Pink Wave of Love

Goswami Kriyanda, flew through the double doors of the new age bookstore, white dhoti streaming behind him, and ran right into the barrista, a young woman in her 20s.

This was no slow-motion event. They collided.

After making sure she was OK, Kriyananda threw his arms around her and gave her a big hug. A massive pink wave of love and bliss filled the room. OK, it might not have actually been visibly pink, but it was palpable. (I’m not making this up.)

Sri Goswami Kriyananda was the founder and spiritual preceptor of the Temple of Kriya Yoga for many decades until his passing in 2015. His guru was Sri Shelliji who was a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda. Kriyananda was awesome—a wise person and a huge influence on me and many thousands of others, through his talks and his books. (He’s on YouTube.) The temple still exists, it’s in Chicago, in the Logan Square neighborhood.

So you know, I wasn’t a devotee, only rarely went to the temple, and even more rarely did any yoga. I just liked to go see Kriyananda on occasion because I always came away wiser for it. He’s the one who taught me that one teaches with their vibration, something I tell my authors all the time. But I digress (maybe).

The store was Transitions Book Place (1989-2008), which was in a strip mall next to Whole Foods in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. Its owners hosted many inspirational speakers in the cafe. The reason Kriyananda was there was to give a talk and it was packed. After he’d been introduced, the barrista asked to approach the lectern, and naturally Kriyananda yielded it to her.

She told us a story about another “spiritual leader” who had been there the previous week. She was delivering him some tea and he was speaking to someone and did not see her, so she touched his sleeve to let him know she was there. His response was to loudly castigate her for deigning to touch “his holiness.” Through tears, she said that Kriyananda’s loving response to the earlier event had neutralized the sting of that humiliation, and she was grateful.

I don’t remember what Kriyananda’s talk was about anymore and it doesn’t matter. For me the teaching happened before he spoke a word. From that moment, I knew I also wanted to be someone whose presence could fill a room with love and bliss.

That was 20 years ago. I’m nowhere near as good at it as Kriyananda and likely won’t ever be. Still, it’s an aspiration worth practicing because that day also made me realize this: Love is all that matters.

xo hb

P.S. A big pink wave of love is on its way to you right now. WHOOSH! ;-)