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    Welcome to the Summer Appeal

    Dear Friend,

    Loving greetings to you from all of us in Paramahansa Yogananda’s ashrams. It is with heartfelt gratitude that we share this special report and invitation to support our Guru’s sacred mission.

    Paramahansaji spoke of how the world is going through a transitional period — one in which humanity is struggling to let go of materialistic tendencies and selfish habits as it ascends into a higher age. Every day we see evidence of this struggle around the globe.

    Yet, during these challenging times, we also see within our spiritual family a beautiful blossoming of the soul qualities that allow one to, as Paramahansaji said, “stand unshaken ‘midst the crash of breaking worlds” — an inspiring expression of the inner strength, courage, and attunement to God needed to navigate these times and bring much-needed light into our world.

    As our president, Brother Chidananda, recently said: “As individuals, we may be subject to the law that environment is stronger than will power, but many wills united can alter the environment — or create a new one. Through group meditation and divine fellowship, we reinforce our personal efforts with the spiritual vibrations generated en masse by Kriya Yoga meditators worldwide.”

    The Power of Our Togetherness

    A transformative power flows from our coming together to meditate and share divine friendship, and also to offer service and contribute financially. In the special report below, we share how, when we unite in these various ways, we play a critical role in uplifting ourselves and others — and help build the foundation for the universal spirituality needed to create a more peaceful global civilization.

    You’ll read an uplifting story from Kathmandu, Nepal, where a devoted member describes how serving as a volunteer with the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) Online Meditation Center has brought greater inner peace and confidence into his life. You’ll also get a behind-the-scenes look at how a dedicated team of monastics, employees, and volunteers are working tirelessly to ensure that the blessings of Convocation reach as many people as possible this year.

    At the heart of these stories are also the vital programs and infrastructure made possible through the generous contributions of members and friends like you.

    Your Support Makes a Wonderful Difference

    We welcome and very much appreciate your financial support. It helps us to not only continue the vital programs that you will read about in the accompanying special report, but also to meet the many daily expenses that are a part of running Paramahansaji’s international spiritual organization.

    You can help preserve the sacred shrines where our Guru lived and communed with God, support the SRF monastic communities, maintain and expand SRF’s information technology infrastructure, develop additional opportunities for lay members to serve, and so much more.

    Please know that if you are unable to give at this time, we deeply appreciate all the other ways you support SRF. Your prayers, service, and countless acts of kindness all contribute greatly to Paramahansaji’s mission and our organizational growth and success.

    United in His Love and Light

    All of us who serve in the ashrams of Paramahansa Yogananda reflect lovingly on our Guru’s beautiful worldwide spiritual family and send you our loving pranams. Please know that we pray daily for your well-being, and are deeply grateful for your divine friendship.

    We hope that you feel uplifted by this affirmation from Paramahansaji, and that his words help to cultivate in you an unshakeable faith that what you truly are transcends all the troubles that may momentarily arise in your life and in the world:

    “Dear Father, whatever conditions confront me, I know that they represent the next step in my unfoldment. I will welcome all tests because I know that within me is the intelligence to understand and the power to overcome.”

    In divine friendship,

    SELF-REALIZATION FELLOWSHIP
    Mother Center

    P.S. We greatly appreciate your recurring and one-time donations. Please use link below to make a gift today. Thank you!

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    Read the Special Report

    You Make the Difference!

    A Special Report to Our Supporters
    and Friends — Summer 2022

    The science of yoga will take hold in this age more than anything else. The entire religious trend will be away from churches as we know them and into schools and quiet places where people will go to truly find God in meditation, and not just to hear a sermon.

    Paramahansa Yogananda

    Our Guru’s Online Wall-Less Temple: Bountiful Blessings for All

    During this period of nearly constant worldwide change, a growing number of sincere seekers are looking for those “quiet places” where they can get away from the uncertainty and turbulence of the world and experience the uplifting reassurance of inner peace. And this is what they are finding in the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) online offerings.

    With your support, Paramahansa Yogananda’s virtual “wall-less temple” has grown significantly over the past two years. We now have a diverse array of online group meditations, retreats, classes, and inspirational talks offered in multiple languages accessible to anyone with internet access. Monastics, staff, and volunteers work daily behind the scenes to make sure that these virtual offerings are available to SRF/YSS devotees and the larger world family.

    Kathmandu meditation group
    Members enjoy fellowship outside the YSS Kathmandu Meditation Center after it reopened in the spring of 2022.

    One Member’s Inspiring Service From Nepal 

    One such volunteer is S. D. of Kathmandu, Nepal, a dedicated and longtime member of Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS), the name by which Paramahansa Yogananda’s work is known in India and several neighboring countries. 

    When the pandemic hit in early 2020, it forced the temporary closure of the YSS Kathmandu Meditation Center, where S. D. volunteers. He prayed for a way to continue to serve Paramahansaji’s work, and soon learned of the SRF Online Meditation Center. At that time, YSS did not yet have its own online meditation center. 

    “I was so happy when I found out about this opportunity to serve Guruji,” he recently shared. And SRF, which had recently launched the Online Meditation Center, was also glad to receive his enthusiastic service as interest in online meditations was already soaring in early 2020. 

    Map of Nepal
    S.D. livestreams to the world from his home in Kathmandu, Nepal.

    Soon S. D. was trained as an usher and meditation service leader, even though English was not his first language and he knew nothing about Zoom, the video platform used for the online meditations. He told of preparing for his first assignment as a meditation leader, in which he would be speaking in English to hundreds of people and how he turned to Google’s translation program to make sure his pronunciation was correct. A naturally shy person, he recalled how his hands wouldn’t stop shaking and he had trouble speaking. And yet he persevered. 

    He told us: “When I led for the first time, I really felt Guruji’s presence. It continues! It could not be possible without God and Guru’s grace. And the fellow devotees also. They helped me so much.” 

    This devotee’s confidence has noticeably grown since that first service. He now volunteers as an usher and a meditation leader several times a week. Today he speaks with a calmness that belies his earlier nervousness and reveals the transformation that can take place when one has a sincere willingness to serve and abundant generosity of spirit. 

    Thank you so much for what you have flawlessly accomplished to allow devotees like myself in remote locations to receive the blessings of God and the Gurus and the reinforcement of meditating with other like-minded souls.

    J. D., Mississippi 

    Transforming Self and Others 

    More and more members from all corners of the globe are coming together to volunteer in our Guru’s online “wall-less temple,” cultivating peace within and without — and helping to nurture the spirit of harmony and divine love so needed by our human family. Another SRF volunteer who serves with the Online Meditation Center shared: 

    Serving on the International Help Desk during Convocation and the Online Meditation Center was just a dream come true; to see SRF and YSS devotees melting boundaries through their shared love for God and Guru. I feel that I have friends and loved ones across the globe and that Guruji has given this soul so many true friends.

    V. K., India 

    Your loving support of this sacred work enables SRF to expand the offerings of the Online Meditation Center. Our goals include expansion of the information technology infrastructure, training of additional volunteers, and increasing the number of meditations, classes, and retreats offered in different languages. All of these aims benefit from your financial support. Together, we can continue to enhance and extend this online “wall-less temple” of peace for the benefit of people everywhere.

    Did you know?

    • There are more than 350 volunteers from 22 countries serving the SRF Online Meditation Center and the YSS Online Dhyana Kendra (meditation center). 

    • In addition to the Kathmandu Meditation Center, there are over 800 SRF/YSS temples, retreats, ashrams, and meditation centers across the world.

    Interested in volunteering with SRF or YSS?

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    2022 SRF World Convocation: We Welcome You!

    We are eagerly looking forward to the 2022 SRF World Convocation — the first Convocation held in person since 2019 — taking place August 14 – 20. 

    What a blessing it will be to come together as Paramahansaji’s spiritual family to enjoy this week of fellowship, inspiration, and immersion in his life-transforming Kriya Yoga teachings. In addition to resuming the in-person events, we will continue to offer a complete schedule of online events so that our worldwide spiritual family can fully participate. 

    Sri Daya Mata, SRF’s third president, said: “The blessings of occasions like this Convocation not only transform us individually, but have a spiritual power and positive influence that radiate out to others in far-reaching ways.” 

    We welcome and are deeply grateful for your support, which this year is enabling us to offer the entire Convocation program, both inperson and online, free of charge to all. 

    Brother Govindananda Convocation 2019
    Brother Govindananda at the 2019 Convocation.

    Many Hands and Hearts Working Together 

    Hundreds of monastics, employees, and volunteers are working hard to make this year’s hybrid Convocation a divine experience for us all. 

    As we write this, several Convocation teams are busy building the sophisticated digital infrastructure needed to support the weeklong event and allow people to participate no matter their location. This includes significant upgrades to and modernization of our software systems and underlying digital architecture. 

    For example, we are developing a new Convocation website and an integrated virtual event platform that together will simplify the registration process and greatly enhance the experience of those who attend Convocation online. Our new event platform will also allow you to meet virtually with other participants, check event schedules, attend classes, and much more. All virtual event functionality will be accessible either on your computer or through a new Convocation mobile app, which will allow in-person Convocation attendees to connect with those participating online from afar.

    Sister Chinmayi Convocation 2019
    Sister Chinmayi and devotees at the 2019 Convocation

    Teams of volunteers are also working diligently to make sure that the on-site event at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles runs smoothly and can accommodate the needs of those joining us virtually. Over 600 volunteers have already signed up to serve during this special event. 

    In addition, over 60 trained SRF International Help Desk volunteers are preparing to assist with technical questions and any other issues that may arise from those joining both in-person and online before and during Convocation. They will be available around the clock and can communicate in multiple languages. 

    With your continued financial support, we can cover the many expenses of this year’s hybrid Convocation and extend its reach to thousands of people across the globe. 

    We look forward to welcoming you to the 2022 SRF World Convocation this summer! 

    Did you know?

    • The 2021 online Convocation events have been viewed over one million times. 

    • During the past two years of Convocation, streamed online, over 30,000 people registered to attend each year. Compare that to the average of 4,000 participants for recent in-person Convocations held in Los Angeles. 
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    Focusing on the Positive to Uplift Yourself and Others

    Inspiration From Our President

    In closing, we would like to share these inspiring words of our president, Brother Chidananda, on how to counteract the negativity that we so often encounter today by shifting our focus to the ever-present spiritual qualities in ourselves and others.

    Inspiration from Brother Chidananda

    “If you find yourself too frequently thinking, reading, and talking about what is wrong in the world or in your own life, try to change your focus. Use that time and energy to think good thoughts, to pray, to perform good actions of service and generosity, and to work on becoming a person who exudes kindness, understanding, and cheerfulness. By doing so, you will uplift your own consciousness and that of others. And as you meditate faithfully and enter the sacred sanctuary deep within your being, where all thoughts are still, you will increasingly feel the love in which God cherishes each soul, and be able to give that love to others. Never underestimate the positive effect of your spiritual efforts on your well-being, on those around you, and on humanity at large.”

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    Inspired to Help?

    Your gift helps manifest so much positive change, including: 

    • Bringing to the world the first-ever hybrid Convocation in 2022 
    • Creating new opportunities for members to serve in our online “wall-less temple” 
    • Providing access to the teachings in more languages and formats across the world 
    • Meeting the immediate and ongoing expenses of Paramahansaji’s global organization 

    Note: Contributions in response to Self-Realization Fellowship’s 2022 Summer Appeal are for the general support of SRF, which includes the purposes stated in this letter. As such, gifts shall be designated as, and remain, unrestricted and can be utilized for purposes SRF determines. Donations received later than approximately twelve months after the mailing date will be credited to SRF’s most recent general appeal. 

    Self-Realization Fellowship is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt organization. Accordingly, donations are tax-deductible as permitted by law. 

    View a PDF of the Full Report

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