Touch of Peace: Living the Teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda

By Nayaswamis Jyotish and Nayaswami Devi

The peace beyond all understanding!
This fourth collection of blogs in the Touch of Light series shines the light of wisdom on the problems and puzzlements, delusions and dilemmas sincere seekers encounter on the spiritual path.

Through engaging stories of Yogananda (author of the classic Autobiography of a Yogi) and of his disciple Swami Kriyananda, and through many personal anecdotes, Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi (recipients in 2017 of the Global Ambassador Peace Award) warmly share tips and tools, guidance and encouragement from their own experiences on how to walk the spiritual path with confidence and a joyful heart.

Each stand-alone blog is an instructional jewel clarifying the nuances of such subjects as right attitude, selfless service, and how to balance the inner life of meditation with the outer life of work. Tales of forgiveness, grace, challenge, and triumph will inspire and sustain the reader through every bend in the road.

Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi Novak are lifelong disciples of Paramhansa Yogananda, and were close friends and students of Swami Kriyananda, one of Yogananda’s foremost direct disciples and Ananda’s founder, for over fifty years. As Spiritual Directors of Ananda Worldwide, their mission is to share the life-changing teachings of those two great teachers as widely as possible through their blogs, books, and lectures. To see their programs and scheduled appearances both online and in person, go to Ananda.org.
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With all of the changes taking place in the world around us, the need for inner peace is greater than ever before. Learning to live in peace under all circumstances is the secret of a happy life.

Touch of Peace is a powerful collection of spiritual writings that will change your life by guiding you through with inspiration and new perspectives for facing life’s challenges and finding peace within. Drawing from the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda (author of the classic Autobiography of a Yogi), Touch of Peace shares practical tools, instructive stories, and right attitudes to help you tap the wellsprings of peace inside you.

These blogs, then, are not mind-born, or an expression of what “we want to say.” Rather, they represent what we feel people need to hear. Often, when we sit down each week to write, we’ll think, “I don’t really know what to write about,” and then a wonderful idea will emerge resplendent like a butterfly from the dull chrysalis of our mind. As we say, it’s a three-way collaboration between our role as middlemen, the needs of the readers, and Paramhansa Yogananda’s life-changing teachings.
This book marks the fourth in the series of our compiled weekly blogs: Touch of Light came out in 2015, followed by Touch of Joy in 2017, Touch of Love in 2019, and now Touch of Peace. When we began writing these blogs back in 2013, we had no idea how long we’d keep going, or how well they’d be received. We’ve been at it now for eight years, and have passed the four-hundred-blog milepost; it grows more fulfilling for us with each passing year.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crystal Clarity Publishers
• Release date: Jun 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781565895966

Nayaswamis Jyotish

Nayaswami Jyotish Novak is a disciple of the great master Paramhansa Yogananda (author of Autobiography of a Yogi) and student of Swami Kriyananda. His mission is to help others live the teachings of Self-realization through meditation, devotion, and service. His lifelong dedication to the spiritual path has led him to lecture, teach, counsel, and serve throughout the world, spreading the message of peace through meditation. He and his wife are recipients of the Global Ambassador Peace Award. This honor was conferred at the United Nations in a special ceremony by the Institute of International Social Development in recognition of their contribution to fostering world peace. Since 1984 he and his wife have been the Spiritual Directors of Ananda Worldwide, pioneering Ananda’s work in Italy and India and guid-ing the spiritual welfare of thousands of Yogananda’s devotees. They are the co-authors of Touch of Light, Touch of Joy, and Touch of Love. To see their schedule of appearances, lectures, classes, and events online and in person, go to jyotishanddevi.org. Nayaswami Jyotish was named by Swami Kriyananda as his spiritual successor after decades of helping him build Ananda’s work around the world. Jyotish began taking classes from Kriyananda in 1967. In 1969 they moved together to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California to found Ananda Village, now a model spiritual community. Jyotish has also written several other books: Lessons in Meditation, How to Meditate, 30-Day Essentials for Marriage, and 30-Day Essentials for Career.

Book preview

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January 3, 2019

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MASTER!

The closest of dear friends, she made one feel, yet an aura of remoteness was ever around her—the paradoxical isolation of Omnipresence. In this way Paramhansa Yogananda wrote of the great woman saint, Anandamayi Ma, in Autobiography of a Yogi.

This describes the dilemma we, too, face in trying to deepen our love for our Guru. It’s often easier to visualize Yoganandaji’s consciousness as impersonal and spanning infinity than to think of him as the closest of dear friends.

Why do we shrink back from receiving a love that has been waiting for us eternally? Why do we hesitate to sing the melody of divine love that constantly plays, often unheard, within our own hearts?

As we celebrate Yoganandaji’s birthday on January 5, let’s consider some ways that we create these barriers, and how we can break them down.

One common self-defeating thought is: I know my Guru loves other, more deserving disciples more than me. We may try to feel his love, but we place others (who we think meditate better or serve more) before us to receive the guru’s affection. We accept our place as the neglected, overlooked stepchild in the family.

This concept may apply where human affection is concerned, but with the love of the guru for his disciples it’s a harmful misunderstanding. Divine love is unconditional, not based on outer achievements, nor given to one at the expense of another.

If this thought plagues you, try this: Blend the personal and impersonal nature of the guru. Feel that he loves you (and every one of his disciples) completely and equally, because that is the nature of omnipresence.

Another thought-barrier to break down is: How can my Guru possibly love me if he knows all the mistakes I make? That doubt may lead us to hope that one who is omniscient doesn’t know that we ate all those cookies when we were supposed to be fasting, or that we spent our morning meditation with random thoughts flitting through our mind. But of course the guru knows. As Yoganandaji told Swami Kriyananda, I know every thought you think.

So instead of hiding the cookie crumbs in a dark corner, try this: Share every mistake, every error in judgment, every lapse in self-discipline with your guru. Even let him know how good the cookies were that you ate (he already knows that you enjoyed them). When we trust that divine love grows in honesty and openness, then we begin to experience the joy of feeling totally accepted for who we are. In that complete acceptance, it’s also easier for us to change.

Finally, we may mistakenly think: Someday I’ll feel my Guru’s love, but it won’t be for a long time. Instead, tonight before you go to bed, eagerly share with him everything that happened throughout the day: the tests, the joys, the silliness, the pain, the whole experience. When you wake up tomorrow, let your first thought be, I love you, Master. Please come share the day with me. Why wait for time to pass to express our love for our Guru? Offer it today. Only by giving the cup of our love each and every day can we receive the ocean of his love eternally.

Swami Kriyananda wrote these words as an introduction to his song, You Remain Our Friend:

Why do we flee Him

Whose hand is outstretched in kindness?

Is not the answer obvious?

It is the emptiness in our own hearts!

We flee because He asks of us the greatest gift:

He asks our love.

We wish you a blessed celebration of Master’s birthday in which you joyously give him this treasure from your heart. Once we fully share the love that radiates from within us, we draw the living presence of this premavatar, incarnation of divine love, our beloved Guru.

Your friend in God,

NAYASWAMI DEVI

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January 10, 2019

BEATING KARMA at ITS OWN GAME

Good karma is that which moves you closer to God, and bad karma is that which moves you farther away from Him. Swami Kriyananda once gave this reply to a young man’s question. His answer not only clears up much of the confusion around the subject of karma, but also gives us a guideline for living: Always strive to do that which moves you closer to God. At another time Swamiji said, The whole spiritual path is meant to dissolve the ego. So, good karma is that which dissolves the ego, and bad karma is that which reinforces it.

Paramhansa Yogananda explained that thought is a force similar to magnetism. Each thought, word, or action sends out a pulse of energy that attracts to us a similar energy, just as a stone dropped into a pond creates a wave that bounces back to the original spot. Actions that are in tune with universal law attract a positive karmic response, and those that are against universal truth attract a negative one. Thus, we gradually learn right from wrong.

We make a serious mistake when we think that karma is meant to punish us. It is meant to teach us. Think of it as a super-advanced and benevolent AI (Almighty Intelligence) that gives each individual an exquisitely customized lesson plan based on past performance. Since the goal is for us to develop right attitudes, what happens to us is far less important than what we become by dealing with our karma correctly.

Some people react to the term God because they define Him erroneously. It might help if, instead of God, we think in terms of one of His qualities. So, does a particular action expand your love? If so, it produces good karma because God is love. It works the same way if we substitute wisdom, or peace, or joy.

So how do we beat karma? Not by trying to make everything pleasant. Some of our most powerful spiritual growth comes as a result of the most unpleasant experiences. Cancer, for instance: I’ve had many people tell me (generally after a bit of time has passed) that a bout with cancer was the best thing that ever happened to them. The same can be said of financial loss, or the passing of a loved one. None of these experiences are pleasant, but each can be a mighty spiritual teacher.

To beat karma at its own game, we need to develop the right attitudes before the karmic test arrives. If we are already moving in the right direction, then our karma will simply tap us on the back and nudge us the more quickly along toward freedom. The right attitude allows us to defeat even death; wrong ones make us cower before even the common cold.

Arati during the Festival of Light at Ananda Village.

If we can, we should be grateful for everything that happens. If this bar is too high, then remember a phrase that Swami Kriyananda wrote into his Festival of Light: Whereas suffering and sorrow, in the past, were the coin of man’s redemption, for us now the payment has been exchanged for calm acceptance and joy.

Endeavor, during all of life’s many complexities, to offer up your ego with calm acceptance and joy and you will be able to sail over the sea of karma, whether sunny and pleasant or dark and stormy.

In freedom,

NAYASWAMI JYOTISH

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January 17, 2019

TEN PORTALS to JOY

It’s not always easy to feel joy in life, especially when we’re bombarded with discouraging news and wrenching images of human suffering. Yet holding on to happiness in spite of everything is a challenge which confronts everyone. As Paramhansa Yogananda wrote: Life is a struggle for joy all along the way. May I fight to win the battle on the very spot where I now am.

In this same regard, Swami Kriyananda said, Joy is the solution, not the reward. In other words, joy is a dynamic choice we can make every day, not a passive response we feel only when favorable circumstances warmly greet us.

Here are ten portals you can choose every day that will expand your joy. Select a few of them, or as many as you like, but do some of them every day. You’ll be surprised how your joy level begins to rise.

Door #1: Do Something You Love. Decide for yourself what it is—walk, paint, call an old friend, knit, read a good book, pet your cat—but make sure it’s something that you’re doing for the joy of it, not from a sense of obligation. Joy Password: I Enjoy.

Door #2: Challenge Yourself. Find something that you thought you couldn’t do, and then put out the energy to accomplish it. Begin with little things—don’t start with running a marathon, if you’ve never done it before. Think rather of things that are doable but above your present level of skill or experience, then persevere until you’ve done it. Joy Password: I Can.

Door #3: Do a Task You’ve Been Avoiding. How much energy and peace is wasted in all the niggling, little things that we keep putting off! Clean out your desk drawers, give away all those books you’re done with, or answer those complicated emails you keep in the Hope They Disappear folder. Joy Password: I Will.

Door #4: Read or Listen to Something Inspiring. The gifts of the great spiritual teachers are abundant, but we pass them over in the midst of our busy lives. If you take only five minutes each day to immerse yourself in the wisdom from enlightened souls, you’ll be laying a foundation of joy that nothing can destroy. Joy Password: I Attune.

Door #5: Tell Someone They’re Appreciated. Yogananda once said to a group of his disciples, If you only knew how beautiful you are. I see you all as beings of light. This is how God sees each of His children—as their divine potential. By serving as a channel to express His love and appreciation for others, we draw closer to His bliss. Joy Password: I Care.

Door #6: Be Grateful for Something in Your Life. Don’t be grateful just for the good things. Think appreciatively about each setback and test, and realize how much you gained from the experience. So whether it’s a loving friend or an undermining competitor, simply think, Thank You, God. Joy Password: I Give Thanks.

Door #7: Make Someone Smile or Laugh. As your joy increases, be sure to share it with others—with friends, strangers, and even those who are difficult for you. Let your joy be like an unseen effervescence in the water of life that you offer to everyone. Joy Password: I Share.

Door #8: Gaze at Something Beautiful in Nature. Find something in the natural world—a flower, a pinecone, a leaf of a houseplant, the rings of a tree stump. Gaze at it until you see its beauty. Then close your eyes, and try to feel the divine thought that created it. Finally, open your eyes and look at it anew with appreciation for the joy our Creator has put into everything. Joy Password: I See.

Door #9: Do an Anonymous Act of Kindness. Be a secret agent for help and support to others. Service is even sweeter when it’s offered without any thought of personal recognition. Joy Password: I Serve.

Door #10: Meditate with Joy. Don’t wait for joy to come to you. Bring it into your meditation, until you remember that it is who and what you really are. Yoganandaji wrote, From joy I came, for joy I live, in sacred joy I melt. Joy Password: I Am.

May all the portals of joy open for you.

NAYASWAMI DEVI

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January 24, 2019

SOLUTIONS

Two students had just arrived from India to attend high school at Ananda Village, and we were welcoming them and their teachers to our home over tea. We had known both of these wonderful, creative girls from our time in India. One of them asked, What were the essential qualities that went into creating Ananda?

I Am Always with You.

I had to think for a moment, then answered in a way I hadn’t thought of before: Three things primarily: attunement to the guru, cooperation, and creative problem solving.

When we were creating Ananda, Swami Kriyananda often told us, Be solution-oriented, not problem-oriented. When he counseled someone, he would listen to them explain the situation only long enough to get a clear grasp of the problem. Then he would quickly move to talking about possible solutions. He didn’t want people to dwell on the endless details of a problem, which would just pull their minds down. He wanted them to rise toward the light. Being solution-oriented gets a positive flow of energy going, without which you won’t get anywhere.

So, how do we find solutions? The best way is to let the Divine solve the problem for you. If you can get yourself out of the way, and use your intuition, a solution will come quickly. This key element in Paramhansa Yogananda’s teachings he articulated in one of his early, 1925, lectures, Using Cosmic Consciousness in Daily Life.

But if we could always do this right off the bat we probably wouldn’t require any advice. Often we need something more, a way to move forward step by step. Here is a three-pronged approach for finding solutions.

1. Clarify your feelings. Start by trying to clarify your feelings, because the mind will follow the feelings. If you can clearly perceive how you feel about the issue, you are ninety percent of the way to the answer. This can be tricky, because feelings are different from emotions. Emotions follow our likes and dislikes, while our feeling nature is tuned to a deeper current. To clarify your feelings, get calm, and then attempt to feel what is trying to happen, not what you want to happen.

2. Visualize the outcome. Think clearly about the outcome you would like to see, not just for the situation you’re addressing but, more importantly, for your consciousness. If, for example, you are considering a new job, suspend for a moment consideration of the practical details, and think instead about who you would like to be and what you would like to be doing in five years. Then ask whether the job is a step in that direction. The outcome, once clear, will usually lead you to the answer you’re looking for.

3. The steps. Once you have the feeling and the outcome clarified, the steps to get there will become quickly apparent. This is where logic is valuable. When you know your destination, it is not too hard to generate a roadmap for how to get there.

The most important thing of all is to open your heart and mind to the Divine Will. If you do this you can never go too far wrong, at least on a soul level.

In the light,

NAYASWAMI JYOTISH

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January 31, 2019

LEAVE IT BETTER than WHEN YOU CAME

Last week a dear friend of ours from India visited Ananda Village for the first time. What a wonderful experience it was showing her around and explaining to her the many aspects of this remarkable community.

Amazed by what she had experienced, our friend quietly said, No matter how much you told me about Ananda Village, there was no way I could imagine what I saw here. The radiance and purity of the people, the spirit of service, the simplicity of life, the flow of activity in every area—I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere.

Seeing Ananda through her eyes we saw anew how living in a spirit of cooperation and service can change your consciousness, and transform the world around you. Every area we saw had been given the same conscious thought and care to make it the best it could be.

It was raining hard for the first few days that our friend was visiting, and the unpaved areas had become wet and muddy. One afternoon I made a quick trip to the community trash/recycling/ compost center to drop off our kitchen waste. Well-labeled bins and detailed instructions about what to put where had been posted there by the property services crew. As I avoided the muddy puddles, I thought to myself, Even this inglorious part of our community is well cared for.

Next to the compost bins is a hose for rinsing empty buckets. I added my contribution to our community gardens into the bin, and then saw that the hose was lying on the wet ground in a tangle. After straightening it out, I rinsed my bucket, then let the hose fall back into a muddy puddle. Then I hurried to get into my car and out of the rain.

St. Francis of Assisi statue at Ananda Village.

But something stopped me. Thinking about the beautiful ideals of cooperation and service that we’d been discussing with our friend, I heard a voice within me say, Leave it better than when you came. I went back, lifted the hose out of the mud, and carefully coiled it on its stand. Driving home, I felt surprisingly moved by the impact of this simple act.

Later I shared the experience with our son, who said, When I’m driving and see a nail on the road, I always pull over and pick it up. I’d like someone to do that for me, so I’ll do it first.

The accumulated power of these unseen acts of service can define one’s whole life: Leave it better than when you came. Each day we can leave our home, our job, our family, our friends, our community, our consciousness, our world better than we found it.

The simple prayer commonly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi* expresses this in a beautiful and elevated way:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury: pardon;

Where there is error: truth;

Where there is doubt: faith;

Where there is despair: hope;

Where there is darkness: light;

And where there is sadness: joy.

Each simple act of selfless giving reminds us of our purpose on earth: to be an instrument of God’s upliftment and love. At the end of our life’s journey, what a joy it will be to say to our Creator, I left this world better than when I came.

With loving friendship,

NAYASWAMI DEVI

* Interestingly, the prayer for which St. Francis is best known, ‘Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace,’ has been discovered in recent years, in the archives of a monastery in Belgium, actually to have been written by William the Great (also called ‘the Conqueror’), who Yogananda himself said he had been.—Swami Kriyananda, in Paramhansa Yogananda: A Biography

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February 7, 2019

The SPIRITUAL PATH, an OVERVIEW

For the last year we’ve been working on a very important project, The Indira Institute. The purpose of the Institute is to bring the universal teachings of Ananda’s line of masters to a much larger audience. Until now, Ananda has concentrated largely on training and supporting devotees, those who want to find God. Noble though this is, there are many people who want to improve their lives and know this involves changing their consciousness, but don’t currently define themselves as spiritual. This is the audience we want to reach.

In the Gita, Krishna instructs Arjuna on moving from limited ego-consciousness to soul-consciousness.

We’ll start in India by offering a weekend Signature Course based on universal principles expressed in the Bhagavad Gita. As we looked closely, we came up with nine themes or gems, so we’re calling the weekend course, Gita Navaratna, Nine Gems for Living the Gita in Modern Life.

We’ve been intensely busy the last few weeks working on this course, feeling a sense of urgency because we will present the very first, prototype version during Inner Renewal Week, which starts on February 16. Recently I realized that these nine gems represent a brief, but complete, overview of the universal spiritual path. Here, then, with nine gems from the Bhagavad Gita, is a five-minute overview of the evolution of consciousness we all must experience.

THE INNER CONFLICT

The battle of Kurukshetra is an allegory of the battle between our positive and negative tendencies, represented by the opposing armies. We each must fight this battle in order to regain our natural kingdom of peace, harmony, and happiness.

THE IMPERISHABLE SOUL

The soul (a spark of the eternal consciousness of the Creator) reincarnates repeatedly, taking on an ego, or particular body and personality, in each incarnation. In the Gita, Krishna instructs Arjuna on how to move from limited ego-consciousness to soul-consciousness.

SELF-OFFERING

In order to move from ego-consciousness, (the limited realm that is perceivable by our senses) to soul-consciousness (our eternal Self), we must be willing to offer up the desires and attachments that enmesh us.

DIRECTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This takes time. Evolution is like a spiral stairway, and for each individual there are steps leading upward and those that lead downward; things that expand our consciousness and those that contract us. We evolve through four distinct stages: heavy, ego-active but contractive,