The Science of Religion

Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, , 1982. As new hardcover with DJ. 90pages, 18,5X11,5cm.
Synopsis: 1953. The value of this small book is beyond estimation in words, since between these narrow covers is to be found the flower of the Vedas and the Upanishads, the essence of Patanjali, foremost exponent of the Yoga philosophy and method, and in the thought of Sankara, greatest mind that ever dwelt in mortal body, placed for the first time within reach of the multitude. Contents: Preface and introduction; Universality, necessity and oneness of religion: distinction between pain, pleasure, and bliss: God; Four fundamental religious methods: intellectual, devotional, meditational, organic, scientific; Instruments of knowledge: perception, inference, intuition.About the Author: Born in India on January 5, 1893, Paramahansa Yogananda devoted his life to helping people of all races and creeds to realize and express more fully in their lives the true beauty, nobility, and divinity of the human spirit. After graduating from Calcutta University in 1915, Sri Yogananda took formal vows as a monk of India's venerable monastic Swami Order. Two years later, he began his life's work with the founding of a how-to-live school since grown to twenty-one educational institutions throughout India where traditional academic subjects were offered together with yoga training and instruction in spiritual ideals. In 1920, he was invited to serve as India's delegate to an International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston. His address to the Congress and subsequent lectures on the East Coast were enthusiastically received, and in 1924 he embarked on a cross-continental speaking tour. Over the next three decades, Paramahansa Yogananda contributed in far-reaching ways to a greater awareness and appreciation in the West of the spiritual wisdom of the East. In Los Angeles, he established an international headquarters for Self-Realization Fellowship, the nonsectarian religious society he had founded in 1920. Through his writings, extensive lecture tours, and the creation of Self-Realization Fellowship temples and meditation centers, he introduced hundreds of thousands of truth-seekers to the ancient science and philosophy of Yoga and its universally applicable methods of meditation. Today, the spiritual and humanitarian work begun by Paramahansa Yogananda continues under the direction of Sri Mrinalini Mata, one of his closest disciples and president of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India since 2011. In addition to publishing his writings, lectures and informal talks (including a comprehensive series of Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons for home study), the society also oversees temples, retreats, and centers around the world.