Self Realization Fellowship Headquarters

Originally Posted to firesofcreation.gaia.com on Nov 20th, 2008

Just got back from California where I checked out an interesting place in Pacific Palisades. It's the SRF headquarters that Paramahansa Yogananda set up in 1920 after coming to the United States from India.

I'd heard about Yogananda after reading an Autobiography of a Yogi back in 2000 when I was living in California. I had also met several folks there who were involved with the community.

Autobiography of a Yogi is an interesting read.  It's Yogananda's personal account of his life and search for truth which is chalk full of miracles and pseudoscientific claims the Atheist crowds would dismiss as absurd. I found myself challenged by all the accounts of Yogananda performing or bearing witness to miracles, the kind you usually only read about in the Bible or see in movies. But aside from the far fetched aspects of it, the heart of the story is in the right place which describes the author's attempt to unite East with West. 

Some of the characters in the book are very memorable, especially Yogananda's master Sri Yukteswar who looks like the Gandalf of India. A matter of fact, I could totally see Autobiography of a Yogi being adapted into a major motion picture.  

The SRF headquarters was a fascinating and beautiful place to visit. Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of the main temple which had paintings in the front of Yogananda, Babaji, Sri Yukteswar, Gandhi, Krishna and Jesus Christ. 

Some of Yogananda's most impressive work is his efforts of reconciling Western and Eastern religion. He wrote two huge volumes of commentary on the gospels and the Bhagavad Gita.

After finishing an internet search on Yogananda, I found some videos on YouTube which are the first moving images I've ever seen of him. 

More of My Pics: 

This is the shrine Yogananda built for Gandhi. His meeting with the Mahatma had a big impact on his life and he devotes an entire chapter to describing it in Autobiography of a Yogi.

This was a meditation / prayer room by the lake.