Guided Meditations

Guided Meditations

By AnandaReligion & SpiritualitySpirituality
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Guided Meditations episodes

  • Virtual Pilgrimage: Temple of Silence, Temple of Light and Moksha Mandir

    Join this guided meditation pilgrimage through three sacred sites at Ananda, a spiritual community in the Sierra Nevada foothills founded on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

    The journey begins at the Temple of Silence, Ananda's oldest temple, located at the seclusion retreat on land purchased by Swami Kriyananda in 1967. Erin leads a guided meditation here, opening with an invocation to the lineage of gurus and a chant, then guiding viewers into a visualization of infinite space before settling into silent meditation. The segment closes with a reading from Yogananda's Metaphysical Meditations.

    Next, Nayaswami Amrita welcomes viewers to the Temple of Light at Ananda Village, completed in 2019 for the community's 50th anniversary. Modeled after Ananda's temples in Assisi, Italy and Washington State, the space honors six world religions. The meditation here centers on inner light, moving from chanting into a visualization of golden or blue light expanding outward from the body to bless the world.

    The pilgrimage concludes at the Mahasamadhi Mandir in the Crystal Hermitage Gardens, where Swami Kriyananda's physical remains rest. Nayaswami Maria describes it as unique among Ananda's temples for being kept in near constant silence, without regular group chanting. The meditation here emphasizes expansion, bliss, and consciousness beyond the confines of the body.

    Each segment follows a similar arc: a welcome providing context, an opening prayer, a chant, a guided visualization, an extended silent meditation, and a closing blessing.
    Register for free to watch all recordings from a historic week honoring Swami Kriyananda’s 100th birthday.
    1 hr 34 min
  • Expand Your Light — Visualization and Affirmation by Swami Kriyananda
    Connect with the light of your heart, and let it expand to fill your whole being, body, mind and feeling. Continue to expand your light, transforming all darkness into light, and blessings all creatures, in this short powerful guided visualization and affirmation on expanding your light, by Swami Kriyananda, read by Nayaswami Diksha.
    This visualization originates from Swami Kriyananda's 26-week home study course: Material Success Through Yoga Principles.
    Find more information about Diksha.
    Transcript
    Nayaswami Diksha:
    While sitting still, visualize a candle flame burning without a flicker in your heart. Imagine darkness around it and watch the light gradually spread outward in all directions, transforming that darkness into light. Watch the light now filling your body, then filling your mind. Body, mind, thoughts, and feelings bathe all in that calm light.
    Visualize in those light rays now a vibration of joy. You are that calm light, that calm feeling, that calm awareness of inner joy. Delight inwardly and outwardly in your inner peace.
    Visualize the light expanding outward in all directions to infinity. That light is your own Self. See it blessing your environment, blessing all those nearby, blessing every creature on this earth. Lo, the very world has become radiantly joyful, the light of your own being.
    Affirm after me:
    I am light, ever calm, ever perfect. I am one with Thee.
    More softly:
    I am light, ever calm, ever perfect. I am one with Thee.
    In a whisper:
    I am light, ever calm, ever perfect. I'm one with Thee.
    Mentally affirm:
    I am light, ever calm, ever perfect. I am one with Thee.
    I am light, ever calm, ever perfect. I am one with Thee.
    5 min
  • Fulfill the Divine Plan for Your Life
    Guided visualization and affirmation by Swami Kriyananda, read by Nayaswami Diksha.
    This visualization originates from Swami Kriyananda's 26-week home study course: Material Success Through Yoga Principles.
    Music by Swami Kriyananda.
    Transcript
    Nayaswami Diksha:
    Visualize light descending into the world from infinity. Focus it on whatever you're doing. Don't mentally divorce what you're doing in the effort to succeed from the totality of what you hope to accomplish.
    Remember, too: What you really aspire to is happiness. This means knowing who and what you really are and what your true role is in the cosmic drama.
    You will live in this body such a short time, only a few years; you must take seriously whatever happens in this ephemeral life. Nevertheless, keep your sights on changelessness. The best you can manifest is only a limited ray of the Infinite Light.
    Offer that best up to God, from whom all good things come. Ask His blessings on what you do. If you hold your most mundane actions up to His light, you will find everything in life becoming sanctified.
    Affirm after me: "I'm an actor in the drama of infinity. I will do my best to fulfill the cosmic plan for my life."
    More softly: "I'm an actor in the drama of infinity. I will do my best to fulfill the cosmic plan for my life."
    In a whisper: "I'm an actor in the drama of infinity. I will do my best to fulfill the cosmic plan for my life.”
    Mentally affirm: "I'm an actor in the drama of infinity. I will do my best to fulfill the cosmic plan for my life."
     
    5 min
  • Be the Change
    Join Nayaswami Jyotish and Nayaswami Devi as they lead a 25-minute guided meditation to help you find your inner peace and joy so you can share it with the world. Nayaswami Jyotish and Nayaswami Devi are Spiritual Directors of Ananda Sangha Worldwide.
    Transcript
    Intent of Be the Change Meditation
    Nayaswami Jyotish:
    Hello and welcome, friends. In this meditation together, you and I, and others around the world in 61 countries have pledged to be themselves the center of the change that they want to see in the world. The Be The Change campaign starts with the thought that each of us radiates a certain kind of energy.
    And in this case, we want to radiate to all the world the peace and harmony that we want to see in the world. If we don't begin with that, within our own hearts and our own minds, how can we expect others to do that work for us?
    So together, we are going to try to accumulate a million hours of meditation by the end of 2018, in order to effect the change throughout the world that we want to see happen. But that must begin with each one of us.
    Our great master, Paramhansa Yogananda, said that the center of the entire universe is a point of intuitive consciousness, in your own heart. So in this meditation, let's open our hearts to the flow of peace, to the flow of harmony. First of all, to feel it deeply within ourselves.
    The power of our mind, the power of our will, is infinite, if we can become a kind of power station within our own self, for those qualities, in this case peace and harmony. Let that power build in the meditation that we're going to do together. And then we can radiate that light out to every dark nook and cranny throughout the entire universe. So let's get started.
    Meditation Posture and Relaxation
    First of all, in order to meditate, we need to relax. So sit upright, in any comfortable position that you feel to; you can sit on the floor, you can sit on a chair as Devi and I are doing, or you can sit in any comfortable position, as long as your spine is straight and you're able to relax completely.
    And let's do an exercise that will help us relax more deeply internally — get rid of the unconscious tensions. So we're going to inhale through our mouth and nose. We're going to tense for a few seconds. Then we'll throw the breath out and relax completely. And we'll do that three times.
    So, please, get yourself centered. Feel that your spine is straight, like the trunk of a tree, and that your limbs and the rest of your body are easily supported.
    Now relax your body. Now let's get rid of the unconscious tensions. Inhale and tense [sound of inhalation, sound of exhalation]. Now relax completely. [Pause]
    Again, let's inhale and tense [sound of inhalation, sound of exhalation]. Relax. Now one more time, inhale and tense [sound of inhalation, sound of exhalation]. Relax.
    Check your body from the feet, on up through your legs, thighs, abdomen, hands, forearms and upper arms, chest, throat, jaw, eyes and eyelids, and your forehead. Be sure that you're completely relaxed.
    Now, to help us get rid of mental tensions, we're going to do a simple inhalation, hold, and exhalation of the breath. Focus on the breath and inhale to a count of eight [pause]. Hold; exhale. Again, inhale [pause], hold; exhale. And one more time. [Inhalation], hold; exhale.
    Now let's get centered, especially in our hearts, and in the point between the eyebrows. So feel the energy in your heart, a warm tingling sensation. And now bring that energy up to the point between the eyebrows, which is the center of will and the center of concentration.
    And keeping our attention in those two points, Devi will lead us in a prayer and then a chant together.
    Prayer Before Meditation
    Nayaswami Devi:
    So, friends, please join me in this prayer, which is for people of all faiths, all religions, all backgrounds:
    Oh, Divine Spirit, You who have come to us, again and again, inspiring us to seek Thee through many paths, through many faiths, awaken within our hearts deep love for You. And in that devotion and love may we feel our unity with people everywhere, people who follow many different paths that lead to the same one Father, Mother, Friend.
    So now chant with me a beautiful devotional chant by Paramhansa Yogananda: "Door of My Heart."
    The words are:
    Door of my heart, open wide I keep for Thee. Wilt Thou come, wilt Thou come? Just for once come to me. Will my days fly away without seeing Thee, my Lord? Night and day, night and day, I look for Thee night and day.
    [The singing of the chant's repetition]
    Hong Sau Mantra Meditation
    Nayaswami Jyotish:
    Now let's meditate together. We're going to start with a technique that will help bring concentration and also a deep-centered peace and harmony into our own system.
    This is a technique of watching the breath. And as we inhale, we're going to mentally say "Hong." And as we exhale, we will mentally say "Sau". Hong Sau.
    Don't make any attempt to control the breath. Just watch it. Be very observant and vigilant and completely relaxed. If the mind wanders at all, as soon as you realize it has wandered, bring it back to concentrating on watching the breath. Hong Sau is a Sanskrit term. And it's what's known as a beej mantra, meaning the sound itself has a power. In this case, the power to produce peace and harmony and concentration in our astral body. Hong roughly means "I am" and Sau, "He." So we're repeating, "I am He," meaning that we're one with all that exists. I am He. Hong Sau.
    So let's begin with a deep inhalation. Exhale three times. And as the breath comes in, observe it and mentally chant "Hong;" and as it goes out, observe and chant "Sau."
    Feel the flow of the breath in the nostrils. [Pause.] Concentrate on that flow, chanting "Hong" as it comes in, "Sau" as it exhales. [Pause.]
    Now feel it a little higher in the nostrils. [Pause.]
    If your mind has wandered, just gently bring it back and concentrate on the breath, the flow of the breath. [Pause.]
    You may now begin to notice that the pauses between the inhalation and the exhalation are longer. If so, just enjoy them. But the main thing is to keep observing the breath: total concentration on the flow. [Pause.]
    Return concentration to the breath if you find the mind has wandered. Let's do this silently together for a few minutes.
    [Period of silence]
    Focus on the Heart
    Now that we've done this for a few minutes, just take a moment and feel how peaceful you've become, how relaxed and concentrated.
    And now feel the area around your heart. This is a center, a chakra, the Anahata Chakra. And it's the center of feeling. Feel a warmth there. Awaken in yourself the sense of love. [Pause.]
    Now bring your concentration to the point between the eyebrows. We are going to take that love that has been awakened in the heart, and we're going to broadcast it out into the world.
    Feel complete love and compassion for everyone.
    Let's start by just thinking of all of the children in the world. Some don't have enough food. Others have been displaced by violence and warfare. Feel the compassion that their own mothers feel for them. And send your love out to all the children in the world.
    And Devi will lead us in an affirmation to send this out into the world.
    Be-the-Change Affirmation
    Nayaswami Devi:
    Affirmations are a big part of Yogananda's teachings. And so this is part of our affirmation for Be the Change. And I'll repeat it, and then please repeat after me. We'll do this first in a loud voice, then in a normal speaking voice, then in a whisper, and finally mentally only.
    So the words are: I am peace and harmony. I am truth. I am power. I am love.
    So please repeat after me as we explained. But each time that we repeat it, let's do it with increasing concentration and feel that this is transforming your consciousness. Be the Change is about personal transformation.
    So please repeat after me:
    I am peace and harmony. [I am peace and harmony.]
    I am truth. [I am truth.]
    I am power. [I am power.]
    I am love. [I am love.]
    I am peace and harmony. [I am peace and harmony.]
    I am truth. [I am truth.]
    I am power. [I am power.]
    I am love. [I am love.]
    Now whispering only:
    I am peace and harmony. [I am peace and harmony.]
    I am truth. [I am truth.]
    I am power. [I am power.]
    I am love. [I am love.]
    Now mentally only. But feel these words are penetrating your consciousness and beginning to change within you and around you.
    I am peace and harmony.
    I am truth.
    I am power.
    I am love.
    Prayer after Meditation
    And let's close with a prayer together:
    Oh Lord of all people, bless this planet with your peace, with your harmony, with your understanding. Awaken people everywhere to see all people as their brothers and sisters, as their spiritual family. May this world awaken into a time of unity, harmony, divine love, and joy.
    AUM, Peace, Amen.
    Narrator: Be the Change. Pledge to meditate daily. By changing yourself, you can change the world.
    25 min

About Guided Meditations

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Experience the joy of your own self with these guided meditations and techniques based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.