The young swami arrived in Boston on September 19, 1920. His first speech made to the International Congress of Religious Liberals was on “The Science of Religion,” and was enthusiastically received. That same year he founded the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) to disseminate worldwide his teachings on India’s ancient science and philosophy of Yoga and its time-honoured tradition of meditation.
After the congress was over Yoganandaji stayed on in Boston for three years giving public lectures and teaching classes. In 1924 Yoganandaji went on a transcontinental tour speaking before thousands in many of the principal cities.
Arriving in Los Angeles in early 1925, he established the International Headquarters of the Self-Realization Fellowship atop Mount Washington, which later became the spiritual and administrative centre of his growing work.
From 1924–1935, Yogananda travelled and lectured widely, speaking to capacity audiences in many of the largest auditoriums in America — from New York’s Carnegie Hall to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium. The Los Angeles Times reported: “The Philharmonic Auditorium presents the extraordinary spectacle of thousands....being turned away an hour before the advertised opening of a lecture with the 3000-seat hall filled to its utmost capacity.”
Yoganandaji emphasized the underlying unity of the world’s great religions, and taught universally applicable methods for attaining direct personal experience of God. To serious students of his teachings, he taught the soul-awakening techniques of Kriya Yoga, initiating more than 100,000 men and women during his thirty years in the West.
During the 1930s, Paramahansa Yogananda began to withdraw somewhat from his nationwide public lecturing so as to devote himself to the writings that would carry his message to future generations, and to building an enduring foundation for the spiritual and humanitarian work of Yogoda Satsanga Society of India/Self-Realization Fellowship. Yogananda’s life story, Autobiography of a Yogi, was published in 1946 (and significantly expanded by him in subsequent editions). A perennial best-seller, the book has been in continuous publication since it first appeared and has been translated into more than 50 languages. It is widely regarded as a modern spiritual classic.
The final years of his life were spent largely in seclusion, as he laboured intensely to complete his writings — including his voluminous commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita: “God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita” and the teachings of Jesus Christ in the four Gospels, entitled “The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of Christ with You.” Under his direction, the personal guidance and instruction that he had given to students of his classes was arranged into a comprehensive series Yogoda Satsanga Lessons, which today any truth seeker can get by sitting at home.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Paramahansa Yogananda was a great saint. He was a divine bridge that made the impossible task of spiritually bringing East and West together. He spread the liberating message of yoga throughout the world. He was the most outstanding representative of the saint tradition of India. Without diluting the lofty ideals of Sanatan Dharma, he presented his teachings in a modern framework that was acceptable to people of all countries, all religions, and all cultures.
His pious, God-dedicated life will be resplendent like a pillar of light for ages and years and will show all the truths the way to cross this Bhavasagar. For people living in today's stressful world, this statement is more rational than before: “The blessed role of Kriya Yoga in East and West has hardly more than just begun. May all men come to know that there exists a definite, scientific technique of Self-realization for the overcoming of all human misery!”
For more information about the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda's Kriya Yoga, please visit www.yssofindia.org.
(Swami Ishwarananda Giri is Senior monk of Yogoda Satsanga Society of India.)