DESI DIARY
HOW MEDITATION CAN TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE
How Meditation Can Transform Your Life is the theme of a free public talk on Friday, April 17, at 7:00 pm. at the Latvian Canadian Centre in North York, Toronto. Image credit: YOGANANDA.ORG.
How Meditation Can Transform Your Life is the theme of a free public talk on the yoga teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda – author of the best-selling spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi – to take place on Friday, April 17, at 7:00 pm. at the Latvian Canadian Centre (North York) in Toronto.
Brother Jayananda, a member of the Self-Realization Fellowship monastic community for over 45-plus years, will discuss the science of Kriya Yoga, and how meditation can bring greater peace, joy, and purpose.
“Yogananda said that, with the practice of meditation, one can learn to carry a ‘portable paradise within’ – meaning that as we go through life, we can consciously experience peace and joy within our beings no matter where we are or what we are doing,” says Brother Jayananda. “Could there be any greater gift or talent that we could attain in life?”
Hosted by the Toronto Centre of Self-Realization Fellowship, the evening will include a guided meditation for attendees to experience the benefits of meditation for themselves, followed by an informal reception.
“Quiet the outgoing mental restlessness and turn the mind within,” said Yogananda. “Harmonize your thoughts and desires with the all-fulfilling realities you already possess in your soul. Then you will see the underlying harmony in your life and in all nature. If you harmonize your hopes and expectations with this inherent harmony, you will float through life on buoyant wings of peace. The beauty and depth of yoga lies in its bestowal of this invariable tranquility.”
All are welcome – and no previous meditation experience is required.
Brother Jayananda – whose name means “attainment of bliss through being victorious” – has been a monk of Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) for more than 45 years. He currently serves as the minister-in-charge of the SRF Hollywood Temple. He has traveled extensively throughout North America and Europe, where he has lectured and led spiritual retreats and inspirational programs on Yogananda’s teachings for SRF members and friends.
Paramahansa Yogananda first arrived in America in 1920 from his native India, an invited delegate to an International Congress of Religious Liberals convening in Boston, where he delivered a speech on the science of religion, marking a pivotal point for yoga in the West. Yogananda founded Self-Realization Fellowship that same year to disseminate his Kriya Yoga teachings, which have inspired many through the years to live with greater peace, joy, and purpose. Yogananda’s spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi continues to be recognized as one of the world’s most influential books.
Self-Realization Fellowship is the international nonprofit spiritual organization founded in 1920 by Paramahansa Yogananda to introduce to people of all races, cultures and creeds the ancient science and philosophy of yoga and its time-honored tradition of meditation. Through its spiritual and humanitarian service, the society seeks to foster greater harmony and goodwill among the diverse peoples and nations of the world, and a deeper understanding of the underlying unity of all religions.
To learn more about the free public talk and guided meditation, the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, and his international organization Self-Realization Fellowship, visit: yogananda.org/toronto-tour.