Ananda Sangha of Portland--Channeling the Light

Ananda Sangha of Portland--Ongoing Services

Sundays at Ananda
Meditate with Us
Special Ceremonies
Healing Prayers

Special Ceremonies and Other Services

Invoking the presence of the God during major transitions in life can bring light and joy, expanding our experience of these events into something divine.
For Baptisms, Funerals, Astral Ascension Ceremonies, contact us at 503-626-3403.

Channeling the Light
Chapter Fourteen of Cities of Light by J. Donald Walters (Swami Kriyananda)

The powers of darkness are attracted to those places where darkness, squalor, and confusion reign. The powers of light, on the other hand, are attracted wherever there is light, and love, and Crystal Clarity.

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.

It isn’t that God comes only where beauty is manifested outwardly. Those, however, who serve as channels of His light feel naturally inspired to channel that light into all aspects of their lives, as well as outwardly to their environments.

Cities of Light will always, in time, become places of simple beauty outwardly, as well as places of great inward harmony.

Ananda’s effort to attune itself to God’s light includes daily chanting, prayer, and meditation. We practice daily also the technique of Kriya Yoga, which is the holy science that Paramhansa Yogananda brought to the West. Kriya Yoga helps people to bring themselves into alignment and harmony with the downward flow of God’s grace.

We meditate individually, as well as in company with others. Whether alone or in groups, we try to unite our spirits with those of the other members, and with all those, everywhere, who are seeking to serve as channels for God’s light.

In everything we do, we pray to God to enlighten and inspire us. At the same time, we keep in mind that divine inspiration comes not only in silent prayer, but also in the “prayer” of labor that is lovingly offered up to Him. As Yogananda taught us to do, we pray, “Lord, I will reason, I will will, I will act, but guide Thou my reason, will, and activity to the right path in everything.”

In keeping with our belief that outward harmony helps to draw divine blessings down to earth, we express our inner experience of God’s presence outwardly as well, through simple, beautiful, and uplifting ceremonies. One of these has been excerpted already in this book—the Wedding Ceremony.

Others include Baptism, in which we welcome the newborn soul into our midst, and invite it to remember always that its highest duty is to seek truth and God, and to include the welfare of others in its own welfare. At this ceremony other children in the community dance around the baby, welcoming it as they sing:

Friend, we bid you welcome!
Welcome!
Welcome!
All that we learn,
We’ll share with you.
That way, we’ll grow together!

Ceremonies include one also for when people leave this world. There is a ceremony of healing, one for inner purification, and another to help us to achieve higher attunement. Vows of dedication are said by the members. Vows of self-offering in service are said by those receiving ordination as ministers. And there is the ceremony of initiation into the sacred art and science of Kriya Yoga.

One of our most important ceremonies is the Festival of Light, during which God’s light is invoked to flow down to earth, and into the hearts of worshipers both present and afar, through the channels of Jesus Christ, our line of masters, and the great saints of all religions.

In this service, the Lightbearer, as the minister is called, reminds the congregation of the blessings that are received as a result of living in God’s light (hence the name, “Festival of Light”).

Nothing, perhaps, could so clearly convey our sense of inspiration in the life we lead as excerpts from that ceremony. Let me quote parts of it here.

A Festival Of Light

Lightbearer:

Let us lift up our hearts in a festival of light. (The essence of this ceremony has been passed down from ancient times.)

O waves that we are on the bosom of the Infinite Sea, joyfully together let us celebrate our own greater reality. For now by God’s grace our redemption is at hand. The promise has been given. The divine light has been sent anew to earth. To all who receive it thankfully in themselves will be given the power, so the Holy Bible proclaims, “to become the sons of God.”

The path, too, has been opened to us: that of deep, inner communion with the Lord. Into our hands have been given the keys to unlock the mystic doors of awakening.

Dear ones, we have cause to hope greatly. God, through the Bhagavad Gita, promises: “Even the worst of sinners, by steadfast meditation on Me, speedily comes to Me.” The same Scripture declares also: “Even a little practice of this inward religion will free one from dire fears and colossal sufferings.”

And whereas suffering, in the past, was the coin of man’s redemption, for us now the payment has been exchanged for joy. Thus may we understand that pain is the fruit of self-love, whereas joy is the fruit of love for God.

From sun and moon and all the stars,
From glistening seas, high mountains, desert solitudes, and vast, fruitful plains,
And from the hearts of mankind and of creatures everywhere,
Goes up in wordless yearning a prayer for redemption:
O Mighty Source of all that is:
From sorrow, lead us to everlasting joy;
From darkness, lead us to infinite light;
From death, lead us to immortality! ...

(A long section follows, then the following words are spoken:)

From the depths of unknowing, Lord, we cry out to Thee:

Is there no lasting purpose to our lives?
Behold, all that we thought was light
Was but darkness!
Who are we, in reality?
For what end were we made?

Ever and again through Your awakened sons the answer comes:
The forming of stars and moons and planets,
Of galaxies revolving on the tides of space,
Of drifting continents, upheaving mountains,
Snowy wastes and dark, silent ocean deeps
Had but this for its design: The birth of life,
And with life’s birth, the dawn of self-awareness:
Passage through dim corridors of waking consciousness
To emerge at last into infinite light—into perfect joy!
O children of Light, forsake the darkness—
Know that forever you and He are one!

(The ceremony continues, taking the devotee ever deeper in the thought of attunement, and in gratitude to God and to the line of masters for the grace of light.)

Thus, may all souls feel, and know, the power of God in their lives. For He is, as the Scriptures say, “supremely relishable.” God’s joy is the only true joy in life. For the soul, there is no other reality.