“Ah, my brothers and sisters, would it not be wonderful if more of us were on fire with love for God? How many weep for the Divine Mother as Master wept when he was a boy? Our greatest work in life should be to express that divine yearning, that love. When we can reflect it, we shall be able to work ten times as hard, and a hundred times as effectively, as we do when we draw only on our own scanty powers.”
— Swami Kriyananda, in a letter to monks
The Ananda India monastery, as of early 2024, consists of nine monks sharing houses near Chandigarh. In just a few years time, this small group has done extraordinary things. The secret is an unusual degree of harmony and cooperation, along with the complete self-offering of the monks’ lives to God and Guru. Having a permanent monastery in India will stabilize and support the expansion of this work in the decades to come.
Kriya Home Study Course
Kriya Home Study after leading a Kriya Initiation for students from all over India
The Kriya Yoga Home Study Course reaches out through online classes to those who cannot attend one of our teaching centres. In addition to serving the needs of India, we teach online (and sometimes in person) in the following countries: Singapore, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Nepal, Malaysia, UAE, England.
The monks developed an extensive online course with videos and written content. Since the Home Study Course began five years ago, over 400 people have been brought to initiation into Kriya! The Kriya Home Study team also travels for kriya programs and kriya initiations.
Hindi Sangha
In the three and a half years since the monastery formed the Hindi Sangha, we have offered kriya initiation to over 150 souls all over India and to some outside of India. Since its inception, the Hindi Sangha through its various offerings has shared Yogananda’s teachings with over 10,000 people!
Hindi Sangha monks with students
Through its online classes, the Hindi Sangha has been able to reach out to students both in cities and in rural areas. One of the outcomes of having students from all over India has been the formation of several meditation groups, including Jaipur and Patna.
Kriya Sangha
The Ananda India Kriya Sangha is managed by the monastery. For five years we’ve led a two-hour weekly satsang and meditation just for kriyabans, Inspiring a Lifetime of Kriya and Discipleship. Each week Ananda kriyacharayas from all over the world lead those evenings. The monks also launched a weekly video series over two years ago, I Want to Be Your Disciple.
We also lead a popular two-hour kriyaban meditation on Saturday morning in India, attended by people from all over the world.
A collaboration with the U.S. Kriya Sangha has just culminated with the release of 47 kriya talks by Swami Kriyananda, organized for the first time and available to all kriyabans. In addition, the monks organize and lead a yearly kriyaban retreat in India. The last one, in Kasauli, was attended by 95 people.
Following a kriya initiation at the Kasauli Kriyaban Retreat
Please help us manifest a new monastery through this powerful Visualization.
“Working in the garden one may think, “I have too many weeds to pull and flowers to water and lawns to mow to think of God.” But no! To think of God and to love Him is our first job in life. Is it not for Him that we are doing everything else? Sukdeva, the son of Vyasa, and one of the great sages of ancient India, said, “All time is wasted that is not spent in seeking God.” When we think of the Lord first, our hearts sing for joy and all our work goes easily.
“Working in the printing department, we may say, “But I am rushed with deadlines. How can I think of the Divine Mother? Let me wait until things go a little more slowly.” We must discipline the mind! Divine Mother has given us a project more urgent than the printing of any book, and that is to learn to live constantly in the consciousness of Her. Her deadline of death is more important, and less alterable, than any publishing date.
“And this is true for every department of our work. Let us think of God. Let us be drunk with His love. That is the first and the greatest thing that we can do to spread the work. Indeed, in the deeper sense that alone is the work.”
—Swami Kriyananda, in a letter to monks
