Swami Kriyananda, the 80-plus founder of the Ananda Sangha, responds to an email interview:

Why is there a need for world-brotherhood communities across the globe?
I have felt a need for cooperative intentional communities since I was 15. When I found that this was also one of the primary objectives of Paramhansa Yogananda, I vowed to fulfil this ideal of his. In the past, the spiritually dedicated life has been confined, basically, to ashrams and caves. The ideal of Lahiri Mahasaya, that the time has come for householders also to dedicate themselves to the spiritual life, makes spiritual communities for everyone a more obviously needed alternative. At Ananda everyone, including householders and their families, has a greater opportunity to live for God and serve Him.

When one becomes a member of such a spiritual community, does he not sever his bond with the outside world, alienating his family and friends?
It might do so if the family and friends opposed his choice of a way of life. It does not do so in most cases, because in fact all our members live in the world, though not of it, serving humanity and not cutting themselves off from it.

Given the fact that India is the birthplace of Paramhansa Yogananda, why did you concentrate on India only in 2003, more than three decades after you had established the first colony outside Nevada City, in California?
It was much easier for me to found a community in America than in India. It was very difficult to start communities in any case, but now I believe India is ready for them. And we have five communities in California and one in Italy, making it possible now to begin such a work in India with the help also of Americans and Europeans. I hope, however, to have many more Indians, now that we are moving to Pune, and the work is already well established in Gurgaon.

Kindly share your vision and plans for the Ananda village which you plan to establish in Pune, India.

I expect it to consist mostly of Indians. I would like to found a village in which householders as well as monastics can live for God, as they are doing in America and Italy. I hope to make it self-supporting, with businesses, schools, and other projects that we have already established elsewhere.

Given the different kinds of crisis situations occurring across the globe, do you anticipate a sudden surge of individuals opting for the sheltered refuge that an Ananda village offers?
I would not use the expression "sheltered refuge." The "sheltering" is done by the members themselves, with supportive businesses and service to humanity. I believe that specifically now, in the hard economic times we are facing, people will come to understand the need for banding together with others for their own security as well as spiritual progress.

Such communities seem to be the need of the hour. What were the catalysts for their popularity?
Who can account clearly for the shifts that occur in global consciousness? The fact is that there has been such a shift. When I began Ananda, people in America were already eager to join communities in the thousands. Now that need is spreading.

Please tell us about your dream of building a universal temple of Self-realisation, dedicated to Paramhansa Yogananda.
First I should say that although the teachings I share are those of ParamhansaYogananda, the temple itself is dedicated, as all his churches were, to the oneness of all religions under the banner of Sanatan Dharma – the religion necessarily, in truth, of the entire universe. The temples I build in India will serve this ideal, as I've expressed it also in my books.

What has been your plan of action to ensure economic independence for Ananda Sangha?
We hope to start schools incorporating Yogananda's ideals of educating children for the challenge of life itself, and not only to help them get paying jobs. One project I am very much dedicated to is offering cheap alternative energy (solar and wind especially): in India first of all, and, as it becomes possible, in the rest of the world, including of course (first) America and Italy. We have two solar inventions that we think will be hugely successful, and that we hope will make it possible to bring cheap electricity to the 800,000 villages in India, most of which at present have no electricity. Our plan primarily is to serve India, though, of course, we hope to make enough also for the creation and sustenance of our own villages. We do not have the slightest desire, however, to make billions of dollars or rupees. Our main purpose is to help uplift India.

At the close of your sixtieth year of discipleship, how would you describe your journey so far?
First, I would say that my journey has been one, as Yogananda predicted, of "intense activity and meditation." It has been a testing, but a joyous one. Second, my achievements have been 91 books, 400 pieces of music, 15,000 colour slides (that have helped to spread our work), and the formation of several communities wherein about a thousand people, in toto, at present live. Other than that, "iffy" health has troubled me all my life. I have also had many obstacles, which I suppose are normal to starting any large work, but have been exacerbated in my own case by my worldly inexperience. Having lived in a monastery all my adult life, I didn't know about such things as threats of foreclosure, all of which, however, I succeeded in surmounting. Basically, people everywhere have been very grateful for my books and other attempts to serve my guru. I have been able to edit his books, as he also told me to do, with clarity and simplicity.

My specific message to your readers is that I believe India is ready now for a renewed spiritual direction in its growth. Two years ago, President Abdul Kalam asked me what I thought of the directions India has taken since I lived here in the early 1960s. I told him that, certainly, India has become more worldly, but that it was also necessary for India to claim its rightful place among the great nations of the world. I said that the soil of India is impregnated with the blessings of countless rishis over many thousands of years, and that Indians will not be able to turn their backs forever on God and on their own spiritual teachings. I believe that Yogananda's message greatly clarifies the directions for mankind as a whole in what our line of gurus proclaimed to be a return of Dwapara Yuga, an age of energy. Sri Ramakrishna was part of this new wave of insight that God is giving to the world, though it was not his mission to correct the traditional belief that we are still in Kali Yuga. So also was Lahiri Mahasaya in Varanasi, who lived at the same time; in fact, our gurus have proclaimed this great shift of energy to be part of the mission of my line of gurus.