Highlights From 2010 Convocation

More than four thousand SRF members and friends from around the world participated in our 2010 World Convocation, held in Los Angeles August 1–7. Coming from approximately fifty countries, they were welcomed by Self-Realization Fellowship monks and nuns from Paramahansa Yogananda’s ashram centers.

The main events were held at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, whose gleaming glass towers were completely filled with joyous meditating devotees and transformed into a dynamic spiritual pilgrimage place by the early-morning to late-evening weeklong program. Events included twice-daily group meditations, classes on Paramahansaji’s “how-to-live” teachings, kirtans (devotional chanting), Kriya Yoga initiations, audio/video presentations, workshops for SRF centers and meditation groups worldwide, opportunities for individual counseling on the teachings with monks and nuns, and pilgrimages to the ashram centers where Paramahansa Yogananda lived and communed with God.



	Convocation 2010 Slide Show (Time 8:18)

This year was the 60^th anniversary of the first Self-Realization Fellowship World Convocation, which was held by Paramahansaji in 1950 at the SRF Mother Center. Foreseeing the ever-increasing number of truth-seekers who would participate in this powerful spiritual event as the years passed, he predicted to those who were present at the first one:

“They shall come from all parts of the world, thousands and thousands of them, just as you have, for Self-Realization is bringing the original Christianity of Christ and the original Yoga of India’s Krishna so that all people of all religions can follow one highway to the Infinite.”

Appreciative comments and letters continue to come in from those who attended the 2010 event, including the following:

“I have attended many Convocations, having taken Kriya initiation in the early 1970s. In the SRF magazine I often enjoy reading wonderful letters from new members extolling the blessings of their first Convocation experience. Now I have just returned from the 2010 Convocation, and I venture to say that I am no less uplifted than those souls who have experienced this annual delight for the first time. Even though I have repeated these pilgrimages and stays at the Bonaventure over and over again, it never gets old for me (or for any of the other ‘old-timers,’ I am guessing). Every year it seems to get better and better, as Mother Center and the volunteers always seem intent on expressing the Guru’s love for us. Every lecture and every kirtan were distinctly different from each other, yet opened a wondrous new experience for me, even when I felt that I had received all that was possible!...”

“My heart feels so open and soft, when I am out doing my worldly errands, nothing seems to go wrong. Everything I look at seems to shimmer with light, and the tiniest thought during the day of God and Guru brings such joy and comfort! I pray that I am able to keep this flame alive through the entire year, until the next Convocation....”

Join us in reliving some of the joyous moments of past years’ Convocations in the links above and below. And we look forward to seeing you July 29 to August 4 for the 2012 Convocation!