Carried by a Promise

Swami Rad­hananda was inter­viewed on Dristi Point, a community-based, vol­un­teer orga­ni­za­tion that broad­casts a weekly radio show.  Lis­ten to Rad­hananda talk­ing about her rela­tion­ship to her Guru, Swami Radha, her expe­ri­ences with the Light and the new life that opened as she grew in her com­mit­ment to a spir­i­tual life. Swami Rad­hananda also speaks about mantra, ini­ti­a­tion, and what it means to wel­come Divine Light into your life.

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Car­ried by a Promise is the mov­ing account by Swami Rad­hananda of her devoted rela­tion­ship with her Guru, Swami Sivananda Radha, span­ning many years. Apart from her inner spir­i­tual expe­ri­ences along the way, she also chron­i­cles learn­ing how to deal skil­fully with the power pol­i­tics at play within almost every organ­i­sa­tion, sec­u­lar or spir­i­tual. An impor­tant aspect of any path is this abil­ity to trans­form chal­lenges into oppor­tu­ni­ties for learn­ing and practice.

Ulti­mately it is a story of ded­i­cated love and sur­ren­der to the Divine Light. Swami Radhananda’s absolute devo­tion to Swami Radha shines through­out the pages and is an inspi­ra­tion for us all.

Swami Radha touched the lives of many thou­sands of peo­ple. This extra­or­di­nary account brings us close to her vision and great heart through her pro­found rela­tion­ship with Swami Rad­hananda, the author of this inspir­ing book. May the teach­ings of both these women nour­ish the world.

When read­ing Car­ried by a Promise I was imme­di­ately taken by Swami Radhananda’s inti­mate and potent prose which trans­ported me into deep reflec­tion upon my own promises to the divine. She cap­ti­vates the reader by offer­ing can­did accounts of the chal­lenges and suc­cesses she expe­ri­enced dur­ing her early jour­ney of becom­ing a spir­i­tual aspi­rant, which even­tu­ally led her to becom­ing Swami Radha’s suc­ces­sor. Her amaz­ing story reveals how ded­i­cat­ing one’s heart to a sin­gle pur­pose of love and ser­vice can lead one to actu­al­iz­ing their fullest human poten­tial. What is also extremely pre­cious is the way she describes her jour­ney from the per­spec­tive of a woman and with great ded­i­ca­tion to the divine fem­i­nine. This book is invalu­able for any begin­ning or mature spir­i­tual aspi­rant, but is espe­cially invalu­able for women.

Car­ried by a Promise, Swami Radhananda’s new spir­i­tual mem­oir, begins with her first expo­sure to the Divine Light Invo­ca­tion in spring, 1977. As she stands in a cir­cle in the dark, dingy church base­ment in Leth­bridge, Alberta, she sees stream­ing droplets of light.…shining bits like heaven’s rain. This first scene in her ambi­tious and far-reaching account of spir­i­tual life demon­strates Radhananda’s nat­ural recep­tiv­ity and visual imag­i­na­tion, both of which guide and instruct her through­out her trans­for­ma­tion from Mary Ann McDougall, mother and edu­ca­tor, to Rad­hananda, pres­i­dent of the Yasod­hara Ashram in Koote­nay Bay, B.C.

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by Swami Radhananda

When I started the book tour in Jan­u­ary, I found it a leap to read my pri­vate reflec­tions out loud. It was chal­leng­ing to stand up in front of an audi­ence and read what was essen­tially my diary from twenty to thirty years ago.

But as we con­tin­ued on the tour I started to see how the book took on a life of its own. Dif­fer­ent peo­ple com­mented about the con­nec­tions they made to their own lives — per­haps reflect­ing on their divorce, or won­der­ing how to care for their chil­dren and have a spir­i­tual life, or find­ing out what it takes to live a com­mit­ment. Each per­son expressed a response to a dif­fer­ent part of my expe­ri­ence and  said how it inspired them! Amazing!

That’s when I real­ized it wasn’t my book any­more. It was there for peo­ple to  make their own, tak­ing from it what they needed.

The process of writ­ing and pre­sent­ing Car­ried by a Promise has been a gift. I’ve looked deeply at my whole life and can accept all of it. I’m also blessed to have the gems writ­ten down because it’s so easy to for­get. Now that I’m read­ing it over and over, there’s not much chance of forgetting!

Yoga is inquiry into the ques­tions: Who am I? What is life? Why am I here? Through these reflec­tions I have gained so much.

Thank you to every­one for your heart­felt response. I was touched by the enthu­si­asm that we met at each place along the way and by see­ing how oth­ers would remem­ber their promises, too.

April, May & June, 2011 Issue

Reviews by Angele

CARRIED BY A PROMISE

A Life Trans­formed Through Yoga

By Swami Radhananda

www.timeless.org

My favorite type of book to read…A jour­nal of some­one who trans­forms her­self.  Marry-Ann McDougall live in Leth­bridge, AB, and feels inspired after she hears Swami Sivananda Radha speak at a yoga class at the Yasod­hara Ashram, near Nel­son, BC in 1979.  She is run­ning a day­care and has two chil­dren.  Mar­ried to a man who is now drink­ing and not being hon­est about the money they share, she knows some­thing has to change, but how?

Her mem­oir tells the sub­tle changes of her mind as she gets clear with her pur­pose in life and then con­tin­ues with an inti­mate look into the love between a guru and a disciple.

I too have felt inspired by Swami Radha and like the fact that she was one of the first women to become a guru in Canada, that she lived in BC and the work­shops were rea­son­ably priced and cre­ated change in peo­ple.  I am delighted read­ing the story for I did won­der who would take over as I watched Swami Radha grow more frail.  It was good to read about the inner process.  The book proves once again that the Divine does weave itself into our lives if we allow it.

from It’s all yoga, baby

Car­ried By A Promise is the story of Swami Rad­hananda, the pres­i­dent and spir­i­tual direc­tor of Yasod­hara Ashram, and her rela­tion­ship with her teacher, Swami Sivananda Radha. Yasod­hara Ashram is a thriv­ing spir­i­tual com­mu­nity in South­east­ern British Colum­bia which was founded by Swami Radha, one of the first West­ern women to be ini­ti­ated into sanyas.

The story fol­lows Swami Radhananda’s life from her first meet­ing with Swami Radha in 1977 until her teacher’s death in 1995. While read­ing this hum­ble and clear mem­oir, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own jour­ney and my spir­i­tual life. Like Swami Rad­hananda – or Mary-Ann Mac­Dougall, as she was known at the time of her meet­ing – I am in my mid-30s. Even though I don’t have a hus­band and chil­dren, or a career for that mat­ter, I relate to her dis­sat­is­fac­tion, her desire for more out of life, her ques­tion­ing. Read more…

from page 19:  http://issuu.com/tonemagazine/docs/april2011

Last year, the yoga com­mu­nity was immersed in ques­tion­ing itself. What is “real” yoga? Who is doing it and who isn’t? Is the com­mer­cial­iza­tion of yoga inevitable in our West­ern cul­ture or has it gone too far?

It is a refresh­ing con­trast to read Car­ried by a Promise: A Life Trans­formed Through Yoga. Instead of argu­ing the pros and cons of what yoga is or isn’t, we enter into a very real and per­sonal story about a woman liv­ing her prac­tice and about the trans­for­ma­tion of her life through yoga. And by yoga, we’re not just talk­ing about who can do what poses.

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from http://www.thefigtree.org/march11/030111radhananda.html

Spir­i­tual aspect of yoga inte­grates with and respects dif­fer­ent faiths

Through her own life strug­gles, Mary-Ann McDougall’s inter­est in yoga as a phys­i­cal exer­cise led to her learn­ing of the spir­i­tual side of yoga and into fol­low­ing a path to become Swami Radhananda.

Now she is pres­i­dent of the Yasod­hara Ashram, a yoga retreat and study cen­ter in Koote­nay Bay, in south­east­ern British Colum­bia, where she helps peo­ple find tools to deal with their struggles.

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