Self-Realization Fellowship Blog

SRF Commemorates 8th Annual U.N. International Day of Yoga With Guided Meditations

Self-Realization Fellowship presents “What Is Yoga, Truly?” — a special guided meditation with a short discourse on Paramahansa Yogananda's bringing yoga to the West, and the way he defined and taught yoga meditation. Through this guided meditation, led by SRF monk Brother Tyagananda, you can experience the peace and soul-awareness that is central to yoga meditation as taught by Paramahansaji and by the great masters of India from time immemorial.

(Below the main video you can experience additional monastic-led Day of Yoga guided meditations in English, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.)

The International Day of Yoga was established in December 2014 by a United Nations resolution and is celebrated on June 21. Its purpose, according to the United Nations website, is “to raise awareness worldwide of the many benefits of practicing yoga.”

Paramahansa Yogananda was a key figure in the introduction of India’s science of yoga to Westerners. The last in a line of divinely illumined gurus, Yogananda was charged with making available worldwide the ancient and sacred science of Kriya Yoga, which includes certain techniques of meditation whose devoted practice leads to direct, personal experience of God. Yogananda wrote, “Had India no other gift for the world, Kriya Yoga alone would suffice as a kingly offering.”

Millions of people have been inspired by Yogananda’s teachings and especially by his book, Autobiography of a Yogi, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. For decades his Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons — a comprehensive home-study series on the science of Kriya Yoga and the art of spiritual living — have provided in-depth instruction for serious spiritual seekers the world over.