Tag: Asha Nayaswami

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75 years ago today

Swamiji’s meditation room

The below excerpt was posted on Facebook today by a friend. I’ve read it before, of course, but it was especially powerful reading it today — the 75th anniversary of the day Swami Kriyananda took discipleship from Paramhansa Yogananda.

The accompanying photo of Swamiji’s meditation room in his apartment at Crystal Hermitage also touch me deeply.

So, I decided to share both in today’s blog post.

A devotee was marveling at Swamiji’s many accomplishments. “In one lifetime you’ve done the work of ten men!” she said.
“Perhaps you’re right,” Swamiji said quietly. “Nothing I have done is important, however, except to the extent that it has helped people individually to deepen their love for God.
“At the end of this life, the only thing that will matter to me is ‘Have I been a good disciple?’”
— From the final chapter of Swami Kriyananda As We Have Known Him by Asha Nayaswami

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Swamiji and the tamboura

I recently saw this photo of a young Swamiji playing the tamboura and it reminded me of a special moment during a long ago concert. I shared this story in the book Swami Kriyananda As We Have Known Him by Asha Praver (now Asha Nayaswami); it’s a beautiful book, filled with many wonderful stories about Swamiji.

Taming a Tamboura

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 know how he kept singing, but he did. Gradually, the dissonance waned. By the time Swamiji was half way through the song, the tamboura was perfectly in tune and it stayed that way for the rest of the concert.

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras describe the practice of ahimsa. ”Non-violence” is how it is usually translated. Swamiji calls it ”harmlessness” and has dedicated himself to that practice. The fruit for one who practices ahimsa perfectly, Patanjali says, is that in his presence, no disharmony can arise. Wild animals are tamed, ferocious criminals subdued.

Some people may disagree, but I have been playing musical instruments since I was a child and I know they have personalities that respond to human consciousness. I think, in the presence of Swamiji’s ahimsa, the tamboura simply couldn’t hold on to its disharmonious ”attitude.” Swamiji’s harmonious vibrations tamed it.