A Pilgrimage to the Temples of Ananda Village
Pilgrimage offers us a unique time to go inward, to affirm divine connections with the Infinite Consciousness at a physical place that has been imbued with higher consciousness, meditation, prayer, and the vibrations of people seeking God. For over fifty years Ananda Village has been such a place, inspiring spiritual experiences in pilgrims who have felt the call to awaken or deepen the heart’s devotion. When people spend quiet time in holy places, immersed in the presence of God, Divine Love is easily perceptible, helping pilgrims on the journey of uplifting their consciousness.
Ananda Village is home to more than a dozen temples that regularly host meditations and spiritual events.
1. Temple of Light
The Temple of Light is dedicated to all religions and serves as a beacon of blessings for the world. Areas of the temple sanctuary honor Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam.
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2. Teaching Temple
The Expanding Light Temple is used for guests on retreat and students training at the Ananda School of Yoga and Meditation.
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3. Lahiri Mandir
A short distance to the west, between the Expanding Light Temple and Lotus Lake, lies the Lahiri Mandir, a small temple dedicated to Lahiri Mahasaya (1828–1895).
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4. Pavilion of Gratitude
The Ananda Pavilion of Gratitude reflects our spiritual path of Self-realization and the understanding that Paramhansa Yogananda has given us about the transition from life with a physical body to life without one.
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5. Master's Vista
With arms upraised in blessing, Yogananda’s statue sends the liberating light of truth to all who will receive it.
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6.Hansa Temple
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.
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7. Shrine of the Masters
This holy place is the Ananda Village Reliquary, a small museum and shrine housing many relics from several Indian saints.
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8. St. Francis Chapel
A short walk down the steps from the reliquary is the iconic Crystal Hermitage Chapel that was designed after the Porziuncola of Saint Francis of Assisi. The name Porziuncola (meaning “small portion of land”) is the place from which Saint Francis’s Franciscan movement started.
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9. Crystal Hermitage Dome
Considered the heart of Ananda Village, Crystal Hermitage includes the home of Ananda’s founder, Swami Kriyananda. From 1969 to 2013, Kriyananda used the dome for meditations, Kriya Yoga Initiations, and special community events.
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10. Moksha Mandir
The jewel in the crown of Crystal Hermitage Gardens is the Moksha Mandir, at the very end of the gardens on the lowest terrace overlooking the Yuba River gorge. It was completed in 2015, two years after the death of Swami Kriyananda, as a memorial to his life and passing.
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11. Temple of Joy
The temple was created by Ananda University, who used the retreat for their campus from 2002–2012. The temple is hand-built, and includes several artistic creations. A natural thatched roof makes the temple look a bit like a hat, and the temple’s circular shape and earthen walls offer a cozy meditation experience.
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12. Temple of Silence
The Temple of Silence, is Ananda’s oldest temple. It has been rebuilt twice; the site has been used for over fifty years now by practitioners of Kriya Yoga, an advanced meditation technique brought to the West by Paramhansa Yogananda.
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13. Babaji’s Cave
Many years ago, shortly before the Meditation Retreat gardens were created, a small group of people had just attended a sacred Kriya Initiation in the Temple of Silence. As they left the temple, they saw Mahavatar Babaji meditating on a small hill above an underground room now called the Babaji Cave. He was overlooking the spot where we’d been planning to site a garden pool. The pool has since been named the “Babaji Pool,” dedicated to that saint whom Yogananda wrote about in Autobiography of a Yogi.
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