In the late 1940s, Swami Kriyananda (then Donald Walters) read the AY and immediately set off to become a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. In his own words, Swami Kriyananda wrote, “Autobiography of a Yogi remains the greatest book I have ever read. One perusal of it was enough to change my whole life. From that time on, my break with the past was complete. I resolved in the smallest detail to follow Paramhansa Yogananda’s teaching” (Kriyananda, “The New Path” 147). Kriyananda’s reaction, while miraculous and profound, was not unique. His enthusiasm for the book and its teaching was shared by thousands of readers. It was this spiritual magnetism that lead to the success of Paramhansa Yogananda’s organization, Self Realization Fellowship, and later, this same energy lead Swami Kriyananda to found his own organization, Ananda.
The great Himalayan master, Babaji, said to Yogananda’s guru Swami Sri Yukteswar, “‘East and West must establish a golden, middle path of activity and spirituality combined… India has much to learn from the West in material development; in return, India can teach the universal methods by which the West will be able to base its religious beliefs on the unshakable foundations of yogic science’” (Yogananada, “Autobiography” 326). In 1989, three members of Ananda in Seattle founded East West Bookshop in order to work together in the same mission set forth by Babaji and Paramhansa Yogananda – to share the spiritual wisdom of the East and West to all with the desire to learn.
to God and He responds” (Yogananda, “Talk With God” 7). This statement, direct and profound, is demonstrated throughout the entire AY, and reiterated with different words. In the chapter in which Yogananda explains Kriya Yoga, he says, “Aum is the Creative Word, the sound of the Vibratory Motor. Even the yoga-beginner soon inwardly hears the wondrous sound of Aum” (233). For truth seekers everywhere, and perhaps even to those who are ambivalent towards the idea of a higher truth, there can be nothing more exciting than the prospect of hearing, seeing, and feeling the Divine. The possibility of inner communion with the Divine is what Yogananda wanted to share with the western world, and is what guides and inspires us at East West.Comments will be approved before showing up.
