The Center for Spiritual Enlightenment

The first stop for our traveling monks began in San Jose, California, at the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment.

From their website: The Center for Spiritual Enlightenment is a meditation center in the spiritual tradition of Kriya Yoga, welcoming people from all backgrounds who are seeking God-realization, a path to spiritually conscious, fulfilled living. At CSE you'll find practical support and tools for transforming your life, fulfilling your worthwhile dreams, and living a spiritually conscious life.

CSE World Headquarters is located in San Jose, California, where worship services, meditation instruction, Kriya Yoga teachings and initiation, hatha yoga classes, youth spiritual education, ministry services and retreats are regularly offered. It is also the home of Meru Institute for Yoga Studies; Lahiri Retreat House; a meditation garden open daily to the public; CSE Press; and Tree of Life Welcome Center and Bookshop. Teachings are offered globally through online programs, outreach, and publications.

Our host and head of the fellowship Yogacharya O'Brian greeted Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami and treated the monks to a whole morning of touring the grounds, updates, future plans and a wonderful lunch. Please visit their website to learn more: https://www.csecenter.org/

On the left is Yogacharya O\

Brian, her assistant Irma is in the middle and Swami on the right. '

Having been away for 4 years, we share some pleasantries and head inside

CSE has a large compound that goes from corner to corner of a city block and has about 8 buildings, some with retreat housing for seekers and yogis

The wall of magazine covers reminds us of the Ganapati Kulam Media Studio where Hinduism Today features our most prominant covers. The Enlightenment Journal is their quarterly publication and provide teachings, inspiration and practical support for seekers of God-realization

Paramacharya holds a game for children to learn about the various koshas that hold us back from experiencing divinity

The group sits down for lunch. Easvan Param is on the bottom right of the photo. He is caring after the monks while they are in Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill, California.

We get a four-year update session of all the various projects, publications and initiatives going on for CSE

Outside we are taken around to the various sadhanas that a yogi will walk through in their meditation gardens

Behind this wall is a small meditation cave

Easvan, Yogacharya and Swami talk about the new installment of the Center\

s yajna mandapam for homas'

CSE was able to take over a 100 year-old christian church and convert it into a church of all religions, mainly focusing on eastern\/Vedic teaching

The store, full of the lineages teachings

Paramahansa Yogananda initiated Roy Eugene Davis, who then initiated Yogacharya O\

Brian some 35 years ago'

The Center\

s sermon hall is slowly making its way into becoming a satsang hall'

One of the many sign-posts a yogi comes upon as he walks through the gardens

This is the Center\

s new homa mandapam, still in construction'

This is a new beginning for the order as they are transitioning from Christian language to Hindu practice.

This church gets filled up each Sunday with devotees looking for spiritual teachings

Shrines to the lineage has just recently been installed

And yes, a tree is inside the room! CSE acquired the hall with the tree in place and just kept it.

The story goes, this branch was dead and lifeless during the Christian sermons and when the building was taken over and hymns switched to Vedic chanting these leaves bagan to grow

Yogacharya and Paramacharya sit down for a discussion followed by question and answer from the ministers of the Center

There are about 22 staff members

After a talk from Paramacharya about the link between Siddhanta and Vedanta, and the Center\

s slow transition into satsang and fire ceremonys, he gifts special herbs and powders the group can use for their homas'

Group photo. Many good questions were asked by several of the most senior ministers who regularly work with newcomers.

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