[Listen to Asha read this story] Paula checked herself into the hospital because of severe bronchitis, but I think she knew the cancer had returned for the third time. The doctors tried one more procedure, but in the middle, she went into convulsions and for a few moments her heart stopped. After that, the doctor said, “There is nothing else we can do.” She lived three more days. It was one long going-away party, with constant phone calls, a steady stream of visitors, and a crowd of friends and ...
Jul 28, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] For many years, the only way to drive to Crystal Hermitage, Swamiji's home at Ananda Village, was over two miles of unpaved road, deeply rutted and littered with potholes. For years also, Swamiji’s only car was a big blue Chevrolet, purchased for him from a government auction of used automobiles. Two cars, exactly alike, were bought at the same time—one for Swamiji to drive, and the other to provide spare parts to keep the first one running. Each cost $75. On the...
Jul 21, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] (Told by Hridayavasi) I went through an extremely painful divorce. One particularly awful day coincided with a huge public event. I held myself together until late in the afternoon. Ironically, it was a compassionate look from a dear friend in the middle of a roomful of people that started me crying again. “I’m going to take you over to Swamiji,” my friend said. Swamiji was standing just a little distance away. I made a feeble protest, which my friend simply igno...
Jul 14, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] (Told by an Ananda devotee) “You have a serious medical condition called a fistula,” the doctor said to me, “The only remedy is surgery.” I had come to Italy to visit relatives and take care of some business obligations there. As soon as I arrived, I started feeling something very painful in my lower back. Within three days, it was so bad I couldn’t walk, and I had to go to the hospital. A fistula, I found out, is an abnormal opening or connection between two int...
Jul 07, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] For seven years, the man had struggled to resist an attraction to a woman in the community who was not his wife. Finally he said to Swamiji, “I am too unhappy, I can’t go on this way.” “Let me tell your wife,” Swamiji said. “It will be easier for her that way.” “He has done his best to overcome this,” Swamiji said to her, “but he can’t. It is something he has to live through.” She was devastated, but she took it bravely. When the news came out that the man was le...
Jun 30, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] (Told by an Ananda devotee) For 29 years, I was afflicted with a terrible addiction. Not merely a habit, but an addiction, something I needed every day. I tried therapy, 12-Step programs, affirmations, will power. Nothing worked. When I got on the path, I read everything Master said about overcoming temptation and changing habits. Still the addiction was unbeatable, stronger than anything I could throw at it. When I confided to an Ananda friend, she responded, “H...
Jun 23, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] (Told by an Ananda devotee) If I were to choose a spiritual name for myself, it would have to be Gratitude. I started drinking in my early teens. Drugs came later, in the ’60s, just before I turned twenty. All my friends drank, and everything that happened after sundown involved drugs and alcohol. So we were more inclined to play loud music than to play chess. Drinkers hang out with other drinkers. It’s tidy that way, no unpleasant images in the mirror—everyone l...
Jun 16, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] (Told by Krishnadas) I had an accident that caused a blow to my skull so great I started to exit from my body. I traveled down a tunnel of light and was greeted by friends and relatives who had passed away years before. I came into the presence of a “Being of Light” who enveloped me in pure unconditional love. Thoughts of unworthiness and shame for things I had done in the past made a brief, futile effort to invade this aura of love. Faster than the thoughts coul...
Jun 09, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] (Told by Bhagavati) It was the middle of a concert when Swamiji picked up the tamboura to accompany himself while he sang. A tamboura is an Indian instrument that easily goes out of tune. It was dreadfully off-pitch and no matter how much Swamiji tried, he couldn’t tune it. Finally he gave up and began to play it as it was. I was near him on the stage and every time his fingers went across the strings I cringed at the dissonance. With his sensitive ear, I don’t k...
Jun 02, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] (Told by an Ananda devotee) For years, I had a noticeable wart on my hand. I tried all sorts of medicines, and the usual array of alternatives. But the wart stubbornly remained. One day, I happened to be with Swami as he was walking to his car. He was a little shaky on his feet and rested his arm on my shoulder for support. I put my hand on his back to help steady him. The walk was all of two minutes, sweet, but otherwise uneventful. The next day, I happened to g...
May 26, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] (Told by an Ananda devotee) I was a newcomer and had only seen Swamiji in large public gatherings. When I heard he was returning from a trip to Europe and would spend a few days at Ananda’s San Francisco center, I drove four hours to the city to see him. When I arrived at the ashram, I was disappointed to see that about 40 other people had gotten there before me and it wasn’t possible even to sit near Swamiji. When dinner was served, I was relegated to another ro...
May 19, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] (Told by an Ananda devotee) I was with Swamiji and a big crowd of Ananda people in a very public place when I had the sudden intuition that my husband was infatuated with another woman. I turned my back to the crowd and walked away sobbing. Swamiji knew what was happening and after a few minutes he came over to where I sat crying. He made no attempt to console me. “Remember, it is all just Divine Mother’s lila ,” he said. Lila is a Sanskrit word meaning “the play...
May 12, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] On the altar in his meditation room, Swamiji keeps a list of all those who have asked for his prayers. When he meditates, he asks God to bless these souls, and all those who have appealed to him for help. A chronically ill man, whose name was on that list, took several treatments from a gifted psychic healer. “Suddenly, in the middle of a session,” the healer said, “I saw a powerful white light within him. I had never encountered anything like it before. Somehow ...
May 05, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] (Told by Carolyn Denslow Riffle) It was always hard for me to be on this planet. Awareness of my own imperfections, and how those imperfections hurt others, caused me to suffer intensely. I had been diagnosed as clinically depressed. It was a cyclical thing and sometimes I had to take prescription drugs for it. Because of the depression, I’ve had some pretty serious problems in my life. I always felt I wasn’t okay, that somehow I needed to justify my existence. B...
Apr 28, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] Sarcoidosis is a serious disease that causes inflammation of the body tissues. Bharat had it in his lymph system, surrounding his heart. For three years, he suffered from debilitating weakness and almost daily bouts of fever. Finally, the fever abated and his strength began to return. But his lungs had been affected, and he coughed almost constantly, sometimes for five minutes at a time. Swamiji was recovering from open-heart surgery, but he asked Bharat and his ...
Apr 21, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] (Told by an Ananda devotee) From childhood I carried a deep sadness. Even as a little girl, I knew it came from a past life in which I had experienced the traumatic death of a beloved spouse. It was a kind of “post traumatic stress syndrome” that spanned more than one incarnation. Sometimes, when I was a child, the grief was more than I could bear and I would weep uncontrollably. As I grew older, and especially after I got onto the spiritual path, I made progress...
Apr 14, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] (Told by Kent Baughman) Right after Swamiji had hip replacement surgery, those of us in the community with medical training took turns staying with him in his hospital room, so someone would always be on hand to help him if he needed it. I used to be a nurse, but then trained as a chiropractor. I was just starting my new practice and was quite nervous about it. It was around midnight of the day Swamiji had his operation—hardly the time to discuss my personal prob...
Apr 07, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] The minister of the Church of Religious Science in Reno, Nevada, was a friend of Swamiji’s and invited him to address the congregation there. As a guest in someone else’s church, Swamiji was careful not to draw his listeners away from the path they were on, but urged them to follow wholeheartedly the inspiration they felt from within. There was power in the air that night. Swamiji seemed to be speaking with the voice of the Divine, and the audience sensed it. Aft...
Mar 31, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] A married man had an affair with an unmarried woman. At the time, they both lived at Ananda Village. His name: Danny; hers: Annemarie Bertolucci. When Swamiji heard about the affair, he urged them to end it, and supported Danny when he made the decision to go back to his wife and daughter. Annemarie refused to accept Danny’s decision as final. She made it clear to Swamiji that she was determined that Danny should leave his wife and marry her. “I would make a good...
Mar 24, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] When he moved to India in November 2003, the transition was hard on Swamiji’s body. He took several bad falls, had a near-fatal case of pneumonia, persistent dehydration, and several episodes of congestive heart failure. His friends were deeply concerned, but Swamiji accepted it all cheerfully. Once, when he was recovering in the hospital, a swami from Rishikesh visited. “I am so sorry to find you unwell,” the swami said sympathetically. “Don’t worry about me,” S...
Mar 17, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] It was Swamiji’s idea to incorporate Ananda Village as a California city. As a municipality, we would have control over our own land use, planning, and zoning. This would get us out from under the county approval process, which had proved to be cumbersome, expensive, and gave our neighbors too much influence over internal community affairs. Many of our neighbors had come to the area to drop out of society. It was almost a principle with them to oppose all organiz...
Mar 10, 2015
[Listen to Asha read this story] (Told by an Ananda devotee) “Maybe this book will be the one that finally convinces SRF that we need to work together,” Swamiji said. He was referring to his work-in-progress in February 1990, The Essence of Self-Realization, a collection of sayings by Master. When Swamiji speaks of “SRF” in this way, I know he means the handful of direct disciples who lead the organization, the ones with whom he lived and worked closely when he was part of SRF, the very ones who...
Mar 03, 2015
