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.

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/lessons

To 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/

SRF minister 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.

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.org

Learn 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/lessons

Learn more Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda’s spiritual classic: https://yogananda.org/autobiography-of-a-yogi

Purchase 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-wisdom

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

SRF minister 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.”

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/lessons

To 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.org

To learn more about how meditation is the central focus of the complete system of Raja Yoga: https://yogananda.org/yoga-union-with-bliss-through-meditation

In this inspirational service conducted at the Self-Realization Fellowship Hollywood Temple, SRF minister 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.

Learn more about Self-Realization Fellowship and the path of Kriya Yoga: https://yogananda.org

Learn 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/lessons

Read selections of Yogananda’s “how-to-live” wisdom on a variety of topics: https://yogananda.org/how-to-live-wisdom