Ananda receives Global Ambassador of Peace Award at the United Nations Church Center
Ananda receives Global Ambassador Peace Award from the Institute of International Social Development (IISD), an international NGO in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council at the United Nations.
The Spiritual Directors of Ananda, Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi, received the award on November 17, 2017 in the Tillman Chapel at the United Nations Church Center in New York City.
“IISD is honored to give Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi the Global Ambassador Peace Award for the inspiring ways Ananda brings to life Paramhansa Yogananda’s spiritual wisdom,” said Shomik Chaudhuri, President of IISD. “We believe they can transform the world.”
“Yogananda came to show how everyone can use meditation and Kriya Yoga to enhance their daily life,” explained Nayaswami Jyotish.
“We all need to take personal responsibility for the state of our world today,” said Nayaswami Devi. “Only with an uplifted consciousness will we achieve sustainable living and harmony on our planet. Meditation is how we can be the change we wish to see in the world.”
This year, Ananda founded Be the Change. Already close to 2,300 people in 70 countries have pledged their meditation minutes.
Ananda directly provides for the basic needs, and personal care, of more than 4,000 widows abandoned in the holy city of Vrindavan, India.
“People need someone who cares for them,” said Nayaswami Jyotish. “It’s not enough to just provide basic needs. Our service to the widows restores their dignity and divinity.”
Several NGO’s are replicating Ananda’s model of service in Vrindavan, operated through the Paramhansa Yogananda Public Charitable Trust. Ananda has applied for consultative status with the United Nations ECOSOC.
Founded in 1969, Ananda has grown into a spiritual movement of 140,000 people worldwide in 28 countries and online. It includes eight cooperative, spiritual communities, retreat centers and non-sectarian schools.
Each April over 7,000 people visit the original Ananda Village to experience 19,000 tulips in bloom at Crystal Hermitage Gardens, a VIA Magazine “Gorgeous Garden of the West.”
Paramhansa Yogananda authored of the spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi. In 1920, Yogananda came to the United States to address a conference of religious liberals in Boston, MA. The Los Angeles Times wrote “Thousands being turned away from the 3,000-seat Philharmonic Auditorium…Swami Yogananda is the attraction.”
As emissaries of Yogananda, Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi travel the world sharing the practical and heart-opening path of Kriya Yoga.
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