Further reading: Cornelia Dimmitt and J. A. B. van
Buitenen, Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the
Sanskrit Puranas (Philadelphia: Temple University
Press, 1978); W. J. Wilkins, Hindu Mythology, Vedic and
Puranic, 2d ed. (Calcutta: Rupa, 1973).
Kriyananda, Goswami See TEMPLE OF
KRIYA YOGA.
Kriyananda, Swami (1926– )
kriya yoga guru
Swami Kriyananda is the founder of the ANANDA
MOVEMENT of religious and communal organiza-
tions, designed to spread the teachings of KRIYA
YOGA and the principles of cooperative living.
James Donald Walters was born in Toleajen,
Romania, to American parents. As a youth he
was sent to boarding schools in Switzerland and
England and later attended Haverford College,
a Quaker school in Pennsylvania, and Brown
University. He left school before completing his
degree and settled in South Carolina.
In South Carolina, he had his first serious
contact with Hinduism, when he read the Bhaga-
vad Gita followed by Autobiography of a Yogi by
Paramahansa YOGANANDA. At about the same time
he became a vegetarian. In 1948, he moved across
the continent to meet Yogananda and offer himself
as a disciple. He quickly moved into a leadership
position with Yogananda’s relatively small organi-
zation, the SELF-REALIZATION FELLOWSHIP (SRF),
and within a year was lecturing on its behalf. His
leadership role increased after Yogananda’s death,
and in 1955 he was named the main minister at
the center in Hollywood. It was at this time he
took the vows of the renounced life and became
known as Kriyananda.
In 1960 he was selected as a member of SRF’s
board of trustees and named its vice president.
However, by this time he had become focused on
exploring the communal aspects of Yogananda’s
thought, and in 1962 he resigned all posts with
SRF and decided to put his time into realizing the
development of several small economically inde-
pendent communities. He wrote several books
underscoring the rationale for such communities,
including Cooperative Communities: How to Start
Them and Why (1968). His lectures from this time
would later be compiled and published as Crises
in Modern Thought (1972).
In 1967 he purchased land in the foothills of
the Sierra as a site for the first Ananda Coopera-
tive Community. The next decade would be spent
in building the community, making it a center for
teaching the kriya yoga he had learned with Yoga-
nanda, and writing.
In 1983, Kriyananda abandoned his vows of
SANNYAS (which included celibacy) and became
a lay believer/teacher. He began using his birth
name again and married in 1985. Members of the
community accepted this change with relative
ease. In 1990, he led in the establishment of a new
religious community, the Ananda Church of Self-
Realization, part of the ANANDA MOVEMENT.
The progress of Ananda has been punctuated
by several traumatic events. First, in 1976, a for-
est fire swept through the Ananda Village in the
Sierras, destroying almost all its structures and
threatening the survival of the community. How-
ever, it was rebuilt. After the incorporation of the
church, Ananda began a lengthy litigation with
SRF over usage of the term SELF-REALIZATION. SRF
also sought to deny Ananda the use of a number
of Yogananda’s books and images. Ananda won
most of the issues being litigated, although the
community faced a huge bill for more than a
decade of legal work. When a former member
successfully sued Ananda claiming sexual harass-
ment, Ananda was thrown into bankruptcy, from
which it is slowly recovering.
Most recently, Walters has resumed his vows
of sannyas and is once again known as Swami
Kriyananda. In November 2003, he and several
leaders in Ananda moved to Delhi, India, and
opened an Ananda branch in India. He has contin-
ued to turn out numerous books as well as musicKriyananda, Swami 247 J