In 1920, Paramahansa Yogananda was invited to serve as India's delegate to an international congress of religious leaders convening in Boston. In 1924 he embarked on a cross-continental speaking tour, where his public lectures drew large crowds in cities across America, contributing significantly to a growing widespread interest among Westerners in the spiritual wisdom of the East.
His first visit to the Bay Area in October 1924 was followed by a series of classes in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland. His weeks were filled with giving lectures, conducting classes in meditation, and providing personal counseling and instruction to the hundreds of Bay Area residents who sought him out. The photo by which he is best known to spiritual seekers the world over (left) was taken at the Palace Hotel in 1924.
One of the Guru’s aims was to foster cultural understanding between East and West. He greatly appreciated the cultural and architectural diversity of America’s major cities, and San Francisco was no exception. Despite a busy speaking schedule, he made time to enjoy the beauty of the city. Below at left he is shown in Golden Gate Park feeding a squirrel.
Among those who met the great teacher during his stay in the Bay Area was horticulturist Luther Burbank, who became a devoted student of Paramahansa Yogananda’s yoga meditation teachings. Yogananda often traveled to Santa Rosa to visit the world-renowned botanist, whom he considered "an American saint" and to whose memory he dedicated his spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi.
Paramahansa Yogananda returned to the San Francisco Bay Area a number of times between 1926 and 1949, drawing capacity crowds to such halls as the Shrine Auditorium and the Scottish Rite Auditorium. Paramahansa Yogananda emphasized the underlying unity of the world's great religions. He taught universally applicable methods for attaining direct personal experience of God.
To serious students of his teachings he introduced the soul-awakening techniques of Kriya Yoga, a sacred spiritual science originating millenniums ago in India. Lost in the Dark Ages, it was revived in modern times by Self-Realization Fellowship's lineage of enlightened masters.
But for one brief return to his homeland in 1935-36, Paramahansa Yogananda spent the remaining years of his life in the United States, lecturing, writing, and teaching—serving the spiritual family he loved so dearly. He passed from this world in 1952, but his spiritual and humanitarian work has continued to grow, with nearly 600 Self-Realization Fellowship temples and centers around the world.
SRF Meditation Centers are located in several Bay Area cities, and the first Self-Realization Fellowship Temple in the region, is situated above Richmond in the East Bay hills just north of El Cerrito.