ALT “This book will change the lives of millions. It will be my messenger when I am gone.” — Paramahansa Yogananda “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda was honored as one of the “100 Best Spiritual Books” of the 20th century. Now translated into more than 50 languages, this masterpiece of universal spirituality continues to touch millions of readers around the globe. Discover or rediscover “Autobiography of a Yogi” today: yogananda.org/autobiography And let us know in the comments: What does “Autobiography of a Yogi” mean to you?

ALT We are very pleased to announce that the new edition of the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons in Spanish is now available, and enrollment is open at srf-lecciones.org The new and comprehensive edition of the SRF Lessons contains a wealth of previously unpublished material from Paramahansa Yogananda’s writings and classes on the SRF meditation techniques and “how-to-live” teachings that lead to inner and outer harmony and the highest states of blissful divine consciousness. Translations are in progress in numerous other languages, including German, French, and Japanese. We hope to have these available in the near future as well, making the light of Paramahansa Yogananda’s teachings available to as many seekers as possible. Paramahansa Yogananda viewed the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons as the very core of the teachings he was ordained to bring to the world as a special spiritual dispensation for the coming global civilization.

ALT “Through meditation one can experience a stable, silent inner peace that can be a permanently soothing background for all harmonious or trialsome activities demanded by life’s responsibilities. Lasting happiness lies in maintaining this evenly peaceful state of mind.” — Paramahansa Yogananda

ALT “Nature is very beautiful; but still, in one sense, it is very silent: it tells us of the beauty of everything without revealing the Beauty that is behind everything. But when we find God within, His presence becomes so evident without.” — Paramahansa Yogananda

ALT On October 6, 1920, Paramahansa Yogananda delivered his first address in the United States, as India’s delegate to the Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston. The subject was “The Science of Religion.” Yogananda had arrived in America just a few weeks before, to bring to the world at the request of his renowned line of gurus that sublime soul-science — yoga. Paramahansa Yogananda’s book “The Science of Religion,” published in 1924, is an amplification of that historic first speech in America. Yogananda speaks to the universality of the world’s religions and explains that the answers to the ultimate questions of life lie in the direct personal experience of a Higher Reality. We invite you to explore Yogananda’s book by visiting yogananda.org/science-of-religion

ALT Paramahansa Yogananda pictured with Mahatma Gandhi in Wardha, India, 1935. As part of a yearlong journey to his beloved motherland, Yogananda traveled to see Gandhi at his ashram. This picture was taken on a Monday, Gandhi’s day of silence, and Yogananda is shown reading a note Gandhi had just written. Their interactions during Yogananda’s visit, including Gandhi’s request for initiation in Kriya Yoga, are chronicled in a chapter of “Autobiography of a Yogi.” In 1925 (the year Yogananda established his international headquarters in Los Angeles to spread the teachings of Kriya Yoga worldwide), Gandhi visited Yogananda’s Yogoda Satsanga school for boys in Ranchi. Expressing keen interest in the balanced curriculum of the Yogoda program, he inscribed in the guest book a gracious tribute.

ALT Today marks the birth anniversary of Lahiri Mahasaya (1828 – 1895). Lahiri Mahasaya is renowned as a seminal figure in the renaissance of yoga that began in modern India in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In 1861, Mahavatar Babaji initiated him into the science of Kriya Yoga — and this tradition continues to this day through the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda. Paramahansa Yogananda wrote in “Autobiography of a Yogi”: “To the awe of all beholders, Lahiri Mahasaya’s habitual physiological state exhibited the superhuman features of breathlessness, sleeplessness, cessation of pulse and heartbeat, calm eyes unblinking for hours, and a profound aura of peace. No visitors departed without upliftment of spirit; all knew they had received the silent blessing of a true man of God.”

ALT On this day in 1895, Lahiri Mahasaya entered mahasamadhi, a Self-realized yogi’s final conscious exit from the body. Lahiri Mahasaya is revered as a Yogavatar, an incarnation of Yoga, exemplifying the highest ideal of Yoga — blissful union of one’s individual consciousness with God’s cosmic consciousness. He was the first to teach Kriya Yoga in contemporary times, and his blessed life has been chronicled for the ages in Paramahansa Yogananda’s “Autobiography of a Yogi.” Yogananda wrote: “As the fragrance of flowers cannot be suppressed, so Lahiri Mahasaya, quietly living as an ideal householder, could not hide his innate glory. Devotee-bees from every part of India began to seek the divine nectar of the liberated master....The harmoniously balanced life of the great householder-guru became the inspiration of thousands of men and women.” Learn more about Lahiri Mahasaya and the spiritual lineage of the SRF/YSS Gurus by visiting Yogananda.org/lineage