And Other Events Happening in the Area
Award-Winning Documentary Tells Story of Yogananda
The award-winning documentary Awake: the Life of Yogananda will be shown at Self-Realization Fellowship Kansas City Meditation Group, 10819 Wornall Rd., on Saturday, February 6, at 7 pm. It is preceded by a vegetarian potluck supper at 5:30.
Awake: The Life of Yogananda is an unconventional biography about the Hindu Swami who brought yoga and meditation to the West in the 1920s. Paramahansa Yogananda authored the spiritual classic “Autobiography of a Yogi,” which has sold millions of copies worldwide and is a go-to book for seekers, philosophers and yoga enthusiasts today. (Apparently, it was the only book that Steve Jobs had on his iPad.) By personalizing his own quest for enlightenment and sharing his struggles along the path, Yogananda made ancient Vedic teachings accessible to a modern audience, attracting many followers and inspiring the millions who practice yoga today.
Filmed over three years with the participation of 30 countries around the world, the documentary examines the world of yoga, modern and ancient, east and west and explores why millions today have turned their attention inwards, bucking the limitations of the material world in pursuit of self-realization.
Archival material from the life of Yogananda (who died in 1952) creates a spine for the
narrative, but the film stretches the dimensions of a standard biography. The footage includes stylized interviews, metaphoric imagery and recreations, taking us from holy pilgrimages in India to Harvard’s Divinity School and its cutting-edge physics labs, from the Center for Science and Spirituality at the University of Pennsylvania to the Chopra Center in Carlsbad, California. By evoking the journey of the soul as it pushes its way through the oppression of the human ego and delusion of the material world, the film creates an experiential immersion into the unseen realms. Awake is ultimately the story of humanity itself: the universal struggle of all beings to free themselves from suffering and to seek lasting happiness.
Self-Realization Fellowship was founded in 1920 by Yogananda, who is widely revered as one of the preeminent spiritual figures of our time. Now headquartered in California, the Fellowship is dedicated to promoting a greater understanding and harmony among the world’s various religions by teaching the fundamental principle of religion: how to commune personally with God.
For more information, call 816-799-5544.
Weekend Event Calendar
Friday, February 5
Jimmy Dykes. Live music. Murray’s Tables + Taps, 12921 State Line Rd. 8 pm.
Saturday, February 6
Awake: The Life of Yogananda. Movie and potluck. Self-Realization Fellowship Kansas City Meditation Group, 10819 Wornall Rd. Vegetarian potluck 5:30. Movie 7 pm.
Monday, February 8
KCPD Chief of Police Darryl Forte. Speaker. South Kansas City Alliance. KCPD South Patrol Community Room , 9701 Marion Park Dr. 6pm.