Self-Realization Fellowship
An international spiritual organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda to teach yoga meditation, Kriya Yoga, and an East–West approach to religious self-realization.
Last updated October 14, 2026
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Overview
Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) is an international religious and spiritual organization established in 1920 by Paramahansa Yogananda, the Indian teacher and author of Autobiography of a Yogi. Its central purpose is to communicate Yogananda’s teachings on meditation, yoga, devotion, and the direct experience of the divine. The organization presents its approach as a practical system of spiritual development rather than as a narrowly sectarian faith, emphasizing disciplined meditation, ethical living, service, and the underlying unity of major religious traditions. Yogananda first began organizing his work in India in 1917 under the name Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS). After traveling to the United States in 1920, he introduced his teachings to Western audiences, including at a Boston congress of religious leaders where he spoke on what he called the “science of religion.” He subsequently developed lecture activities, meditation groups, publications, and monastic communities in the United States. In 1925 he established the organization’s international headquarters at Mount Washington in Los Angeles, a former hotel that SRF now calls the Mother Center. Before returning to India in 1935, Yogananda incorporated SRF as a United States nonprofit religious organization and designated it as the institution responsible for continuing his work in the West. SRF’s principal educational channel is its home-study program, commonly known as the SRF Lessons. The lessons explain concentration and meditation practices derived from Yogananda’s teachings and prepare students for instruction in Kriya Yoga. SRF treats Kriya Yoga as an advanced initiatory practice intended to help practitioners interiorize attention, calm mental activity, and cultivate awareness of the soul and God. The organization asks recipients to preserve the confidentiality of the instructional material. It also publishes Yogananda’s books, lectures, recorded talks, articles, and revised lessons, making his writings a major part of its continuing identity. The fellowship operates temples, meditation centers, retreat properties, and monastic facilities. Reference material describes more than 600 temples and meditation centers in 62 countries, although the precise number may change over time. Its United States locations include centers and temples in California and Arizona, while retreat facilities include Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades, Hidden Valley Ashram in Escondido, Greenfield Retreat in Virginia, and properties in Germany and Brazil. YSS serves as the affiliated organization in India and Nepal, with its own network of centers, ashrams, educational institutions, and medical facilities. SRF is administered primarily through a monastic order of monks and nuns. The order’s stages include postulancy, novitiate, brahmacharya, and sannyas, reflecting progressively deeper commitments to renunciation and communal service. Monastics support temple services, retreats, youth activities, translations, publishing, correspondence, and the Worldwide Prayer Circle, a network devoted to prayer for peace and people in need. The organization has maintained a significant cultural presence through Yogananda’s books and through associations with musicians and public figures influenced by his teachings. George Harrison identified Yogananda as an important spiritual influence, and SRF’s Lake Shrine hosted Harrison’s funeral. Ravi Shankar performed at the Encinitas retreat early in his American career, while Elvis Presley was reported to have visited SRF during the late 1960s. SRF also supported the 2014 documentary Awake: The Life of Yogananda. Today, SRF remains an active nonprofit religious organization centered on Yogananda’s published legacy, meditation instruction, Kriya Yoga initiation, monastic life, temples, retreats, and interfaith-oriented spiritual education. Its principal institutional challenge has involved protecting the integrity and copyright of Yogananda’s materials while preserving access to teachings that have circulated widely beyond the organization.
History
Self-Realization Fellowship originated in the organizational work of Paramahansa Yogananda, who began teaching and organizing spiritual communities in India in 1917 under the name Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. Yogananda traveled to the United States in 1920 and presented his synthesis of yoga, meditation, devotion, and comparative religion to Western audiences. His early public teaching emphasized the possibility of a direct, personal experience of the divine through disciplined practice. He framed this approach as compatible with both Indian scriptures and Christian teachings, rather than as a rejection of Western religious culture. The American organization was named Self-Realization Fellowship. During the 1920s Yogananda developed lecture programs, meditation groups, publications, and residential communities. In 1925 he established SRF’s international headquarters at Mount Washington in Los Angeles. The former hotel became the institutional center of the fellowship and is now known as the Mother Center. Yogananda later created or dedicated additional properties, including the Encinitas hermitage, where he wrote or revised important works, and temples in Hollywood and San Diego. He dedicated the Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades in 1950 as a spiritual center honoring several major religious traditions. In 1935 Yogananda incorporated SRF in the United States before making an extended return visit to India. The incorporation formalized his intention that the fellowship should preserve, publish, and teach his work after his death. His most influential publication, Autobiography of a Yogi, became a major vehicle for introducing yoga and Indian spirituality to international readers. SRF’s institutional program grew around Yogananda’s books, lectures, recordings, correspondence lessons, meditation services, and a monastic order established in the early 1930s. Yogananda died on 7 March 1952. Rajarsi Janakananda succeeded him as president but died in 1955. Daya Mata then led SRF/YSS for more than five decades, becoming one of the prominent women leaders in modern Hindu-inspired spirituality. She was succeeded by Mrinalini Mata, who had been selected by Yogananda to supervise his publications and had served as SRF/YSS vice-president from 1966. After Mrinalini Mata’s death in 2017, Brother Chidananda was elected president by a unanimous vote of the SRF board. The fellowship’s core educational system is the SRF Lessons, a structured home-study course based on Yogananda’s writings and lectures. Students who complete the preparatory instruction may seek initiation into Kriya Yoga through an authorized SRF representative. SRF describes Kriya Yoga as a meditation method intended to withdraw attention from external distractions and support spiritual awakening. The lessons and initiation materials are treated as confidential, a policy that has contributed both to the organization’s distinctive identity and to disputes with unaffiliated teachers and groups. SRF’s monastic order continues to manage much of its teaching, publishing, retreat, and congregational work. Monks and nuns pass through stages of postulancy, novitiate, brahmacharya, and sannyas. They conduct services and retreats, coordinate youth and educational programs, maintain translations and publications, and administer the Worldwide Prayer Circle. The related Yogoda Satsanga Society of India operates the organization’s Indian and Nepalese work, including meditation centers, ashrams, and educational and medical facilities. By the late twentieth century, SRF had gained a worldwide readership and a broad network of meditation centers. Its influence also spread through cultural figures such as George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, and Elvis Presley, all of whom were associated in different ways with Yogananda’s teachings or SRF properties. The organization supported the 2014 documentary Awake: The Life of Yogananda, another effort to communicate its founder’s legacy to a broad public. The most significant institutional controversy documented in the reference material was SRF’s long copyright and naming dispute with Ananda Church of Self-Realization and its founder James Donald Walters, known as Kriyananda. SRF argued that Yogananda intended the fellowship to control the authorized dissemination of his works and objected to Ananda’s use of certain names, recordings, photographs, and writings. Proceedings lasted from 1990 to 2002. The final outcome recognized some SRF claims concerning sound recordings and copyright control, while declining to give SRF exclusive trademark ownership of generic or personal terms such as “self-realization” and “Paramahansa Yogananda.” SRF remains active as a nonprofit religious organization headquartered in Los Angeles. Its contemporary identity combines a global meditation network, a publishing and correspondence-lesson operation, residential monastic communities, temples, retreat centers, and the continuing stewardship of Yogananda’s literary and spiritual legacy.
- 2017
Brother Chidananda elected president
[1]The SRF board unanimously elected Brother Chidananda as president following Mrinalini Mata’s death.
- 2011
Mrinalini Mata became president
[1]Mrinalini Mata formally became president of SRF/YSS after Daya Mata’s death.
- 1952
Yogananda died
[1]Yogananda died on 7 March, after which SRF continued under Rajarsi Janakananda and later leaders.
- 1950
Lake Shrine dedicated
[1]Yogananda dedicated the Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades as a spiritual center honoring five major world religions.
- 1943
San Diego Temple established
[1]Yogananda established the San Diego Temple during World War II.
- 1942
Hollywood Temple opened
[1]Yogananda opened the SRF Hollywood Temple on Sunset Boulevard, described as the oldest SRF temple in the United States.
- 1935
SRF incorporated as a U.S. nonprofit religious organization
[1]Yogananda legally incorporated SRF and designated it to continue and disseminate his teachings.
- 1925
Mount Washington headquarters established
[1]Yogananda established the SRF/YSS international headquarters at Mount Washington in Los Angeles.
- 1920
Self-Realization Fellowship founded
[1]Yogananda founded SRF after moving to the United States and began presenting his meditation and yoga teachings to Western audiences.
- 1917
Yogoda Satsanga Society of India founded
[1]Yogananda began his organized spiritual work in India through the institution that became the sister organization of SRF.
Products and positioning
A global, monastic-led spiritual organization presenting Yogananda’s yoga and meditation teachings as a practical path to Self-realization and as a bridge between Eastern and Western religious traditions.
Home-study spiritual education
SRF Lessons
A structured correspondence course presenting Yogananda’s teachings on concentration, meditation, devotional practice, spiritual discipline, and the unity of religious traditions. The lessons are the normal preparatory route for students seeking instruction in SRF’s Kriya Yoga tradition and are distributed to students in printed form.
Meditation initiation and practice
Kriya Yoga
SRF’s principal advanced meditation practice, taught after preparatory study and formal initiation by an authorized representative. The organization describes Kriya Yoga as a method for interiorizing attention, reducing mental distraction, and cultivating awareness of the soul and God through regular practice.
Books, lectures, and recordings
Yogananda publications
SRF publishes and preserves Paramahansa Yogananda’s books, including Autobiography of a Yogi, as well as his lectures, articles, home-study materials, revised lessons, and recorded talks. These publications are the organization’s principal means of transmitting its founder’s teachings internationally.
Spiritual facilities and services
Meditation centers and retreats
SRF operates temples, meditation centers, hermitages, and retreat facilities where visitors and members can attend services, group meditations, classes, and residential programs. Notable properties include the Mother Center, Encinitas Hermitage, Hollywood Temple, San Diego Temple, and Lake Shrine.
Prayer and service network
Worldwide Prayer Circle
A network of individuals and groups organized around prayer for world peace, healing, and people facing hardship. It extends SRF’s service mission beyond its temples and residential communities.
Marketing campaigns
- 2014Awake: The Life of Yogananda
United States · International
SRF funded the documentary Awake: The Life of Yogananda, directed by Paola Di Florio and Lisa Leeman. The film presented Yogananda’s life, teachings, and influence to audiences beyond the organization’s existing readership and meditation network.
Outcome. The documentary served as a major contemporary vehicle for public awareness of Yogananda and SRF’s spiritual tradition.
Brand decisions
1990
Copyright and naming litigation against AnandaOtherBackground
SRF disputed Ananda’s use of Yogananda-related writings, photographs, recordings, and organizational terminology, arguing that Yogananda intended SRF to control authorized dissemination of his teachings.
Action taken
SRF filed suit against James Donald Walters, known as Kriyananda, and Ananda Church of Self-Realization. The litigation continued through a final jury trial in 2002.
Aftermath
Ananda was ordered to pay approximately US$29,000 connected with earnings from SRF sound recordings. The court did not grant SRF exclusive trademark rights over the terms “self-realization” or “Paramahansa Yogananda,” and it did not award damages for all educational or religious uses of written materials.
Award related to earnings from SRF sound recordings. Approximately US$29,000 payable by Ananda (2002)
- Ananda Church of Self-Realization — Ananda defended its use of the disputed names and materials; the litigation ended with a partial judgment favoring SRF on sound-recording and copyright issues.
1935
Formal incorporation and institutional succession planStrategyBackground
Yogananda sought to establish a durable institution that could preserve his writings and continue teaching after his death.
Action taken
He incorporated SRF in the United States as a nonprofit religious organization and designated it as the institution responsible for carrying forward his work in the United States.
Aftermath
SRF became the principal institutional steward of Yogananda’s publications, lessons, meditation system, and Western work.
Recent events
- 2014
Awake: The Life of Yogananda released[1]
Product launch
SRF funded the documentary Awake: The Life of Yogananda, directed by Paola Di Florio and Lisa Leeman, helping introduce Yogananda’s life and teachings to a contemporary film audience.
- 2002
Federal jury trial concluded the SRF–Ananda copyright dispute[1]
Lawsuit
The court accepted parts of SRF’s position concerning Yogananda’s intentions and ordered Ananda to pay approximately US$29,000 associated with earnings from SRF sound recordings. The court did not grant SRF exclusive trademark rights over “self-realization” or “Paramahansa Yogananda.”
- 1990
Self-Realization Fellowship litigated against Ananda over names and copyrighted materials[1]
Lawsuit
SRF began litigation against James Donald Walters, also known as Kriyananda, and Ananda Church of Self-Realization concerning the use of Yogananda-related writings, recordings, images, and organizational terminology. The dispute continued through 2002.
- 1935
Self-Realization Fellowship incorporated in the United States[1]
Other
Before returning to India, Yogananda legally incorporated SRF as a nonprofit religious organization and assigned it responsibility for disseminating his teachings in the United States.
- 1925
Self-Realization Fellowship established its international headquarters at Mount Washington[1]
Other
Yogananda established the SRF/YSS international headquarters at Mount Washington in Los Angeles, a property later known as the Mother Center.
Sources2 sources
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