🪷 Jesus and Yoga • What is LA's Self-Realization Fellowship? (Featuring WARD RADIO)

Let's try something a little different.

In the past, I've received requests to visit other worship centers of different faiths and religions. For visit number 8, we team-up with @WARDRADIO's Cardon Ellis and Luke Hanson with a visit to the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine just blocks from the Pacific Ocean in the L.A. suburbs.

We called ahead to book an appointment, expecting to attend some sort of meditation stretching service mixing Jesus Christ with yoga.

Welp, that didn't actually happen.

Instead, we walked through a natural amphitheater containing waterfalls, fountains, flower beds, statues, and white swans gliding across the lake.

There also were a strange range of landmarks.

The first sight was a golden lotus archway in front of a Gandhi World Peace Memorial that apparently housed some of his ashes. We then sat quietly in a Mississippi-style houseboat in front of a picture of the Self-Realization Fellowship's guru founder, Paramahansa Yogananda. After that, we then went inside an authentic reproduction of a 16th-century Dutch windmill that served as a chapel. Inside, people were meditating in front of six images - one of Jesus Christ, a second of Bhagavan Krishna, and then four exalted yogi masters (including Yogananda).

We finished at the Court of Religions, which displayed symbols of five principal religions of the world (Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism). Before we left, one of the signature sights is a life-size statue of Jesus Christ looking over the Lake Shrine above a waterfall.

I knew nothing coming in, and even when filming our reaction, I couldn't pronounce Yogananda's name. After the visit, I learned that he believed in an underlying harmony of all faiths with a mediation technique called kriya yoga. Yogananda teachings started in India, then introduced them to the West in 1920. His influence spread throughout the world, most notably in California with various temples being built in prime real estate locations.

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▶️ Timestamps:
0:00 LA
0:30 Ward Radio Collab
1:15 St. Jude
2:03 Jesus and Yoga?!
5:06 Look at SRF Lake Shrine
6:41 First Reactions
10:55 Mix of Faiths
13:39 Houseboat
20:21 Windmill Chapel
27:43 Final Impressions

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🎵 Music:
Mhern - By The Harbor

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[churchesinweeks]

Change-up for this one compared to other videos. Thanks to Cardon and Luke with WARD RADIO for joining me.

[timothyodering]

Hello folks, I'm Timothy. A friend sent me this video.
I have followed my Guru Yoganandaji these 40 or 50 years from New Zealand.
The place you visited is called Lake Shrine and I once visited it also in 1995. Very beautiful and peaceful. I believe I'm right in saying that it was the last place master developed before hid death (mahasamadi actually) in 1952.
It had been a quarry which had been worked out and abandoned, and naturally filled with muddy water.
Yoganandaji himself planned and directed the plantings from a boat sometimes even. He was very particular on just where each plant was to go.
Jesus and Krishna represent Christ, from the west and east respectively.
Christ is not a person but the intelligence of God which plans and executes AND maintains the entire universe.
God the Father is unreachable from our human standpoint. God the Son is Christ. God the 'Holy Ghost' is the 'stuff' of creation itself. Or rather the vibration out of which creation arises.
Jesus also came to teach these same things and is also a Christ (big of me right?). Sorry if my explanation doesn't work for you 🙏. But we were raised as Christians too so it familiar.
All of there men are Christ's actually.
Jesus spent a large chunk of his life in India and Tibet (The Second Coming of Christ, P Yogananda).
From the age of 12 or 13 till the age of 30ish Jesus was travelling the east, repaying the visit of the 'Three Wise Men' and formulating the teaching he was destined to leave for humanity. He was hounded from place to place actually because the 'powers that be' never like to be shown up as false.
But many in the east also followed him.
The pronam 🙏 is an eastern salute meaning 'my soul bows to your soul'
The confusion over different religious faiths is very simple...
Our one common father GOD has found it necessary over long ages to send his true children as teachers of mankind. Why many??
Because we keep stuffing it up.!!
And I'll end there.
Nice hearing all your impressions
Timothy

[JAK-cirj]

The temple grounds are open to everyone! I have gone to just to sit and reflect without going in before.

[laurabaker]

Loved this! FYI : Self-Realization Fellowship promotes the spiritual practice of Kriya Yoga. It is not a religion but a practice that people of all religions incorporate into their lives.

[pamelaryland]

I flew to 14hrs to go to LA to see all a Conversation of the teachings 15 years ago, I also follow the meditation and teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, such a beautiful soul who has guided myself and now millions of others to a better life style through Kriya Yoga and meditation. So glad you were so respectful in your viewing Lake Shrine & Self-realization Fellowship it's a beautiful path. Religious / Non-profit ...The people you met there were most likely Monks & Nuns
Thank you. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[unityspirit]

I love the Lake Shrine. I first read The Autobiography of a Yogi over twenty years ago. I would have to say that it had as profound of an impact on me as the BoM. Since that reading, I have been studying Hinduism in its many forms, along with many other faiths. Adding meditation to my practice was a game changer; much more to the SRF than just mediation.

[margaretknutson]

12:05 what a wonderful video. Beautiful! You all are great too. I just wanted to mention Our Church does do this and offers it to the public daily. It's called the Temple Grounds. Just saying😁

[bretasorenson]

Reminds me of a saying, "All truth will be circumscribed into one whole." I am not quoting verbatim, but pulling from my memory.

[chinchillax]

DONATE, MY PEEPS :)
I’m amazed at your ability to truly appreciate all that these different churches have to offer. So many people can’t look at the good in things that are different or a little weird compared to what they’re used to

[mariatrejo]

Hello Brothers. I have been there and I enjoy every time I visit this place. But when we are in communion with God every place is good to meditate.

[EdelweissM_TheJourney]

I admire your respectful yet honest assessment of each church you feature.

[CodyRArcher]

In January of 2020 I moved to a home in Glendale California and from the dining room, looking out through the sliding glass door was an absolutely gorgeous view of this incredibly beautiful temple. I didn’t even know it was there when I first moved in. Fast forward a few months and COVID hits in full, and during one of the days I was at home I finally decided to check out this building and it ended up being one of these churches.

I had already undergone a spiritual awakening in 2019 so to have this beautiful building to enjoy while I would meditate outside was an absolute joy.

Of course, due to COVID it was closed but none the less I enjoyed it’s presence🙏🏻

[craigsanderson]

I was worried the Ward Radio guys were going to ruin this video. But it turns out I enjoyed everything Cardon had to say, he was really the star of this video.

[brianschadel]

David, Luke & Cardon - Thank you for sharing with this YT audience your sincere interest, appreciation and respect for the religious efforts and practices of other faiths. In doing so, you are being living examples of your own faith and you have my heartfelt appreciation and respect. I grew up in a Protestant community and struggled with some of the same questions when I came upon the Self-Realization Fellowship teachings some 40 years ago, which on the surface can seem a little uncomfortable to those of us taught to love the Lord Jesus as the one and only son of God. In time, my questions were replaced with peace. As Cardon accurately observed, these folks don't proselytize others but are serious themselves about learning to practice focus, calmness and stillness in meditation. And in that stillness, the heart's natural love for all beings and all expressions of God and goodness, percolate up into very tangible feeling. Interestingly, Yogananda started a tradition at all SRF temples, of a long (8-hr) church service held a few days before every Christmas, in which its members take a break from shopping, cooking, traveling and the other outward festivities in order to pray and deeply commune with Jesus Christ and feel his love. That many people return to do this year after year is a testament to the joy that they experience. Again, thank you for your 52 churches/52weeks initiative and your support of Saint Jude hospital. May you be blessed for your actions in promoting understanding and acceptance among seekers of all faiths.

[Dan]

The Self Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine has some of the highest vibrations on the planet -- and certainly in the US. Not only it is beautiful, our souls crave that kind of deep peace. After an exhaustive search for the "right" spiritual teachings for me, I finally found SRF in 1986 --- I arrived and will never ever leave it.

[GrowthnGod]

One of the most peaceful and beautiful places!

[orangetreevintagewaresotvw]

Nice new format!!! Go Mr, 52!! I would so go there. Peaceful, reverent place to reflect on world peace and love.

[tomcanseco]

I'm an SRF member and I appreciate this video 🙏

[garyg]

Very interesting David. A preparation for this visit would have been to read "The Autobiography of a Yogi." by Yogananda. Through meditation one comes into the realization that the "kingdom of God, the allness of God, is within us! It's not found in churches or temples, spirituality is found within.

[zionmama]

8:00 our church does do this Cardon. It’s called the Outer gardens of the temple.