Brother Chidananda (born Christopher Hartwell Bagley, 1953) is the fifth President of

Self-Realization Fellowship Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) is a worldwide spiritual organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1920 and legally incorporated as a non-profit religious organization in 1935, to serve as Yogananda's instrument for the preservation ...

Yogoda Satsanga Society of India Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS) is a non-profit, nonsectarian spiritual organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1917 and is a part of the Self-Realization Fellowship which was founded in 1920. The current president of t ...

, founded by

Paramahansa Yogananda Paramahansa Yogananda (born Mukunda Lal Ghosh; January 5, 1893March 7, 1952) was an Indian Hindu monk, yogi and guru who introduced millions to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization Self-Realization Fellowsh ...

. He was born in

Annapolis Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, USA.

Biography

Chidananda is the son of Admiral David H. Bagley, former commander-in-chief of U.S. naval forces in Europe, and Charlotte Lee Bagley, née Hartwell. His first contact with the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda was in the early 1970s in Encinitas, California – where SRF has a retreat and ashram center – when he was a student of sociology and philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. He graduated from the university in 1975. Months later, he came across a copy of

Autobiography of a Yogi ''Autobiography of a Yogi'' is an autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda (5 January 1893 – 7 March 1952) first published in 1946. Paramahansa Yogananda was born as Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, India, into a Bengali Hindu family. ...

. Chidananda applied and entered the monks’ postulant ashram of SRF in Encinitas in 1977. He completed his postulant training in 1979 and was transferred to the SRF Headquarters at Mt. Washington and was assigned to editorial work in the Publications Department. He was appointed a member of the SRF and YSS Boards of Directors in 2009. His monastic name Chidananda means bliss (''ananda'') through the infinite Divine Consciousness (''chit''). On 30 August 2017, he was elected as the next president and spiritual head of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India in a unanimous vote by the SRF Board of Directors. He succeeded Sri

Mrinalini Mata Mrinalini Mata (born Merna Loy Brown, May 8, 1931 - August 3, 2017) was the fourth President of Self-Realization Fellowship / Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, founded by Paramahansa Yogananda. Biography She was born in Wichita, Kansas Wi ...

, who died in early August 2017. Chidananda oversees the society’s monastic order, the 800 temples, meditation centers, and retreats around the world. He also oversees the fellowship's publications department, humanitarian activities and is the editor-in-chief of SRF Publications.

Biography

References

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