Paramhansa Yogananda meditates with students in The Answer

The Answer Follows Student Swami Kriyananda with Teacher Paramhansa Yogananda.

The search for truth. The quest for answers. A journey of spirit. An exploration of the student-teacher relationship. These are some of the themes explored in the biopic feature film The Answer.

Based on the book The New Path, which is the autobiography of the film’s protagonist, the late Swami Kriyananda (born James Donald Walters). Swami Kriyananda was one of the original devotees of Paramhansa Yogananda, the Indian Master and author of the noteworthy Autobiography of a Yogi.

Yogananda famously came to the United States in the 1920s and is among a few spiritual masters credited with bringing Eastern philosophy, specifically a practice called Kriya Yoga, to the West. His teachings and written work influenced many seekers, including the young James Donald Walters.

See The Answer Film Trailer

The film highlights Yogananda’s work and teachings through Walters’ eyes. A meticulously constructed period piece, it begins in Eastern Europe, in Walters’ family of birth in Romania. His parents remark on the young child’s calm demeanor and we see Walters as an insightful child and introspective youth who emerges as a spiritual seeker. While living in the US, Walters stumbles upon a copy of Autobiography of a Yogi and follows the call from New York to the West Coast to meet his master in the 1940s. Here Kriyananda spent his remaining years with his teacher in Los Angeles until Yogananda left his body in 1952.

The Answer is anomalistic in the sense that it’s a feature about a recently living spiritual master. Although the narrative feature follows a conventional biographic structure, there is not another film like this in the recent past. Among the things it achieves, The Answer offers insight into the meaning and importance of the relationship between master and disciple. Throughout the story, we understand how Kriyananda takes on the task of building the Ananda organization based on his life with Yogananda. The film includes a number of hymns written by Kriyananda and Yogananda and performed by Kriyananda.

Director Pavan Kaul casts iconic Indian actor Victor Banerjee as Yogananda and Leonidas Gulaptis as Kriyananda. Director of Photography Hiroo Keshwani tells the story in an evocative cinematic style that pays homage to the spiritual journey.

If you’ve been touched by Autobiography of a Yogi, see The Answer. If you are curious about the life and teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, see The Answer. And if you love inspiring spiritual film, see this one. The sincerity of the story shines through in The Answer. So bring friends. Discuss the teachings and the story. And reread Autobiography of a Yogi.

Buy Tickets to See The Answer

On February 27, join the Ananda community for a reception, film screening, and Q and A in Santa Monica at the Laemmle Monica Film Center.

Buy tickets: https://www.laemmle.com/films/45325