Perched on a hill overlooking downtown Ananda Village, just below the Rajarshi Park business complex, is Hansa Mandir. Those driving to Crystal Hermitage may notice it above them a short distance past Turtle Pond on the corner of Brotherhood Way and Ayodhya Way. Hansa means swan in Sanskrit. In Vedic lore, the swan is often identified with the supreme spirit or ultimate reality. Hence, the flight of the swan symbolizes moksha: ultimate liberation or enlightenment. The Hansa Mandir roofline was designed to suggest a bird in flight.
Hansa Mandir was originally built as Ananda’s Publication Building in the early 1970’s under the creative direction of Swami Kriyananda, and was transformed into Hansa Mandir in the early 1990’s. There is an intriguing story that Kriyananda tells about the building in his book, A Place Called Ananda: “Again and again, miracles saved us—like the day our carpenters, constructing the publications building (renamed since then, Hansa Mandir), were saved from disaster. The roof had an unusual design, which the men couldn’t carry to completion. Extensive research hadn’t produced a solution for its construction. The men were literally leaving the job when a car drove up, and a man stepped out of it. ‘I’ve come from Santa Barbara today—five hundred miles!’ he announced. ‘My purpose in coming was to ask if there’s anything I can do to help you.’ The men explained their predicament, whereupon the visitor exclaimed, ‘Why, I’m probably the only builder in California who knows just the technique you need for this job. It’s something I learned in Canada, brought over from the Orient.’ With his help, the roof was completed.”
And from that same book: “I remembered how often Yogananda quoted the suggestion made to him by an architect: ‘Immortalize your teachings in architecture.’ The Master agreed with him. A spiritual teaching ought to be clothed in a form that expressed the consciousness it seeks to inspire.”
Hansa Mandir has been used for community-wide meditations, special services and events, and sacred Kriya Yoga Initiations. Hansa Mandir can be visited on guided tours or during meditations open to the public.
