The Wisdom of Paramahansa Yogananda

SRF/YSS President Brother Chidananda shares how the comprehensive science of Kriya Yoga—which includes the specific technique of Kriya Yoga as well as the other meditation techniques taught by Paramahansa Yogananda—works in a systemic way to “reverse the searchlights of the senses” away from matter so that we can discover the bliss of the Divine within ourselves.As Brother Chidananda states in his talk, “An understanding of the basic principles of this comprehensive science helps a great deal in the practice of not just the Kriya technique proper, but also the Energization Exercises, the Hong-Sau Technique of Concentration, and the Aum Technique of Meditation, all of which are part of this interrelated science of yoga meditation.”Yoganandaji explains that “the little searchlights of our mind’s attention and of the five senses ordinarily are focused on imperfect matter….Man’s attachment to matter keeps the soul confined to the bodily prison and prevents it from finding freedom with God in the realm of eternal bliss. The ego attempts to satisfy through material channels the soul’s constant, insatiable longing for God.”This talk was recorded at the 2016 SRF World Convocation in Los Angeles, a year before Brother Chidananda became the fifth president of Self-Realization Fellowship, the organization established by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1920 to disseminate his teachings on Kriya Yoga meditation worldwide.Brother Chidananda points out that progress on the spiritual path begins from the very moment we start to feel what Paramahansa Yogananda described as “the soul’s constant, insatiable longing for God.” Brother Chidananda illustrates the incredible power of the science of Kriya Yoga for mastering the ego-principle, which allows us to realize the innate Joy of the soul—even in this modern age.You can help more people find and benefit from Yogananda's practical wisdom by rating and reviewing this podcast. We greatly appreciate your support!To learn about the SRF World Convocation, please visit: https://yogananda.org/srf-world-convocation-overviewTo learn about the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons, the home-study course from Yogananda that presents his in-depth teachings on the Kriya Yoga science of meditation and art of balanced spiritual living, please visit: https://yogananda.org/lessonsTo learn more about the yoga path and the science Kriya Yoga in particular: https://yogananda.org/pathTo experience more SRF how-to-live inspirational videos and guided meditations: https://www.youtube.com/user/YoganandaSRFIf you would like to support the spiritual and humanitarian work of SRF, please click on this link: https://donatesrf.org

SRF monk Brother Vishwananda discusses how we can more quickly and effectively achieve the ultimate goal of human life—Self-realization, oneness with the bliss of God—by understanding what devotion truly is and practicing it daily as we learn to “live in the moment.” He explains:“Very few people understand what the purpose of life is. But our guru, Paramahansa Yogananda, has told us: The purpose of life is to find God. If we can cling to this one thought alone, how our lives will change! That thought gives perspective and power of direction to every aspect of our lives. We now have a measure for our every thought, feeling, and action: is this taking me closer to God, or is it taking me away from God? This reflects the real meaning of yoga: It is not just practice of techniques that we perform a few times per day and then go about our lives. It is a way of life that impacts us on all levels—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.” Recorded at the 2012 SRF World Convocation, Brother Vishwananda states how wonderful it is to be at the Convocation—a weeklong immersion in the Kriya Yoga teachings of Yogananda—with SRF students from all over the world, gathering to set aside “all thoughts and cares of the world, the challenges that we all may be facing in our day-to-day lives, and just focus on loving God.”Brother Vishwananda reminds the audience of words spoken by SRF’s fourth president, Sri Mrinalini Mata, earlier in the Convocation week, in which she pointed out that Convocation experience, though soon to come to and end, could serve as a beginning of a lasting and deeper awareness of and true devotion to the Divine. (This talk by Mrinalini Mata was published as “Filling the Vessel of Your Life With God’s Love” in the Winter 2012 and Spring 2013 issues of Self-Realization magazine.)To learn about the SRF World Convocation please visit: https://yogananda.org/srf-world-convocation-overviewTopics discussed in True Devotion include:• The purpose of life• The importance of living in the moment• Making you relationship with God and Guru personal• Yama-niyama—the first two steps in Patanjali’s Eightfold Path of Yoga, extolled in his Yoga Sutras, as the foundation of the spiritual practice of meditationYou can help more people find and benefit from Yogananda's practical wisdom by rating and reviewing this podcast. We greatly appreciate your support!In his “how-to-live” teachings, Paramahansa Yogananda has given to people of all cultures, races, and creeds the means to free themselves from physical, mental, and spiritual inharmonies — to create for themselves a life of enduring happiness and all-round success.To learn about the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons, the home-study course from Yogananda that presents his in-depth teachings on the Kriya Yoga science of meditation and art of balanced spiritual living, please visit: https://yogananda.org/lessonsTo experience more SRF how-to-live inspirational videos and guided meditations: https://www.youtube.com/user/YoganandaSRFIf you would like to support the spiritual and humanitarian work of SRF, please click on this link: https://donatesrf.org

SRF nun Sister Priya shares her insights into how to find spiritual balance in our lives with meditation as the foundation. In this talk, recorded at the 2000 SRF World Convocation in Los Angeles, she also discusses how we can allow the problems of life to drive us closer to God; the importance of forgiveness in our finding balance; and the power or prayer to bring about change in ourselves, our lives, and the world.The SRF/YSS path of Kriya Yoga meditation—taught by Paramahansa Yogananda in the SRF/YSS Lessons—is a comprehensive system for balanced spiritual living. As Sister Priya points out, “Regular meditation will always be primary among the SRF requirements for a balanced and spiritual life. Our guru, Paramahansa Yogananda, never spoke of the essentials without stressing meditation.”She tells us that it is regular meditation, especially Kriya meditation, by which, in Yogananda’s words, “Men and women, one by one, escape from creation’s prison of duality as they awaken to consciousness of their inseverable divine unity with the Creator.”But in addition to meditation, the spiritual aspirant looking for true happiness must also consider how to make one’s whole of life balanced. And this is where Sister Priya stresses the comprehensive and universal nature of the spiritual discipline, or sadhana, to be found in the “how-to-live” SRF/YSS teachings: “[Paramahansa Yogananda’s] sadhana is suitable both for householder and renunciant seeking freedom in God, because it includes this beautiful balance of regular meditation, of service to God in others, plus rest, recreation, and exercise. Everything in moderation.”At the beginning of this talk, Sister Priya also speaks of the hope she feels after having just visited an SRF summer youth program: “If children like this…represent the future of SRF and the future of the world, I think we have less to worry about than we thought. They radiated such purity and yet such depth, gentle spiritual strength.”You can help more people find and benefit from Yogananda's practical wisdom by rating and reviewing this podcast. We greatly appreciate your support!To learn to practice the SRF teachings of Kriya Yoga meditation: https://yogananda.org/lessonsTo learn more about Self-Realization Fellowship: https://yogananda.org/To learn more about programs for youth from SRF: https://yogananda.org/events-and-programs-for-youthTo read Paramahansa Yogananda’s translation and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, God Talks With Arjuna: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product/god-talks-with-arjuna-the-bhagavad-gita-ebook/To learn more about the SRF World Convocation, a yearly week-long immersion for SRF members and friends from around the world in the “how-to-live” teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda: https://yogananda.org/srf-world-convocation-overviewIf you would like to support the spiritual and humanitarian work of SRF, please click on this link: https://donatesrf.org

SRF nun Sister Draupadi discusses the Mother aspect of the Divine, and explains that by applying Paramahansa Yogananda’s teachings, we help our families live in a higher age of understanding and spiritual balance. She further affirms that as parents deepen their own relationship with God, they also guide the lives of children with ever-increasing love and acceptance.At the beginning of this service given at the SRF International Headquarters in Los Angeles, Sister Draupadi reads from "The Second Coming of Christ” and “God Talks With Arjuna,” Paramahansa Yogananda’s commentaries on the New Testament and the Bhagavad Gita, respectively.After describing the ennobling instruction given to children before they entered householder life in the Golden Age of ancient India, she points out that we are truly blessed in our present time to have the Kriya Yoga teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda — which we can apply in our lives in order to live in a higher age, right now. “All of us who have embraced Paramahansa Yogananda’s teachings are actually following the teachings of Vedic India,” Sister Draupadi affirms.You can help more people find and benefit from Yogananda's practical wisdom by rating and reviewing this podcast. We greatly appreciate your support!To learn how to receive the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons—which include the advanced techniques of meditation, including Kriya Yoga, and instruction on balanced spiritual living as taught by Paramahansa Yogananda: https://yogananda.org/lessonsTo read the book Mejda, the account of the early years of Paramahansa Yogananda written by his brother Sananda Lal Ghosh: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product/mejda/To purchase the ebook of God Talks With Arjuna, Yogananda’s translations and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product/god-talks-with-arjuna-the-bhagavad-gita-ebook/If you would like to support the spiritual and humanitarian work of SRF, please click on this link: https://donatesrf.org 

SRF monk Brother Nakulananda explains how we can face all of life’s challenges through applying Paramahansa Yogananda’s scientific Kriya Yoga teachings on meditation and balanced spiritual living and how-to-live principles:“Our Guru [Paramahansa Yogananda] has given to us so much in his vast teachings—in his lectures, his writings, his recordings, his how-to-live principles, the techniques of meditation—showing us the supreme purpose for which we are here on earth, and how to achieve that goal of God-realization, which is our divine birthright, our divine heritage.”He also cites the counsel of Sri Daya Mata—one of Yogananda’s earliest and closest disciples, and the third president of SRF/YSS—who explains that nothing in this world is stable: everything is changing except God, and that “lasting peace can only come from within, from attunement with God.”Brother Nakulananda explains that by becoming anchored in God through meditation and right activity, “we are not only helping ourselves, but we are also helping our family and our friends and our loved ones just by our example of the calmness and the evenmindedness that we are exemplifying in our daily lives.”He again quotes Daya Mata: “The more you fix your consciousness in the reality of His presence within you, the more you will learn, as stated by Master, ‘to stand unshaken midst the crash of breaking worlds.’ Established in the evenmindedness of soul consciousness and the constancy of God’s presence, you will not only be able to keep your own head high in times of crisis or tragedy, but also to give strength and comfort to others and to the world through the spiritual consciousness emanating from your uplifting thoughts, actions, and prayers.”In concluding his talk, Brother Nakulananda quotes solacing insight that Paramahansa Yogananda gives in his Autobiography of a Yogi concerning the promise that the SRF teachings on Kriya Yoga hold for not only this moment but the unfolding future:“The blessed role of Kriya Yoga in East and West has hardly more than just begun. May all men come to know that there exists a definite, scientific technique of Self-realization for the overcoming of all human misery!”This service was recorded at the Self-Realization Fellowship Temple in Encinitas, California.You can help more people find and benefit from Yogananda's practical wisdom by rating and reviewing this podcast. We greatly appreciate your support!In his “how-to-live” teachings, Paramahansa Yogananda has given to people of all cultures, races, and creeds the means to free themselves from physical, mental, and spiritual inharmonies — to create for themselves a life of enduring happiness and all-round success.Learn more about Self-Realization Fellowship and the path of Kriya Yoga meditation: https://yogananda.orgLearn Kriya Yoga by applying for the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons, the home-study course in the science of meditation and art of balanced spiritual living established by Yogananda: https://yogananda.org/lessonsLearn more Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda’s spiritual classic: https://yogananda.org/autobiography-of-a-yogiPurchase Autobiography of a Yogi as an ebook: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product/autobiography-of-a-yogi-ebook/Read selections of Yogananda’s “how-to-live” wisdom on a variety of topics: https://yogananda.org/how-to-live-wisdomIf you would like to support the spiritual and humanitarian work of SRF, please click on this link: https://donatesrf.org 

SRF monk Brother Satyananda explores how to understand the idea of “Taking Shelter in God” in Paramahansa Yogananda’s Kriya Yoga teachings. When the trials of life suddenly encroach on us, do we seek inner peace in meditation: “are we putting first our fear, or are we putting first our faith?”Brother Satyananda explains that seeking the protective shelter of the Divine is a choice we can all make, just as we would choose to seek shelter from a storm. If we take shelter in God with devotion, we can, in Paramahansaji’s words, “become established in supreme peace and find eternal freedom in Him.”This inspirational service draws from Paramahansa Yogananda’s commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, “God Talks With Arjuna,” and his commentaries on the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament, “The Second Coming of Christ.”You can help more people find and benefit from Yogananda's practical wisdom by rating and reviewing this podcast. We greatly appreciate your support!In his “how-to-live” teachings, Paramahansa Yogananda has given to people of all cultures, races, and creeds the means to free themselves from physical, mental, and spiritual inharmonies — to create for themselves a life of enduring happiness and all-round success.To learn how to receive the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons—which include the advanced techniques of meditation, including Kriya Yoga, and instruction on balanced spiritual living as taught by Paramahansa Yogananda: https://yogananda.org/lessonsTo purchase the ebook of Inner Peace: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product/inner-peace-ebook/To purchase the ebook of God Talks With Arjuna: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product/god-talks-with-arjuna-the-bhagavad-gita-ebook/To learn more about Self-Realization Fellowship and its teachings: https://yogananda.orgTo learn more about how meditation is the central focus of the complete system of Raja Yoga: https://yogananda.org/yoga-union-with-bliss-through-meditationIf you would like to support the spiritual and humanitarian work of SRF, please click on this link: https://donatesrf.org 

In this inspirational service conducted at the SRF Hollywood Temple, SRF monk Brother Govindananda speaks about “Rediscovering Your Higher Self.”He explains how we can use Kriya Yoga meditation and the power of affirmation to uncover “your higher self” — the hidden soul nature that resides in every human being. He quotes Paramahansa Yogananda’s words for overcoming the limitations of human consciousness:“Material remedies—medicines, physical comforts, human consolation—have their place in helping to remove pain, but the greatest remedy is the practice of Kriya Yoga and the affirmation that you are one with God. This is the cure-all for every trouble, pain, and bereavement—the way to freedom from all individual and mass karma.”He further quotes Paramahansa Yogananda in explanation of “your higher self”:“Remember you are a child of God. It lies with you as to what you are going to be. Be proud that you are a child of God. What have you to fear?...He loves you everlastingly. Think that. Believe that. Know that. And suddenly one day you will find you are immortally alive in God.”In his “how-to-live” teachings, Paramahansa Yogananda has given to people of all cultures, races, and creeds the means to free themselves from physical, mental, and spiritual inharmonies — to create for themselves a life of enduring happiness and all-round success.You can help more people find and benefit from Yogananda's practical wisdom by rating and reviewing this podcast. We greatly appreciate your support!Learn more about Self-Realization Fellowship and the path of Kriya Yoga: https://yogananda.orgLearn Kriya Yoga by applying for the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons, the home-study course in the science of meditation and art of balanced spiritual living established by Yogananda: https://yogananda.org/lessonsRead selections of Yogananda’s “how-to-live” wisdom on a variety of topics: https://yogananda.org/how-to-live-wisdomIf you would like to support the spiritual and humanitarian work of SRF, please click on this link: https://donatesrf.org