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Sunday Satsangs
in the Ananda Assisi Temple of Light
Every Sunday morning at 11:30, the Ananda community and our guests gather in the Temple of Light to celebrate the presence of God within us. The traditional satsang includes music, chanting, meditation, affirmation, and a talk by one of the Ananda Lightbearers, followed by the Festival of Light.
Usually in Italian, the talk is sometimes in English, with Italian translation. A 30-40 minute segment of each satsang is available. The most current satsang is listed here first, with previous ones also available for your inspiration.
Click here to see all the available videos from Ananda Europa.
Ego—Friend or Foe?
4 September 2011, Uma Macfarlane
Video (in English with Italian translation)
St. John of the Cross wrote, “If you would own everything, seek to own nothing.” That which the ego relinquishes, offering it up to soul-consciousness, is reclaimed forever in cosmic consciousness. Nothing is ever lost.
Who Are True Christians?
28 August 2011, Narya Tosetto
Video (in Italian)
Nowhere do we find Jesus condemning, or even gently criticizing, other spiritual masters. His criticisms were reserved for worldly attitudes, and for those hypocritical Pharisees who had allowed religion to become, for them, a pretense.
How Should We Meet Our Tests?
21 August 2011, Anand Stickney
Video (in English with Italian translation)
All of us experience temptation of one kind or another in our lives—some of us, frequently; others, only occasionally. Whether temptation comes to us from our own subconscious, or from outside ourselves, is secondary to the fact that it does come, and that we must deal with it. More important, then, is the question, How to deal with it—in fact, how to deal with tests of any kind?
How Democratic Is Truth?
31 July 2011, Darshan
Video (in Italian)
We live in an age when people assume that knowledge should be available equally to all. In matters susceptible of judgment by normal common sense, however, everyone knows there are exceptions. Access to a control room for intercontinental missiles is limited, by universal consent, to a very few. Access to the controls of a passenger airliner is limited to those with the necessary knowledge for operating them, and also to those with the proper authorization. If people don’t see the disadvantages of making more subtle knowledge universally available, it is only because they are ignorant of the risks involved.
Self-Reliance vs. Self-Reliance
10 July 2011, Narya Tosetto
Video (in Italian)
Our strength must come from within. If that strength comes from the ego, however, instead of from soul-consciousness, it is like a guitar string without its sounding board: the notes it emits will be thin and feeble. Our strength must come from within, but must be coupled with recognition of our inner link with broader and higher realities.
Abiding in God
3 July 2011, Jayadev
Video (in Italian)
How can we “abide in him”? Jesus says, “If my words abide in you.” By words he meant not only his spoken words, but his vibrations, his consciousness, of which the words are only an expression. We must abide by the teachings, but we must also absorb those teachings into ourselves, that they become our own experience. For disciples of this path, the more, in their hearts, they live consciously in the presence of the masters, the more they will find the divine presence living within them.
The Redeeming Light
26 June 2011, Helmut Lauer
Video (in Italian, 23:02 min.)
“Where My light is,” God once told a saint whom the divine light had healed, “no darkness can dwell.” The divine light—pure, calm, liberating—is the only final cure for every kind of delusion: ill health, emotional grief, and spiritual ignorance. Seek it daily in the silence, in deep meditation.
The Eternal Now
Swami Kriyananda, 19 June 2011
Video (in Italian, 52:05 min.)
“When will I find God?” Many devotees have asked this question. Because worldly goals require time, usually, for their fulfillment, we imagine time to be a factor on the spiritual path. And so it is, but only because we think it is! God is as much with us now as He will ever be. It is not He who needs to come to us: We need to come to Him! And that process of coming is a matter of transforming our self-perception.
How Devotees Rise
12 June 2010, Anjali and Claudio Gregorelli
Video (in Italian, 26:10 min.)
Never allow a moment of inner joy, for instance, to be set aside for lesser “duties.” Divine attunement is our highest priority. As Lahiri Mahasaya, the guru of Yogananda’s guru, said, “To listen to the heart’s inner sound (AUM, which issues from the very center of our being) is man’s highest duty.”
Sunday Service in Ananda Los Angeles, California
12 June 2011, Shivani Lucki
Why Do Devotees Fall?
5 June 2011, Anand Stickney
Video (in English with Italian translation, 28:47 min.)
An endlessly fascinating question is, Why did Judas fall after receiving the extraordinary blessing of being accepted into the inner circle of Jesus Christ’s disciples? For Judas was one of the twelve apostles. Yet he betrayed Jesus, and earned for himself the opprobrium of Christendom for all futurity for his sin.
The Inner Kingdom
29 May 2011, Mayadevi Lauer
Video (in Italian, 20:21 min.)
Most people imagine that the “inner kingdom,” as Jesus described it, lacks the fascination they attribute to sense life: the bright lights, the diverse attractions, the joys and the laughter. Little do they realize what a vast universe exists in their own selves!
Sunday Service in Ananda Los Angeles, California
15 May 2011, Shivani Lucki
Resurrection for Every Soul
24 April 2011 (Easter), Narya Tosetto
Video (in Italian, 21:21 min.)
Resurrection, Yogananda explained, means transformation, ultimately, from any lower state of being to a higher one. Worldly consciousness cannot imagine such transformation except in terms of, perhaps, an improvement of the present mess of potage with the addition of a new flavoring. Divine consciousness, however, is capable of taking the base metal of worldliness and transforming it into the spiritual gold of divine wisdom and love.
Who Is This Son of Man?
17 April 2011 (Palm Sunday), Helmut Lauer
Video (in Italian, 22:30 min.)
Was Jesus a human being, merely? Those who, on Palm Sunday, called him king little realized the actual nature of his kingdom. He was far more than what they imagined. Yes, of course he ate, drank, walked, slept, and talked like others. His consciousness, however, was centered in infinity.
How High Should We Aspire?
10 April 2011, Shantidev Graff
Video (in Italian, 32:13 min.)
Don’t be satisfied with a goodness born merely of ego-definitions. The highest virtue is to transcend the very thought of personal virtue in the realization of God alone as the Doer. Before this realization, even the thought, “I am kind,” or, “I am truthful,” is self-limiting.
Sunday Service in Ananda Los Angeles, California
3 April 2011, Shivani Lucki
To Each According to His Faith
3 April 2011, various ministers
Video (in English and Italian with translation, 35:25 min.)
Our faith is the attractive power of our underlying state of consciousness.
Goodness attracts goodness; it takes goodness even to see goodness.
Evil attracts evil, and it takes evil even to see evil—
that is, to take special note of its existence.
Deeds vs. Intentions
27 March 2011, Mayadevi Lauer
Video (in Italian, 26:57 min.)
Jesus Christ emphasized repeatedly the spirit, not the letter, of the law. In Chapter 5 of the Gospel of St. Matthew he speaks of the sin of killing, and of the legal punishment attendant on that sin, but says that more important than the act is the desire to kill, or to do harm.
Dogmatism vs. Common Sense
6 March 2011, Jayadev
Video (in Italian, 26:32 min.)
Jesus here, as indeed many times during his teaching, counsels people to use their God-given common sense, and not to rely on high-flown but undemonstrable claims. Common sense goes beyond abstract reason, for it is rooted in actual experience.
Even common sense, however, is deficient when the judgment called for goes beyond sensory experience. Ultimately, what he emphasized always, therefore, was intuitive perception.
How Devotees Rise
13 June 2010, Triveni
Video (in Italian, 16:35 min.)
Never allow a moment of inner joy, for instance, to be set aside for lesser “duties.” Divine attunement is our highest priority. As Lahiri Mahasaya, the guru of Yogananda’s guru, said, “To listen to the heart’s inner sound (AUM, which issues from the very center of our being) is man’s highest duty.”
Activity vs. Inner Communion
16 May 2010, Claudio and Anjali Gregorelli
Video (in Italian, 30:54 min.)
Wrong attitude was the object of his criticism. What he was criticizing was forgetfulness of the true goal of right, spiritual action. Good deeds, outwardly, without inner communion with God, will result in good karma but will not bring final freedom from all karma.
Sunday Satsang with Nayaswami Kriyananda
9 May 2010
Video (in Italian, 42:02 min.)
The Secret of Right Action
2 May 2010, Narya Tosetto
Video (in Italian, 22:24 min.)
Jesus didn’t tell Martha: “Martha, you are doing too much.” He told her, rather, “You are letting your work affect your inner peace.” That was the contrast: not work vs. contemplation, but restless preoccupation vs. peaceful absorption under all circumstances.
Perfection Is Self-Transcendence
25 April 2010, Mayadevi Lauer
Video (in Italian, 24:06 min.)
Strive always to be impersonal, as though whatever happens to you were happening to someone else.
We Are Children of the Light
21 March 2010, Jayadev
Video (in Italian, 24:55 min.)
The great masters, including Jesus Christ, have always emphasized the divine potential of mankind. To encourage us, they address us as children of light, not of darkness.
Reason vs. Intuition
14 March 2010, Narya Tosetto
Video (in Italian, 26:50 min.)
Jesus, when addressing his critics, appealed to reason and common sense. In his training of the disciples, however, he, like all great masters, encouraged in them the development of a higher faculty: soul-intuition. For it is only by intuition that spiritual perceptions are achieved.
The Law Is Perfected in Love
14 February 2010 (Saint Valentine's Day), Helmut Lauer
Video (in Italian, 26:46 min.)
While following the law, we should strive always to trace it back to its origins in the vision of God. Therefore Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita urges the devotee not to be satisfied with spiritual precepts alone, but to go beyond them to the direct, inner experience of truth.
The Mystery of Avatara, or Divine Incarnation
24 January 2010, Uma Macfarlane
Video (in English with Italian translation, 23:55 min.)
The Bhagavad Gita in the fourth Chapter states, as we saw last week: O Bharata, whenever virtue declines and vice predominates, I incarnate on earth. Taking visible form, I come to destroy evil and re-establish virtue.
Is God Present Even There, Where There Is Ignorance?
17 January 2010, Anand Stickney
Video (in English with Italian translation, 40:12 min.)
If there should rise suddenly within the skies
Sunburst of a thousand suns
Flooding earth with beams undeemed-of,
Then might be that Holy One’s
Majesty and radiance dreamed of!
–Arjuna, in the Bhagavad Gita, translated by Sir Edwin Arnold
Did God Create the Universe—or Become It?
10 January 2010, Oliver Graf
Video (in Italian, 28:27 min.)
The Gospel of St. John, Chapter 1, contains a passage that explains the essential truth that creation is a process of becoming. The universe is not separate from God the Creator, but a part of Him even as our own dream-creations, during sleep, are figments of our consciousness.
At the Heart of Silence—the Eternal Word
3 January 2010, Narya Tosetto
Video (in Italian, 27:38 min.)
Divine vision beholds the oneness of cosmic vibration, of which all things, no matter how diverse, are manifestations. Cosmic Sound—the “Word” of God—and Cosmic Light: These are eternal. The world, as revealed to us by our senses, is illusory.
Living in the Presence of God
13 December 2009, Shivani Lucki
Video (in Italian, 32:37 min.)
If you would see God, watch for Him everywhere.
If you would hear His voice, listen for it in all sounds and also in their supporting silences.
If you would know God, seek His wisdom behind merely human knowledge.
For information and reservations:
info@ananda.it Tel: +39 0742-81.36.20 Fax: +39 0742-81.35.36
Ananda is located in the tranquil hills of Umbria, Italy on “Strada Statale 444” between Assisi and Gualdo Tadino. It is the largest retreat center in Europe for Yogananda’s teachings.
Ananda Associazione • Via Montecchio, 61 • I-06025 Nocera Umbra (PG) • ITALY