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Chant traditions from many cultures are being recognized today not only for their intrinsic beauty but also for their spiritual power.
Sri Yogananda, a pioneer in introducing India's art of devotional chanting to the West, explains how it helps to quiet and focus the mind in preparation for meditation. This book contains words and music to more than 50 of his original chants.
About the Author:
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893 - 1952), hailed as The Father of Yoga in the West, is widely revered as one of the preeminent spiritual figures of our time. Born in northern India on January 5, 1893, he took formal vows as a monk of India's venerable monastic Swami Order soon after graduating from Calcutta University in 1915. 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 the United States to speak at an interfaith congress of religious leaders, where he gave an historic address on "The Science of Religion." That same year he founded Self-Realization Fellowship, an international society dedicated to introducing throughout the world his teachings on the age-old science and philosophy of Yoga and its time-honored tradition of meditation; and to helping people of all races and creeds to realize and express more fully in their lives the beauty, nobility, and divinity of the human spirit.
During the more than thirty years that Paramahansa Yogananda lived and taught in the West, he contributed in far-reaching ways to a deepening awareness and appreciation of the ancient wisdom of the East. Today his spiritual and humanitarian work is being carried on under the direction of Sri Daya Mata, one of his earliest and closest disciples and president of Self-Realization Fellowship / Yogoda Satsanga Society of India since 1955. From its international headquarters in Los Angeles, the society publishes his writings, lectures, and informal talks (including a comprehensive series of lessons for home study) and guides the work of its monastic communities, temples and retreats, meditation centers, and a Worldwide Prayer Circle.
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