Sri Goswami Kriyananda
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     Goswami Kriyananda (born Melvin Higgins April 1928, died April 2015) was a Kriya Yoga mystic, astrologer, author and lecturer whose selected books and teachings have been translated into French, Spanish, Dutch and Italian. He taught the ancient spiritual science of Kriya Yoga, which he learned from his guru, the yogi and kabbalist Shelly Trimmer, who was a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda.
     In the 1960s Kriyananda founded the Temple of Kriya Yoga in Chicago, Illinois, USA. His French disciples later created the Centre de Kriya Yoga, France, which offers Kriya Yoga teachings and French translations of all of his works. (Goswami Kriyananda should not be confused with Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters), founder of Ananda. Goswami Kriyananda’s Temple of Kriya Yoga in Chicago, Illinois, USA, and the Centre de Kriya Yoga, France are not affiliated with Ananda or the Self-Realization Fellowship in California, USA.)​

1928-2015

Early Life
     Kriyananda was born Melvin Higgins in 1928 in Chicago, Illinois. His father passed away during his early childhood, leaving his mother with three young sons. His mother remarried a man who unbeknownst to her, was already the father of eight children. Kriyananda thus immediately became one of the middle children in a family of 13. He said that growing up in this large family with much “insanity” and little money, was a profound training not to be selfish emotionally. In later life, he considered his stepfather a very good man, and in a sense a highly evolved soul. Kriyananda was always deeply devoted to his mother.

     Kriyananda was an excellent student, but as a youth, his family’s lack of social status placed obstacles and lessons in his way. When teaching in his seventies, he recalled applying to one of the famous New England colleges and passing all the admission tests. In the final interview, he was asked what his father did for a living. He replied that his father had died and his stepfather was a railroad switchman. This disqualified him for admission, because, he was frankly told, the college could accept only students with the appropriate social background to “rule the world.” He said that this rejection naturally made him hurt and angry, but that mystically, if we feel we must be in first place we will not learn on the astral planes, where humans are among the lowest forms of life because they consume other beings to live.
     As a young child, Kriyananda began having mystical experiences, but did not understand their significance. He said, “I would ask other people if they dreamed in color or dimensions, or if they felt certain vibrations or saw what I saw. They never did, so I thought maybe there was something wrong with my mental computer. Once I realized there were certain types of people called mystics, 

I knew I was not alone.” He also questioned the Christian teachings of the time, that God is good but suffering exists in the world due to God’s wrath, man’s sins, or the devil testing humans. Kriyananda later wrote and taught extensively about the law of karma: that by our thoughts, words and actions, we alone are responsible for the circumstances of our past, present and future lives.
​     An introvert and a prolific reader, Kriyananda eventually discovered a book about yoga. “By good karma,” he said, “I came across a library book on yoga that made one simple statement: the value of yoga allows one to experience and, through that experience, to know for one’s self. And that gave me hope.”

    While Kriyananda was in high school, a friend’s mother told him about Shelly Trimmer, who she believed shared his interest in yoga, and who was to become Kriyananda’s guru. Kriyananda stated: “I got Shelley’s address, and I wrote him and asked, 'Do you know anything about yoga?' And he wrote me back a short note: 'The only thing I know about yoga is what I learned sitting at the feet of a Hindu master.' It was Yoganandaji of whom he spoke.”

Kriya Yoga Training
     Over the next years Kriyananda repeatedly visited Shelly at his ashram, a small cabin in northern Minnesota where Shelly lived with his wife, Marjorie, and their children. After two years in college studying mathematics, chemistry and physics, Kriyananda became Shelly’s disciple and moved to the ashram to study Kriya Yoga full time. He did so over the vehement objections of his mother, from whom he remained estranged for several years. Choosing to live his own life rather than his mother’s life was a key spiritual lesson for him.
     In the ashram, he learned about Kriya Yoga from his guru, and also studied astrology. Kriyananda had no interest or belief in astrology until Shelly asked him to debunk it, and Kriyananda found he could not do so. In his book The Laws of Karma, Kriyananda explained that the astrological chart is indispensable to softening karma, because it is “based upon a time-space relationship and is mathematically based. It does not get emotionally involved.”
     Kriyananda’s guru Shelly Trimmer (1917-1996) was a highly accomplished mystic who had studied with Paramahansa Yogananda in his youth and was accepted as a disciple by the world-famous Indian guru. He lived very simply, seldom taught in public, was employed as a television repairman, and did not seek to publish his teachings or publicize himself. Kriyananda called him a “hermit,” and described Shelly as being “a million times more evolved than myself.” He continued receiving instruction from Shelly for the rest of Shelly’s life, and beyond.

Military service
During the Korean War, Kriyananda was forced to leave the ashram when he was drafted into the U.S. Army and, as a conscientious objector, became a battlefield medic. He witnessed carnage and death while trying to help both American and Korean soldiers. He later wrote that a soldier experiencing the loss of his legs without self-pity taught him a lesson he should have learned in the ashram – that even when heavy karma fires, a positive attitude can soften the effect on one’s life. Attitude is everything.

Work in the Business World
     After returning from the army, Kriyananda studied philosophy for four years at the University of Illinois. He then began a business career. In his teachings, he often mentioned being employed as a well-paid junior executive for a cosmetics company, and the lessons chemistry can teach us about karma. Eventually he left the business world to teach Kriya Yoga full-time. He said that despite the financial hardship this caused, he was far happier doing spiritual work.

Kriya Yoga Teaching and Legacy
     Beginning on a small scale, for several years in the 1950s Kriyananda taught a group of about 15 students in his home near the University of Chicago. In the late 1960s he opened the Temple of Kriya Yoga in the Fine Arts Building in downtown Chicago. In the following years he moved the Temple to several downtown locations. In the early 1970s, the Temple offered the first hatha yoga teacher training program in the Chicago area, and also sponsored the first yoga festival at McCormick Place Convention Center.

     Kriyananda was extremely hard working, lecturing, teaching classes for the public, his disciples and aspiring swamis (yogic priests), conducting an astrology practice, publishing books and managing the Temple. Most of the responsibility for paying the Temple’s heavy expenses fall on him. He impressed those drawn to his teachings by his deep knowledge of astrology and mystical subjects, yet his easy approachability and simple, unpretentious lifestyle.
     In 1979, the Temple moved to the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, remaining there for the rest of Kriyananda’s life. Kriyananda and his large group of disciples offered a wide variety of classes on Kriya Yoga, hatha yoga, astrology and mysticism. In the ensuing years they expanded the Temple’s reach by offering courses through the mail. Some of these courses included four-day retreats that Kriyananda would teach at the Temple or at retreat centers in the Chicago area. The Temple certified graduates as professional astrologers, meditation teachers, yoga teachers and swamis (yogic priests). Eventually, the certification courses began to be taught online.
     The Temple of Kriya Yoga became a mainstay of hatha yoga, spiritual and astrology instruction in Chicago. By the time he reached his eighties, Goswami Kriyananda was receiving hundreds of emails daily from spiritual seekers, and was regularly contacted by the press with questions about yoga. By this time, Kriyananda was teaching over the internet as well as in person. Many of his video teachings can be viewed free online at www.yogakriya.org.
     From the beginning of his teaching career, Kriyananda considered the sharing of his guru’s teachings to be overwhelmingly important. Most of Kriyananda’s classes were recorded and/or filmed. He hoped that these teachings would be shared with students in the future, after the death of his physical body. Likewise, he expected his disciples and students to remember the oral teachings and share them far into the future. He always intended that the recorded and written teachings would be shared via the Temple of Kriya Yoga.
     Kriyananda published 14 books on Kriya Yoga, mysticism and astrology from 1968 to 2015. All of his books have been translated into French, and some into Spanish, Italian and Dutch. His best-known book is The Spiritual Science of Kriya Yoga, published in 1976. The books in English are now available in electronic form as well as hardcopy volumes.
     Temple-trained astrology, yoga and meditation teachers have gone on to train many students of their own. Temple swamis continue to offer spiritual guidance to members of the public, as well as officiating at baptisms, weddings, and death-rebirth rituals. Kriyananda’s disciples have opened Kriya Yoga teaching centers and yoga studios throughout the United States and in some countries abroad, and they have trained their own disciples and students in Kriya Yoga techniques.
     The Centre de Kriya Yoga France was established by Kriyananda’s French disciples. It offers extensive teaching about Kriya Yoga as well as translations of all his books and courses. Kriyananda regularly taught his French and American disciples and other spiritual seekers at retreats in France.

Personal life
     Kriyananda lived in Chicago until the late 1980s. After experiencing health problems, he semiretired from Temple work and moved to Kauai, Hawaii, teaching there and managing the Temple from a distance for seven years. He then relocated to southern France, where he lived and taught until his passing in 2015. He was married and widowed twice. His first wife, Joanna Higgins, passed away in 1981, and his second wife, Rebecca Romanoff, passed away in 2013. In his teachings, he always referred to both with the utmost love, gratitude and respect, frequently acknowledging their attainments. In addition to pursuing successful careers, both were ordained Mahaswamis of the Temple of Kriya Yoga.

Final years
     Although semiretired after leaving Chicago in the late 1980s, Kriyananda continued a full teaching schedule, guided a large number of students and disciples, and managed the Temple of Kriya Yoga until the end of his life. He usually returned to Chicago at least yearly to teach at the Temple, in addition to his live teachings elsewhere in the United States, in France, and in other countries.
     Although in declining health, Kriyananda continued to work until the end of his life, completing his last internet course, The Astral of Rebirth, a few months before his passing at age 86 in April 2015.

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