Five-day Yogoda Satsanga Programme to be held in Hyderabad from Feb 12-16

Hyderabad: A 5-day spiritual Sangam programme of Yogoda Society of India/Self-Realization Fellowship (YSS/SRF), the spiritual organizations founded by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (author of best =selling spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi), will be held in Hyderabad from Feb 12-16.

Swami Chidananda Giri, the president and spiritual head of YSS/SRF, who is touring India, will preside over a special five-day spiritual Sangam programme at Hyderabad, the Society said in a statement here on Saturday.

Over 3,500 YSS and SRF devotees from across India and the world will participate in this 5-day programme which will include group meditations and spiritual discourses by sannyasis based on the “how-to-live” teachings of Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda.

Devotees and spiritual seekers will participate in important events of this Sangam even virtually as they will be livestreamed from the venue on the YSS website.

Swami Chidananda will also give discourses in Ranchi, Dakshineswar and Noida.
Swami Chidananda has been a sannyasi of YSS/SRF for over 40 years and has served as a member of the YSS and SRF Boards of Directors since 2009.

Swamiji has shared Yoganandaji’s teachings during lecture tours and retreat programmes in the United States, Canada, Europe, and India—as well as at the annual SRF World Convocations in Los Angeles.

Almost from the start of his monastic life, Swamiji has worked closely with Mrinalini Mataji (former Sanghamata and fourth president of YSS/SRF), receiving her wisdom-permeated, Guru-attuned training as he assisted her in the editing and publishing of the works of Yoganandaji and other YSS/SRF publications.
His sannyasi name Chidananda means bliss (ananda) through the infinite Divine Consciousness (chit).

Swami Chidananda’s first contact with the teachings of Yoganandajwas in the early 1970s in Encinitas, California (USA) – where SRF has a retreat and ashram centre – when he was a student of sociology and philosophy at the University of California.

He graduated from the university in 1975. Months later, he came across a copy of “Autobiography of a Yogi.” Chidanandaji applied and entered the monastics’ postulant ashram of SRF in Encinitas in 1977. He completed his postulant training in 1979 and was transferred to the SRF Headquarters at Mt. Washington and was assigned to editorial work in the Publications Department.

Swami Chidananda had previously visited India in 2019, 2017 and 2007 and during his most recent visit to India in 2019, he gave public satsangas at Noida, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ranchi, and Dakshineswar on the Kriya Yoga teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda.