Thursday December 25th, 2025
The Joy of Marking the Start of the Mahayogi Yoga Mission’s 30th Anniversary Year!
“From Joy springs all creation,
by Joy it is sustained,
by Joy it proceeds,
and to Joy it returns.”
—Satguru Shri Mahayogi Paramahamsa
Today, December 25th, first, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to Shri Mahayogi for his Existence, and being the founding and guiding light of the Mahayogi Yoga Mission. Thirty years ago—and twenty years after he had started to teach Yoga, preaching Sanatana Dharma at the request of a few who had found Shri Mahayogi—it was towards the end of June 1996, that Shri Mahayogi first came to New York at the invitation of two disciples. In order to ensure that Shri Mahayogi would visit continuously, so that we would be able to sit near him and receive his teachings directly, a handful of us who recognized the state of Shri Mahayogi, his Light, his Love, his Wisdom, his Charm, his Beauty, his Irresistibleness, worked to establish His Mission in New York, and it was on December 24th, 1996 that Mahayogi Yoga Mission received its official recognition as a non-profit spiritual organization in New York. It’s a mysterious timing…we wondered if such a timing could really be just by coincidence, since it was exactly on December 24th, 1886 that Swami Vivekananda and his brother disciples took their vows of sannyasa (monastic renunciation) in Antpur, West Bengal, after meditating by a sacred fire until morning.* In seeing that the official letter was stamped on December 24th, truly we were incredibly amazed and joyful, and so full of excitement, passion, gratefulness and adoration for our Beloved Shri Mahayogi. Of course, this is beyond what we may be able to know, but time may tell that such an occurrence can’t be just a mere coincidence.
JOY—on this day, I would like my sister and brother disciples to recall this Joy; even if you were not present on December 24th, 1996, I’m sure that you must have a moment in which your heart melted, when you had an irresistible smile on your face, when your heart cried secretly because, for the first time, you felt that you were understood and accepted by someone, and you were given strength to get up and keep going; I’m sure you must have felt drawn to that Light, and you must have been so happy to receive the answer that no one had been able to give you, and to see the clear aim of life. Let’s remember that Joy—it is so powerful—and let us always Be with Shri Mahayogi, think about what it means to act always with Shri Mahayogi, and act upon that. We carry the Mission of Shri Mahayogi together, whatever we do, wherever we go. And let’s carry on that Mission he has entrusted to his disciples. Don’t you remember? Shri Mahayogi said many times: “I am with you.”
The establishment of the Mission in New York is not only of significance for the disciples in New York. If we think about the course of Shri Mahayogi’s life, his visit to New York was a pivotal point for the future of his disciples worldwide as well as for the Mission, so in this sense, it can be said that 1996 was a significant year because it marks when Shri Mahayogi’s Mission began outside of Japan. For about 24 years, Shri Mahayogi graciously accepted to come to New York yearly, and many people internationally received the opportunity to meet Shri Mahayogi here in New York. In fact, the work of the Mission in Taiwan began from the passion of a Taiwanese Yoga practitioner who met Shri Mahayogi in New York, then became a disciple, and a few years later, together with others who had the same thirst to learn from Shri Mahayogi and who yearned to have a place to seek and practice toward Sanatana Dharma, proactively established the Mission in Taiwan.
Why did Shri Mahayogi live the way he lived, why did Shri Mahayogi do things the way he did? This is a very important theme to contemplate if we want to know Shri Mahayogi.
And today, as I direct myself towards that, my being is quickly pulled into Shri Mahayogi’s name alone.
“From Joy springs all creation, by Joy it is sustained, by Joy it proceeds, and to Joy it returns.”
In silence, we will all know that Joy.
—Anandamali
*Note: About four months later, on May 1st, 1897, Ramakrishna Mission was established in Kolkata, India.
***
Because of Shri Mahayogi, his being, his presence and his teachings at the center, as the foundation and central pillar, the Mahayogi Yoga Mission was established, and thus Sanatana Dharma, the Eternal Truth that is the essence of each one of us and of the entire universe, has been brought into the realm of sight and reach for those of us living in this age. That in itself is a blessing beyond measure that awakens that Joy within our hearts.
Because of Anandamali and those who worked and made efforts alongside her, the creation and establishment of the Mahayogi Yoga Mission as an organization during the early days after Shri Mahayogi’s first visit, came to fruition. At that time, the great passion and Joy within Anandamali to make sure that as many people as possible would be able to encounter and experience for themselves Shri Mahayogi and the pristine teachings of Yoga expressed through his Existence, must have been fully ignited, and for those who had just met Shri Mahayogi, they must have been exuding the Joy of having been able to have such an auspicious encounter, and enthusiasm for Yoga must have been brimming over amongst them.
We are filled with gratitude for their work, and for their bold and inspired action that led to the establishment of the Mission in New York. At that time, they laid the first foundational stone around the grand pillar of Shri Mahayogi. Through their example, we can see that, though Mahayogi Yoga Mission is indeed an organization, it is made up, sustained and built by the individuals who dedicate themselves through their Joy and passion for Yoga and Sanatana Dharma, through their Joy of recognizing the preciousness of Shri Mahayogi’s existence and his Mission, as well as the immeasurable blessing they are receiving through having encountered Shri Mahayogi, and through their wishing to do whatever is needed to ensure that blessing is passed on and experienced beyond the limits of one’s own individual self, beyond this moment, beyond this place, and far into the future—for what else can express one’s Joy and gratitude.
The impact of such dedication and inspired action most certainly reverberates beyond what we can see, and surely, for those of us who have come along after 1996, we cannot deny that we have directly received the benefit of that. Now, as Anandamali has called us to do, let us remember the kindling of that Joy within ourselves as this 30th year of the Mission begins, and in Joy and in gratitude, let’s find within ourselves the bold and inspired actions we can take to continue to lay the stones that will keep building the foundation of Shri Mahayogi’s Mission!
With utmost gratitude for our Eternally Beloved Guru, Shri Mahayogi,
we unite under You.