Enjoy Spiritual Immersion without Leaving Home at Self-Realization Fellowship’s Annual Convocation

Whether you're a seasoned practitioner or new to spirituality, you'll find something to inspire you at the Self-Realization Fellowship World Convocation. Take part in group meditation, listen to meaningful talks, join uplifting kirtan, and enjoy spiritual fellowship during a week-long immersion in India’s timeless teachings. The event takes place from July 30 to August 5, and is offered online and free of charge.

Photo courtesy of Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, Calif.

Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) was founded in 1920 by Paramahansa Yogananda, widely regarded as the Father of Yoga in the West. (Yogoda Satsanga Society of India was founded in 1917, and is the name by which Yogananda’s work is known throughout India.) SRF has been offering the annual World Convocation since the 1950s as part of its mission to make India’s ancient wisdom and yoga meditation practices available to spiritual aspirants of all faiths and walks of life.

More about SRF World Convocation

The SRF World Convocation is an invitation to set aside one’s daily routine and focus deeply on the ultimate purpose of life: Self-realization or realization of the divine essence within us. All are welcome to attend the SRF convocation, which is being offered free of charge.

The daily schedule includes meditations, satsangas, kirtans and classes on the “How-to-Live” teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda. Topics include: “Building an Inner Spiritual Fortress,” “Unraveling the Mystery of Life and Death,” “The Power of Meditation,” “The Guru: Messenger of God,” and “Filling Your Cup of Happiness through Service to Others.” Participants have the flexibility to choose which sessions to attend.
 

The Kirtan Group of Yogoda Satsanga Society, Ranchi, India Photo courtesy of Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, Calif.

Among the benefits experienced by participants engaging in previous SRF Convocations are:

• Immersion in the “How-to-Live” teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, regarded as the father of Yoga in the West.
• Inspiration and guidance from classes and satsangas led by long-time monastic disciples of Yogananda.
• Cultivation of devotion through group kirtans as thousands join together for chanting to the Divine.
• A respite from the frenetic pace of daily life.
• Spiritual fellowship with other seekers from around the globe.
• An expanding sense of bliss and peace during and after the Convocation.

Who is Paramahansa Yogananda?

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) Photo courtesy of Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, Calif.

Paramahansa Yogananda was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh on January 5, 1893, in Gorakhpur, India. Even at a young age, it was evident to those around him that the depth of his spiritual awareness was far beyond the ordinary. He came to the West in 1920 when he was invited as the Indian delegate to an International Congress of Religious Liberals convening in Boston. He founded his society, Self-Realization Fellowship, that same year.

Yogananda is best known for introducing the teachings of Yoga to the Western world through his influential book, Autobiography of a Yogi. His teachings emphasize the unity of all religions and the potential for direct personal experience of the Divine through scientific techniques of meditation. He also taught the importance of striking a balance between Western material growth and Indian spiritual values and practices.

Kriya Yoga: The Heart of Paramahansa Yogananda's Teachings

“Uniting the soul with Spirit is Yoga — reunion with that great Happiness everyone is seeking. Isn't this a wonderful definition?” — Paramahansa Yogananda

Originating millenniums ago in India, Kriya Yoga includes a sacred technique of meditation whose devoted practice leads to realization of God. This meditation technique serves to quiet both body and mind, and make it possible to withdraw one’s energy and attention from the usual turbulence of thoughts, emotions, and sensory perceptions. In the clarity of that inner stillness, one comes to experience a deepening interior peace and attunement with one’s soul and with God.

In his life story, Autobiography of a Yogi, Yogananda explains that Yoga is an all-embracing system combining philosophy with practical methods for physical, mental, and spiritual development. Raja Yoga, the royal or highest path of Yoga, formally systematized in the second century B.C. by the Indian sage Patanjali, combines the essence of all other paths (Hatha Yoga, consisting primarily of bodily disciplines for physical and mental well-being; Karma Yoga, right action or selfless service; Bhakti Yoga, devotion to God; and Jnana Yoga, attainment of wisdom through discriminative reason).

At the heart of the Raja Yoga system is the practice of Kriya Yoga, which deals directly with energy and consciousness, and enables one to perceive, from the very beginning of one’s efforts, glimpses of the ultimate goal—conscious union with the inexhaustibly blissful Spirit. This is an integral part of the Self-Realization Fellowship teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda. The practice of Kriya Yoga reinforces and revitalizes subtle currents of life energy in the body, enabling the normal activities of heart and lungs to slow down naturally. As a result, the consciousness is drawn to higher levels of perception, gradually bringing about an inner awakening more deeply satisfying than any of the experiences that the mind or the senses or the ordinary human emotions can give.

Meditation enables the yogi (one who practices yoga) to achieve a state of complete calmness and stillness. In that deep quietude, the meditator can touch a level of joy and understanding impossible to achieve otherwise, communing with the God within each one of us.

Yogananda often quoted the Bible passage: “Be still and know that I am God.” The science of yoga meditation offers a direct means of stilling the natural turbulence of thoughts and restlessness of body that prevent us from knowing who we really are. By practicing the step-by-step methods of meditation we come to know our oneness with the Infinite Intelligence, Power, and Joy, which gives life to all and which is the essence of our own true self.

“Vyasa, Christ, Babaji, and all other perfected masters perceived the same truth,” says Yogananda. “They described it variously, in different languages. In the study of the Bhagavad Gita and the New Testament I have perceived their meanings as one.”

As Yogananda said, “By the practice of meditation, you will find that you are carrying within your heart a portable paradise.”

The SRF Convocation is an opportunity to become better acquainted with Paramahansa Yogananda’s teachings and spiritual practices. Those who are interested in learning more about Yogananda’s Kriya Yoga path or enrolling in the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons home-study program can contact SRF for more information.

Excerpts from books by Paramahansa Yogananda: The Divine Romance – Collected Talks & Essays on Realizing God in Daily Life, Volume II, God Talks with Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita, and Sayings of Paramahansa Yogananda are reprinted with permission. Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, California. All rights reserved. For more information about Paramahansa Yogananda and books published by Self-Realization Fellowship, including the spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi, please visit Yogananda.org .