Swami Kriyananda, born J. Donald (James Donald) Walters, was a direct and close disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. He met Yogananda in 1948, at a young age, and soon afterward joined Yogananda’s organization, the Self-Realization Fellowship, as a monastic disciple. From that point until Yogananda’s passing in 1952, he lived at the headquarters, Mount Washington in Los Angeles, where he was immersed in the daily life and work surrounding his guru. During these years, he served in various roles, including editorial and organizational responsibilities, and is described as having been part of Yogananda’s inner circle of disciples.

The connection between them was not merely institutional but deeply spiritual and personal. Yogananda himself initiated Kriyananda into Kriya Yoga and personally trained him, giving him direct guidance in both practice and service. Kriyananda was ordained into the swami order by Yogananda, who conferred on him the name “Swami Kriyananda,” thereby affirming his role as a renunciate and teacher within that lineage. He also served as Yogananda’s assistant and secretary, and was present for many of his master’s lectures and private teachings during those final years.

This close discipleship shaped the entire trajectory of Kriyananda’s life. After Yogananda’s passing, he remained in Self-Realization Fellowship for some time, continuing to serve the work that his guru had founded. Later, he dedicated himself to spreading Yogananda’s teachings more broadly, founding spiritual communities and centers inspired by those teachings and by the ideal of “world brotherhood colonies” that Yogananda had emphasized. Through extensive writing and teaching, including memoirs of his years with Yogananda and commentaries on his guru’s works, Kriyananda sought to interpret and share what he had received directly at the feet of his master.