It is a great blessing to live at Ananda Village, where its members have chosen lives of simplicity, selflessness, and dedication to God. At Christmastime, we often give each other little gifts that remind us of our shared devotion and that inspire us to seek God more deeply. This year two friends gave to everyone copies of a letter that Swami Kriyananda wrote to the community some years ago.
As I read it, tears filled my eyes as memories of so many Christmases with Swamiji flooded my heart. We want to share excerpts from it as his (and our) Christmas gift to you. Below you’ll also find a link to Swamiji singing this beautiful song.
Dec. 17, 1991
Dear Friends:
Just twenty-six years ago this month I wrote a very special song, one that has remained for many people a favorite among my compositions. I still recall repeatedly wiping away the tears that I might see to write. It was a carol, and I gave it the name, “The Christmas Mystery.” The refrain went:
Who’ll tell to me this mystery:
How a tiny babe in a manger laid
Could so many hearts to love persuade?
This holy son of Mary.
We human beings have a tendency to look at the world around us superficially. We don’t see the deeper realities. When it comes to religion, we view it in terms of its outward labels: Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam. Thus, we overlook the essential message, which is one of inward reformation. By superficial worship we blind ourselves to the deep truths on which all the truly great religions were founded.
Though we, as human beings, are born into imperfection and limitation, our eternal—and indeed our only—mission in life is, through the lessons we learn here on earth, to unite our souls with the infinite Source of all life.
The religious spirit is that aspect of human nature which reaches up in longing for eternal realities. And religion itself is that teaching, and that code of behavior, which inspires and guides mankind toward the fulfillment of this soul aspiration.
Let us give birth to Divine Love in our hearts.
Let us then, during this Christmas season, view the birth of Jesus as—yes—a very special event in history, but also as one of the sweetest expressions of universal truth. Let the birth of Divine Love two thousand years ago in that little form inspire us to conceive, and give birth to, divine love within ourselves through the virgin purity of our hearts’ devotion to God.
In this way, Christmas can become a holy season not for Christians alone, but for people everywhere on earth, regardless of their outward religious affiliations.
The three wise men, who visited the Christ child with so much respect and adoration, came as representatives of the other great world religions. Let us, like them, open our hearts and souls to Universal Love as it calls out to us from altars of religion everywhere. Thus, may we solve at last that eternal challenge to our human understanding: the Christmas Mystery.
With love always in Him,
Swami Kriyananda
In this spirit, we wish you a blessed Christmas.
Nayaswami Devi
Swami Kriyananda sings “The Christmas Mystery”
31 Comments
Dear Devi ji,
This is truly a Christmas gift you have given.Thank you! Thank you!! Loved it.
I’m glad to have been awake at the early, early morning hour when this arrived in my mailbox! What a lovely way to open this blessed day. Merry Christmas to all the beloved souls at Ananda and everywhere! It is a blessing to live anywhere in the wider “village” of God-consciousness.
Der Devi Ji
Thank you!
I have tears filled my eies to. I meet swami Kriyananda in Ananda Asisi and i mees thet to bee in present of Holly Men. Trank you!
Happy Chrtismas
How beautiful to receive your message in my mailbox this morning <3
Merry Christmas to you and your dear ones from heart to heart <3
in ever new joy serving God and Guru with love in Christ consciousness,
a joyful hug from your Assisi home <3
Many thanks, light and blessings to dear Swamiji <3
mirabai
The first thing i saw after I woke up this morning. It’s like a realization of the first ‘Christmas.
Dear Nayaswami Devi,
Thank you for this beautiful gift.
Wish you a Happy Christmas. Please convey our christmas greetings to all of Ananda family and Master’s Children
In Master’s love
Prem
I am tingling and misty eyed from reading this incredible loving message. So very beautiful and inspiring. Thank you for sharing it with us; it is a wonderful and true Christmas gift. Thank you dearly; my day is complete. Merry Christmas & Many Joyous Blessings!!!
Thank you for this very inspiring gift! Blessings of love and light to all.
My husband recently passed leaving me with tremendous challenges. New experiences, no finances, having to move out of our ranch, etc.
My many friends gave me strength and help + your wonderful sharings. If I did have $$$$, I would surely send it! I give you warmth and great strength reaching so many people with memories of all. When I was in Calif., I did come up to Ananda many times experiencing beautiful memories which I still see in my mind’s eye all the time. wishing everyone there a wonderful, divine season.
Devi, Thank you for keeping it real with this beautiful message and a life dedicated to God and love.
Our guru is a light shining on the world from Ananda.
Dear Ji’s
Merry Christmas I am feeling Very Very Happy for the sharing which is a Blessing and Christmas Gift From you Acharyas.
With Gratitude
R Sundararajan
Respected Nayaswami Devi,
Thank you for this beautiful spiritual gift. OM CHRIST BLISS TO ALL OF US
Wish you a Happy Christmas.
NAWIN SHARMA
As I listen to Swami’s voice, I remember the re-awakening of the Christmas spirit that Ananda brought to me 14 years ago. May everyone feel that spirit everyday in the coming new year.
Joy to you Jyotish and Devi, and to all of Ananda.
May the Light and Love that is this holiday season, that underlies all of how it came to be, live in you and shine in you now and forever. May your hearts feel open and your lives feel blessed.
Love to all of you, Shanti
That’s a beautiful letter– thank you so much for sharing it! I think too that “The Christmas Mystery” is one of Swami’s most inspiring songs, and so very perfect for this “Holy-day” season. Thanks again!
Thank you…I pray that all of you have a very joyous Christmas..that everyone may feel & express the Christ within today & always.Love,greg
Christmas mystery massage spreads universal love from all directions like pleasant rays .
Let universal love flow from all directions like pleasant rays .
Bless you for sharing this gift with us. I had watched the midnight mass with Pope Francis at St Peter’s Basilica and thought when listening to Swami singing the Christmas Mystery how far Christ’s love had reached into the world. There were people from every part of the globe participating. And yet the simple message is found in Swami’s song.
Thank you, Devi….
Blessed Christmas
The Ultimate Message of all Spiritual Christmas Messages!
With the greatest joy you have helped us receive this wonderful Gift!
Thank you for the gift of your lives given to God, Swamiji and Master!
Thank you for sharing this Christmas message and song from Swami. So very beautiful.
Thank you so much Devi. I had forgotten this beautiful song and it brought tears as I read your message
and listened to Swamiji sing. Christmas blessings to you and Jyotish and all of my dear friends at Ananda.
Dear Jyotish and Devi, I thank you for continuing inspiration you are sending us through these newsletters. This was for me a christmas special. After so many years I have made a crib in honor of my mother who has left the body last year.
In fact, thanks to the cribs that she realized with much love every Christmas when I was little I could vibrate “The Christmas Mystery”. This year I was able to try again that wonderful magical and powerful vibration that made me feel close to the baby Jesus, the Christ rising.
When trying this, I deeply thanked Swamiji and all my spiritual family of Ananda in the world, especially you who though so far away, you are so close to our heart.
Thanks for all your support and love
I pray with all my heart a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year.
Joy in Christ, Rashmi Ananda Assisi
I wish you all of Ananda a beautifull season of the year where wonder is always around.
With much love,Dominic Lagae
Thanks for sharing this wonderful message.
Thank you guruji. May the divine energy led me and all
THANK YOU SO MUCH. YOU HAVE CREATED SOME
JOY IN MY HOLIDAY. !!!!!!
As Swami’s recording engineer I had the blessing of recording him singing this song for an album of spiritual folk songs in the early 1980s. When I had first heard him sing it I thought it was some classic standard written perhaps a hundred years before Swami’s birth which I had somehow missed. Then I learned that Swami composed this song. I was amazed, but then I was amazed by so much of his music.
Such beautiful thoughts by Swamiji… very moving and insightful, food for pondering. Thank you Devi, blessings love and joy to you, Jyotish and the worldwide Ananda community!