Swami Kriyananda is the founder of Ananda Worldwide and served as its spiritual director until his passing in 2013. He continues to be a guiding light for Ananda devotees and Ananda’s development as a whole, and an inspiration to truthseekers throughout the world.

Ananda is dedicated to serving Paramhansa Yogananda’s mission

From its inception, Swami Kriyananda dedicated Ananda, as he did his own life, to serving Paramhansa Yogananda. In his Last Will, Testament, and Legacy, Swami Kriyananda expresses this as a guiding principle for Ananda’s work:

Ananda is not, and never has been, my own work, personally. I founded it in the name of, and did my earnest best to carry it on in the spirit of, my Guru Paramhansa Yogananda, and of his line of gurus: Jesus Christ, Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Swami Sri Yukteswar. The last in this line of gurus is Paramhansa Yogananda. Should anyone look upon me as his spiritual teacher, I ask that he do so as a representative of our line of gurus, and not as a guru in my own separate right.

Swami Kriyananda’s role at Ananda

Ananda consciously draws on Swami Kriyananda’s writings, his lectures, his music, and his own life-example of discipleship to guide its expression of Yogananda’s mission. Ananda members study these often to inspire their personal practice of Yogananda’s teachings and to clarify how to share these teachings through our worldwide work.

Swami Kriyananda explained his role in guiding seekers in their practice of Yogananda’s teachings as follows:

I am only my Guru’s instrument. His power is much greater than mine, though I am aware that through me people have come closer to him.

My desire in teaching is simply to please God and Guru, and to help others. Yogananda told me that this is my path to salvation. What is comfortable for me, personally, is the thought that I am your friend in God. When I teach, it is in a spirit of friendship, of sharing with you, and of serving God through you all. But I’m certainly an active link to Yogananda — for those of you who live and work here at Ananda, and who try to follow the things I teach you in his name.

Yogananda himself, while living, urged the newer disciples to look to his close disciples, and not to him alone, for guidance and inspiration. I recall also how he told Vance Milligan, a young disciple, “You should mix more with Walter [which is how he referred to Kriyananda]. You don’t know what you have in him.”

The truth is, those who think to go straight to God and Guru, without help from others, have not yet learned the humility necessary to advance much on the path. The wise devotee, rather, knowing how difficult it is at all times to get out of delusion, is eager for any guidance he can get on his journey.

Kriyananda was trained for his role in sharing the teachings of Self-realization by Yogananda himself. During their time together, Yogananda often told him, “You have a great work to do,” and “Your work in this life is writing, editing, and lecturing.” And once, to a small group of monks, Yogananda said, “If Walter [Kriyananda] had come earlier, we would have reached millions!”

Today, Kriyananda continues to reach the “millions” of seekers that Yogananda foresaw—through his writings, his music, his own life-example of discipleship, and the many students he personally trained in how to practice and how to share Yogananda’s teachings. These constitute Swami Kriyananda’s living legacy that you, too, can draw upon to bring these teachings into a clear focus and to make your journey to Self-realization both deeply fulfilling and deeply enjoyable.