Nayaswami Jyotish, Author at Nayaswami Jyotish and Nayaswami Devi

We have just finished the incredibly inspiring Centennial Celebration of Swami Kriyananda’s birth. It was a week filled with classes, song, and joy. The Temple of Light at Ananda Village was filled to capacity with over 750 participants, while another 5,000 people from 79 countries signed up to receive the events online. The reality of Ananda as a worldwide family ... Read More

My entire adult life has been lived in the orbit of Swami Kriyananda. He danced through life like a virtuoso, displaying so many varied talents—creativity, leadership, ingenuity, spiritual dedication. But when I set aside what he did, and go into my heart to feel what he was, the word that pops into my mind is friend. He treated me as ... Read More

We live in a sea of miracles, though we recognize only the big ones and ignore the small ones. In fact, most people can accept only big ones as true miracles at all. One of these occurred with Swami Kriyananda. Malka, an elderly Indian woman, had come to Ananda Village with a pilgrimage group. After the pilgrimage ended, she went ... Read More

As I write this, it is the one-hundredth anniversary of Swamiji’s birth. People from around the world of Ananda are sharing stories and photos and expressing their gratitude to him. Devi and I shared many birthdays with Swamiji. Usually, the day would start with a small gathering of close friends for breakfast, pancakes almost always on the menu. These times ... Read More

I would like to share one of the central qualities of Swami Kriyananda’s nature—his joy. His very name, Kriyananda, means joy through action and the practice of Kriya. He even said that “Kriya when done with joy will fill us with bliss.” The teachings of India say that God beyond creation has three essential qualities: existence, awareness, and bliss—Sat, Chit, ... Read More

I am about to celebrate the 59th anniversary of my first meeting with Swami Kriyananda, on April 26, 1967. Here is how I describe that memorable day in the preface to my latest book, The Heart of Service: My life changed forever on a warm Easter Sunday in the spring of 1967—though I didn’t know it at the time. It ... Read More

Last Sunday was an eventful day. Devi and I led the Easter service in the morning and then, later in the day, our dear friend and longtime Ananda member, Nayaswami Nakin, passed away. Nakin, like so many Ananda members, was intelligent, serviceful, joy-filled, and delightfully stubborn. He was always ready to say YES! to whatever was asked. In this case, ... Read More

Many years ago, while living in Assisi, Swami Kriyananda took a seclusion very close to L’Eremo delle Carceri. This spot has a fascinating history. St. Francis and his brother monks often stayed there in the small caves that dot the hillside. In 1936 Yogananda visited Assisi and said that while he felt the presence of Jesus throughout the area, when ... Read More

Have you ever felt the nagging sensation that you need to change something in yourself, but you don’t quite know what it is? The first step in overcoming a challenge is to bring it to the surface of your awareness and clearly identify it. If we don’t do this voluntarily, life will find a way of forcing us to face ... Read More

When one looks at the news, it is hard to make sense of what is happening in these turbulent times. Yet the more we focus on current events, the harder it becomes to see the bigger picture. Is there a deeper reason for this choppy sea we’re trying to navigate? Last week, during the classes at our annual Inner Renewal ... Read More

Spiritual growth becomes effortless when we learn the art of attunement. Our latest Sunday service talk was on this very subject. Attuning our individual will—which is often encrusted with egoic desires and karma—to the divinely guided will of God and Guru is the heart and soul of the spiritual path. All else is secondary. Each Sunday, we begin our morning ... Read More

We generally think of bathing as taking a shower or bath to get clean. But there are many other ways to bathe. Let’s explore how bathing more consciously can greatly benefit us. Because water cleans the skin, it has also been used symbolically to cleanse ourselves of sin and to prepare us for our next spiritual step. Baptism is a ... Read More

In spite of Patanjali’s injunction regarding non-stealing, I’ve been trying to steal something from Paramhansa Yogananda during my seclusion—his magnetism. Actually, he told me to do it. Not only that, but he told me how. But as with so many things on the spiritual path, it is simple but not easy. Here’s what Master suggested: “Great saints don’t waste their ... Read More

As 2026 rolls around, it’s important to review the past year and make plans for the coming one. Paramhansa Yogananda strongly urged us to make resolutions at the start of each new year—to create new, healthy habits and to drop unhealthy ones. Many people make resolutions involving physical changes: a better diet or a regular exercise routine. But as devotees, ... Read More

Paramhansa Yogananda said that each incarnation is like a dream within a dream, in which the soul—like an actor—plays a particular, karmically determined role for that lifetime. God mercifully hides the future from us, revealing our script only a day or a week at a time. Yet each lifetime has certain major transition points—moments when life takes on an entirely ... Read More

In the spirit of Swami Kriyananda, who often shared with us the latest chapter of whatever book he was working on, I thought to share excerpts from the book I’m writing now, The Heart of Service. Here are some parts of the chapter, “The Science Behind Service,” a subject of interest to many. It is remarkable how often the teachings ... Read More

I’m writing this to you, friend, as if we’re having a conversation. That’s how Devi and I like to think of these weekly offerings—we’re simply sharing our thoughts and our journey with you and our other friends around the world. What if, at the start of this conversation, I said, “I’ve discovered that there is one simple cure for all ... Read More

Paramhansa Yogananda said, “Everyone fundamentally desires to avoid pain and find happiness. This simple truth applies universally, even to animals. While the definition of happiness can vary for each individual, the underlying motivation remains the same: the pursuit of happiness and the avoidance of pain.” Most of you, our faithful readers, already understand the concepts that “happiness is a ch...

We’ve just returned home from a three-month trip to Italy, Spain, and India. Our final major event was a Spiritual Renewal Week in Puri, attended by about 250 people in person and another hundred online. During the closing session, I floated an idea for something new: The Future Saints Club. My thought is to experiment with it for a year, ... Read More

We are now in the final two weeks of a three-month international trip. It has been a wonderful journey—a time to meet new friends and to reconnect with others we’ve known for decades. The spiritual family of Ananda is powered by friendship, laughter, joy, and deep inspiration. This has truly been an inspiring, even life-changing pilgrimage to sacred places in ... Read More