This guide is a reading list of publicly available Self-Realization Fellowship publications that discuss devotional chanting and kirtan. It does not reprint those writings. The chapters and sections below are listed so you can read them in the original books and magazines, which are sold by the SRF Bookstore.

This site is a companion to those primary sources, especially Paramahansa Yogananda’s Cosmic Chants.

Cosmic Chants

By Paramahansa Yogananda. The primary book of words and music for the Cosmic Chants.

• Prelude (also called the Preface in some official SRF presentations). Yogananda’s own introduction to spiritualized chanting. You can also read this Prelude on the official SRF website: Cosmic Chants: Spiritualized songs for divine communion.

• Introduction. Front matter in the printed book, separate from the Prelude.

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Autobiography of a Yogi

By Paramahansa Yogananda. Chapter numbers and titles below were verified in the 1946 first edition and are the same in current SRF editions. This list cites the chapters and encourages you to read them in the book itself; it does not reprint any of the text.

• Chapter 15, “The Cauliflower Robbery.” The later part of the chapter describes group chanting (sankirtan).

• Chapter 29, “Rabindranath Tagore and I Compare Schools.” Mentions the chant “Light the Lamp of Thy Love.”

• Chapter 48, “At Encinitas in California.” Recounts the completion of Cosmic Chants at the Encinitas hermitage and names a number of the chants. The same chapter includes the Carnegie Hall account of “O God Beautiful.” In that chapter, “Listen to my Soul Call” and “Come Out of the Silent Sky” refer to the chant I Give You My Soul Call.

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Finding the Joy Within You

By Sri Daya Mata. Personal counsel for God-centered living.

• “Chanting as a Form of Meditation.” A talk given at Self-Realization Fellowship International Headquarters, beginning on page 116. This is its own chapter, listed in the book’s table of contents. Chapter title and page number were confirmed from the book.

• “An Anthology of Counsel” (begins on page 296), the section “The Role of Music in the Search for God.”

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Only Love

By Sri Daya Mata.

• “Qualities of a Devotee” (begins on page 26), the section “Grasp Truth With the Intellect; Absorb It Within the Soul.” Chapter title, section title, and page number are from the official SRF Bookstore contents listing for this book.

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God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita

By Paramahansa Yogananda. The verse numbers below are the standard Bhagavad Gita references used in this commentary. The page numbers are from a specific printing and were not independently re-checked against every current edition, so they may vary slightly.

• VI:14 (about page 615 in the printing consulted for this list), referring to chanting Aum.

• X:25 (about pages 787–788 in that printing), referring to japa, or repetition of the Divine Name.

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Scientific Healing Affirmations

By Paramahansa Yogananda.

• “The Progressive Stages of Chanting.” A section heading in the “Method of Practice” / “Technique of Affirmation” portion of the book (listed at page 61 in a current paperback table of contents).

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Mejda

By Sananda Lal Ghosh, Paramahansa Yogananda’s brother, on Yogananda’s family and early life.

• Chapter 8, “Early Years in Calcutta,” the section “Mejda’s Love for Music,” beginning on page 107. Chapter title, section title, and page number were confirmed from the book.

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Self-Realization Magazine

These article titles and issue dates come from a compiler’s reading list. Individual back issues are not available online, so the articles below are given as plain citations, with no link. To read one, you would need your own copy, or a copy from a friend. The links after the list go to the magazine’s main page and the Bookstore subscription page; a temple bookstore or the SRF Bookstore may also be able to help with a specific issue.

• Fall 2002: “Chanting: Discovering Spirit in Sound,” by Robert Gass with Kathleen Brehony.

• Summer 2004: “The Spirit of Seeking God,” by Sri Daya Mata.

• Fall 2010: “The Experience of Loving God,” by Sri Daya Mata (toward the end of the article).

Self-Realization Magazine on the SRF website · Magazine subscription at the SRF Bookstore