Chapter I: THE DREAM

Paramhansa Yogananda, c. 1952

In a 1996 interview, Swami Kriyananda stated, “When I was

15, World War II was beginning to get underway. I thought I

could envision a time when civilization would be dealt a very

serious blow. If we could have a community of people that

would preserve the values of civilization, it would be the

means by which civilization could build again in the future. I

saw a community with engineers, doctors and people of all modern skills, who could bring those

skills back. Today I think civilization is going to desperately need communities like this, not so

much to preserve skills such as engineering, but rather to preserve spiritual values. When you have

people scattered, it’s very hard to uphold spiritual values. Seeing one person who is calm, for

example, is not going to draw people, but seeing a community of people who are calm, you have to

say that it’s what they are doing that makes them that way.”

During Paramhansa Yogananda’s lifetime, he often talked about “World Brotherhood Colonies”

and said, “Thousands of youths must go North, South, East, and West to spread these ideas. I am

sowing these thoughts in the ether, and my words shall not die!”1

As a young disciple of Yogananda, Kriyananda was thrilled and inspired by this idea and vowed to

help his guru make these communities a reality. After Yogananda’s passing in 1952, Kriyananda

made several fruitless attempts to interest others in his guru’s organization in the idea of World

Brotherhood Colonies. However, during this decade Swami Kriyananda saw much upheaval in his

own life as well. He was forced to leave the organization, Self-Realization Fellowship, and spent a

good deal of time searching for a way to continue serving his guru. (See the books, Faith is My

Armor, and A Place Called Ananda.) In 1966, he began teaching classes in yoga and meditation

at the Cultural Integration Fellowship in San Francisco. He gave several

training seminars on Indian culture to Peace Corps volunteers and also had a

radio show on two local radio stations. One of his first meditation students

was Jyotish (John Novak), who became his secretary and later a teacher of

meditation, himself.

Jyotish, c. 1969