California oasis offers 'soul bliss'

It's part of Ananda Village, a spiritual community of 300 spread over 800 acres of pristine grounds filled with cedar trees and Douglas firs that take your breath away. No TVs and no cellphone access, but they do have an Internet lounge and Wi-Fi access in some rooms.

The retreat hosts 2,000 guests a year. The food is high-quality vegetarian fare. The yoga classes are dreamlike (starting with special energization exercises), and the meditation classes are well taught. Best of all is the price. Food, classes, and a private room in modern, cabin-type buildings with names like Harmony House and Serenity House cost $145 a day. And you can't put a price tag on its charm.

The retreat started as a utopian community in 1969, when hippie-era adventurers lived in tepees, yurts, a treehouse, and a school bus on the grounds. It was founded on open-minded spiritual principles traced to Paramahansa Yogananda, whose 1946 "Autobiography of a Yogi" still sells some 15,000 copies a year. His disciple, J. Donald Walters (a Brown University graduate and author of many self-help books, including the "Secrets of Life" bestsellers) founded the retreat and still runs it. His home sits next to Ananda's Crystal Hermitage, a small church built to resemble St. Francis of Assisi's Portiuncula Chapel in Italy. (Ananda has a community in Umbria, near Assisi; in Gurgaon, India, near New Delhi; other California centers in Palo Alto and Sacramento; in Beaverton/Portland, Ore.; and in Seattle.) But the mothership is here in Nevada City, between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe.

Perhaps the most impressive part of a stay here is the lack of proselytizing. "People come here from all paths - from all different levels of being awake or asleep," says Jivani Ghirla, who left a corporate career to become general manager of the retreat. The name Ananda means "soul bliss" and a plaque in so-called "downtown Ananda" (consisting of a post office, market, jewelry store, thrift shop, and restaurant) states that the goal is "to unite all religions" and that "simplicity of living plus high thinking lead to the greatest happiness."