Journey With Paramahansa Yogananda
Lessons from Sri Daya Mata’s twenty years of spiritual training and practice with the author of Autobiography of a Yogi.
Available in hardback, paperback, and ebook editions.
Lessons from Sri Daya Mata’s twenty years of spiritual training and practice with the author of Autobiography of a Yogi.
In “Journey With Paramahansa Yogananda,” Self-Realization Fellowship’s beloved third president shares the lived wisdom of a disciple who learned directly from Paramahansa Yogananda, one of the great spiritual teachers of modern times. This book serves as both a profound inspiration and a practical guide for those committed to lasting inner change.
Through the personal reflections and uplifting counsel of one of his earliest disciples and spiritual successors, Paramahansa Yogananda’s sublime wisdom comes vividly to life. Sri Daya Mata proves by her example how meditation, positive thinking, devotion to an aspect of the Divine that moves one’s heart, and steady spiritual effort offer a powerful counterbalance to the demands of the modern world.
With deep insight and compassionate understanding, Sri Daya Mata encourages readers to discover the Divine not as an abstraction, but as a joyous, loving presence that can be felt in daily life as in meditation. Empowered by this understanding, our enlivened spiritual seeking benefits ourselves, our families, and our world.
Sri Daya Mata speaks with experience and with a reassuring warmth of the need for patience, self-awareness, and trust in our ability to use the enduring spiritual truths of yoga to transform our lives. This collection of talks becomes not only a remembrance of a great disciple’s training, but an invitation to discover how divine principles can illumine one’s own journey.
49 inspiring talks, given to SRF monastics and lay members; 464 pages with 20 photographs; a wealth of practical guidance on vital themes for daily spiritual living.
Sri Daya Mata exemplified what it means to joyously absorb Paramahansa Yogananda’s inspiration — and faithfully preserved the true spirit of his teachings for many generations to come.
Paramahansa Yogananda is widely regarded as one of the preeminent spiritual figures of our time. Born in India, he came to the United States in 1920, where for more than thirty years he taught India’s ancient science of meditation and the art of balanced spiritual living. Through his acclaimed life story, Autobiography of a Yogi, and numerous other books, Paramahansa Yogananda has introduced millions of readers to the perennial wisdom of the East.
Sri Daya Mata (1914–2010) was one of the foremost disciples of Paramahansa Yogananda, chosen and trained by him to be the third president and spiritual head of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. She served in the role of spiritual leader for more than 55 years, from 1955 until her passing in 2010. A true “Mother of Compassion,” as her name signifies, she inspired people of all faiths and walks of life through her talks, writings, and recordings.
“When I met Paramahansaji, he seemed to me like someone who had stepped right out of the pages of scripture. Such a God-intoxicated, loving, universal nature! It took a divine one like that to carry out the mission he had been given: to bring to the West, and to all the world, the science of communing with God, which we call Kriya Yoga.” — Sri Daya Mata
Sri Daya Mata recalls what it was like to be present with Paramahansa Yogananda as he was in the midst of composing his deeply moving poem "When I Am Only a Dream," while at his Encinitas Hermitage.
“The ability to love purely and unconditionally comes from meditation, from being in love with God and silently conversing with Him in the language of your heart.”
“Spiritual progress is all about changing your thinking, transforming your consciousness. If you keep trying to think holy thoughts, positive thoughts, and if you fill your mind with creative, constructive thoughts, you will become a different kind of human being.”
“Pressures and burdens are a part of life, and learning to face them with the right spirit is an essential part of spiritual growth. What we learned from Guruji was that we were to be so anchored in God that no outward source of pressure could shake us.”
“The measure of our spiritual growth is not in the phenomena of experiences or visions in meditation; the degree of our realization of God expresses itself in the way we behave in our simple, everyday interactions with one another, and with whatever conditions confront us.”
“To know God, to love Him supremely, is also to revere Him in His saints of all religions, and in all His children, no matter what their race or nationality.”
Sri Daya Mata shares details of the daily path of meditation and inner transformation by which Paramahansa Yogananda led her into the divine consciousness wherein the soul experiences the infinite love of God. With compassion and practical wisdom, she clearly outlines how each of us can find that incomparable fulfillment for ourselves.
A compassionate and deeply encouraging book that speaks to all who long to know that God is real, that He is near to us at all times, and that we can live every day of our lives in intimate communion with Him. Sri Daya Mata shares the guidance and inspiration she received as a close disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda.
Blending the wisdom of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions with her own direct experience garnered from more than seventy years of seeking and serving God, Sri Daya Mata shares the beautiful simplicity of communing heart-to-heart with the Divine Beloved.
Whether we are concerned with choices about our relationships, career, or spiritual growth, or are faced with a seemingly unsolvable problem, intuition is one of the most effective ways to overcome the challenge before us. Sri Daya Mata shares the invaluable wisdom on this most important facet of spiritual life.
A personal guide to inner transformation for longtime seekers as well as those newly drawn to meditation and the spiritual journey — this book is for anyone yearning to know God not as belief, but as direct experience.
