Art History | Ananda Garden

An introduction is in order. I shared these thoughts in a weekly newsletter that I edit for the Ananda Community in Mountain View, CA. Swami Kriyananda (1926-2013) was a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi. Yogananda came to the West with a mission to help people of faith meet the twin challenges of science with its atheistic bias, and fundamentalism with its unscientific demand for blind belief. He said that he had come to America in response to a silent call from many souls for a “practical religion.”

The original teachings of Jesus Christ, he said, are scientific and practical, because they tell us how we can apply the instruments of prayer and meditation to experience God in the laboratory of our heart, mind, and soul. He explained that the effective use of those tools has been obscured by centuries of priestly misinterpretation of Jesus’ original teachings. Yogananda commissioned Swami Kriyananda to help people understand, through books, recorded talks, and music, how spiritual truth can guide them to the greatest fulfillment and success in all aspects of their lives. The line of masters referred to at the start are Jesus Christ, Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Sri Yukteswar, and Paramhansa Yogananda.

The article:

Swami Kriyananda said that the mission of our Masters will spread in the future “through the popular arts.” For those of us who’ve thought of “spiritual art” as Giotto, Bach, and Michelangelo, it may seem a breathtaking prospect.

When Christ left his body, the consciousness of the world was in process of plunging ever more deeply into greed, power, sensuality, and a religion that was plastered in rigid authoritarian control.

Those who felt called to a spiritual life had to separate themselves from the world to preserve the purity of their aspiration – the vibrations of worldly life posed too great a threat to their calling.

This state of affairs reached its lowest point around 500 AD, a year that historians have called “the worst time to be alive on earth.” From 500 until 900, people lived in constant fear of murderous heathen tribes invading from all directions. It was only in 912 that twelve sincere monks created a monastery at Cluny, in France, that within two centuries would succeed in creating a Christianized Europe, free of the terrors of the preceding 400 years.

The overall consciousness was still raw, however, and only the monasteries shone as centers of hope and light. Fathers and mothers toiling in the fields took enormous comfort from hearing the monks and nuns sing their Plainsong chants, knowing that they were blessed and protected by their prayers.

The example of the monasteries changed everything – people were assured that they need only knock at the monastery door and ask for help and the monks would give them food, medicine, counsel, and comfort.

The monasteries were beacons of holy light, a miraculous presence from which people drew practical help and inner consolation and inspiration. And what held the monasteries together was the music, which perfectly carried the vibration of their high calling. Even today, to listen to recordings of Plainsong sung in the great abbey churches is to know the inspiration that fired the monks and sustained the ordinary folk with hope and solace. (Sample below.)

Today, as in 912, the world has turned a corner. In the present newly born age of energy-awareness, the monastery walls have fallen and the light of Truth is free to roam and shine more freely in people’s lives.

Like the Plainsong of the monasteries, music will hold the teachings together. And the first and most powerful stream of that inspiration is the music of Swami Kriyananda, which he received from a “higher source” – that is, he recorded it in its full essential purity as it was conceived in Aum. It is a purity that we hear in voices that sing it without impediment of ego, solely to uplift and help others. As in the Dark Ages, we face a dangerous darkness today, and the music of Aum will be our comfort and salvation.

For readers who would like to learn more:

1. Ananda.org — The teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, and the fulfillment of his commission to his direct disciple, Swami Kriyananda.

2. The Yugas — This extraordinary and extremely important book examines the ancient concept of 24,000-year cycles in human history, based on painstaking research and with massive evidence from the historical record. Where have we been, where are we now, and where are we going? According to the teaching of the Yugas, the world is presently in the early stages of an ascending cycle during which the general consciousness of the planet will become increasingly enlightened. What does our future hold? Prepare to be amazed; those superhero movies may not be so unrealistic after all!

3. Where will music go next? Where can it go? No one seems to know. But the music of the future is here already. No one, to my knowledge, has revealed this more clearly and perceptively than professional singer Ramesha Nani, the co-director of Ananda Music together with his wife Bhagavati, a professional flautist. If you despair for the future of the arts, please watch – cancel that, I beg you to watch – this video, where Ramesha tells the story of his life in music, and his experiences sharing “Inner Quest Music” not only within the Ananda communities but, for example, at a sophisticated Vine Street cafe in Hollywood, at farmers markets, and in public parks. Enjoy!