When people learn that someone served on Swami Kriyananda’s personal staff for seven years, they usually expect stories of profound mystical secrets, deep philosophical lectures, and constant spiritual counseling. I would like to tell about personal time with Swamiji, but it’s really in a way what he was giving to all of us and what he wanted all of us to do.
And people think that, oh, you’re around Swamiji, there must have been constant wisdom and advice and counselling and all these things. There was none of that. It was training in how to behave.
It was Sri Yukteshwar asking Master to sweep the porch after Samadhi, but it skipped the Samadhi part and all of that. It just went straight to sweeping the porch literally, which is one of the things that I did every day. And he even showed me how to do it, how to use the broom in a particular way.
And that was the training. And because I was relatively new, and we didn’t know how to relate to Swamiji the way that we did later. Some people did.
Beyond the Outer Personality
Everything Swamiji gave us—the teachings, the vibration, the way of doing things—was Master. When we talk about “tuning into Swamiji,” what we really mean is tuning into Master through Swamiji. It shifts the focus away from the human personality and connects us directly to the divine power flowing through him.
I just didn’t really truly understand who he was for a long time because I just wasn’t ready. But he knew that maybe on a soul level it was there. But not too long, maybe the first year or so after I was on his staff, he had never given me any advice, spiritual advice, nothing.
And I was really wanting it. I thought, well, this is what you do. But it’s probably my human heart was wanting something.
The Gift of Birthday Advice
I was a little bit cheeky about this, but one day it was my birthday. And he greeted me, ‘happy birthday’. I said, Swamiji, I would really like a gift from you on my birthday of just some advice that I can follow.
And he was a little bit, not taken aback, but he stopped and he thought very seriously. And what he told me was really what he did, as I learned over the years, and what he wanted all of us to do, and who he really, really was. He said to me: “every action, every word, every time you speak, always feel that Master is flowing through you, and that it’s him who is doing all these things.”
Seeing No Separation
Whatever you’re doing, feel that Master is flowing through you. And this is where I think people misunderstood him, and we did too, because here was a human being with a personality. And a lot of people came and went in those years at Ananda.
And many of them just would say, well, I just can’t tune into Swami Kriyananda, just the way he is, how he lives, these things. And I think the mistake that was being made was one of two things. One is they were relating to him on the level of a personality. And yes, he had certain ways that he behaved and did things, and some people just didn’t vibe with that. The other one though, and I think maybe a bigger reason, is that the power that he had, and the energy that he conveyed and expressed and shared was Master. And when people would say, I have a hard time tuning into Swamiji, really what they’re saying, I’m having a hard time tuning into Master, because that’s what was coming through Swamiji all the time, as I learned over the years, and other talks that I had with him, and other experiences that I had with him.
And that’s where that real power came from. In two past lives he’s talked about, where he was Master’s son, and the heir to the kingdom and the ruling of great work. And in this life too, he was Master’s son.
So, everything that he’s given us is Master. And the teachings, the vibration, the way of doing things, it is Master that he was giving to us, and is still giving to us. And so, we talk about tuning into Swamiji, which we do.
I use that phrase a lot, but really what we really mean is tuning into Master through Swamiji. And that takes it away from personality of this person, Swami Kriyananda, and this divine power flowing through him of Master. That’s what he did, that’s who he was.
I learned that more and more over the years. And you know, this is what really, being on his staff, was more about seeing just how he behaved, and how he did things. And it was very natural, it wasn’t like, oh my god, he’s channelling Yogananda, I can see it.
It wasn’t this big, you know, heavy, intense thing. It was very natural. But there was grace, there was light, there was joy, and kindness, and compassion, strength too.
So, he was showing us how you do that in a natural way. It’s not by always being a teacher, and sharing all this fount of wisdom and knowledge. He also was that.
But my experience of him was much more this naturalness that he would have with people, and really giving them a lot of love, and attunement, and strength, but in a very natural, disarming way. That was challenging for me, because I wouldn’t say I took it for granted, but I, you sort of let your guard down, and oh, it was just a person, kind of like, you know, Arjuna wanting the cosmic vision of Krishna, and having the holy vision of Krishna, and then he said, no, no, come back to your human form, I like that better, I’m more comfortable with that. And he was wanting us to be comfortable in his presence, so that we could receive more of that grace and power.
I’ll tell two more stories that really convey the same message. And his teaching to me, at the very extremely rare moments that he actually gave advice, was always along these lines. The second one was, I was with him in Gurgaon, in really heavy traffic, and in a car driving with him.
And this was in the very, very early days of Ananda India, I would visit frequently those first years. And I had a question that I’d been wanting to really ask him. And because I understood that attunement to the Guru is everything, and I wanted to really understand whether I was getting it right.
And so, I asked him: Sir, when I meditate on Master, my understanding is, is that we practice devotion to the Guru, because it opens our heart center, and it allows the Guru to enter into our heart. And I want to know if this is the right understanding, or the full understanding, and please guide me on this, because I knew it was really important to get that right. And he took it very seriously.
And he said, paraphrasing him, he said, don’t see that there’s any separation between you and Master. You know, it’s not Master’s out there, and you’re wanting him to enter in here. He said: see no separation, feel that your aura and his aura are merging and are as one, and that you’re communing in him in a way, not in a way you are, and he is in you.
And that’s the kind of deep attunement to the Guru that he was guiding. And again, I understood that this is what he always did. And this is why he was who he was, because he had that deep attunement of union with Master.
And that’s where his joy came from. It was a divine joy, and he would convey it sometimes in unusual ways. And somehow in the very early days of Ananda, maybe it was my openness, my early karma, just to get me encouraged, but that bliss somehow was conveyed in very powerful and real ways more often.
A blessing from Swamiji
And this is a story I’ve maybe never shared, because I was just thinking of it for the first time in a long time, where I had been at Ananda for maybe just a year, less than a year. So, I didn’t know how to relate to him. And I wanted to join the monastery, and I wanted his blessing.
And he was hard to access. He wasn’t like, you couldn’t just grab him. And he was doing a huge lecture in Reno, Nevada, which is about an hour and a half, two hours from Ananda village.
And it was a full auditorium, and he was at the back. And I just happened to walk in there, and he was right there. And they were just about to introduce him.
He was just about to go up. And again, I wasn’t trained very well in life. And so, I just, I walked up to him.
I said, Swamiji, could I have your blessing on joining the monastery? And here he was tuning into this talk he was about to give. And he, there was no, you know, come on, young boy, what are you doing? Why are you doing this right now? It was just purely, yes, I think would be a good thing. He’s very quiet, very simple.
And then he blessed me on the spiritual eye, which I wasn’t expecting. I think because he had this built-up power of about to speak to 200 people, that I just was overwhelmed with divine bliss. I couldn’t speak for the rest of the night until the next day.
It was so strong and just powerful. And, you know, we had to go out to dinner, and I was just sitting there silent. People thought I must have been dumbstruck or something.
And that joy was the divine joy of masters, when he was always channelling that.
How to Practice Daily Attunement
And finally, I’ll just share one more of just this same idea, where I was visiting India. And I was at; he was giving a lot of these recordings of this TV show.
So, we were sitting at his feet for hours a day, listening to him giving these 20-minute discourses that were being recorded and became a TV show. And he would do like five or 10 of them a day, I think is what he was doing. So, it was a lot of sitting at his feet like that.
And as I was leaving, after a few weeks of this, I told him, I said, It’s easy to feel attunement with Master in your presence. How can we feel that way in our everyday lives? And what he told me, I immediately went down and wrote down his exact words, which is what he said, and which I’ll close with this. He said, What I do is ask myself, Master, what would you do? What do you want me to do? I asked both those questions.
For instance, in writing the essence of the Bhagavad Gita, I feel a real joy inside as if Master is saying, this is what I want you to do. So, it is not enough to just pray and meditate. We need to ask Master; how would you handle this? Also, I have found that chanting Om Guru is a wonderful practice.
If you keep that consciousness day and night, it’s amazing how you can change. You feel more and more desire for God, more and more purity of heart, more and more dedication. That’s what really matters.
And so, I understood after repetition of the same theme, that this was not personal advice to me. This is one what he was always doing. It’s who he was.
It’s what he was always practicing. This, you know, mental chanting and attunement to the Guru. And it’s what he wanted all of us to do.
It was what he was saying we must do. You’re disciples of Yogananda like me, you must also do what I’m doing. And tune into him, chant to him, ask him, Master, guide me, what should I do here? And feel his joy and act as an instrument for his joy.
And again, finally, just Dhyanaji shares that in the early days of Ananda India at one point or later, I think, Swami ji said that when we share with others, we’re not just sharing teachings, we should be sharing bliss. And this is the bliss of God. But it’s the bliss of particularly of Master flowing through us in the same way that Swamiji did, and that he wanted really all of us to do.
So, let’s practice that as a way really of tuning into who Swamiji was and is, and how he wants us also to be.
Enjoy the full Satsang by Nayaswami Devarshi here: