SRF monk Brother Anilananda discusses the importance of having a true guru on the spiritual path, in this talk given at the 2014 SRF World Convocation.

He quotes Paramahansa Yogananda’s words: “Most people could not become millionaires in this lifetime no matter how much they wanted, because it would take several lifetimes for them to bring about the right circumstances. But…all of us, ‘being already made in the image of God, can attain Him in one lifetime by making the proper spiritual effort under the guidance of a true guru.’”

Brother Anilananda stresses that there are three ways in which we can cooperate and tune in with the Guru, who is trying to help us reach omnipresent liberation. “The Guru is our guide to eternal freedom,” he states. “To attune with him, we should remember the importance of love; and the techniques of meditation he has given us, which will help us go inside to awaken that love; and finally we must learn to ‘give that love to all.’”

In his How-to-Live teachings, 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!

To learn the science of meditation and the art of balanced spiritual living of the Kriya Yoga path: https://yogananda.org/lessons

To read the ebook of Yogananda’s “Autobiography of a Yogi”: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product/autobiography-of-a-yogi-ebook/

To view the collection of ebooks available from SRF: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product-category/books/ebooks/

To subscribe to the SRF Newsletter or Self-Realization magazine: https://yogananda.org/subscribe

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

SRF monk Brother Jayananda shares insights from Paramahansa Yogananda into how to progress on the spiritual path. First, "What is the true purpose of life?" After revealing the answer to this, Brother Jayananda explains how to achieve this purpose by applying various universal methods of spiritual seeking found in the SRF/YSS teachings, especially that of the technique of Kriya Yoga.

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!

To learn the science of meditation and the art of balanced spiritual living of the Kriya Yoga path: https://yogananda.org/lessons

To read the ebook of Yogananda’s “Autobiography of a Yogi”: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product/autobiography-of-a-yogi-ebook/

To read the ebook of Yogananda’s “God Talks With Arjuna”: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product/god-talks-with-arjuna-the-bhagavad-gita-ebook/

To read the ebook of Yogananda’s “Journey to Self-realization”: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product/journey-to-self-realization-ebook/

To view the ebooks available from SRF: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product-category/books/ebooks/

To subscribe to the SRF Newsletter or Self-Realization magazine: https://yogananda.org/subscribe

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

SRF monk Brother Bhumananda shares insights into Paramahansa Yogananda’s stating that this world in which we live is—in an ultimate sense—a cosmic motion picture. He explains that although our life experiences seem so very real and compelling, the message from the great ones who know God—such as Jesus, Krishna, and the Self-Realization Fellowship lineage of Gurus—is that this ‘reality’ is not what it seems to be.

The great spiritual masters come to wake us up so that we can know what we really are: beings of light and consciousness.

This lesson is borne out in the Bible passage from the book of Matthew: “The ship was now in the midst of the sea tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them walking onto the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were troubled, saying it is a spirit and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spoke unto them saying, ‘Be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid.’”

Of this miracle Paramahansa Yogananda explains: “A master who by actual realization perceives the entire cosmos as a dream of God, and all matter as condensed light and consciousness, rises above the laws governing material creation….If a sleeping man dreams he is drowning, his consciousness would suffer a painful sense of suffocation. But if he knew the art of controlling his dreams at will he could save his dream self simply by changing his dream thoughts to behold his dream body floating safely on the dream waters. Jesus, perceiving his body, the sea, and the conglomerate world as differentiated dream waves of consciousness…could by mere willing change the…electronic composition of his body so that weightlessly it could walk on water.”

Paramahansa Yogananda stated that Jesus and his close disciples practiced a form of yoga meditation very similar to Kriya Yoga. And it is through the practice of Kriya Yoga Meditation that a seeker after higher understanding can come to that realization that his or her essence is light and consciousness. Brother Bhumananda points out that when Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you,” the yogis of India would recognize that assertion as perfectly in harmony with yoga.

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 teach seekers in the practice of Kriya Yoga meditation, Paramahansa Yogananda established the SRF/YSS Lessons as a comprehensive system for balanced spiritual living: https://yogananda.org/lessons

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/convocation

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 the secret for success on the spiritual path lies in developing a “never give up” attitude: “We will be delving into the subject of perseverance and having that indomitable will and determination to accomplish whatever we set out to do in our lives; and in particular to be determined to seek God, to love God, until we have that final union with God”

He points out that the highest goal in life is to experience the Divine within ourselves, and that to do so requires persevering until we reach that sacred goal. Citing numerous examples of spiritually successful individuals, most notably Paramahansa Yogananda, he explains how we can develop #perseverance and our desire for realization—despite all the tests of life—through practical spiritual methods such as: 

 • Understanding the purpose of life
 • Using affirmations as a means to know the divinity and strength of your true nature as a soul
 • Faithfully practicing scientific yoga meditation techniques, as those found in the SRF teachings

“The scientific way of entering the superconscious state is by the methods of life-force control I am giving to you,” Brother Nakulananda quotes #Yogananda as saying about the pranayama (life-force control) techniques taught in the SRF Lessons. “If you faithfully practice these techniques and meditate deeply, I prophesy you will never give it up.” 

In this talk, which was recorded at the SRF Encinitas Temple in May 2020, Brother Nakulananda quotes from Yogananda’s commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita (“God Talks With Arjuna”) and the New Testament (“The Second Coming of Christ”) to show their underlying unity and emphasis on actual experience of God. And in drawing examples from the lives of saints, Brother Nakulananda tells us that we too can follow in their footsteps and achieve our own Self-realization.

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 the meditation techniques of the science of Kriya Yoga by receiving the SRF Lessons: https://yogananda.org/lessons

To read the ebook of Yogananda’s “Autobiography of a Yogi”: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product/autobiography-of-a-yogi-ebook/ 

To read the ebook of Yogananda’s “God Talks With Arjuna”: 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/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-overview

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/lessons

To learn more about the yoga path and the science Kriya Yoga in particular: https://yogananda.org/path

To experience more SRF how-to-live inspirational videos and guided meditations: https://www.youtube.com/user/YoganandaSRF

If 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-overview

Topics 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 meditation

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 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/lessons

To experience more SRF how-to-live inspirational videos and guided meditations: https://www.youtube.com/user/YoganandaSRF

If 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/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 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/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

If 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/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/

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.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

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