Self-Realization Fellowship

The Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) is a nondenominational, global religious organization found ed in 1920 by Paramahansa Yogananda (born Mukunda Lal Ghosh). The SRF mission is to disseminate knowledge of scientific techniques for attaining direct personal experience of God as set forth by Paramahansa Yogananda. SRF emphasizes the practice of a particular technique called Kriya Yoga, which draws the practitioner's attention inward, away from outer stimuli, and can lead to the experience of cosmic consciousness. This Kriya Yoga technique has been handed down through a line of gurus from Mahavatar Babaji to Lahiri Mahasaya to Swami Sri Yukteshwar and to Paramahansa Yogananda, who brought it to the West. In The Second Coming of Christ, Yogananda discusses a link between Kriya Yoga and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Yogananda was well suited to be a successful teacher and guide for Western culture, having been trained by his guru Swami Sri Yukteshwar as a young boy for the divine mission of bringing Kriya Yoga to the West. The International Congress of Religious Liberals invited Yogananda to serve as the delegate from India at its 1920 convention in Boston, and he delivered an address titled “The Science of Religion.”

By 1925, the SRF had established a headquarters in Los Angeles on Mount Washington Estates. Yogananda traveled and lectured throughout the United States and initiated thousands of followers in the practice of Kriya Yoga.

Legally affiliated with SRF is the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, founded by Yogananda in 1917 in Dakshineswar. One of the unique features of the fellowship are the printed lessons, which give detailed instructions in SRF energization, concentration, and meditation techniques that constitute the preliminary practice for more advanced instruction in Kriya Yoga.

After Yogananda's passing, or mahasamadhi (the conscious exit of a yogi from his body), in 1952, Rajarsi Janakananda, born James Jesse Lynn, served as president of the organization. He was an American businessman and self-made millionaire who became a close disciple of Yogananda. Janakananda served as president of the SRF until his passing in 1955. Sri Daya Mata, born Faye Wright, was president of the SRF and Yogoda Satsanga Society from 1955 until her passing on November 30, 2010.

The Kriya Yoga technique is based on the science of the breath. All living creatures must perform pran-kriya, or the action of breathing. So the flow of the breath is intimately connected to the life force, without which no other bodily functions are possible. According to the Kriya technique, by focusing one's attention on the flow of the breath and ultimately controlling the breath, one can consciously connect to the life force itself. Because Kriya Yoga is a technique that anyone can practice, it has universal appeal. Indeed, SRF members come from every corner of the world and all the major religions.

Paramahansa Yogananda, along with other prominent figures from India, has had a profound influence on Western culture as well as religious and educational activities in the West, and though the exact number of SRF members is not known, a Harris Poll study revealed that by 2004, 7.5% of U.S. adults, or 16.5 million people, practice some type of yoga. Yogananda lived in the United States and taught his students and followers for more than 30 years, and his work has been carried on by his monastic disciples.

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