Series of letters from Jyotish and Devi Novak, Ananda Spiritual Directors

Letter 1: The City of Sparta Arrives

January 2008

On August 2, 1920 the first steamer to leave India after the end of the First World War embarked from Calcutta harbor for Boston, Massachusetts. The City of Sparta arrived in port on September 19, 1920, and the passengers passed through customs before entering the United States.

The official carefully questioned each one and filled out the forms for the Ship Manifest. First came the Marlow family, a husband and wife with three small children on holiday from Civil Service in India. They were followed by an older Jewish couple, Adolph and Dortha Stern, who were emigrating from Russia.

Then the next passenger in line walked up to the custom official. The Ship Manifest tells us he was a 25-year-old East Indian of a modest 5 foot 5 inch stature in good physical and mental health, with a small scar on the right forearm. According to The City of Sparta records, this new arrival was not a polygamist, or an anarchist, and was not liberal, except in religion.

Paramhansa Yogananda at the Congress of Religious Liberals

His given name was Mukunda Lal Ghosh, though he went by Swami Yoganandagiri. He had with him only $200, knew no one in America, but had an invitation to speak at the Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston. Thus began Paramhansa Yogananda’s amazing mission to the West.

In 2008, as Ananda celebrates its 40th anniversary and Swami Kriyananda’s 60th anniversary of discipleship, these Sangha Newsletters will describe some of the events that give this year special meaning. Yogananda brought to the world the spirit of Divine Joy unleashed. The City of Sparta, named after that famous city of warriors, carried a true spiritual conqueror to our shores.

Yogananda spent the next three years speaking to thousands of enthusiastic students in cities throughout the East Coast. In July 1924 he left New York for the first of his many cross-continental tours, his “spiritual campaigns,” as he called them. In January 1925 he reached Los Angeles, and through his magnetism attracted students to help him establish a “beach head” on the West Coast. In the ensuing years, Yogananda continued to reach out to the world with sorrow-shattering joy.

On September 12, 1948 a 22-year-old man newly arrived from New York asked to see the Master at his church in Hollywood. He, too, was of modest stature, knew no one upon his arrival, and had with him only a few hundred dollars.

This young man, who would become known as Swami Kriyananda, knelt before his guru and ardently said, “I want to be your disciple.” This meeting marked the beginning of Yogananda’s training of Kriyananda to take up his banner and spread the message of divine joy throughout the world.

Swamiji’s 60 years of discipleship and Ananda’s 40-year history are testimonies to the power of this joy. In a new book published by Crystal Clarity, How to be Happy All the Time, Yogananda says, “To seek happiness outside ourselves is like trying to lasso a cloud. Happiness is not a thing: it is a state of mind. It must be lived.”

We invite you to join us in consciously living in “joy” during this anniversary year. Thus may we all be filled with the radiant power that Yogananda brought to our shores, and may it shine like a brilliant beam of light and hope into the world.

In divine friendship,
Jyotish and Devi

Letter 2: Fulfilling Yogananda’s Dream for Europe – A Step Towards World Peace

February 2008

Paramhansa Yogananda was meditating in Los Angeles, California in 1935 when he inwardly heard the voice of his guru calling to him from across the world, “Return to India. I have waited patiently for you for 15 years. Yogananda, come!”

It was back in 1920 that Sri Yukteswar had sent Yogananda to America to spread the teachings of yoga to truth seekers there. After 15 years of sowing seeds of spiritual consciousness in the West, Yogananda now heeded his guru’s call, and departed on June 1935 on the steamer Europa for Europe on his way to India.

Upon arriving in Europe, Yogananda traveled extensively on the continent visiting France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Bavaria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Greece. In Italy he went to Assisi, drawing inspiration from the life of St. Francis, whom he later called his “patron saint.” In July 1935 he was invited to lecture in the eternal city, Rome.

These were the years before the outbreak of World War II. Perhaps Yogananda hoped that by his divine attunement he could uplift the consciousness of Europeans towards peace and divert the impending global conflagration. Reportedly, he even tried but failed to get an interview with Adolph Hitler, trying to prevent the all-but inevitable war by the power of his positive energy.

At the conclusion of his European tour in August 1935, Yogananda embarked on the steamer Rajputana for India. Upon reaching the shores of his mother country, he quickly traveled to his guru’s side. Together after years of separation, they shared many months of heartfelt satsang before Sri Yukteswar’s mahasamadhi in March 1936.

Yogananda officiated at the ancient rites for his guru’s passing, and then returned to his Los Angeles headquarters in October. Here he dedicated himself anew to the mission that Sri Yukteswar had given him.

The years pass, and in 1950 Yogananda is finishing his commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita. He invites a young disciple, Swami Kriyananda, to join him at his desert retreat to help him with the editing. For many months Kriyananda works closely with his guru on the book.

One day soon after returning from the desert, as they are going over some of Yogananda’s personal correspondence, Kriyananda says to his guru, “Sir, what wonderful letters we’ve been getting from Germany! They express such devotion!”

Yogananda replies, “That’s because they’ve suffered. They need Kriya Yoga, not bombs! Maybe I will send you there someday.”

“Certainly, Sir, if you wish it,” Kriyananda answers. “I do know Europe having been born and raised there.”

Yogananda replies simply, “There is a great work to be done there.”

After Paramhansa Yogananda’s mahasamadhi, Swami Kriyananda visits Europe many times to teach and draw people to his guru’s path. Being able to lecture in German, Italian, and French, Swamiji draws citizens of formerly warring nations together in a shared spiritual purpose. Finally in 1984 Kriyananda founds Ananda Europa, the first international community based on Yogananda’s teachings. It is located in the beautiful rolling hills above Assisi, Italy, where Yogananda was inspired by St. Francis, a beloved symbol of peace.

Residents from 10 different European nations live, work, and meditate together in Ananda’s cooperative, spiritual community that is fast becoming a model of world brotherhood throughout Europe. Germans and Italians, Americans and Russians, Croatians and Serbians all serve side by side without any sense of divisive religious or national self-identity.

In a few weeks from now on April 19, 2008 Swamiji will speak in the heart of Christendom itself – Rome, Italy – to launch the Italian translation of his new book, Revelations of Christ Proclaimed by Paramhansa Yogananda. An overflow crowd is expected to fill the large hall at Teatro Valle to hear the new insight to Christ’s life and teachings that Yogananda brought.

Paramhansa Yogananda – an emissary of world peace – spoke of a future where there would be a United States of Europe, and eventually a United States of the World. In this celebratory year for Swami Kriyananda and Ananda, we can see this vision of universal harmony beginning to emerge in Europe and America through Ananda’s World Brotherhood Colonies.

We invite you to join us in one of the great movements for peace and divine awakening of our times.

In divine friendship,
Jyotish and Devi