Paramahansa Yogananda

Qu'est-ce que l'Absolu ? Dieu existe-t-il ?

God is formless Spirit and also Divine Mother to whom one speaks

À la fois personnel et impersonnelIl le dit expressément

Paramahansa Yogananda describes God with the Vedantic formula of existence, consciousness and bliss, which he renders as ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new bliss: an omnipresent, formless Spirit from which creation proceeds. In chapter 14 of Autobiography of a Yogi he recounts an experience of cosmic consciousness in which he perceives the whole universe as light within his own being. But his work is also intensely devotional: he speaks with God as Divine Mother, prays, asks and receives answers, and holds that the divine can manifest in the form the devotee loves. In his commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita and the Gospels he presents both facets as complementary. The divine has, for him, a formless ground and a personal face that are equally real.

Qui suis-je ? Existe-t-il un vrai soi ?

The soul is individualised Spirit returning to God through many lives

Une âme en évolutionIl le dit expressément

Paramahansa Yogananda defines the soul as individualised Spirit: a reflection of God, of the same blissful nature, which has forgotten its origin by identifying with body and ego. That soul passes through many incarnations, subject to the law of karma, and inhabits not only physical bodies but also subtle sheaths; in chapter 43 of Autobiography of a Yogi, his master Sri Yukteswar, after his death, describes to him the astral and causal worlds and the three bodies of the human being. The practice of Kriya Yoga hastens that evolution. The goal is reunion with Spirit, in which, according to Yogananda, the soul knows its unity with God without wholly losing its individuality. The true self is thus a divine soul on its way back, not the ego with which it is confused.

Pourquoi souffrons-nous ?

Pain arises from misused free will and pushes the soul back to God

Le karma et l'apprentissage de l'âmeIl le dit expressément

Paramahansa Yogananda explains suffering with two intertwined ideas. The first is karma: the human being, endowed with free will, sows by its acts the causes of what befalls it, in this life or others, and pain is the harvest of actions contrary to divine law. The second is maya, the cosmic delusion that makes the soul identify with the body and forget its divine nature; from that forgetfulness it seeks happiness in what cannot give it. Yogananda often compares the world to a film projected by God's light, in which suffering is real for those absorbed in it. Pain has, in his view, a function: it awakens longing for something more and pushes the soul, over many lives, to seek God.

Que se passe-t-il après la mort ?

The soul passes into astral worlds and reincarnates until it is free

Renaissance selon le karmaIl le dit expressément

Yogananda offers a detailed description of the beyond in the chapter of Autobiography of a Yogi entitled «The Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar». He relates that his master, who died in 1936, appeared to him in a body of flesh and blood and explained the structure of the after-death worlds: the human being has a physical, an astral and a causal body; at death one passes into the astral world, made of light and energy, where one remains for a time according to karma, and afterwards most return to incarnate on earth. Only when desires and karma have been exhausted does the soul also leave the astral and causal bodies and unite with Spirit. In his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita he develops the image of the soul changing bodies as one changes clothes. Kriya yoga, he holds, speeds up that evolution.

Comment atteint-on la libération ou le salut ?

Kriya Yoga, a technique received from the guru, accelerates evolution towards union with God

Par une pratique disciplinéeIl le dit expressément

In Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda presents Kriya Yoga as the principal means of liberation. In the chapter devoted to its «science» he describes it as a psychophysiological method, based on controlling the life energy through the breath, which accelerates spiritual evolution and lets the practitioner achieve in a few years what would take many lives of natural development. The technique is received by initiation within a lineage of masters (Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar) and is practised together with devotion to God, ethical discipline and daily meditation. The goal is Self-realisation and conscious communion with God, whom Yogananda conceives as ever-new Bliss.

Faut-il un maître ?

The guru-disciple bond and initiation into the lineage are the sure path

IndispensableIl le dit expressément

Autobiography of a Yogi is, in large part, the story of searching for a master and of the relationship with him. Paramahansa Yogananda narrates his meeting with Sri Yukteswar, whom he recognised as the guru he had been awaiting, and the years of discipline in his hermitage, where he learned an obedience he describes as liberating. Kriya Yoga is transmitted through initiation within a lineage of masters (Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar and himself), and Yogananda presents the true guru as a channel of God whose help accompanies the disciple beyond death. The organisation he founded, Self-Realization Fellowship, maintains that conception of the guru lineage as guarantor of the teaching.

Le monde est-il réel ?

A universe of light dreamed by God, with physical, astral and causal worlds

Des plans d'existenceIl le dit expressément

In Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda describes the universe as a projection of light similar to a motion picture, sustained by God's consciousness: in the chapter on the law of miracles he presents it as God's cosmic dream, whose ultimate substance is light. That universe has levels. In the chapter on the resurrection of his master Sri Yukteswar he relates the description the latter allegedly gave him of the astral and causal worlds, subtler than the physical, in which souls live between incarnations. The physical world is real as a level of creation, but it is maya, an illusion relative to God, and the yogi learns to perceive it as such.

Qu'est-ce que l'amour ?

All human love reflects the love of God, which draws the soul back

Le désir ardent et l'unionIl le dit expressément

For Paramahansa Yogananda love is God's nature and the force that draws the soul back to Him. He holds that the love of parents, friends or lovers is a partial reflection of divine love, which expresses itself through them and is never exhausted in any one of them; that is why no human love fully satisfies. The devotee must learn to recognise God behind every affection and direct to Him a constant longing, until feeling His love in deep meditation. In Whispers from Eternity and in the prayers of How You Can Talk with God he addresses to God petitions of personal love, as Divine Mother or as Beloved, and in Autobiography of a Yogi he describes experiences of ecstatic communion. Friendship, to which he gives great value, is for him the purest form of human love.

Sommes-nous libres ou tout est-il déterminé ?

The stars point to karma, but the wise can outwit them

Le karma et le choixIl le dit expressément

In chapter 16 of *Autobiography of a Yogi*, «Outwitting the Stars», Yogananda recounts his master Sri Yukteswar's teaching on astrology: the birth chart does not cause destiny but indicates it, because a child is born at the moment when the celestial rays harmonise with his individual karma. That karma, however, is not final. Prayer, will power, deep meditation and the counsel of a sage can soften or cancel its effects. Yogananda thus acknowledges a real determination inherited from previous lives, but stresses that the soul, made in God's image, keeps the power to free itself. His teaching of *Kriya Yoga* is presented precisely as the swiftest means to burn accumulated karma.

Pourquoi méditer ou prier ?

Talking with God as a child demands of a father, with Kriya as method

L'amitié avec DieuIl le dit expressément

Yogananda joins two elements that appear separately in other teachers. On one side, a precise technique, *Kriya Yoga*, which in *Autobiography of a Yogi* (1946) he describes as a scientific method of controlling life energy to accelerate spiritual evolution. On the other, a deeply personal conception of prayer: in *Whispers from Eternity* and in his booklet *How You Can Talk With God* he teaches one to address God as Father, Mother or Friend, not with fearful pleading but with a child's confident demand, until an answer comes. Meditation stills mind and body so that this communion is possible; its end is conscious union with God, which he calls Self-realisation.

La raison peut-elle connaître l'ultime ?

A science of the soul, transmitted by initiation and verifiable by intuition

Une connaissance ésotériqueIl le dit expressément

Yogananda presents religion as an experimental science. In *The Science of Religion* (1920) he holds that all religions seek the same end, the removal of pain and the attainment of bliss, and that the methods for reaching it can be tested in experience. His instrument is not reason but intuition, the soul's faculty that perceives truth directly. In *Autobiography of a Yogi* he narrates the transmission of *Kriya Yoga* through a lineage of masters —Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar— as an ancient technique lost and recovered, received through initiation and verified in practice. Reason and modern science are cited as allies, but subordinate to intuitive knowledge.

Se retirer du monde ou le transformer ?

Acting in the world without attachment, anchored in daily meditation

La contemplation dans l'actionIl le dit expressément

Paramahansa Yogananda, a monk of the order of swamis, taught mainly Western lay people and maintained that the spiritual life does not require abandoning family or work. His model is the one he attributes to his lineage: Lahiri Mahasaya, master of kriya yoga, was a householder with a job and responsibilities, and in Autobiography of a Yogi he presents him as proof that realisation is compatible with life in the world. In his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita he interprets Krishna's exhortation to Arjuna as a call to fulfil one's own duty without attachment to the fruits, sustained by meditation. He recommended a balance between activity and recollection, a life of simple living and high thinking, and proposed the creation of world brotherhood colonies, communities in which spiritual practice would be united with work and life in common.

Encinitas, California · Estados Unidos

SRF How-to-Live retreats in Encinitas

Self-Realization Fellowship

Encinitas was one of Yogananda's most beloved places: here is the Hermitage where he wrote much of Autobiography of a Yogi, beside gardens on the Pacific cliffs. Self-Realization Fellowship runs its How-to-Live retreat centre in this setting, silent retreats intended, in the teacher's words, as a dynamo of silence where one may be recharged by the Infinite. Guests join the monastics for morning and evening meditation and may attend classes and receive spiritual counselling. There are personal retreats as well as conducted weekends with a more concentrated schedule on the teachings and techniques.

Pacific Palisades, Los Ángeles, California · Estados Unidos

Lake Shrine: SRF meditation gardens

Self-Realization Fellowship

Lake Shrine is the sanctuary Yogananda dedicated in 1950 beside a small natural lake in Pacific Palisades, a few minutes from the Pacific. Its meditation gardens, open to people of every faith, are designed for quiet recollection, and its temple holds Sunday meditation and inspirational services. After the January 2025 fire in the area, the gardens have reopened by advance reservation while recovery continues, but the retreat house remains closed until further notice. It is one of the most visited of the places the teacher founded during his lifetime, and a gentle introduction to his spirit.

Estudio en casa (correo postal y aplicación) · Internacional

Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons

Self-Realization Fellowship

The Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons are the home-study course Yogananda himself prepared to pass on his teaching to those who could not be with him. The basic series teaches three techniques: the Energization Exercises, the Hong-Sau Technique of Concentration and the Aum Technique of Meditation, together with guidance on prayer, affirmation and daily life. After the first months the student may apply for Kriya Yoga initiation. They arrive by post and through an app, and include access to spiritual counselling from the order's monastics, who remain the custodians of his method.

Ranchi, Jharkhand (y ashrams en Dakshineswar, Noida, Dwarahat y Chennai) · India

Yogoda Satsanga Society: Ranchi ashram and sadhana sangams

Yogoda Satsanga Society of India

Yogoda Satsanga Society of India is the organisation Yogananda founded in India in 1917, the sister society of Self-Realization Fellowship. Its Ranchi ashram grew out of the boys' school the young yogi opened there, and preserves places connected with his life. Together with the ashrams at Dakshineswar, Noida, Dwarahat and Chennai, it organises retreats and sadhana sangams, gatherings of intensive practice with group meditations and classes given by monastics of the order. It is the reference path in India for studying his Lessons, which are available in English and in several Indian languages.