Chapter 11: The People
“Hello, great souls!”: that’s how Swami Kriyananda greeted the community. It says it all.
I have already given hints here and there about what people is like in Ananda Village. However, a book wouldn’t be enough to describe it all: all of them are characteristically themselves; yet, that’s what they have in common: they are great souls.
People who live at Ananda Village (and many who visit it) share two common goals: to find God and to help others find Him. However, as I’ve remarked, they are all characteristically themselves: the variety is great, and it shows more because they are (again) great souls. People of the community live in harmony and joy, follow a spiritual discipline and revere all saints, in particular the direct Ananda line of gurus: Jesus Christ, Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar, and Paramhansa Yogananda.
I have never seen anyone angry in the week I was there. I’ve never felt anger myself. All I’ve seen are friendly faces and a willingness to help that I haven’t found anywhere else. Even your so-called “friends” in Uruguay or Granby (most of them, at least), show less disposition to help you out in any way than people whom you’re meeting for first time in Ananda.
One of my biggest fears was to find out that most people of Ananda were good-natured but not very smart: it is a stereotype you find a lot in movies and cartoons when it comes to religious people. My fears were totally unfounded, however. I cannot but mentally bow humbly before all of these great individuals, whose actions speak of goodness, whose loyalty is to God alone, and whose eyes spark with intelligence and good humor.
Talking about the eyes, something I remarked and found quite curious are the eyes of the girls: they all seem to have big, shiny, happy eyes; more so than any girl I’ve seen outside Ananda Village, save for my sister. It’s beautiful to contemplate. I also remarked that all people look younger than they actually are: product of simple living and high thinking, no doubt!
During the week I stayed with the community, I got to communicate (to a greater or lesser extent) with a lot of souls; I’ll try to do a list: Amanda, Anandi, Asha, Bhagavati, Byasa, Cristina, Dave, Devi, Jeannie, Jeff, Jyotish, Lakshman, Maitri, Marian, Marga, Maria, Matt, Nabha, Nirmoha, Nitai, Peter, Rose, Savitri, Seva, Shankari, Swami Kriyananda, Tracer, Trimurti, Tushti, and many, many others I am either forgetting or don’t remember their name!
The interesting thing about this is that Shankari, on my second day, told me jokingly: “You’re getting to know all the important people!” It was quite an interesting remark, because the response is both yes and no. “Yes” in the conventional sense, to a mind accustomed to the “normal world”, because I have been blessed with the opportunity to meet many of the leaders, founders, and so on. “No”, because there is actually nothing “important” about them! People of Ananda believe on everybody being important only to the extent that everybody is a son of God, and has the potential to manifest Him in a unique way. This belief, coming into practice, results naturally in the perception of everybody as equally important, only fulfilling different roles. Like Swamiji said (paraphrasing): “Leadership is only a particular skill that some people have and others don’t.” and “A true leader is someone who wants to serve, not to be served.” True to this, you see “important” people of Ananda, such as Dave (leader of the Kriya ministry) and Seva (founding member of the community) mixing with everybody and all like it was the most natural thing in the world; in fact, it is the most natural thing in the world… in Ananda Village!
The only exception to this rule is Swamiji himself, whose age, health (he’s 82 years old and he’s had health problems since he was a kid; only the fact that he got to live 82 years so far could be called a miracle by itself) and schedule wouldn’t allow him to see too many people. And in fact, if people could go up freely to see him, Swami wouldn’t ever get any sleep or work done!
Another interesting thing is something that happened to me during the Sunday Service, on my first day with the community. As I was in a chair close to the ministers and in a side row, I could see the faces of most of the people who were in the temple. I have read how Yogananda says you can recognize your friends from past lives, but, as it’s something that had hardly ever happened to me, I assumed I was just not sensitive or advanced enough to be able to recognize such people. What would be my surprise when, standing there in the temple, I looked around and I had the feeling I knew at least half of the people who stood there! So strong was this feeling that I had to double check their faces to convince myself I’d never seen them before; and even after that, I kept thinking: “where do I know him from?!?”
At the school opening event, a man of the school staff approached me and greeted me warmly. When it became evident that I didn’t know who he was, he apologized, telling me: “I thought you were somebody I knew” or something like that.
Intuitive insight into things and, sometimes, into the future, seems to be quite natural among the people in the community, and comes into the conversations as the most normal thing. I can’t remember any specifics right now, but I do know I’ve remarked it when I talked to community members. Yet, there’s nothing “self-important” about it, it’s just natural and humble, which makes it all the more amazing; Yogananda said: “in a master’s humility lies his greatest miracle.” This is just one example of how people of Ananda start to live up to their highest goals.
That’s as much as I can say about “the people” in general; to give a better picture of what it’s like to be among them, I should go into every person individually! That’s because, as I’ve said before, all people here are “characteristically themselves”. My short comment on them cannot possibly make justice to their quality and depth as human beings, but any tribute I can do, poor as it may be, I’m glad to do it.
My special thanks to each and everybody of them, and an extra to Marga, Swami and Seva, for encouraging and convincing me to make the trip; and to Nabha and Lakshman, for their friendship and help all along my stay.
Matt, a guest doing the Karma Yoga program.
Cristina and Marga.
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Next: Chapter 12: The Lunch
