Ananda is a global movement based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the great spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi. Yogananda showed how everyone can realize God in their daily lives as a tangible loving reality.
Ananda is dedicated to the belief, born of experience, that you can live in joy. We teach effective techniques for expanding your sense of self, such as meditation, Kriya Yoga, spiritual Hatha Yoga, and divine friendship.
Ananda was founded in 1968 by Yogananda’s direct disciple, Swami Kriyananda, who was widely recognized as one of the world’s leading spiritual teachers. Learn more at swamikriyananda.org
Swami Kriyananda passed away in 2013. His spiritual successor is Nayaswami Jyotish who, along with his wife, Nayaswami Devi, serves as Ananda’s spiritual director.
Yogananda’s teachings embrace the deep truths that underlie all the great religions. For a deeper understanding of Ananda’s underlying philosophy: Way of Ananda Sanghis
We often get questions about the difference between Ananda and Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) and other questions about Ananda’s authority to share Yogananda’s teachings. We have a compiled list of FAQs and answers here.
All Are Welcome
Ananda’s primary goal is to help people achieve Self-realization: a state of consciousness that comes through shedding all outward self-definitions. Ananda has, therefore, created temples, communities and centers that welcome all sincere seekers, regardless of color, race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, or different ability. We are committed to providing an inclusive, welcoming environment for everyone to pursue the search for God.
Ananda Portland is one of 9 Ananda colonies and numerous centers and meditation groups around the globe, where the universal teachings of Self-Realization are lived every day. If you would like to learn more about Ananda’s work worldwide, visit Ananda.org.
Our Spiritual Lineage
Those who join us are not connected to some printing press, but to a line of God-realized masters. —Paramhansa Yogananda
The Masters
On our altar you see the pictures of the five masters of Self-realization who inspire and guide this path. Their images remind us of the state of God-Consciousness toward which we aspire, and give a focus to those aspirations. They are the same masters that Paramhansa Yogananda displayed in his own centers and churches. Further details about these masters can be found in Autobiography of a Yogi.
Those who join us are not connected to some printing press, but to a line of God-realized masters.
—Paramhansa Yogananda
Jesus Christ
Yogananda said it was Jesus himself who appeared to Babaji and asked him to send the teachings of Self-realization to the West. “My followers have forgotten the art of divine inner communion,” Jesus said. “Outwardly they do good works, but they have lost sight of the most important of my teachings, ‘to seek the kingdom of God first’.”
(Also see ananda.org/about-ananda-sangha/lineage/jesus-christ)
Babaji-Krishna
The first in our direct line of Masters, Babaji (whom Yogananda said was Krishna in a previous incarnation), re-introduced the sacred art of Kriya Yoga to the world in 1863 through his disciple, Lahiri Mahasaya. Babaji continues to live in the Himalayas, accessible to a small band of disciples.
(Also see https://www.ananda.org/about-ananda-sangha/lineage/mahavatar-babaji/)
Lahiri Mahasaya (Sept 30, 1828–Sept 26, 1895)
Known as the “householder yogi,” Lahiri set an ideal example of harmoniously balanced living, attending to his work and family responsibilities along with his spiritual practices. After receiving Kriya Yoga from Babaji, he passed this non-sectarian science on to thousands of disciples, irrespective of caste or religion.
(Also see https://www.ananda.org/about-ananda-sangha/lineage/lahiri-mahasaya/)
Swami Sri Yukteswar (May 10, 1855–March 9, 1936)
A disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar was known as India’s gyanavatar or “incarnation of wisdom.” At the request of Babaji, he wrote a short book, The Holy Science, to demonstrate the unity of the Christian and Hindu scriptures. He was also commissioned to train his disciple, Paramhansa Yogananda, for the dissemination of yoga in the West.
(Also see https://www.ananda.org/about-ananda-sangha/lineage/swami-sri-yukteswar/)
Paramhansa Yogananda (Jan 5, 1893–March 7, 1952)
The first yoga master to take up permanent residence in the West, and the last master of our line, Yogananda arrived in America in 1920 and taught throughout the United States, filling the country’s largest halls. He initiated thousands into Kriya Yoga and taught many disciples to continue his mission of Self-realization after his passing.
(Also see www.paramhansayogananda.com)
What We Believe
•We believe in a single, blissful, eternal consciousness, Satchidanandam, which pervades the entire universe, unifying it and all creatures in a bond of mutual love and service. This blissful consciousness is the underlying reality of all existence; it precedes the very manifestation of the universe.
•We believe our highest duty is to realize ourselves as an expression of all-pervading Satchidanandam (Satchidanandam is Sanskrit for Ever Existing, Ever-Conscious, Ever-New Bliss).
•We embrace the way to this Self-realization through the inner silence, above all, of daily communion with the infinite Self, through the practice of meditation.
•We embrace, for ourselves, the need to embody this realization in our own lives by daily acts of compassion and service to our fellow beings.
•We embrace and honor all religions and spiritual paths and to see them as our brothers and sisters in that Supreme Consciousness which is variously called God, Ishwara, Allah, Buddha-nature, or Jehovah. No person or group has a monopoly on truth.
•We aspire to make our own lives works of art, whether through music, through the visual arts, or through the simple deeds of our daily existence, with a view to expressing the bliss that is latent in our deeper selves.
•We seek never to convert anyone; only to inspire all with the desire to reclaim the bliss of their own being.
•We seek fellowship and community with others willing to join hands with us in this loving labor for universal upliftment. Thus, by our united efforts, our hope is to share inspiration with ever-increasing effectiveness.
