Paramhansa Yogananda

The India Day is annually celebrated by Chicago Medication Group of Self Realization Fellowship to commemorate the spiritual and cultural contribution to the world by India, the birth country of Paramhansa Yogananda, the founder of Self Realization Fellowship.
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The practice of celebrating the spiritual and cultural heritage of India was started by Paramhansa Yogananda, who came to the US in 1920, to attend the International Congress of Religious Liberals.
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The chapel was colorfully decorated and a floral altar was set up with pictures of Paramhansa Yogananda, Lahari Mahasaya, Mahavatar Babaji, Jesus Christ, Bhagvan Krishna, and Swami Sri Youkteswar.Delivering the message of Paramhansa Yogananda, Gayle O'Key, a devotee and volunteer, explained the process of meditation through deep silence and turning one's vision inwardly concentrating in the center of both the eyebrows.
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Paramhansa Yogananda performed miracles, invoked faith and presence of God for world unity and peace."A wealthy man plans for wealth, but a yogi plans for world spirituality and peace," she said, and added that spiritual life would develop among spiritual people and spiritual success would dawn on the understanding people through discipline and divinity.
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Another devotee, Joan Clowes, said that Paramhansa Yogananda established Self Realization Fellowship, gifted to people Kirya Yoga, and conveyed the greater understanding of oneness of God, which various religions tried to identify themselves.
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Welcoming the gathering to India Day celebration, Sejal Shah, a devotee and a volunteer, said that Paramhansa Yogananda strived for a closeness between spiritually democratic India and materially successful democratic America.
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We should all become true citizens of United States of World where God is President," Sejal Shah concluded, quoting Paramhansa Yogananda.

Paramhansa Yogananda
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Paramhansa Yogananda was the first great Indian master to live in the West for an extended period of time and his story explains with scientific clarity the subtle but definite laws by which yogis perform miracles and attain self-mastery.

There has been some confusion, dispute and litigation with regards to the organizations that carry on with his work and message - most notably Self-Realization Fellowship and Ananda.
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Yogananda began his life's work with the founding, in 1917, of a "how-to-live" school for boys, where modern educational methods were combined with yoga training and instruction in spiritual ideals.Visiting the school a few years later, Mahatma Gandhi wrote: "This institution has deeply impressed my mind."

In 1920, Yogananda was invited to serve as India's delegate to an international congress of religious leaders convening in Boston.His address to the congress, on "The Science of Religion," was enthusiastically received.That same year he founded Self-Realization Fellowship to disseminate worldwide his teachings on India's ancient science and philosophy of Yoga and its time-honored tradition of meditation.

For the next several years, he lectured and taught on the East coast and in 1924 embarked on a cross-continental speaking tour.The following year, he established in Los Angeles an international headquarters for Self-Realization Fellowship, which became the spiritual and administrative heart of his growing work.

A Pioneer of Yoga in the West

Over the next decade, Yogananda traveled and lectured widely, speaking to capacity audiences in many of the largest auditoriums in the country -- from New York's Carnegie Hall to the Los Angeles Philharmonic.The Los Angeles Times reported: "The Philharmonic Auditorium presents the extraordinary spectacle of thousands....being turned away an hour before the advertised opening of a lecture with the 3000-seat hall filled to its utmost capacity."

Yogananda emphasized the underlying unity of the world's great religions, and taught universally applicable methods for attaining direct personal experience of God.To serious students of his teachings he introduced the soul-awakening techniques of Kriya Yoga, a sacred spiritual science originating millenniums ago in India, which had been lost in the Dark Ages and revived in modern times by his lineage of enlightened masters.
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In 1935, Yogananda began an 18-month tour of Europe and India.
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by Paramhansa Yogananda
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by Paramhansa Yogananda
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by Paramhansa Yogananda

Essence of Self-Realization: Chapter Twelve-The Need for Yoga by Paramhansa Yogananda (edited by J. Donald Walters)
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Essence of Self-Realization: Chapter Twelve-The Need for Yoga BY PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA (EDITED BY J. DONALD WALTERS)

A vistor: "What is yoga?"Paramhansa Yogananda: "Yoga means union.
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Yogananda: "Concentration is the key to success in everything.Even the businessman must be able to concentrate, or he won't achieve success in his worldly affairs."If you are talking with someone, and his eyes wander about the room and he keeps on fidgeting restlessly, won't you feel that he isn't really listening to you?After some time you may lose interest in further conversation with him."Don't expect, then, to win God's response until you can sit still and hold your mind open and attentive to His presence within."

6 A newcomer to the Self-Realization Fellowship church in Hollywood asked Paramhansa Yogananda, "Why are techniques necessary for developing concentration?Can't a person simply flow with the inspiration he feels when he prays?""A violinist may feel inspiration," Yogananda replied, "but if he doesn't learn techniques that have been developed through the experience of great musicians, he will never become more than an inspired amateur.
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8 To the disciples, Yogananda often said, "Be patient in your yoga practice.
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The Essence of Self-Realization by Paramhansa Yogananda, Copyright 1990, J.Donald Walters

Paramhansa Yogananda'sYoga for Joy - Realization of our Divine Consciousness- Paramhansa Yogananda
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Paramhansa Yogananda
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Paramhansa Yogananda

Paramhansa Yogananda was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh on January 5, 1893, in Gorakhpur, India, into a devout and well-to-do Bengali family.
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Paramhansa Yogananda called his Mother the "Queen of Hearts" because she only taught them through love.She always had an open hand for the needy.

At eight years old he experienced a miraculous cure of Asiatic Cholera.The incident occurred while praying to Lahiri Mahasaya.A blinding light enveloped his body and he instantly recovered from what is normally a fatal disease.When Yogananda was eleven years old his mother died.It would be years before he could reconcile his mothers death.His cries at last summoned the Divine Mother.Her words brought him final healing: "It is I who have watched over thee, life after life, in the tenderness of many mothers!See in my gaze the two black eyes, the lost beautiful eyes thou seekest!"

It was in 1910, at the age of 17, that he met Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri.He became a disciple of Sri Yukteswar and spent the next ten years in the hermitage under the discipline of this strict but loving Master of yoga.He took formal vows in the monastic Swami Order after he graduated from Calcutta University in 1915.He received the name Yogananda (signifying bliss, ananda, through yoga, divine union.

In 1917 Yogananda founded a "how-to-live" high school for boys, with yoga training and instruction in spiritual ideals.Visiting the school a few years later, Mahatma Gandhi wrote: "This institution has deeply impressed my mind."

In 1920, Yogananda was invited to serve as India's delegate to the International Congress of Religious Liberals convening in Boston.Afterwards he stayed in America, founding the organization Self-Realization Fellowship.For the next several years, he lectured and taught on the East Coast, and in 1924 embarked on a cross-continental speaking tour.The following year, he established his spiritual headquarters in Los Angeles.

Over the next decade, Yogananda lectured widely, from New York's Carnegie Hall to the Los Angeles Philharmonic.The Los Angeles Times reported: "The Philharmonic Auditorium presents the extraordinary spectacle of thousands being turned away an hour before the advertised opening of a lecture with the 3000-seat hall filled to its utmost capacity."

Yogananda emphasized the underlying unity of the world's great religions, and taught universally applicable methods for attaining a direct personal experience with God.He taught the techniques of kriya yoga a sacred practice that originated millennia ago in India.

In 1935, Yogananda returned to India to begin an 18-month lecturing tour of Europe and India.He initiated Mahatma Gandhi in kriya yoga, and met with Nobel-prize-winning physicist Sir C. V. Raman.He visited Sri Ramana Maharshi, Anandamoyi Ma, and Theresa Neumann.Swami Sri Yukteswar bestowed upon him India's highest spiritual title, Paramhansa.

Yogananda's life story, Autobiography of a Yogi, was published in 1946.The book has been in continuous publication since it first appeared and has been translated into 18 languages.It is regarded as a modern spiritual classic.

March 7, 1952, Paramhansa Yogananda made his final, conscious, ecstatic exit from his body, or Mahasamadhi.At a banquet held in the honor of the Ambassador of India, Yogananda was finishing a speech with a few lines from his poem, My India.When he was finished his eyes lifted, he turned slightly to his right and sank quietly to the floor.

A notarized statement signed by the Director of Forest Lawn Memorial-Park testified: "No physical disintegration was visible in his body even twenty days after death....This state of perfect preservation of a body is, so far as we know from mortuary annals, an unparalleled one....Yogananda's body was apparently in a phenomenal state of immutability."

Yogananda came to the West in answer to a universal need.It was time for the world to achieve balance between material and spiritual prosperity.Master was born, he told us, in response to a heart-felt desire on the part of countless Westerners.