The Wisdom of Paramahansa Yogananda

SRF monk Brother Saralananda conveys wisdom from Paramahansa Yogananda on how our practice of repeating devotional thoughts of God can spiritualize and elevate our lives. Would you like to feel a buoyancy and flow of divine inspiration throughout every day? When we keep our consciousness centered on feeling the loving presence of God and sending that love to others, all of our daily actions become...

Brother Anandamoy (1922 – 2016), direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda and much-loved Self-Realization Fellowship minister, gives an inspiring overview of the power of Kriya Yoga to uplift the consciousness of those who practice this sacred science deeply and regularly. This talk was given at the SRF Pasadena Temple on January 4, 1998. The Kriya Yoga path—focusing on scientific meditation and t...

Self-Realization Fellowship monk Brother Govindananda discusses Paramahansa Yogananda’s teaching on meditation—that not only do we want to experience God’s presence as peace, love, joy, in meditation, but to take that awareness with us during the day, no matter what’s going on around us.   The importance of seeing our spiritual efforts as a divine offering, Brother Govindananda points out, is disc...

In this inspirational service, SRF monk Brother Bhumananda shares Paramahansa Yogananda’s wisdom on the steps that a spiritual seeker can take on the path of yoga to satisfy the heart’s deepest longing for love. The service includes a period of guided yoga meditation. This talk was recording in January, 2021, at the SRF Mother Center in Los Angeles. In discussing unconditional love and steps to ta...

Brother Anandamoy (1922 – 2016), a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda and much-loved minister of Self-Realization Fellowship, shares principles from Paramahansaji’s teaching on the power of thought. With compassionate understanding, profound insight, and gentle humor Brother Anandamoy reminds us of the transforming power of our own thoughts and shows us how to use that power to connect with...

In this episode, SRF nun Sister Usha conveys wisdom from Paramahansa Yogananda about the all-embracing Divine Mother, God in the aspect of perfect unconditional love. We all yearn to be loved unconditionally — fully understood and accepted without reservation. When we approach God as a child appealing to our Divine Mother, we can experience the sympathetic understanding, tenderness, and nurturing...

SRF monk Brother Jayananda discusses positive ways we can approach all life’s situations as yogis in order to be successful spiritually: “When we talk about thanksgiving or gratitude, these are attitudes really—ways of thinking, or ways of approaching life.”   Drawing from Paramahansa Yogananda’s teachings and his experiences with Sri Daya Mata, SRF’s beloved third president, Brother Jayananda exp...

Brother Bhaktananda (1914 – 2005), a longtime SRF monk and minister who became a disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda in 1939, explains how to develop and perfect the guru-disciple relationship: the Divine’s eternal plan to free each soul. He discusses how a commitment to simplicity, obedience, and loyalty in our daily lives leads to real freedom and happiness. From his long experience practicing the...

In this episode, SRF monk Brother Jayananda conveys wisdom from Paramahansa Yogananda on how we can find the true and lasting happiness that is the very nature of our souls. Would you like to experience a happiness that is all-satisfying and never ends? All of us are looking for happiness, but the joy we get from outer conditions and experiences quickly fades. When we practice yoga meditation and...

In this episode, SRF monk Brother Padmananda conveys wisdom from Paramahansa Yogananda on how we can awaken to the joy of Spirit that lies just behind the passing illusions of this world. The yogis of ancient India said that this material world is a dream — so how can we wake up from this dream and experience true reality? When we focus on the pleasures and pains of life and our emotional reaction...

In this talk, SRF nun Sister Preeti addresses questions such as “Why is it that some people are happy and others are not? What can we do to increase our inner happiness? Why should we try to be happy? How does our personal level of happiness affect others?” She explains: “Our guru, Paramahansa Yogananda, assures us that happiness is the birthright of every soul. Each one of us, without exception,...

Self-Realization Fellowship monk Brother Achalananda discusses ways we can cultivate faith—which, as Paramahansa Yogananda explained, goes beyond mere belief and is grounded in actual experience of the Divine within ourselves. To cultivate faith, “we have to start with one quality which [Paramahansa Yogananda] mentions in his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita as being the foremost quality that every...

Mukti Mata (1922 – 2008), a longtime SRF nun and minister SRF who became a disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda in 1945, discusses Paramahansaji’s teaching that prayer is an expression of the soul. She explains that the more we go directly to God with a trusting attitude in prayer, conversing naturally from our heart, the more we build a strong and intimate relationship with the Divine—one which will...

SRF nun Sister Karuna shares insights on how you can have a two-way conversation with the Divine. Drawing from Paramahansa Yogananda’s book “How You Can Talk With God” she discusses how, in applying the science of meditation in our daily lives, we can truly realize the kingdom of God within. Sister Karuna also speaks of the deeply personal relationship with Divine Mother experienced by Sri Daya Ma...

In this talk, Self-Realization Fellowship monk Brother Anandamoy focuses on the essence of Paramahansa Yogananda’s teachings, providing encouraging guidance on how it is possible to attain God-realization in this life. Through the practice of meditation we can learn to go within and concentrate one-pointedly on God — and establish a sweet, deeply satisfying relationship with the Divine. Brother An...

Are you interested in a simple but profound way to experience the presence of God in everyday life? In this episode, SRF monk Brother Satyananda conveys wisdom from Paramahansa Yogananda on how we can take control of our own patterns of thoughts and feelings to fill our lives with sacred moments. Often we are passive about our inner flow of thoughts, but consciously changing the nature of our thou...

Would you like to know how to develop your will power so that it can accomplish things that may seem impossible? In this episode, SRF monk Brother Prafullananda conveys wisdom from Paramahansa Yogananda on how we can attune our limited human will with God’s infinite divine will. Every one of us has the potential to develop “dynamic will” that is constantly improving and expanding. When we use that...

In this deeply encouraging talk Sri Daya Mata, beloved third president of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, shares many beautiful insights from her personal experience as one of Paramahansa Yogananda’s closest disciples. The God-love and tangible divine realization Sri Daya Mata so naturally radiates allows all to come away with renewed strength, inspiration, and commit...

Self-Realization Fellowship monk Brother Kamalananda conveys wisdom from Paramahansa Yogananda on how expressing the love we experience within can transform our lives and world. Accepting that God loves us unconditionally enables us to reciprocate that love more and more — with the Divine in our meditations and through even small acts of loving kindness, which have the power to impact others in pr...

How can we bring God closer, so that lasting peace and joy become part of our everyday reality? Paramahansa Yogananda explained that God is “ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss.” And in this talk, SRF monk Brother Kartikananda conveys wisdom from Paramahansaji on how, through regular meditation, we can experience within ourselves that same bliss, which is the true nature of the soul as a...

In this talk Brother Anandamoy, one of Paramahansa Yogananda’s direct disciples, identifies the universal needs that lie at the core of all spiritual seeking, and demonstrates how true spirituality, found in the esoteric traditions of the world’s great religions, fulfills these needs through direct personal experience of God. In his How-to-Live teachings, Paramahansa Yogananda has given to people...

A talk given by Sri Daya Mata at the 1993 SRF World Convocation in Los Angeles as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Paramahansa Yogananda’s birth. Sri Daya Mata was the president of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India from 1955 until her passing in 2010.  In this talk Daya Mata explains that Paramahansaji was sent to the West to address humanity’s hunger...

SRF monk Brother Sattvananda explains that enthusiasm—the ability to motivate ourselves and feel joy in whatever we are doing—is not only important in every aspect of life, but especially in order to achieve our highest spiritual goal of communion with God. He shares Paramahansa Yogananda’s ideas on how to cultivate spiritual enthusiasm and understand the relationship between will power and mainta...

SRF monk Brother Saralananda discusses how students of the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons can make Paramahansa Yogananda’s living presence a tangible reality through their study of the Lessons—the very core of the Kriya Yoga teachings he was ordained to bring to the world.  In the Preface to the new SRF Lessons, Sri Daya Mata and Sri Mrinalini Mata write: “The scriptures of India teach the va...

SRF monk Brother Balananda delivers a class on how, by embracing inner growth that builds both self-esteem and self-confidence, teens can learn to realize themselves as souls, made in the image of God—capable of accomplishing anything. This class, which is primarily oriented towards SRF/YSS teens, will explore how they can develop a strong spiritual foundation — so that when tests, trials, and cha...