Michael Toms, founder & President, New dimensions Foundation
".... The Path is filled with profound insight and practical advice for the novice and the more advanced seeker...


N. P. Bulgaria
"I have read The Path, and many times tears of happiness have stained the pages of the book."


Sister John, Roman Catholic Presentation sisterhood
"I find Swami Kriyananda's work in harmony with the deepest spiritual traditions of Christianity."


Roy Eugene Davis, founder-Director, Living Love Center and Cornucopia Institute
"...perfectly captures the personality of Paramhansa Yogananda, I am delighted that my brother disciple has produced this monumental work. ...."


David Spangler, Author, Lecturer, Findhorn Foundation
"...provides clues to the synthesis of East and West, and testifies to the opening of hearts and minds ...."


T. D. Ukraine
"... we thank you from the bottom of our hearts, over-brimming with bliss and indescribable gratitude."


Ken Keyes, Jr., Founder-director, Living Love Center and Cornucopia Institute
"... humor express themselves in your book. Although it is not a short book, it came to an end too soon!"


James Fadiman, Transpersonal Psychologist, Author
"... modern saint. Yogananda has found a worthy Boswell to convey not only the man but the spirit of the man."


D.P., India
"... You have labored hard to create for us the style and truthfulness of Paramhansa Yogananda. It filled me with delight."


John W. White, Author, Editor, Lecturer
"...enriching experience. "Deeply inspiring' -though hardly adequate - is the best way I can find to describe it."


Book Description
The true saga of one man's search for truth, and the four years he lived and worked with one of the spiritual giants of our times, Paramhansa Yoganandad. With over 400 rare stories and sayings from the great Master.


Excerpted from The Path : One Man's Quest on the Only Path There Is by Sri Kriyananda, J. Donald Walters. Copyright © 1996. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Chapter 29 Gardens - Mundane and spiritual ....One day we were moving a delicate but rather heavy tropical plant into position on the hillside. Our handling evidently was too rough, for Master cried out, "Be careful what you are doing. Can't you feel? It's alive!" His sensitivity to all things living inspired sensitivity from them in return. Not only people and animals, but even plants seemed to respond to his feelings for them. His gardens flourished. Tropical mangoes and bananas grew at Mt. Washington, where the climate is not conducive to their survival. Shraddha Mata (Miss Sahly) tells of one day watching what she calls a "rose devotee" that kept turning in its vase to face master as he moved about the room. Above all, like every sentient being, they respond to live. Master even felt with certain plants a mysterious personal identity. One day, pointing to an avocado tree by a walkway at Mt. Washington, he told us, "Originally I planted two trees here, one on either side of the path. We had a certain student living here in those days who was deeply devoted. Speaking of him once, I told a few others, 'One of us will leave this work, and one of these trees also will die. This tree stands for me; that one for him. The tree that dies will signal which one of us will leave.' "Well, his tree died. Soon afterwards he left. He had been very devoted, too. But - his devotion fled. The delusion that took him away was the desire for--money." Master paused momentarily before naming that delusion, to give us time mentally to fill in the blank with our own karmic obstacles, and thus remind ourselves what we needed to work on for our own spiritual welfare. ...Sometimes in his training of us he likened us too, to plants. Of a certain monk who had been resisting his spiritual counsel, he explained, "What a job one takes on when he tries to improve people! He has to go into their minds and see what it they are thinking. The rose in the vase looks beautiful; one forgets all the care that went into growing it. But if it takes such care to produce a rose, how much more care is needed to develop a perfect human being!" --Like a divine gardener, Master labored unceasingly for our spiritual development. It took patience, love, courage, and considerably greater faith in us than most of us had in ourselves. For where we saw only our own egos struggling to shed their imperfections, he saw our souls struggling to reclaim their divine birthright in God. Some of his disciples justified his faith in them better than others did, but he extended to all the same vision of their ultimate perfectibility. --All human life, so the Scriptures of India tell us, is a dream. It's ultimate goal is to help us learn well our lessons, to overcome our attachments to material limitations, and to realize that all things, seemingly separate and real in themselves, are but manifestations of the one light of God. The highest lesson of all is to learn to love God. The best karma of all is the ability to love him. "Sir," Norman once said, rather morosely, to Master, "I don't believe I have very good karma." "Remember this," Master replied with deep earnestness, "it takes very, very, VERY good karma even to want to know God!" Through love of God, and only through that love, may one win final release from physical rebirth, and the right to advance to higher spheres of existence. Victory comes not by hating this life, but by beholding God's presence in it everywhere, by paying reverence to the veriest fool as though to a holy shrine. "You must be very joyous and happy," Master said, "because this is God's dream, and the little man and the big man are all nothing but the Dreamer's consciousness."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The Path", is a fascinating story of one man's search for Truth. J. Donald Walters (also known as Swami Kriyananda) recounts how as a young man he examined and discarded as false many of the promises offered by modern society. Gradually, he realized that lasting human happiness comes not from outer success, but from deepening spiritual awareness. Eventually his searching brought him to the door of one of the spiritual giants of the 20th century, Paramhansa Yogananda (Autobiography of a Yogi). What ensues is Donald' Walters' spiritual training under Yogananda. Yogananda showed him a clear path to the attainment of spiritual ideals, through the practice of the science of deep yoga meditation.

SYNOPSIS

"The Path", is a fascinating story of one man's search for Truth. J. Donald Walters (also known as Swami Kriyananda) recounts how as a young man he examined and discarded as false many of the promises offered by modern society. Gradually, he realized that lasting human happiness comes not from outer success, but from deepening spiritual awareness. Eventually his searching brought him to the door of one of the spiritual giants of the 20th century, Paramhansa Yogananda (Autobiography of a Yogi). What ensues is Donald' Walters' spiritual training under Yogananda. Yogananda showed him a clear path to the attainment of spiritual ideals, through the practice of the science of deep yoga meditation.

The yoga philosophy and way of life are explained vividly through insightful stories and experiences of living with a self-realized master.

FROM THE CRITICS

Bulgaria

I have read The Path, and many times tears of happiness have stained the pages of the book

Ukraine Staff