SRF minister 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.”

To learn to practice the SRF teachings of Kriya Yoga meditation: https://yogananda.org/lessons

To 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-youth

To 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-overview

If you would like to support the spiritual and humanitarian work of SRF, please click on this link: https://donatesrf.org