Kriyananda

rdf:langString Kriyananda

rdf:langString Kriyananda

rdf:langString Kriyananda

rdf:langString Assisi, Italy

rdf:langString Azuga, Romania

rdf:langString — Swami Kriyananda

rdf:langString J. Donald Walters

rdf:langString "Music is so much more than entertainment. It doesn’t merely reflect a state of consciousness: It also generates it."

rdf:langString "Music is so much more than entertainment. It doesn’t merely reflect a state of consciousness: It also generates it." — Swami Kriyananda Kriyananda (born James Donald Walters; May 19, 1926 – April 21, 2013) was an American Hindu religious leader, yoga guru, musician, and an author. He was a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda, and founder of the spiritual movement named "Ananda". He authored over 150 books, and composed about 400 piece of music. In 1998, he was found guilty of "constructive fraud", with a finding of "malice" and "fraudulent conduct" in a sexual harassment lawsuit. He was one of many direct disciples of the yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda. Yogananda made Walters a minister for his organization, Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). He authorized him to teach Kriya Yoga, and appointed him the head monk of the monks at the SRF Mount Washington. After Yogananda's death, Walters was given final vows of sannyas and ordained as a Brother of the SRF Order, along with Sarolananda, Bimalananda and Bhaktananda, in 1955 by then SRF President Daya Mata and was given the name Kriyananda. In 1960, upon the passing of M.W. Lewis, the SRF Board of Directors elected Kriyananda to the Board of Directors and eventually to the position of Vice President. In 1962, the SRF Board of Directors voted unanimously to expel him from SRF and requested his resignation. Kriyananda founded Ananda, a worldwide movement of religious and communal organizations based on Yogananda's World Brotherhood Colonies ideal. Also, he established his own new Swami order in 2009: the Nayaswami Order different from Yogananda's lineage in the Giri branch of the Swami Order of Shankara. Kriyananda authored about 150 published books/booklets and composed about 400 pieces of music, which altogether have sold over three million copies. A few of the books have been published in 28 languages. He lectured in different countries throughout the world. In addition to English, he spoke Italian, Romanian, Greek, French, Spanish, German, Hindi, Bengali, and Indonesian. For twelve years from 1990-2002 Self-Realization Fellowship, the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, filed suit against James Donald Walters (a.k.a. Kriyananda) and Walters' newly named Church of Self-Realization regarding specific writings, photographs and recordings of Paramahansa Yogananda. According to Doug Mattson of the Union, SRF asserted Yogananda made it clear that he wanted SRF, Yogananda’s organization, to maintain the copyrights to his works and to publish them. Doug Mattson wrote that in the end, "the jurors ultimately agreed with Self-Realization Fellowship's argument that Yogananda had repeatedly made his intentions clear before dying - he wanted the Fellowship to maintain copyrights to his works." According to Vicky Anning of Palo Alto Weekly, in 1997-98 Kriyananda aka Donald Walters was found guilty in a court of law, "fraudulently representing himself as a celibate religious leader or swami although he had sex with several of his devotees during 30 years at the helm of Ananda." Several women came forward during the civil trial to testify that Walters had sexually exploited them.

rdf:langString J. Donald Walters (James Donald Walters)