Yoga Directory

Welcome to the Inner Path Yoga Directory. The purpose of the Directory is to introduce you to the major yoga organizations in the United States. Rather then being a list of yoga studios that teach primarily just hatha yoga, the organizations listed below were founded by highly advanced yogic masters or their direct disciples. Their teachings usually encompass yoga in its classical sense, which is to say, yoga as a spiritual discipline and life philosophy. We hope you enjoy this directory. If you feel there are other organizations that should be included, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Just like you, we’re here to learn.

Ananda is a global movement based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, who showed how everyone can realize God in their daily lives as a tangible, loving reality. Ananda was founded in 1968 by Yogananda’s direct disciple, Swami Kriyananda. Swami Kriyananda’s spiritual successor is Nayawami Jyotish who, along with his wife Nayaswami Devi, serves as Ananda’s spiritual director. Yogananda’s non-sectarian teachings embrace the truths that underlie all the great religions. People from all faiths and backgrounds are welcomed at Ananda.

The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres is a non-profit organization named after Swami Sivananda, one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the 20th century and founded by his disciple Swami Vishnudevananda. The teachings of Master Sivananda are summarized in these six words: Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realize.

Mata Amritanandamayi is known throughout the world as Amma, or Mother, for her selfless love and compassion toward all beings. Her entire life has been dedicated to alleviating the painof the poor, and those suffering physically and emotionally.

Throughout her life, Mata Amritanandamayi has embraced and comforted more than 34 million people. Amma inspires, uplifts, and transforms through her embrace, her spiritual wisdom and through her global charities, known as Embracing the World.® When asked where she gets the energy to help so many people, she answers: “Where there is true love, anything is effortless.”

While Amma is widely regarded as one of India’s foremost spiritual leaders, Amma says that her religion is love. She has never asked anyone to change their religion but only to contemplate the essential principles of their own faith and to try to live accordingly.

For more than eighty-five years, Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) has been dedicated to carrying on the spiritual and humanitarian work of its founder, Paramahansa Yogananda, widely revered as the father of Yoga in the West.

SRF is a worldwide religious organization with international headquarters in Los Angeles. As expressed in the Aims and Ideals formulated by Paramahansa Yogananda, the society seeks to foster a spirit of greater understanding and goodwill among the diverse peoples and religions of our global family, and to help those of all cultures and nationalities to realize and express more fully in their lives the beauty, nobility, and divinity of the human spirit.

Paramahansa Yogananda founded Self-Realization Fellowship in 1920 to make available the universal teachings of Kriya Yoga, a sacred spiritual science originating millenniums ago in India. These nonsectarian teachings embody a complete philosophy and way of life for achieving all-round success and well-being, as well as methods of meditation for achieving life’s ultimate goal — union of the soul with Spirit (God).

The Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism in the United States of America had its beginning in 1920. In that year Swami Yogananda Paramhansa came to Boston, Massachusetts, to represent India at the Congress of Religions. While in this country he formed numerous groups of followers. At Swami Yogananda’s suggestion, some of his followers in Washington, D.C., later invited one of the students at his school in Ranchi, India, to be their leader. The young man, known then as Brahmachari Jotin aka Swami Premananda, came in 1928 to organize the church. He was in complete charge of its spiritual and administrative activities for fifty years.

The Vedanta Society of Southern California was founded in 1930 in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Society is under the spiritual leadership of the Ramakrishna Order of India.

The historical roots of the Vedanta Society of Southern California can be traced back to Swami Vivekananda’s visit to Los Angeles in the late 1890s when he stayed with the Mead sisters in their South Pasadena home. Thirty years later, one of the sisters, Mrs. Carrie Mead Wyckoff, became acquainted with Swami Prabhavananda, a young monk sent to America by the Ramakrishna Order of India. During that time, Mrs. Wyckoff had a house tucked away in the Hollywood hills which she offered to the swami as a gift.

Soon afterwards, in 1929, Swami Prabhavananda moved to Hollywood from Portland to establish the Vedanta Society of Southern California. In 1934, the Vedanta Society of Southern California was officially established as a non-profit organization “to promote harmony between Eastern and Western thought, and recognition of the truth in all the great religions of the world.”

The Vedantic Center was established in 1976 by Swamini Alice Coltrane – Turiyasangitananda as a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. In 1983, The Vedantic Center was relocated onto 50 acres of sacred and serene land in the Santa Monica Mountains of Agoura, California, and named Shanti Anantam Ashram. On July 3, 1994, Swamini rededicated and inaugurated the land as Sai Anantam Ashram. The ashram continues to serve as a sanctuary where seekers from all faiths are welcome and can experience the sublime teachings on spiritual life. The land is conducive to spiritual practice and development.

Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville was founded by Sri Swami Satchidananda (Sri Gurudev), an esteemed spiritual leader whose message of peace has been heard around the globe. Honored with the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, Sri Gurudev dedicated his life to the cause of peace – both individual and universal – and to religious harmony among all people. His teachings are the Ashram’s guiding principles.