In the 1990s, Ananda went through a sig-
nificant court struggle with SRF concerning
copyrights and trademarks related to Yogananda’s
writings and images and the name of the Ananda
Church of Self-Realization. The church prevailed
in most of the issues and is now free to use
pictures of Yogananda and reproduce his early
writings. On the other hand, the movement suf-
fered from a lawsuit brought by a former member
claiming sexual abuse at the hands of an Ananda
minister. A court judgment in 2001 against the
minister and the church sent the Nevada City
community into bankruptcy, from which it is
only slowly recovering.
Further reading: John Ball, Ananda: Where Yoga Lives
(Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popu-
lar Press, 1982); Swami Kriyananda [Donald Walters],
Cooperative Communities: How to Start Them and Why
(Nevada City, Calif.: Ananda, 1968); ———, Cri-
ses in Modern Thought (Nevada City Calif.: Ananda,
1972); ———, The Path (Nevada City, Calif.: Ananda,
1977); Ted A. Nordquist, Ananda Cooperative Village
(Uppsala: Borgstroms Tryckeri, Ab, 1978); J. Donald
Walters, Awaken to Superconsciousness (Nevada City,
Calif.: Crystal Clarity, 2000); Paramahansa Yogananda,
Autobiography of a Yogi (Los Angeles: Self-Realization
Fellowship, 1971).
Anandamurti, Sri (1921–1990) founder
Ananda Marga Yoga Society
Sri Sri Anandamurti, the founder of the Ananda
MARGA YOGA SOCIETY, was born Prabhat Ranjan
Sarkar. His father died while Prabhat was still
a youth, putting an end to his formal educa-
tion. As his father had, he took a job with the
railroad. However, he gradually developed a
discipline of YOGA and MEDITATION, and in 1955
he announced to his acquaintances that he had
achieved enlightenment. He resigned from his
job and founded the ANANDA MARGA (Path of
Bliss) YOGA SOCIETY. It was at this time that he
assumed his religious name, Anandamurti. In
1962, he initiated the first monks and four years
later the first nuns.
The new organization taught a form of tan-
tric yoga but also became socially active. As it
expanded, it founded and supported several hun-
dred elementary schools and homes for children.
The social activism was underlain by Anandamur-
ti’s developing theories about the reorganization
of society. He had begun to feel that both capital-
ism and communism, the two main economic
and political options being debated in India, were
lacking the elements necessary to build the good
society. In 1958 he formally introduced his new
plan, which he termed Progressive Universal The-
ory (PROUT), and founded Renaissance Universal
as an organization to propagate his perspective.
PROUT was introduced in the context of wide-
spread criticism of government corruption. As
Ananda Marga grew, it became involved in a num-
ber of violent clashes and was charged with illegal
political activities and terrorism. In 1967, five
members of the group were murdered. The new
government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (r.
1966–77) restricted the organization by issuing a
ban on government employees joining it. In 1971,
Anandamurti was arrested on what some say were
fabricated charges that he had ordered the murder
of some former adherents. In 1975, under severe
political pressure Gandhi declared emergency
rule. Ananda Marga was one of a number of orga-
nizations that were banned. The organization was
suppressed, its assets seized, and a number of its
leaders arrested. Gandhi was voted out of office
in 1977 and Anandamurti and his followers were
released when emergency rule ended.
After the drama of the Gandhi era, Ananda
Marga was reorganized in India and resumed its
program of propagating the spiritual and social
teachings of its founder. Controversy has sur-
rounded Anandamurti and his movement since its
inception. In this period Anandamurti developed
his concept of Neo-Humanism, in reaction to the
neglect of the spiritual dimension of human life
that he saw in communism and capitalism. HeK 34 Anandamurti, Sri