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Paramahansa Yogananda

World Brotherhood Colonies are an idea for self-sustaining spiritual communities envisioned by Paramahansa Yogananda, the Indian yogi who authored Autobiography of a Yogi and founded Self-Realization Fellowship / Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. Yogananda envisioned that communities for "plain living and high thinking," would develop as a natural culmination of the spread of his teachings.[citation needed]

Yogananda established a World Brotherhood Colony at his Self-Realization Fellowship Encinitas center in Southern California as a model for these colonies.[citation needed] However he found that organizing spiritual communities for families along the lines he envisioned would take much more time than he then had available.[1][2][3] Yogananda abandoned his dream of founding a world-brotherhood colony in Encinitas and turned his mind to organizing the existing communities[clarification needed] along more strictly monastic lines.[1]

Yogananda envisioned the development of his spiritual communities beginning with individual home study of the SRF Lessons,[4] and the establishment of small altars in individual homes for the practice of his teachings of Kriya Yoga meditation. Yogananda then envisioned groups of his disciples forming SRF centers for mutual support in meditation and study of his teachings. The centers would grow until temples would be established, served by SRF ministers of the Self-Realization Order.[5][6]

Separate from Yogananda's organization of SRF, three different direct disciples of Yogananda each began a separate community between 1968 and 1970. In 1968 Kriyananda started Ananda in Nevada City, California, which he referred to as a World Brotherhood Colony.[citation needed] In 1969 Norman Paulsen created the Sunburst Community in Santa Barbara, California.[citation needed] In 1970 J. Oliver Black, the leader of the SRF Detroit, Michigan center, began Clear Light Community in Northern Michigan.[citation needed]

Spiritual basis of Colonies

Yogananda often emphasized the need for intentional communities "founded on a spiritual basis."[7] His vision for Colonies included couples, families, and single people sharing a cooperative community life, with the common bond of daily meditation and selfless service.[citation needed]

A feature of Yogananda's World Brotherhood Colonies idea was that it would offer both single and married people and families a spiritually fulfilling community life.[citation needed] He described such Colonies as made up of married couples and their families, as well as single people, who have the will to serve, and to live in harmony with one another.[8]

Practical benefits

Yogananda often spoke of the practical benefits that come from cooperative living. Even though he was a teacher of meditation and yoga, he frequently gave practical advice on subjects such as diet, exercise, business, education, and prosperity.[citation needed] As early as 1932, he urged his students to avoid buying cars and other luxuries on the "installment plan", similar to the modern credit card.[9]

Gather together, those of you who share high ideals, pool your resources. Buy land out in the country. A simple life will bring you inner freedom. Harmony with nature will bring you a happiness known to few city dwellers. In the company of other truth seekers it will be easier for you to meditate and think of God. What is the need for all the luxuries people surround themselves with? Most of what they have they are paying for on the installment plan. Their debts are a source of unending worry to them. Even people whose luxuries have been paid for are not free; attachment makes them slaves. They consider themselves freer for their possessions, and don't see how their possessions in turn possess them![6]

Yogananda's guidelines for establishing colonies

Yogananda wrote a detailed article in East-West magazine in April 1932, describing his idea of "little-group models of ideal civilizations". He encouraged groups of married and single people to pool their money to buy land where they could grow their own food, educate their children, and live a simple life dedicated to meditation.[10]

Practical tips included the necessity of raising your own food: "All butter and milk should be obtained from home-bred cows, and vegetables should be grown by the members of this spiritual farm on their own land. Lambs should be grown for wool for dresses, socks, and other articles. Hats should not be worn. All the people should wear sandals or go barefooted."[10]

Lake Shrine dedication, 1950

On August 20, 1950, Yogananda dedicated the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine and Mahatma Gandhi World Peace Shrine at Pacific Palisades, California. He spoke to over 1500 people gathered there for the event. Dignitaries included California's Lieutenant Governor Goodwin Knight, who later became Governor of California. Yogananda's talk appeared in the September 1950 issue of Self-Realization magazine. Much of his lecture revolved around what he called "the art of living", which included advice on how to find spiritual happiness, and how to achieve harmony between all people and religions.[11]

Communities

Clear Light Community

J. Oliver Black, a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda, and SRF leader of the Detroit, Michigan center, founded the Song of the Morning Ranch in 1970, located in Northern Michigan. It was Black's intent to develop a community on the same property and so the Clear Light Community began to take form in the 1990s on this property under the direction of Bob Raymer, the Spiritual Director from 1991 to 2004.[12][13]

Sunburst Community

Main article: Sunburst (community)

In 1969 Norman Paulsen, a disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda, started Sunburst Sanctuary, a cooperative community of men, women and children located in Santa Barbara, California, California.[14]

Ananda World Brotherhood Colonies

Religious service at an Ananda World Brotherhood Colony
Expanding Light Retreat at Ananda Village (California, USA)

In 1968, Kriyananda, a disciple of Yogananda, started his first Ananda community outside Nevada City, California, based on Yogananda's World Brotherhood Colonies principles.[15] As of 2007, Ananda Village has grown to 840 acres (3.4 km2), with 250 residents.

Since the founding of Ananda Village, Kriyananda began eight more World Brotherhood Colonies. As of 2007, there were approximately 1,000 residents living in these colonies. They include rural and urban models of Yogananda's idea and are located in: Palo Alto, Sacramento, and Nevada City, California; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington (all in the U.S.); Assisi, Italy; and Delhi, Gurgaon and Pune, India.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b Williamson, Lola (2010). Transcendent in America: Hindu-inspired Meditation Movements as New Religion. New York and London: New York University Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-8147-9449-4.
  2. ^ Yogananda, Paramahansa, Autobiography of a Yogi. Third edition, 1951.
  3. ^ Self-Realization Fellowship (November 1995). Open Letter. Self-Realization Fellowship.
  4. ^ Articles of Incorporation
  5. ^ Yogananda, Paramahansa (1995). God Talks With Arjuna -The Bhagavad Gita. Self-Realization Fellowship. p. Chapter VI, Verse 1, p. 590. ISBN 0-87612-030-3.
  6. ^ a b Kriyananda, Swami, The Path—One Man's Quest on the Only Path There Is. Crystal Clarity Publishers ISBN 1-56589-733-1.
  7. ^ Yogananda, Paramhansa, Autobiography of a Yogi. First edition, 1946, reprinted by Crystal Clarity Publishers, 2005. ISBN 978-1-56589-212-5. p. 469
  8. ^ Silva, Kamala, The Flawless Mirror. Crystal Clarity Publishers, 2003. ISBN 978-1-56589-054-1.
  9. ^ Yogananda, Paramahansa, East-West Magazine, October 1932.
  10. ^ a b Yogananda, Paramahansa, How to Burn Out the Roots of Depression by Divine Methods. East West magazine, April 1932.
  11. ^ Yogananda, Paramahansa, The Scientific Art of Living. Self-Realization magazine, September 1950.
  12. ^ Song in the Morning Ranch (June 2009). Clear Light Community News. Vol. 7.
  13. ^ "About Clear Light Community". Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  14. ^ Sunburst Community
  15. ^ Kriyananda, Swami, Hope for a Better World-The Small Communities Solution. Crystal Clarity Publishers. ISBN 1-56589-170-8.
  16. ^ Jones, Constance A.; Ryan, James D. (2007). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Encyclopedia of World Religions. J. Gordon Melton, Series Editor. New York: Facts On File. pp. 33–34, 247–248. ISBN 978-0-8160-5458-9. Archived from the original on 2022-10-20. Retrieved 2021-12-23.((cite encyclopedia)): CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

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