Kriyananda

J. Donald Walters was born on May 19, 1926, in Teleajen, Romania, to American parents, Ray P. and Gertrude G. Walters. His father was an oil geologist with the Esso Corporation (since renamed Exxon in the United States) who was then assigned to the Romanian oilfields. He received an international education in Romania, Switzerland, England, and the United States. He attended Haverford College and Brown University, leaving the latter with only a semester left before graduation to dedicate his life to searching for God.[10]

In a New York City bookstore in September, 1948, Walters found Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, a book he says transformed his life. By September 12, Walters had decided to leave his old life behind, became a vegetarian, and soon afterwards traveled cross-country by bus to southern California to become one of Yogananda's disciples.[1]

In Hollywood, Walters first met Yogananda at the Self-Realization Fellowship temple there and was accepted as a disciple. As recounted in his autobiography,The New Path,[10] Walters, 22 years old at this point, took up residence with other monks at SRF's mother center headquarters in Los Angeles, located on top of Mount Washington. A year later, Yogananda put Walters in charge of the monks there, asked him to write articles for the SRF magazine, had him lecture at various SRF centers,[10] ordained him a minister, and appointed him to initiate students into Kriya Yoga.[10]

In three and a half years from September of 1948 to March of 1952, Walters took notes of his conversations with Yogananda, publishing them in his 2003 The Essence of Self-Realization[15] and his 2004 Conversations with Yogananda.[16]

On March 7, 1952, Paramahansa Yogananda was a speaker at a banquet for the visiting Indian Ambassador to the United States Binay Ranjan Sen and his wife at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. While giving his speech, Yogananda suddenly dropped to the floor and died. Walters was present in the hall, and this was a pivotal moment for the young monk. In 1953, the SRF published Walter's book, Stories of Mukunda,[17][18] and in 1960 an LP album with him singing Yogananda's Cosmic Chants, entitled Music for Meditation. In 1955, Walters was given his final vows of sannyas into the order of Shankaracharya swami by Daya Mata, SRF president from 1955 until her death in 2010, and took the monastic name of "Kriyananda."[19] Regarding this order, Yogananda stated in his Autobiography of a Yogi:

Every swami belongs to the ancient monastic order which was organized in its present form by Shankara. Because it is a formal order, with an unbroken line of saintly representatives serving as active leaders, no man can give himself the title of swami. He rightfully receives it only from another swami; all monks thus trace their spiritual lineage to one common guru, Lord Shankara. By vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the spiritual teacher, many Catholic Christian monastic orders resemble the Order of Swamis.[20]

Kriyananda was made a minister of Yogananda's Hollywood temple,[1] In 1958, when Daya Mata, then President of SRF, traveled to India with Ananda Mata and another nun, he accompanied them. In 1960, upon the death of SRF Board member and Vice President M. W. Lewis, the SRF Board of Directors, who were direct disciples appointed to the board by Yogananda, elected Kriyananda as a member and vice president of the Board. He served in that capacity until dismissed in 1962.[1][19]

Kriyananda remained in India, serving SRF until 1962, when its board of directors voted unanimously to request his resignation.[19] According to Phillip Goldberg, SRF won't say exactly why except that he was self-serving.[21] Kriyananda felt that being dismissed from SRF was unjust.[22]

Self-Realization Fellowship filed suit against James Donald Walters (a.k.a. Kriyananda) and Walters' (then-called) Church of Self-Realization regarding the changing of the name to the Church of Self-Realization and on issues regarding specific writings, photographs and recordings of Paramahansa Yogananda. The litigation lasted for around twelve years (1990–2002). SRF asserted Yogananda wanted SRF to maintain the copyrights to his works and to publish them.[13]

At the jury trial in 2002, SRF prevailed on its assertion that Yogananda repeatedly stated his intentions for SRF to maintain copyrights to his works and to publish them.[13][14]

In 2002, the long litigation was completed with a jury verdict. As reported in The Union, a newspaper located in Grass Valley, California, on October 30, 2002:

The case hinged on the writings and recordings of Paramahansa Yogananda, a native of India who founded Self-Realization Fellowship in the late 1920s. He died in 1952. Walters became a member in 1948 but was "thrown out" in 1962, said Stillman's legal partner, Michael Flynn.

Walters, known as Kriyananda, later started Ananda Village in Nevada County. It became home to hundreds of followers who also revered Yogananda and his words. The group republished his articles and sold his recordings, according to Stillman and Flynn.

Jurors ultimately agreed with Self-Realization Fellowship's argument that Yogananda had repeatedly made his intentions clear before dying - he wanted the Fellowship to maintain copyrights to his works.[13]

Yogananda had incorporated the Self-Realization Fellowship as a nonprofit organization and reassigned all of his property including Mt Washington to the corporation, thereby protecting his assets.[32]

In 1994, the attorney Ford Greene, the lawyer for Anne-Marie Bertolucci, a former resident of Ananda, filed suit against Ananda, Ananda minister Danny Levin, and J. Donald Walters (Kriyananda).[8] Journalist Vicky Anning wrote that "Walters was sued for sexual harassment and fraud by former Ananda member Anne-Marie Bertolucci, whose lawyers claimed Walters fraudulently used his title of swami, implying he was celibate."[6]

At the end of trial in 1998 the jury found the church (Ananda) and Kriyananda guilty. During the trial, six women testified under oath that Kriyananda had taken sexual advantage of them when they were impressionable twentysomethings in search of spiritual advancement. Walters blamed the women who accused him of sexual abuse, saying they thrust their company on him and interrupted his meditations by taking advantage of his sexual weaknesses. Court depositions came from many different women from different areas over a twenty-year period whose only point of contact had been the Ananda church. The church was found liable for "negligent supervision" of Kriyananda, with a finding of "malice and fraud" on the part of the church.[6][8]

Kriyananda was judged to have misrepresented himself as a monk and to have caused emotional trauma, and was ordered to pay $685,000 in compensatory damages, and another $1 million in punitive damages. The jury also found that Levin had made "unwelcome sexual advances".[7] The punitive damages were reduced by $400,000 on appeal. The Ananda Church responded to the million-plus-dollar judgment by filing for protection under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code.[8] That allowed Ananda to settle the lawsuit by paying $1.8 million to Bertolucci and her attorneys. Ananda hired a private investigator who was caught rummaging in the trash of opposing counsel.[33] The judge's sanctions of Ananda included disallowing the questioning of the many women alleging sexual misconduct against Kriyananda.[8]

In March 2004, Italian authorities raided the Ananda colony in Assisi, responding to allegations of a former resident who accused Ananda Assisi of fraud, usury and labor law violations. Nine residents were detained for questioning. They also had a warrant for Kriyananda's detention, but he was in India. A seven-year-long investigation followed.[34] In March 2009, the judge ruled that the case was "non luogo a procedere perché il fatto non sussiste" (not to be continued as the matter is without substance).