The Lawsuits, and the Fight for Freedom

Throughout the 1980s, Ananda expanded to become a truly international organization. Swami Kriyananda and Ananda members were expressing Yogananda’s teachings in ever-new ways. Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), until then the only large organization representing the guru, came to view Ananda’s expansion as a threat to what it considered its rightful property: Yogananda’s name, his teachings, and even the guru himself.

Thus, SRF launched a trademark and copyright lawsuit in 1990, intending to gain control over Yogananda’s teachings. Their aim was to do so by beating Ananda in court, or by crippling or destroying Ananda through debt incurred through having to defend itself legally.

The lawsuit was not only an attempt at religious monopoly, but also represented a personal attack on Swami Kriyananda. In A Place Called Ananda, Kriyananda writes that Daya Mata, the President of SRF, once observed, “It isn’t the good people of Ananda I have anything against. It’s Kriyananda.”

Kriyananda’s words in A Place Called Ananda sum up his response to this persecution:

SRF’s claims in the lawsuit included exclusive rights to Yogananda’s name, likeness, and voice. SRF also went so far as to claim exclusive rights to the universal term “Self-Realization.”

The sheer weight of the financial burden necessary to defend Ananda was staggering – and while SRF hired lawyers from one of the largest law firms in the world, Ananda could only afford, in the beginning, one sole practitioner!

High spiritual principles were at stake, however: religious freedom, and the right of disciples to serve their Guru publicly. Kriyananda and his fellow members of Ananda could not back down in the face of this challenge.

Tests and Trials

Ananda’s “legal team,” consisting of Kriyananda, the above-mentioned sole practitioner Jon Parsons, and a 10-person advisory group of Ananda devotees, put in long hours over the 12-year course of the the litigation.

Practicing adherence to the highest truth above all, Ananda was awarded point after point by the court. SRF, in its continuing attempt to gain control of Yogananda’s teachings, resorted to repeated appeals, based on a number of surprising claims:

1. Yogananda wrote all his books as a paid employee of SRF, and under SRF’s full control.
2. All his books were written by committee efforts, rather than by his own.

In 1994 a second lawsuit was filed by a former member of Ananda  with connections to SRF. In time, this suit became a personal attack against Swami Kriyananda, complete with claims that Ananda was a “power-hungry cult,” and that Kriyananda was a man without moral scruples. This lawsuit is covered in greater depth in Faith Is My Armor: The Life of Swami Kriyananda, by Devi Novak, one of the Spiritual Directors of Ananda. In it, Devi writes that the lead opposing lawyer, himself a long-time SRF member, shouted at one of Ananda’s ministers, “You can tell your Swami I’m going to destroy him!”

Unfortunately, people are all too ready to believe that when someone does something good, he must have an ulterior motive. In this second trial, the jury eventually decided against Ananda and Swami Kriyananda.

Both of these trials, with their combined weight of financial burden, proved a hardy forge for strengthening the faith and spiritual vigor of Ananda members, including, foremost, Swami Kriyananda. Devi Novak once remarked to him, “I don’t know if I have the strength to endure what you have had to go through in your lifetime.” He replied, “I didn’t know that I had the strength. But faith is my armor.”

Victory at Last

By the conclusion of the lawsuit in 2002, Ananda had won over 95% of the copyright case filed by SRF 12 years earlier. By doing so, Ananda had established a vital historical and legal precedent for religious freedom. Despite the continuing challenge of servicing the debt incurred during the years of litigation, Ananda’s work has flourished worldwide, founding new communities and building a new temple in Assisi, Italy.

Even during the years of the lawsuits, Swami Kriyananda never stopped sharing with others the joy he was feeling inside. Writing, teaching, and , in 1997, leading a singing tour to raise money for earthquake victims, he continually labored to give help to those who were receptive. He knew that an outpouring of positive energy was Ananda’s best defense, and its biggest tool for survival, for generosity itself in time attracts success.

Next:

1. 

   Ananda India: The Culmination of a Life’s Work

   Only one year after the end of the lawsuits, Kriyananda returned to India to finish the work he had started many years before. He has met with incredible success.