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Self-Realization Fellowship

An early American Hindu organization founded in 1920 as the Yogoda Satsang Society by Swami Paramahansa Yogananda. Yogananda was the inheritor of a tradition of kriya yoga, which had been revived in the 1860s by Mahavatar Babaji, a guru who lived in the foothills of the Himalayas and was believed to be an incarnation of Shiva, the Hindu deity. The lineage was passed to Swami Sri Yukteswar, who passed it to Yogananda.

Yogananda traveled to Boston in 1920 for the tricentennial anniversary of the Pilgrims' landing, sponsored by the International Congress of Religious Liberals, and decided to stay in the United States, one of the few Hindu teachers to settle in the country before immigration from India was stopped in 1924. He moved the headquarters to California in 1925. He wrote several books and began a magazine, East-West (later Self-Realization). He also developed a set of correspondence lessons, which facilitated the spread of the movement to all parts of the country.

The Self-Realization Fellowship was incorporated in 1935. As its name implies, it emphasizes the attainment of ananda, through self-realization, which it teaches is accomplished "through definite techniques for attaining a personal experience of God." Central to Yogananda's teachings is the practice of kriya yoga, which reinforces and revitalizes subtle currents of life energy in the body, enabling the normal activities of the heart and lungs to slow down naturally. It is based on a form of meditation, the details of which are taught only to students of the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons.

The fellowship also emphasizes what it sees as the essential unity of Eastern and Western spiritual teachings. To that end, its teachers often provide interpretations of parallel passages in the Christian New Testament and the Hindu Bhagavad Gita.

Following Yogananda's death in 1952, Swami Rajasi Janakananda (James J. Lynn) led the organization for three years but died in 1955. He was succeeded by Sri Daya Mata, who has led the organization since. SRF has more than 500 meditation centers in 56 countries, including twelve temples and ashram centers: nine in California and one each in Arizona, Virginia, and Nuremburg, Germany.

Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, first issued in 1946, has proved to be a widely popular text and has influenced people far beyond the Self-Realization Fellowship. Among the more famous members of the fellowship is W. Y. Evans-Wentz, scholar of Eastern mysticism and author of various books dealing with Tibetan and yogic texts. Website: http://www.yoganandasrf.org/.