an instrument for light. We can channel light multiple ways.  Examples are through our actions, through our eyes, and through the tone of our voice. The only real requirement for being a channel of light is sincerity. The more we channel that light, the more the qualities of light will manifest and strengthen in us and the world.

Circa 1982

Meditation: What it is and How to Do It,  can invigorate and deepen your  meditation practice, whether you are a novice or advanced on the spiritual path.

Swami Kriyananda discusses in depth the eight aspects of God: peace, calmness, light, sound, power, joy, love, and wisdom.
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/

September 3, 1987 - Land of Golden Sunshine Play Reading

How to be a Channel – allow the grace of God to flow through you uninterruptedly

Swami Kriyananda reads a revised version of his play Land of Golden Sunshine that he first wrote when he was 17. In the play, life had lost meaning and purpose for a lonely girl Lisa who worked in a city factory sewing buttons. After she had a vision of the ‘golden sun man’ who gave her light, love and hope, everything changed. Lisa now thought, “Joy does exist! New doors to transcendent meaning seemed as if opening onto a vast universe around her. It was as though life itself for her had dawned with the sun’s light, only today. And though outwardly, the world gave no sign of having changed. She was certain that never more for her, would it be the same.”

How to be a Channel Key Points

We are all children of God. We have come from infinity as did the Golden Sun-Man in the play. Yogananda said that when you have a vision of God it can be in any form. God is not limited by any form.

God’s eyes shine with the consciousness of infinity and eternity.

Very few people, even those who believe in God and the spiritual path, have any sense that they are not the ego and they are not this body.

The masters have come to tell us that the goal of every spiritual endeavor is to rise above the ego and to merge the ego in the infinite. We must realize that the true self is infinite, and that this little ego is merely a small manifestation of what and who you really are.

When we only ‘receive,’ we are affirming the satisfaction of the little ego. When we give, we expand our joy to include the happiness of others. We feel in some way, that we are enjoying through them. Thus it is, that we feel more blessings in giving.

The work that you offer to God as a service will gradually work out your karma. Then, the complex patterns and tendencies in your mind can be free to receive the Divine.

When you act without desire for the fruits of action you are channeling a higher consciousness into what you do. Channeling is not lying back and closing your eyes and waiting for something to start moving through you. Channeling is raising your consciousness to that level where inspiration exists; to receiving that consciousness.

When you tune into the Guru, or to the great flow of God’s Grace, suddenly you will find that there are answers that you wouldn’t have believed could come, and yet, there they are.

We are all children of God. We have come from infinity as did the Golden Sun-Man in the play. Yogananda said that when you have a vision of God it can be in any form. God is not limited by any form.

Very few people, even those who believe in God and the spiritual path, have any sense that they are not the ego and they are not this body.

The masters have come to tell us that the goal of every spiritual endeavor is to rise above the ego and to merge the ego in the infinite. We must realize that the true self is infinite, and that this little ego is merely a small manifestation of what and who you really are.

When we only ‘receive,’ we are affirming the satisfaction of the little ego. When we give, we expand our joy to include the happiness of others. We feel in some way, that we are enjoying through them. Thus it is, that we feel more blessings in giving.

The work that you offer to God as a service will gradually work out your karma. Then, the complex patterns and tendencies in your mind can be free to receive the Divine.

When you act without desire for the fruits of action you are channeling a higher consciousness into what you do. Channeling is not lying back and closing your eyes and waiting for something to start moving through you. Channeling is raising your consciousness to that level where inspiration exists; to receiving that consciousness.

When you tune into the Guru, or to the great flow of God’s Grace, suddenly you will find that there are answers that you wouldn’t have believed could come, and yet, there they are.
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/

1/5/1979

The Need for a Guru – seek a higher consciousness than your own

If you want to climb a mountain, seek a guide who knows that skill. If you want to progress spiritually, seek a true guru or teacher who knows the truth.

Many people new to spirituality like the thrill of something new, going from flower to flower seeking that intensity of newness. 

In order to make spiritual progress it is important to follow one good path. 

Every sincere seeker will be shown their true path and will earn the right to have a guru.
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/

1979
Discipleship in the Modern Age – put aside how we would like things to be, embrace how things really are.

Discipleship can bring a deep sense of attunement with the guru. Through attunement, you can think things through for yourself. True discipleship is not blind.

Focus not on what you can get, but what you can give.

Experiment with yourself and see what works and what doesn’t. Ask for guidance from the guru.

These 3 talks are the concluding events from a series of classes given on Yogananda’s Birthday 1979.
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6/28/84

Yogananda: Incarnation of Love – each story in this talk is a road map for finding deeper attunement with the guru.

Swami Kriyananda recounts many stories of how people’s consciousness has been transformed by Yogananda’s guidance and discusses the deeper meaning of attunement.

Remarks from the talk:

It says in Autobiography of a Yogi that one of the qualities in every atom is “ego” or individuality. Every manifestation of God is a unique manifestation and contains a quality that will remain until it merges back into the Infinite.

Yogananda could laugh until tears would be streaming down his cheeks, he had a great sense of humor.

Yogananda gave love to people in a centered way. He said not to love people, but to love the God in people.

Note: Other talks have this same name, but the dates will be different.
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/