Hello,
I am new to SD and I heard it is a fabulous message board! 
My first question is about Yogananda and the Self-Realization Fellowship, which I guess now also branched off into Ananda. Has anyone out there heard of this? If so, is it a cult? The premise of it seems really great, but I am skeptical…
Cheers,
Virya
I’ve never heard of them, but I can still say yes.
Whether they’re cults or not depends on how you define the word, but they don’t seem to be aggressively cultlike the way, say, Scientology is.
They ARE, however, profit-seeking enterprises. Keep an eye on your wallet.
I consider it greatly ironic that Ananda operates not one but two bookstores across the street from each other in Mountain View, CA. To the immediate west of one of them is a Scientology recruiting station, and tot he immediate east is another bookstore which has a community bulletin board where the rules state explicitly “No Cults!”
There was some sort of sexual harassment/power trip trial about 10 years back at the “across the street” store, for which the group either settled for a hefty sum after a trial hinging on its cultishness, or lost the trial and had to pay anyway. I forget the details, I am sure the internet has not though.
For several years I lived in close proximity to the Self Realization Center in Encinitas (north San Diego County, CA). I also went to the one in Los Angeles a few times.
I never went to a service, but walked the grounds numerous times where I would occasionally talk to members.
At no time did they attempt to coerce me or anyone else into joining their organization.
I would never consider SRC a cult.
Here’s a webpage www.kriyayogainfo.net/Eng_Home.html that gives some insight into Yogananda’s system of meditation without trying to extract any of your cash, I guess their all cult like organizations in the sense you need to pay for a keep their secrets with the possible exception of yogani’s page at www.aypsite.org/ . With due respect to late Yogananda his system of Kriya is only original in that he was the first teacher to publicly teach in the US.
When I was a young teen, I had a friend whose parents lived in an Ananda community. If it wasn’t a cult, it sure looked like one. Their house was covered with portraits of some leader, we had to sing a song to the portraits before dinner time, etc. Even at 13 years old, it pinged a lot of “this is really weird” alarms.
In any case, if it is not quite at the level of “cult”, it is certainly pretty flaky looking.
Thanks, Everyone for your responses. It helps! Have a great day!