At Ananda Assisi they’re “living the experience of the Coronavirus with high and positive energy and… as a really good opportunity to practice what we know!” Toward that end, they’ve decided to follow Yogananda’s Nine-Day Cleansing and Vitalizing Diet as a group, inviting people from all around the world to join them (when you go to the above link, scroll down to read the text in English)!
Here at Ananda Village, a group of friends is adding energy to the endeavor by pledging to practice the Energization Exercises three times a day!
Take that Coronavirus!
Full moon memories
I’ve always loved the full moon but didn’t fully appreciate it until I moved to Italy. I would read in a novel how the smugglers had to wait for a moonless night or how the heroine was able to make her escape by the light of the full moon…but I couldn’t really comprehend why it would make such a difference.
That’s because having lived virtually all my life up to that point in the San Francisco Bay Area — with all its artificial light — I had never experienced the contrast of a new moon versus a full moon night.
But then I moved to Ananda Assisi, located in the rural Umbria countryside. I still remember the first time I left an evening program on a full moon night. I was enthralled as I walked home, marveling at how the moonlight could be so bright as to create shadows!
No need for a flashlight on those nights, but come the new moon it was another story entirely!
The social path
The topic for today’s Inner Renewal Week class was “The Social Path to Self-Realization: World Brotherhood Colonies”, which ended up being the theme for my entire day!
First of all, I happened upon this recent photo of Ananda Assisi community members and was struck by how deeply connected I still feel to these souls even though it’s been over fifteen years since I lived there. Time and distance don’t matter; they’re family!
Then we ate lunch with Deodan, who just arrived from Assisi last night and will be here for two months learning about managing a community. Our lunch table included devotees from Italy (Deodan), Switzerland (Ramesha ), and Sweden (Anna), showing yet another beautiful aspect of Ananda — people from different countries, cultures, backgrounds, and lifestyles coming together to live, work, and serve in a harmonious unity.
To cap it all off, we led a sing-along tonight in the Temple of Light. Village residents, visitors from other communities, and Expanding Light guests joined together in blissing out to Swamiji’s music; personally, I felt totally uplifted! And I found myself reflecting yet again on how important Swamiji considered music to be in building strong communities. He addresses it in this quote (one of my favorites, no surprise!):
“I can best express through music the feeling of holy upliftment that possessed me. Therefore I tell people, “If you want to know me, listen to my music.” It is through this that people have come to understand what Ananda is truly all about. Without its influence, Ananda would not be what it is today. Books and lectures are only the outer form of the teachings. Music is its coursing blood.“
(from A Place Called Ananda, Chapter 13)