Ananda Kolkata hosted a public talk by Nayaswami Jyotish and Nayaswami Devi, the spiritual directors of Ananda, at ICCR on September 18. The topic of the discourse was Finding Peace in an Unstable World. The very presence of Nayaswami Jyotish and Devi, lifetime practitioners of Kriya Yoga, exuded a warmth and peace that rippled through the auditorium. They were warmly welcomed by Dithi Mukherjee, an Ananda Kolkata disciple, with flowers and a delicately crafted shola figure of Goddess Durga.
The tone of the Sunday morning was set by some soulful chanting and songs sung by the Ananda Kolkata choir. Nayaswami Jyotish’s talk centred on how to find peace in such turbulent times in which we find ourselves in. He said that if we were to wait for peace, it would more often than not elude us. We need to be peaceful from within, avoid conflicts and raise our consciousness above the things that cause discord and disharmony. His anecdotal style, humble presence and peaceful demeanour carried the message home much more than any lengthy, philosophical treatise on peace would have done.
Nayaswami Devi was an embodiment of a picture of grace, poise, quiet strength and love. She spoke about the importance of training the mind to remain peaceful and disengage ourselves from conflict, a lesson reiterated by Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. Both of them drew their inspirations from their Master, Paramhansa Yogananda, and his direct disciple and the founder of Ananda, Swami Kriyananda.
Brahmachari Jemal along with other members of Ananda performed melodious tunes in the welcoming ceremony of the event.
“Today Nayaswami Jyotish Ji and Devi Ji spoke regarding such a touchy topic, such an enlightened topic that the audience was still, and captured by their speech and insight into the matter. I think everyone’s heart was touched and they found a little bit of peace today that might have been missing before,” said Brahmachari Jemal, Ananda, India.
There were help desks outside the auditorium spreading the word about Ananda Kolkata and its varied activities, which are geared towards achieving peace and harmony in our quotidian lives. Ananda is a global spiritual movement, based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, who showed how everyone can realise God in their daily lives as a tangible, loving reality. It was founded in 1969 by Yogananda’s direct disciple, Swami Kriyananda, who passed away in 2013. Swami Kriyananda’s spiritual successor is Nayaswami Jyotish who, along with his wife Nayaswami Devi, serve as Ananda’s spiritual directors.