The Years 1940 – 1951
"We have indeed learned the value of meditation, and know that nothing can disturb our inner peace. In the last few weeks during the meetings we have heard air-raid warnings and listened to the explosion of delayed-action bombs, but our students still gather and thoroughly enjoy our beautiful service." This brave message, written by the leader of the London Self-Realization Fellowship Center, was one of many letters sent to me from war-ravaged England and Europe during the years that preceded America's entry into World War II.
Dr. L. Cranmer-Byng of London, noted editor of The Wisdom of the East Series, wrote me in 1942 as follows: "When I read East-West¹ I realized how far apart we seemed to be, apparently living in two different worlds. Beauty, order, calm, and peace come to me from Los Angeles, sailing into port as a vessel laden with the blessings and comfort of the Holy Grail to a beleaguered city. "I see as in a dream your palm-tree grove, and the temple in Encinitas with its ocean stretches and mountain views; and above all its fellowship of spiritually minded men and women — a community comprehended in unity, absorbed in creative work, and replenished in contemplation....Greetings to all the Fellowship from a common soldier, written on the watchtower waiting for the dawn."
A Church of All Religions in Hollywood, California, was built by Self-Realization Fellowship workers and dedicated in 1942. A year later another temple was founded in San Diego, California; and, in 1947, one in Long Beach, California.² One of the most beautiful estates in the world, a floral wonderland in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles, was donated in 1949 to Self-Realization Fellowship. The ten-acre site is a natural amphitheater, surrounded by verdant hills. A large natural lake, a blue jewel in a mountain diadem, has given the estate its name of Lake Shrine. A quaint Dutch-windmill house on the grounds contains a peaceful chapel. Near a sunken garden a large waterwheel splashes a leisurely music. Two marble statues from China adorn the site — a statue of Lord Buddha and one of Kwan Yin (the Chinese personification of the Divine Mother). A life-size statue of Christ, its serene face and flowing robes strikingly illuminated at night, stands on a hill above a waterfall.
A Mahatma Gandhi World Peace Memorial at the Lake Shrine was dedicated in 1950, the year that marked the thirtieth anniversary³ of Self-Realization Fellowship in America. A portion of the Mahatma's ashes, sent from India, was enshrined in a thousand-year-old stone sarcophagus.
A Self-Realization Fellowship "India Center"⁴ in Hollywood was founded in 1951. Mr. Goodwin J. Knight, Lieutenant Governor of California, and Mr. M. R. Ahuja, Consul General of India, joined me in the dedicatory services. On the site is India Hall, an auditorium seating 250 persons. Newcomers to the various centers often want further light on yoga. A question I sometimes hear is this: "Is it true, as certain organizations state, that yoga may not be successfully studied in printed form but should be pursued only with the guidance of a nearby teacher?"
In the Atomic Age, yoga should be taught by a method of instruction such as the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons,⁵ or the liberating science will again be restricted to a chosen few. It would indeed be a priceless boon if each student could keep by his side a guru perfected in divine wisdom; but the world is composed of many "sinners" and few saints. How then may the multitudes be helped by yoga, if not through study in their homes of instructions written by true yogis?
The only alternative is that the "average man" be ignored and left without yoga knowledge. Such is not God's plan for the new age. Babaji has promised to guard and guide all sincere Kriya Yogis in their path toward the Goal.⁶ Hundreds of thousands, not dozens merely, of Kriya Yogis are needed to bring into manifestation the world of peace and plenty that awaits men when they have made the proper effort to reestablish their status as sons of the Divine Father.
The founding in the West of a Self-Realization Fellowship organization, a "hive for the spiritual honey," was a duty enjoined on me by Sri Yukteswar and Mahavatar Babaji. The fulfillment of the sacred trust has not been devoid of difficulties. "Tell me truly, Paramahansaji, has it been worth it?" This laconic question was put to me one evening by Dr. Lloyd Kennell, a leader of the temple in San Diego. I understood him to mean: "Have you been happy in America? What about the falsehoods circulated by misguided people who are anxious to prevent the spread of yoga? What about the disillusionments, the heartaches, the center leaders who could not lead, the students who could not be taught?"
"Blessed is the man whom the Lord doth test!" I answered. "He has remembered, now and then, to put a burden on me." I thought, then, of all the faithful ones, of the love and devotion and understanding that illumines the heart of America. With slow emphasis I went on: "But my answer is yes, a thousand times yes! It has been worthwhile, more than ever I dreamed, to see East and West brought closer in the only lasting bond, the spiritual."
The great masters of India who have shown keen interest in the West have well understood modern conditions. They know that, until there is better assimilation in all nations of the distinctive Eastern and Western virtues, world affairs cannot improve. Each hemisphere needs the best offerings of the other. In the course of world travel I have sadly observed much suffering:⁷ in the Orient, suffering chiefly on the material plane; in the Occident, misery chiefly on the mental or the spiritual plane. All nations feel the painful effects of unbalanced civilizations. India and many other Eastern lands can greatly benefit from emulation of the practical grasp of affairs, the material efficiency, of Western nations like America. The Occidental peoples, on the other hand, require a deeper understanding of the spiritual basis of life, and particularly of scientific techniques that India anciently developed for man's conscious communion with God.
Located in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, the ten-acre Lake Shrine was dedicated on August 20, 1950, by Paramahansa Yogananda. While supervising the planting and construction work in 1949, Paramahansaji stayed at times in the houseboat shown in the first photo. Visible between the center pillars in the second photo is the carved sarcophagus that enshrines a portion of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes. Across the lake is the Windmill Chapel, seen in the first photo. Self-Realization Fellowship services, meditations, and classes are held weekly at the Lake Shrine, which is open to the public.
The ideal of a well-rounded civilization is not a chimerical one. For millenniums India was a land of both spiritual light and widespread material prosperity. The poverty of the last 200 years is, in India's long history, only a passing karmic phase. A byword in the world, century after century, was "the riches of the Indies." Abundance, material as well as spiritual, is a structural expression of rita, cosmic law or natural righteousness. There is no parsimony in the Divine, nor in Its goddess of phenomena, exuberant Nature.
The Hindu scriptures teach that man is attracted to this particular earth to learn, more completely in each successive life, the infinite ways in which the Spirit may be expressed through, and dominant over, material conditions. East and West are learning this great truth in different ways, and should gladly share with each other their discoveries. Beyond all doubt it is pleasing to the Lord when His earth-children struggle to attain a world civilization free from poverty, disease, and soul ignorance. Man's forgetfulness of his divine resources (the result of his misuse of free will³) is the root cause of all other forms of suffering.
The ills attributed to an anthropomorphic abstraction called "society" may be laid more realistically at the door of Everyman.¹⁰ Utopia must spring in the private bosom before it can flower in civic virtue, inner reforms leading naturally to outer ones. A man who has reformed himself will reform thousands. The time-tested scriptures of the world are one in essence, inspiring man on his upward journey. One of the happiest periods of my life was spent in dictating, for Self-Realization Magazine, my interpretation of part of the New Testament.¹¹ Fervently I implored Christ to guide me in divining the true meaning of his words, many of which have been grievously misunderstood for twenty centuries.
One night while I was engaged in silent prayer, my sitting room in the Encinitas hermitage became filled with an opal-blue light. I beheld the radiant form of the blessed Lord Jesus. A young man, he seemed, of about twenty-five, with a sparse beard and moustache; his long black hair, parted in the middle, was haloed by a shimmering gold. His eyes were eternally wondrous; as I gazed, they were infinitely changing. With each divine transition in their expression, I intuitively understood the wisdom conveyed. In his glorious gaze I felt the power that upholds the myriad worlds. A Holy Grail appeared at his mouth; it came down to my lips and then returned to Jesus. After a few moments he uttered beautiful words, so personal in their nature that I keep them in my heart.
I spent much time in 1950 and 1951 at a tranquil retreat near the Mojave Desert in California. There I translated the Bhagavad Gita and wrote a detailed commentary¹² that presents the various paths of yoga. Twice¹³ referring explicitly to a yogic technique (the only one mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita and the same one that Babaji named, simply, Kriya Yoga), India's greatest scripture has thus offered practical as well as moral teaching. In the ocean of our dream-world, the breath is the specific storm of delusion that produces the consciousness of individual waves — the forms of men and of all other material objects. Knowing that mere philosophical and ethical knowledge is insufficient to rouse man from his painful dream of separate existence, Lord Krishna pointed out the holy science by which the yogi may master his body and convert it, at will, into pure energy. The possibility of this yogic feat is not beyond the theoretical comprehension of modern scientists, pioneers in an Atomic Age. All matter has been proved to be reducible to energy.
The Hindu scriptures extol the yogic science because it is employable by mankind in general. The mystery of breath, it is true, has occasionally been solved without the use of formal yoga techniques, as in the cases of non-Hindu mystics who possessed transcendent powers of devotion to the Lord. Such Christian, Moslem, and other saints have indeed been observed in the breathless and motionless trance (sabikalpa samadhi¹⁴), without which no man has entered the first stages of God-perception. (After a saint has reached nirbikalpa or the highest samadhi, however, he is irrevocably established in the Lord — whether he be breathless or breathing, motionless or active.)
Brother Lawrence, the 17th-century Christian mystic, tells us his first glimpse of God-realization came about by viewing a tree. Nearly all human beings have seen a tree; few, alas, have thereby seen the tree's Creator. Most men are utterly incapable of summoning those irresistible powers of devotion that are effortlessly possessed only by a few ekantins, "singlehearted" saints found in all religious paths, whether of East or West. Yet the ordinary man¹⁵ is not therefore shut out from the possibility of divine communion. He needs, for soul recollection, no more than the Kriya Yoga technique, a daily observance of the moral precepts, and an ability to cry sincerely: "Lord, I yearn to know Thee!"
The universal appeal of yoga is thus its approach to God through a daily usable scientific method, rather than through a devotional fervor that, for the average man, is beyond his emotional scope. Various great Jain teachers of India have been called tirthakaras, "ford-makers," because they reveal the passage by which bewildered humanity may cross over and beyond the stormy seas of samsara (the karmic wheel, the recurrence of lives and deaths). Samsara (literally, "a flowing with" the phenomenal flux) induces man to take the line of least resistance. "Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."16 To become the friend of God, man must overcome the devils or evils of his own karma or actions that ever urge him to spineless acquiescence in the mayic delusions of the world. A knowledge of the iron law of karma encourages the earnest seeker to find the way of final escape from its bonds. Because the karmic slavery of human beings is rooted in the desires of maya-darkened minds, it is with mind-control17 that the yogi concerns himself. The various cloaks of karmic ignorance are laid away, and man views himself in his native essence.
The mystery of life and death, whose solution is the only purpose of man's sojourn on earth, is intimately interwoven with breath. Breathlessness is deathlessness. Realizing this truth, the ancient rishis of India seized on the sole clue of the breath and developed a precise and rational science of breathlessness. Had India no other gift for the world, Kriya Yoga alone would suffice as a kingly offering. The Bible contains passages which reveal that the Hebrew prophets were well aware that God has made the breath to serve as the subtle link between body and soul. Genesis states: "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."¹⁸ The human body is composed of chemical and metallic substances that are also found in the "dust of the ground." The flesh of man could never carry on activity nor manifest energy and motion were it not for the life currents transmitted by soul to body through the instrumentality, in unenlightened men, of the breath (gaseous energy). The life currents, operating in the human body as the fivefold prana or subtle life energies, are an expression of the Aum vibration of the omnipresent soul.
The reflection, the verisimilitude, of life that shines in the fleshly cells from the soul source is the only cause of man's attachment to his body; obviously he would not pay solicitous homage to a clod of clay. A human being falsely identifies himself with his physical form because the life currents from the soul are breath-conveyed into the flesh with such intense power that man mistakes the effect for a cause, and idolatrously imagines the body to have life of its own.
Man's conscious state is an awareness of body and breath. His subconscious state, active in sleep, is associated with his mental, and temporary, separation from body and breath. His superconscious state is a freedom from the delusion that "existence" depends on body and breath.¹⁹ God lives without breath; the soul made in His image becomes conscious of itself, for the first time, only during the breathless state. When the breath-link between soul and body is severed by evolutionary karma, the abrupt transition called "death" ensues; the physical cells revert to their natural powerlessness. For the Kriya Yogi, however, the breath-link is severed at will by scientific wisdom, not by the rude intrusion of karmic necessity. Through actual experience, the yogi is already aware of his essential incorporeity, and does not require the somewhat pointed hint given by Death that man is badly advised to place his reliance on a physical body.
Life by life, each man progresses (at his own pace, be it ever so erratic) toward the goal of his own apotheosis. Death, no interruption in this onward sweep, simply offers man the more congenial environment of an astral world in which to purify his dross. "Let not your heart be troubled....In my Father's house are many mansions."²⁰ It is indeed unlikely that God has exhausted His ingenuity in organizing this world, or that, in the next world, He will offer nothing more challenging to our interest than the strumming of harps.
Death is not a blotting-out of existence, a final escape from life; nor is death the door to immortality. He who has fled his Self in earthly joys will not recapture It amidst the gossamer charms of an astral world. There he merely accumulates finer perceptions and more sensitive responses to the beautiful and the good, which are one. It is on the anvil of this gross earth that struggling man must hammer out the imperishable gold of spiritual identity. Bearing in his hand the hard-won golden treasure, as the sole acceptable gift to greedy Death, a human being wins final freedom from the rounds of physical reincarnation.
For several years I conducted classes in Encinitas and Los Angeles on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and other profound works of Hindu philosophy.
In a eulogy at the funeral on March 11, Ambassador Sen said: "If we had a man like Paramahansa Yogananda in the United Nations today, probably the world would be a better place than it is. To my knowledge, no one has worked more, has given more of himself, to bind the peoples of India and America together."
Death had no power of disintegration over this incomparable devotee of God; his body manifested a phenomenal state of immutability. "Why did God ever join soul and body?" a class student asked one evening. "What was His purpose in setting into initial motion this evolutionary drama of creation?" Countless other men have posed such questions; philosophers have sought, in vain, fully to answer them. "Leave a few mysteries to explore in Eternity," Sri Yukteswar used to say with a smile. "How could man's limited reasoning powers comprehend the inconceivable motives of the Uncreated Absolute?²¹ The rational faculty in man, tethered by the cause-effect principle of the phenomenal world, is baffled before the enigma of God, the Beginningless, the Uncaused. Nevertheless, though man's reason cannot fathom the riddles of creation, every mystery will ultimately be solved for the devotee by God Himself."
He who sincerely yearns for wisdom is content to start his search by humbly mastering a few simple ABC's of the divine schema, not demanding prematurely a precise mathematical graph of life's "Einstein Theory." "No man hath seen God at any time (no mortal under 'time,' the relativities of maya,²² can realize the Infinite); the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father (the reflected Christ Consciousness or outwardly projected Perfect Intelligence that, guiding all structural phenomena through Aum vibration, has issued forth from the 'bosom' or deeps of the Uncreated Divine in order to express the variety of Unity), he hath declared (subjected to form, or manifested) him."²³
"Verily, verily, I say unto you," Jesus explained, "the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."²⁴ The threefold nature of God as He demonstrates Himself in the phenomenal worlds is symbolized in Hindu scriptures as Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer-Renovator. Their triune activities are ceaselessly displayed throughout vibratory creation. As the Absolute is beyond the conceptual powers of man, the devout Hindu worships It in the august embodiments of the Trinity.²⁵
The universal creative-preservative-destructive aspect of God, however, is not His ultimate or even His essential nature (for cosmic creation is only His līlā, creative sport).²⁶ His intrinsicality cannot be grasped even by grasping all the mysteries of the Trinity, because His outer nature, as manifested in the lawful atomic flux, merely expresses Him without revealing Him. The final nature of the Lord is known only when "the Son ascends to the Father."27 The liberated man overpasses the vibratory realms and enters the Vibrationless Original.
All great prophets have remained silent when requested to unveil the ultimate secrets. When Pilate asked: "What is truth?"28 Christ made no reply. The large ostentatious questions of intellectualists like Pilate seldom proceed from a burning spirit of inquiry. Such men speak rather with the empty arrogance that considers a lack of conviction about spiritual values29 to be a sign of "open-mindedness." "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice."30 In these few words Christ spoke volumes. A child of God "bears witness" by his life. He embodies truth; if he expound it also, that is generous redundancy.
Truth is no theory, no speculative system of philosophy, no intellectual insight. Truth is exact correspondence with reality. For man, truth is unshakable knowledge of his real nature, his Self as soul. Jesus, by every act and word of his life, proved that he knew the truth of his being — his source in God. Wholly identified with the omnipresent Christ Consciousness, he could say with simple finality: "Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice."
Buddha, too, refused to shed light on the metaphysical ultimates, dryly pointing out that man's few moments on earth are best employed in perfecting the moral nature. The Chinese mystic Lao-tzu rightly taught: "He who knows, tells it not; he who tells, knows it not." The final mysteries of God are not "open to discussion." The decipherment of His secret code is an art that man cannot communicate to man; here the Lord alone is the Teacher.
"Be still, and know that I am God."²¹ Never flaunting His omnipresence, the Lord is heard only in the immaculate silences. Reverberating throughout the universe as the creative Aum vibration, the Primal Sound instantly translates Itself into intelligible words for the devotee in attunement. The divine purpose of creation, so far as man's reason can grasp it, is expounded in the Vedas. The rishis taught that each human being has been created by God as a soul that will uniquely manifest some special attribute of the Infinite before resuming its Absolute Identity. All men, endowed thus with a facet of Divine Individuality, are equally dear to God.
The wisdom garnered by India, the eldest brother among the nations, is a heritage of all mankind. Vedic truth, as all truth, belongs to the Lord and not to India. The rishis, whose minds were pure receptacles to receive the divine profundities of the Vedas, were members of the human race, born on this earth, rather than on some other, to serve humanity as a whole. Distinctions by race or nation are meaningless in the realm of truth, where the only qualification is spiritual fitness to receive.
God is Love; His plan for creation can be rooted only in love. Does not that simple thought, rather than erudite reasonings, offer solace to the human heart? Every saint who has penetrated to the core of Reality has testified that a divine universal plan exists and that it is beautiful and full of joy. To the prophet Isaiah, God revealed His intentions in these words: So shall my word [creative Aum] be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands (Isaiah 55:11–12).
"Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace." The men of a hard-pressed twentieth century hear longingly that wondrous promise. The full truth within it is realizable by every devotee of God who strives manfully to repossess his divine heritage. 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!
In sending loving thought vibrations to the thousands of Kriya Yogis scattered like shining jewels over the earth, I often think gratefully: "Lord, Thou hast given this monk a large family!" established by Paramahansa Yogananda for the dissemination of the Kriya Yoga science of meditation and spiritual living. (Publisher's Note)
6 Paramahansa Yogananda, also, told his students of East and West that, after this life, he would continue to watch over the spiritual progress of all Kriyabans (students of the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons who have received Kriya initiation). The truth of his beautiful promise has been proved, since his mahasamadhi, by letters from many Kriya Yogis who have become aware of his omnipresent guidance. (Publisher's Note) 7 "That voice is round me like a bursting sea:
— Francis Thompson, "The Hound of Heaven" 8 The records of history present India, up until the 18th century, as the world's wealthiest nation. Incidentally, nothing in Hindu literature or tradition tends to substantiate the current Western historical theory that the early Aryans "invaded" India from some other part of Asia or from Europe. The scholars are understandably unable to fix the starting point of this imaginary journey. The internal evidence in the Vedas, pointing to India as the immemorial home of the Hindus, has been presented in an unusual and very readable volume, Rig-Vedic India, by Abinas Chandra Das, published in 1921 by Calcutta University. Professor Das claims that emigrants from
India settled in various parts of Europe and Asia, spreading the Aryan speech and folklore. The Lithuanian tongue, for example, is in many ways strikingly similar to Sanskrit. The philosopher Kant, who knew nothing of Sanskrit, was amazed at the scientific structure of the Lithuanian language. "It possesses," he said, "the key that will open all the enigmas, not only of philology but also of history." The Bible refers to the riches of India, telling us (II Chron. 9:21,10) that the "ships of Tarshish" brought to King Solomon "gold and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks" and "algum [sandalwood] trees and precious stones" from Ophir (Sopara on the Bombay coast). Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador (4th century B.C.), has left us a detailed picture of India's prosperity. Pliny (1st century A.D.) tells us the Romans annually spent fifty million sesterces ($5,000,000) on imports from India, which was then a vast marine power.
Paramahansa Yogananda entered mahasamadhi (a yogi's final conscious exit from the body) in Los Angeles, California, on March 7, 1952, after concluding his speech at a banquet held in honor of H.E. Binay R. Sen, Ambassador of India. The great world teacher demonstrated the value of yoga (scientific techniques for God-realization) not only in life but in death. Weeks after his departure his unchanged face shone with the divine luster of incorruptibility. Mr. Harry T. Rowe, Los Angeles Mortuary Director, Forest Lawn Memorial-Park (in which the body of the great master is temporarily placed), sent Self-Realization Fellowship a notarized letter from which the following extracts are taken:
"The absence of any visual signs of decay in the dead body of Paramahansa Yogananda offers the most extraordinary case in our experience....No physical disintegration was visible in his body even twenty days after death....No indication of mold was visible on his skin, and no visible desiccation (drying up) took place in the bodily tissues. This state of perfect preservation of a body is, so far as we know from mortuary annals, an unparalleled one....At the time of receiving Yogananda's body, the Mortuary personnel expected to observe, through the glass lid of the casket, the usual progressive signs of bodily decay. Our astonishment increased as day followed day without bringing any visible change in the body under observation. Yogananda's body was apparently in a phenomenal state of immutability....
"No odor of decay emanated from his body at any time....The physical appearance of Yogananda on March 27th, just before the bronze cover of the casket was put into position, was the same as it had been on March 7th. He looked on March 27th as fresh and as unravaged by decay as he had looked on the night of his death. On March 27th there was no reason to say that his body had suffered any visible physical disintegration at all. For these reasons we state again that the case of Paramahansa Yogananda is unique in our experience."
In 1977, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the mahasamadhi of Paramahansa Yogananda, the Government of India issued this commemorative stamp in his honor. With the stamp, the government published a descriptive leaflet, which read, in part: The ideal of love for God and service to humanity found full expression in the life of Paramahansa Yogananda....Though the major part of his life was spent outside of India, still he takes his place among our great saints. His work continues to grow and shine ever more brightly, drawing people everywhere on the path of the pilgrimage of the Spirit.
Self-Realization Fellowship is dedicated to freely assisting seekers worldwide. For information regarding our annual series of public lectures and classes, meditation and inspirational services at our temples and centers around the world, a schedule of retreats, and other activities, we invite you to visit our website or our International Headquarters:
Personal guidance and instruction from Paramahansa Yogananda on the techniques of yoga meditation and principles of spiritual living If you feel drawn to the spiritual truths described in Autobiography of a Yogi, we invite you to enroll in the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons. Paramahansa Yogananda originated this home-study series to provide sincere seekers the opportunity to learn and practice the ancient yoga meditation techniques introduced in this book — including the science of Kriya Yoga. The Lessons also present his practical guidance for attaining balanced physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.
The Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons are available at a nominal fee (to cover printing and postage costs). All students are freely given personal guidance in their practice by Self-Realization Fellowship monks and nuns. For more information... Please visit www.srflessons.org to request a comprehensive complimentary information packet about the Lessons, which includes: "An Overview of the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons: Information About Paramahansa Yogananda's Home-Study Series" "Highest Achievements Through Self-Realization," by Paramahansa Yogananda—a thorough introduction to the teachings presented in the SRF Lessons
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In this monumental two-volume work, Paramahansa Yogananda reveals the innermost essence of India's most renowned scripture. Exploring its psychological, spiritual, and metaphysical depths, he presents a sweeping chronicle of the soul's journey to enlightenment through the royal science of God-realization.
In this unprecedented masterwork of inspiration, almost 1700 pages in length, Paramahansa Yogananda takes the reader on a profoundly enriching journey through the four Gospels. Verse by verse, he illumines the universal path to oneness with God taught by Jesus to his immediate disciples but obscured through centuries of misinterpretation: "how to become like Christ, how to resurrect the Eternal Christ within one's self." The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita: An Introduction to India's Universal Science of God-Realization
A compilation of selections from Paramahansa Yogananda's in-depth, critically acclaimed translation of and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, God Talks With Arjuna, this book presents truth-seekers with an ideal introduction to the Gita's timeless and universal teachings. Contains Yogananda's complete translation of the Bhagavad Gita, presented for the first time in uninterrupted sequential form. The Yoga of Jesus: Understanding the Hidden Teachings of the Gospels A selection of material from Paramahansa Yogananda's highly praised two-volume work, The Second Coming of Christ, this concise book confirms that Jesus, like the ancient sages and masters of the East, not only knew the principles of yoga but taught this universal science of God-realization to his disciples. Sri Yogananda shows that Jesus' message is not about sectarian divisiveness, but a unifying path by which seekers of all faith traditions can enter the kingdom of God.
Man's Eternal Quest Paramahansa Yogananda's Collected Talks and Essays present in-depth discussions of the vast range of inspiring and universal truths that have captivated millions in his Autobiography of a Yogi. Volume I explores little-known and seldom-understood aspects of meditation, life after death, the nature of creation, health and healing, the unlimited powers of the mind, and the eternal quest that finds fulfillment only in God.
Volume II of Paramahansa Yogananda's collected talks and essays. Among the wide-ranging selections: How to Cultivate Divine Love; Harmonizing Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Methods of Healing; A World Without Boundaries; Controlling Your Destiny; The Yoga Art of Overcoming Mortal Consciousness and Death; The Cosmic Lover; Finding the Joy in Life.
Volume III of the collected talks and essays presents Sri Yogananda's unique combination of wisdom, compassion, down-to-earth guidance, and encouragement on dozens of fascinating subjects, including: Quickening Human Evolution, How to Express Everlasting Youthfulness, and Realizing God in Your Daily Life. Wine of the Mystic: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam — A Spiritual Interpretation An inspired commentary that brings to light the mystical science of God-communion hidden behind the Rubaiyat's enigmatic imagery. Includes 50 original color illustrations. Winner of the 1995 Benjamin Franklin Award for best book in the field of religion.
Where There Is Light: Insight and Inspiration for Meeting Life's Challenges Gems of thought arranged by subject; a unique handbook to which readers can quickly turn for a reassuring sense of direction in times of uncertainty or crisis, or for a renewed awareness of the ever present power of God one can draw upon in daily life. Whispers from Eternity A collection of Paramahansa Yogananda's prayers and divine experiences in the elevated states of meditation. Expressed in a majestic rhythm and poetic beauty, his words reveal the inexhaustible variety of God's nature, and the infinite sweetness with which He responds to those who seek Him.
The Science of Religion Within every human being, Paramahansa Yogananda writes, there is one inescapable desire: to overcome suffering and attain a happiness that does not end. Explaining how it is possible to fulfill these longings, he examines the relative effectiveness of the different approaches to this goal.
Compiled from the works of Paramahansa Yogananda, this inspiring devotional companion reveals ways of making prayer a daily source of love, strength, and guidance.
A practical and inspiring guide, compiled from the talks and writings of Paramahansa Yogananda, that demonstrates how we can be "actively calm" by creating peace through meditation, and "calmly active" — centered in the stillness and joy of our own essential nature while living a dynamic, fulfilling, and balanced life. Winner of the 2000 Benjamin Franklin Award — best book in the field of Metaphysics/ Spirituality.
Defining God as both the transcendent, universal Spirit and the intimately personal Father, Mother, Friend, and Lover of all, Paramahansa Yogananda shows how close the Lord is to each one of us, and how He can be persuaded to "break His silence" and respond in a tangible way.
More than 300 spiritually uplifting meditations, prayers, and affirmations that can be used to develop greater health and vitality, creativity, self-confidence, and calmness; and to live more fully in a conscious awareness of the blissful presence of God.
Paramahansa Yogananda presents here a profound explanation of the science of affirmation. He makes clear why affirmations work, and how to use the power of word and thought not only to bring about healing but to effect desired change in every area of life. Includes a wide variety of affirmations.
A collection of sayings and wise counsel that conveys Paramahansa Yogananda's candid and loving responses to those who came to him for guidance. Recorded by a number of his close disciples, the anecdotes in this book give the reader an opportunity to share in their personal encounters with the Master.
Mystical poetry by Paramahansa Yogananda — an outpouring of his direct perceptions of God in the beauties of nature, in man, in everyday experiences, and in the spiritually awakened state of samadhi meditation.
Explains dynamic principles for achieving one's goals in life, and outlines the universal laws that bring success and fulfillment — personal, professional, and spiritual.
Words and music to 60 songs of devotion, with an introduction explaining how spiritual chanting can lead to God-communion.
• Beholding the One in All • Awake in the Cosmic Dream • Songs of My Heart • Be a Smile Millionaire • The Great Light of God • To Make Heaven on Earth • One Life Versus Reincarnation • Removing All Sorrow and Suffering • In the Glory of the Spirit • Follow the Path of Christ, Krishna, and the Masters • Self-Realization: The Inner and the Outer Path
The Holy Science by Swami Sri Yukteswar Only Love: Living the Spiritual Life in a Changing World by Sri Daya Mata Finding the Joy Within You: Personal Counsel for God-Centered Living by Sri Daya Mata Enter the Quiet Heart: Creating a Loving Relationship With God by Sri Daya Mata God Alone: The Life and Letters of a Saint by Sri Gyanamata "Mejda": The Family and the Early Life of Paramahansa Yogananda by Sananda Lal Ghosh
Self-Realization (a quarterly magazine founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1925)
A complete catalog describing all of the Self-Realization Fellowship publications and audio/video recordings is available at www.srfbooks.org.
Mahavatar Babaji is the Supreme Guru in the Indian line of masters who assume responsibility for the spiritual welfare of all members of Self-Realization Fellowship and Yogoda Satsanga Society of India who faithfully practice Kriya Yoga. "I shall remain incarnate on the earth," he has promised, "until this particular world cycle is ended." (See chapters 33 and 37.) In 1920 Mahavatar Babaji told Paramahansa Yogananda: "You are the one I have chosen to spread the message of Kriya Yoga in the West.... The scientific technique of God-realization will ultimately spread in all lands, and aid in harmonizing the nations through man's personal, transcendental perception of the Infinite Father."
Mahavatar means "Great Incarnation" or "Divine Incarnation"; Yogavatar means "Incarnation of Yoga"; Jnanavatar means "Incarnation of Wisdom." Premavatar means "Incarnation of Love" — a title bestowed in 1953 on Paramahansa Yogananda by his great disciple, Rajarsi Janakananda (James J. Lynn).
In the phonetic examples below, which approximate the Sanskrit, the uh indicates an a pronounced as in sofa; the ah indicates an a as in father. Letters enclosed in parentheses (uh) (i) are only partially sounded. BHAGAVAN KRISHNA Sounds like: Bhuh-guh-vahn Kr(i)sh-nuh The v sound is between a v and a w. MAHAVATAR BABAJI Sounds like: Muh-hah-vuh-tahr Bah-bah-jee YOGAVATAR LAHIRI MAHASAYA Sounds like: Yog-ah-vuh-tahr Lah-hi(as in his)-ree Muh-hah-shy(uh) JNANAVATAR SWAMI SRI YUKTESWAR Sounds like: Gyahn-ah-vuh-tahr Swah-mee Shree Yook-taysh-wuhr
PREMAVATAR PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA Sounds like: Praym-ah-vuh-tahr Puh-ruh-m(uh)-hung-s(uh) Yog-ah-nun-d(uh) The han in Paramahansa is a nasalized sound, approximated by the English word hung, with a softly nasalized n and silent g.
As set forth by Paramahansa Yogananda, Founder Brother Chidananda, President To disseminate among the nations a knowledge of definite scientific techniques for attaining direct personal experience of God. To teach that the purpose of life is the evolution, through self-effort, of man's limited mortal consciousness into God Consciousness; and to this end to establish Self-Realization Fellowship temples for God-communion throughout the world, and to encourage the establishment of individual temples of God in the homes and in the hearts of men.
To reveal the complete harmony and basic oneness of original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ and original Yoga as taught by Bhagavan Krishna; and to show that these principles of truth are the common scientific foundation of all true religions.