Welcome to Ananda Michigan!
Ananda is a global movement based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, who showed how everyone can realize God in their daily lives as a tangible, loving reality. You can expand your sense of harmony, and gain an increased sense of God’s active presence in your life through ancient and effective techniques including meditation, Kriya Yoga, spiritually oriented Hatha Yoga, community, and divine friendship.
Paramhansa Yogananda was a great Indian master of yoga who lived and taught in the United States from 1920 until he consciously left his body in 1952. He may be most well-known as the author of the best-selling spiritual classic “Autobiography of a Yogi”. Yogananda first lectured in Michigan in 1926 and he returned often.
Ananda Worldwide is a thriving worldwide movement dedicated to living and sharing with others the meditation and yoga teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda. Ananda was founded by Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters), a direct disciple of Yogananda. Ananda Worldwide includes spiritual communities in America, Europe and India, with hundreds of resident members. Swami passed in 2013.
J. Oliver Black was a successful Detroit Area auto magnate who, through Yogananda’s training, also became highly advanced in meditation and yoga. It was due to J. Oliver Black’s magnetic influence and inspiration that Ananda Michigan eventually came into existence.
Ananda Michigan is an outreach of Ananda Worldwide. The founder of Ananda Michigan, Lorne Dekun, practiced meditation in the Kriya Yoga tradition from 1967 until his passing in 2013. His primary teachers were Direct-Disciples of Paramhansa Yogananda: Yogacharya J. Oliver Black and Swami Kriyananda.