Magical moments in the USA - Yasmin Boland
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Balsamic Moon in Aquarius…

In lieu of a Daily Moon message per se today, and while I get over my jet-lag, I thought would share some of the magical moments I’ve had in these past few weeks while I was in the USA.

It’s kind of in the mood of Aquarius as it’s about someone who was rather different – though he was in fact Capricorn.

My “meeting” with an amazing Indian sage named Paramahansa Yogananda and my trip to his Self-Realisation Fellowship is the first adventure I would love to share with you.

Have you heard of Paramahansa Yogananda or his Self-Realisation Fellowship (SRF)?

I have actually known about the SRF for a few years. It was started by Paramahansa Yogananda, the sage whose name just rolls off the tongue beautifully, don’t you think? Say it slowly as it reads.

Before I tell you about my visit to the meditation gardens, please allow me to put it all in context.

Paramahansa Yogananda wrote an amazing book which you might have heard of called Autobiography of a Yogi.

This was one of the first books recommended to me when I started to walk the spiritual path, but it took me years to getting around to actually doing so. I finally read the book, very aptly, in India, in around 2004. And it was mind-blowing. Little wonder it’s known as “the book that changed the lives of millions”.

I hope Wikipedia won’t mind me quoting them here: “Autobiography of a Yogi is an autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda (January 5, 1893–March 7, 1952) first published in 1946. Paramahansa Yogananda was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, India, into a Bengali family.

Autobiography of a Yogi introduces the reader to the life of Paramahansa Yogananda and his encounters with spiritual figures of both the Eastern and the Western world. The book begins with his childhood family life, to finding his guru, to becoming a monk and establishing his teachings of Kriya Yoga meditation, to his visits to the USA.

The book is an introduction to the methods of attaining God-realization and to the spiritual thought of the East, which had only been available to a few in 1946.

It has been in print for seventy years and translated into fifty-two languages. It’s considered a spiritual classic and one of the most important spiritual books of the 20th century.”

Along the way, Yogananda founded the Self-Realisation Fellowship centres in Los Angeles and the one I went to with my friend Jane, in Encintas, further south. (In writing this I have realised there are centres all over the world – see here!)

I hope this tickles your curiosity.

Tomorrow I will tell you about my visit to Paramahansa Yogananda’s meditation garden in southern California…

Have a beautiful day…

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