Tag: self-realization

Swami Kriyananda, born J. Donald Walters, is a direct disciple of the yogi Paramahansa Yogananda and had many hours of personal contact with him during the last four years of Yogananda's life (1948 – 1952). During this time Kriyananda became a minister for Self-Realization Fellowship, founded by Yogananda. Yogananda also asked him to teach Kriya Yoga, which Yogananda called the highest technique of Self-Realization.

Kriyananda is the founder of Ananda, a worldwide movement of spiritual intentional communities based on Yogananda's World Brotherhood Colonies idea. Ananda has meditation centers and study groups throughout the world based on the teachings of Yogananda. Kriyananda is also the author of more than 80 books and the composer of over 400 songs. His books and music have sold over three million copies and have been translated into over 24 languages. In addition to English, he can speak Romanian, Greek, French, and Spanish.

Kriyananda was born in Romania into an American family. Growing up in Romania, France, and England, Kriyananda (then Donald Walters) returned to America with his family when he was 13 years old to escape World War II. Walters attended an American high school, as well as Haverford College and Brown University, leaving the latter with only a semester left before graduation.

In 1948, Walters read Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi and traveled to California to become a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. In the four years that followed, Walters spent time with Yogananda, learning and practicing his teachings, and taking extensive notes of his many conversations with Yogananda.

Kriyananda married in 1981, and publicly renounced his monastic vows on the occasion of his second marriage in 1985. He was later divorced. In 1995, he officially resumed his monastic vows and title.

In 1996, Swami Kriyananda began to spend most of his time at the Ananda Italy center. In 2003, he moved to India, where he began an Ananda center in Gurgaon, near Delhi, where he currently resides. He appears daily on Aastha TV, a cable station that shows throughout India, Asia, Europe, and now in the U.S. He also appears daily on the Sadhna channel, an Indian cable station. Ananda teachers are now giving classes on meditation and Kriya Yoga in many major Indian cities.