Flexible Positions

Abstract

Donald Walters was an ideal candidate to lead an eclectic transnational religious movement rooted in Hinduism that has survived for more than fifty years by balancing core commitments with flexibility on less central matters. He read Autobiography of a Yogi in 1948 and was mentored by its author, Paramahansa Yogananda, at Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) in Southern California. Walters took his monastic vows in 1955 to become Swami Kriyananda. After leaving SRF, he decided to start Ananda, a cooperative living community northeast of Sacramento, in 1968. While similar to other hippie communes in its Eastern spirituality and sense of experimentation, it was unusual in rejecting drugs and embracing Jesus Christ. Despite hurdles, the community began to grow by the early 1980s. Like its principled-pragmatic organization, Ananda’s spiritual identity likewise combined a firm core and some flexibility in beliefs and practices. Its practices are drawn directly from those taught by Yogananda, including its syncretistic beliefs rooted in Hindu cosmology but shaped by fascination with Jesus Christ. Ananda eventually grew from a small California community into a global movement, establishing footholds in both India and Italy. Since the mid-1990s, the community has faced several challenges, including lawsuits and the death of Kriyananda. But his passing was an opportunity as well as a crisis. Following their mentor’s example of balancing core firmness with flexibility, recent leaders have ensured that Ananda will continue as a rural Northern California model of life and community, as well as a global spiritual enterprise centered on Kriya Yoga.