Paramahansa Yogananda परमहंस योगानन्‍द (January 5, 1893 – March 7, 1952), was an Indian yogi and guru. He was instrumental in bringing Kriya Yoga to the West. Paramahansa Yogananda - Life. Yogananda was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India into a devout Bengali family. His autobiography claims that from his earliest years, his awareness and experience of the spiritual was far beyond the ordinary. In his youth he sought out many of India's Hindu sag ...

Including:

• Paramahansa Yogananda - Life
• Paramahansa Yogananda - Legacy
• Paramahansa Yogananda - Kriya Yoga
• Paramahansa Yogananda - Autobiography of a Yogi
• Paramahansa Yogananda - Claims of bodily incorruptibility
• Paramahansa Yogananda - Related links

Read more here: » Paramahansa Yogananda: Encyclopedia - Paramahansa Yogananda

See also:

Paramahansa Yogananda, Paramahansa Yogananda - Life, Paramahansa Yogananda - Legacy, Paramahansa Yogananda - Kriya Yoga, Paramahansa Yogananda - Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda - Claims of bodily incorruptibility, Paramahansa Yogananda - Related links

Read more here: » Paramahansa Yogananda: Encyclopedia II - Paramahansa Yogananda - Life

Yogananda taught his students the need for direct experience of truth, as opposed to blind belief. He said that “The true basis of religion is not belief, but intuitive experience. Intuition is the soul’s power of knowing God. To know what religion is really all about, one must know God.” (from The Essence of Self-Realization) To that end, he taught certain yoga techniques that he believed would help the student achieve Self-realization. He said that “Self-Realization is the knowing in all parts of body, mind, and soul that yo ...

See also:

Paramahansa Yogananda, Paramahansa Yogananda - Life, Paramahansa Yogananda - Legacy, Paramahansa Yogananda - Kriya Yoga, Paramahansa Yogananda - Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda - Claims of bodily incorruptibility, Paramahansa Yogananda - Related links

Read more here: » Paramahansa Yogananda: Encyclopedia II - Paramahansa Yogananda - Legacy

To engender manifestation of any desire, you have to focus all your energies on it. The rays of the shining sun when focused through the magnifying glass can cause the paper to burn up, not otherwise. This focus is crucial especially if the goal is the Divine One. While other desires may get fulfilled, the Divine One still tends to stay elusive. Ever silent and ever-present, the Lord seeks to see if we are willing to be pleased and satisfied with His little gifts or if we are willing to find our true happiness only in the realisation of His Cosmic consciousness.

(See also: Life Transforming Affirmations, Affirmations, Practising Affirmations, Life Transforming Affirmations, Essence of Affirmations, Faith and Belief, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Body Mind and Soul)

How many of us fritter away the gift of the present moment by wondering when our lives will finally take off? What do you think will do it for you? A five-bedroom house, the latest model of Mercedes Benz or BMW, a world tour, a diamond ring, winning the lottery or becoming rich and famous beyond your wildest dreams?

"Man is engaged in an eternal quest for that 'something else' he hopes will bring him happiness, complete and unending. For those individual souls who have sought and found God, the search is over: He is that Something Else," said Paramahansa Yogananda.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Yogiraj Bikram Choudhury is the founder of the worldwide Yoga College of India. Born in Calcutta in 1946, Bikram began Yoga at the age of four with Bishnu Ghosh, brother of Paramahansa Yogananda (Autobiography of a Yogi, founder of the Self Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles).

Read more here: » Bikram Yoga: Yogiraj Bikram Choudhury - Founder of Bikram Yoga

Kriya Yoga An Enlightening Experience

It all began when a friend of mine gave me a copy of Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. I read the entire book from cover to cover the first night. I was so fascinated by Yogananda's description of Miracles and higher states of consciousness he experienced in India and in the United States after he traveled over here that I couldn't put the book down. The next week I left for California with my last paycheck in my pocket. I drove all the way to Yogananda's Hermitage/Retreat in Encinitas, California. I was a printing press operator at the time and it just so happened they needed a printer at SRF. What luck! It all seemed predestined.

Read more here: » Kriya Yoga: Kriya Yoga An Enlightening Experience

Much of the world today confuses meditation with a lot many exercises that are geared to relaxing the mind or releasing stress. Meditation is not music therapy and nor is it rhythmical dancing, though these can and do have their own inherent benefits.

Simply put, as Paramahansa Yogananda described it, "meditation really is a scientific technique of concentration on God." And while there are paths and ways that take you into the sublime lake of meditation, once you get into it, meditation really can be the one golden Light that will dissolve the darkness of incarnations.

(See also: Meditation Techniques, Meditation, Meditation for Beginners, Meditation Techniques)

Read more here: » Test Jonas

"Happiness," Aristotle said, "depends upon ourselves."

I care less about the gross national product and more about the gross national happiness.

Jigme Singye Wangchuk, King of Bhutan

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Mahatma Gandhi

(See also: Happiness, Affirmations, Practising Affirmations, Life Transforming Affirmations, Essence of Affirmations, Faith and Belief, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Body Mind and Soul)

According to a Los Angeles Times report, the book titled The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of Christ Within You claims that the three "Indian" wise men named him Isa, or "Lord" in Sanskrit. The book also tells us Jesus practiced yoga and meditation with the great sages in India during from age 13 to 30.

In the book Beyond Psychology , Osho says: "Jesus himself had travelled to India while he was young. The Bible has no account of him between the age of thirteen to thirty; The Bible has no account of where Jesus had been. This looks strange - a small life - he lived only thirty-three years - and in those thirty-three years The Bible has accounts of only three years, the last three years."

(See also: Jesus in India, Indian Festivals, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

The world over, many have confused meditation with concentration and relaxation with meditation. Techniques using music, dance, other forms of creative expression, an array of therapies (both physical and mental), have all been synchronised into one basket - Meditation!

But truly speaking, many of these work more at the intellectual level while others are only channels for relaxation and prepare you for the more serious stages of true meditation. From the point of view of the advanced Yogis, meditation really is a scientific technique for communion with God, and is the seventh step (dhyanai) in Patanjali's eightfold path. To a host of new age and other spiritualists, however, techniques that encourage you to manifest mindfulness and be aware also fall under the gamut of meditation.

(See also: Meditation Techniques, Meditation, Meditation for Beginners, Meditation Techniques)

Carried away by the triumphs of science, many people repudiate God's existence. They dispute anything which is not empirically verifiable. But as former president S Radhakrishnan said: "Science looks at the periphery, at the outside of things, the variety and multiplicity of the universe. The centre of being from which all these things come, from which they arise - that must be felt by solitary meditation."

(See also: Science and Religion, , Faith and Belief, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Paramahansa is a hindu religios title given oftenly to some monks, for example, Paramahansa Yogananda or Swami Muktananda Paramahansa. Other related archivesParamahansa Yogananda, hindu

Read more here: » Paramahansa: Encyclopedia - Paramahansa

Autobiography of a Yogi: In 1946, Paramahansa Yogananda published his life story, Autobiography of a Yogi, which was instrumental in introducing vedic philosophy to the West. It has since been translated into eighteen languages and remains a best seller. It includes Yogananda's and Sri Yukteswar's attempts to explain certain verses and events of the Bible such as the Garden of Eden story. Further, it provides descriptions of Yogananda's encounters with leading spiritual figures such as Therese Neumann, the ...

Read more here: » Autobiography of a Yogi: Encyclopedia - Autobiography of a Yogi

Mahavatar Babaji is a Hindu saint, yogi, and culture hero described by Paramahansa Yogananda in his best-selling Autobiography of a Yogi. Yogananda describes Babaji as the guru of Lahiri Mahasaya, whom he also describes as being responsible for the revival, in 1861, of a spiritual technique known as Kriya Yoga, which is claimed to accelerate the spiritual aspirant's evolution. There are no verifiable accounts of Mahavatar Babaji's existence beyond the traditions of the scho ...

Read more here: » Mahavatar Babaji: Encyclopedia - Mahavatar Babaji

Kriya yoga is a system of Indian yoga that was first popularized in the West by Paramahansa Yogananda. The system consists of a number of yogic techniques that purportedly hasten the practitioner's spiritual evolution and help to bring about a profound state of tranquility and god-communion within one's own self. Kriya yoga - History. According to Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, kriya yoga was well-known in ancient India, but was eventually lost. In 1861 however, the book con ...

Including:

• Kriya yoga - History
• Kriya yoga - Other lineages
• Kriya yoga - External link

Read more here: » Kriya yoga: Encyclopedia - Kriya yoga

The Self-Realization Fellowship is a religious organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1920. The group carries on Yogananda's teachings, including Kriya Yoga, a form of yoga the group claims originated millennia ago in India. To this end, it conducts correspondence courses in this discipline. It also publishes Yogananda's writings, lectures, and recorded talks; oversees temples, retreats, meditation centers, and monastic communities bearing the name Self-Realization Order; and coordinates the Worldwide Prayer Circle, which it ...

Read more here: » Self-Realization Fellowship: Encyclopedia - Self-Realization Fellowship

Priya Nath Karar, known by his Hindu religious name Sri Yukteswar Giri (May 10, 1855-March 9, 1936), was the guru of Paramahansa Yogananda. He was a Vedic astrologer, or jyotishi, a yogi, and an exponent of the Bhagavad Gita. He was a member of the Giri branch of the swami order. His guru was Lahiri Mahasaya of Benares. Yogananda later styled Sri Yukteswar Jnanavatar, or "Incarnation of Wisdom". Yukteswar was born in Serampore, India, married and had a daughter. Becoming an ordained swami after his wife's death, he converted his family home into an ashram (religious he ...

Read more here: » Sri Yukteswar Giri: Encyclopedia - Sri Yukteswar Giri

Paramahamsa (also paramahansa) -- This is a religio/theological title associated with particular Hindu saints, by their devotees; one thus sees these religious figures referred to as -- "Ramakrishna Paramahamsa" and "Paramahansa Yogananda". Paramahamsa - Etymology. Paramahamsa is a Sanskrit word translated as "Supreme Goose." It is a title created by combining hamsa meaning goose (more precisely, the high-flying Indian goose, Anser indicus) with the superlative suffix para ...

Including:

• Paramahamsa - Etymology
• Paramahamsa - Mythology
• Paramahamsa - Theology
• Paramahamsa - Similar uses of different titles

Read more here: » Paramahamsa: Encyclopedia - Paramahamsa