Brother Chidananda on Paramahansa Yogananda’s Concept of Freedom

October 6 marks exactly 100 years since Paramahansa Yogananda’s first talk in America, given in 1920, on the topic of “The Science of Religion.” The event at which he spoke, an International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston, had gathered to discuss “the real meaning of freedom,” in honor of the 300th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims, who came to America seeking freedom of religion.

In this excerpt from his September 19, 2020, address (which commemorated the centennial of Paramahansaji’s arrival in the West), SRF/YSS President Brother Chidananda reflects on how Paramahansaji approached the topic of freedom. He taught that the ideal of true freedom needs to be understood through the perspective of the science of yoga—which teaches how to free the soul from identification with the body—and can be realized through universal methods of meditation.