It was Swami Kriyananda’s dream to create “world-class gardens” at Crystal Hermitage, his home at Ananda Village. After visiting the tulip fields in Holland, he had the inspiration to recreate their beauty here in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Now this dream is a reality.

Swamiji, whose anniversary of passing, his “Moksha Day,” is celebrated on April 21, would be delighted to see the thousands of people transformed by the beauty of these gardens. The joy on their faces and the laughter on their lips reflect their awakened understanding that behind all of life’s challenges are God’s loveliness and eternal peace.

Swamiji loved to share beauty with others, and wrote in his book, Cities of Light: A New Vision for the Future, “To draw God’s light down to earth, pure hearts are needed—devotees whose will is to live in light. Even as squalor attracts negative energies, however, so outward harmony and beauty attract Godly energies. Man cannot create heaven on this earth, for heaven is in God. But his duty is to reflect heaven in all he does, and in all that he creates.”

This work of reflecting heaven to others extends far beyond beautiful gardens. One of the teachers at Ananda Seattle’s temple wrote us, “We have a weekly meditation group here, and recently we took it from online-only to hybrid in the Temple. Three weeks in a row somebody new joined in person. The first week, the new person came in and started crying right away because she had been holding herself together throughout the pandemic, losing her husband to cancer, and being diagnosed with cancer herself. Coming into the Temple sanctuary as she heard us praying, she said she finally could relax and feel safe once more.

“The next week another new person started crying after class, saying she hadn’t known a place like Ananda existed, and her heart felt so touched and moved. And last week someone new came and didn’t cry at all! Well, not so fast—the next morning I woke up to an email from her expressing gratitude that the meditation had helped her to regain her ‘peace and silence in the realm of reconnecting with her heart.’ She shared that she was crying, because her heart was so moved and grateful. If nothing else, we make people cry here. I say that tongue in cheek, of course.”

So, my friends, I hope that your heart is as touched as mine in hearing how the divine gifts of beauty, prayer, meditation, and silence can transform the lives of others. “A resurrection of tulips” is a metaphor for the power of God to change all of life beneficially and fill it with His love and joy.

In divine friendship,

Nayaswami Devi