Self-Realization Fellowship

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Gateway to the Self-Realization Fellowship Temple in Hollywood (Los Angeles, California)

The Self-Realization Fellowship is a religious organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1920 and based in Los Angeles, California. The group carries on Yogananda's teachings, including Kriya Yoga, a form of yoga the group claims originated millennia ago in India. To this end, it conducts correspondence courses in this discipline. It also publishes Yogananda's writings, lectures, and recorded talks; oversees temples, retreats, meditation centers, and monastic communities bearing the name Self-Realization Order; and coordinates the Worldwide Prayer Circle, which it describes as a network of groups and individuals who pray for those in need of physical, mental, or spiritual aid, and who also pray for world peace and harmony. The organization has headquarters in Los Angeles, maintains several temples in other California cities and in Phoenix, Arizona, and maintains other facilities throughout the United States and internationally. SRF also has a sister organization in India called Yogoda Satsanga Society of India.

The group states its mission as fostering a spirit of greater understanding and goodwill among the diverse people and nations of the global family and helping those of all cultures and creeds to realize and express more fully in their lives the beauty, nobility, and divinity of the human spirit, which mission it intends to fulfill through worldwide service.

The current head and President of Self Realization Fellowship is Sri Daya Mata who has occupied this position since 1955.