“Group meditation is a castle that protects the new spiritual aspirants as well as the veteran meditators. Meditating together increases the degree of Self-realization of each member of the group by the law of invisible vibratory exchange of group magnetism.”
— Paramahansa Yogananda, Seeking God Together

“Why shouldn’t you strengthen your own vibrations through fellowship with people seeking Self-realization, and by group meditation with them? This practice will fortify your own spiritual convictions; you will find that many seemingly insuperable barriers in your life will crumble and dissolve in the waters of meditation. Your devotion and love for God will commingle with the devotion and love of others. Divine bliss will radiate from you, helping all persons you meet.”
— Paramahansa Yogananda, Seeking God Together

“You can’t be spasmodic in your practice of the techniques. That is why it is so important for you to come together in groups for meditation. Group meditations strengthen the individuals. When you’re in meditation with other devotees you don’t know how much you help one another. It gives you strength. There is a vibration that is created that strengthens, and supports, and encourages each one.”
— Sri Daya Mata, Karma Yoga

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
— Jesus Christ, The Bible, KJV, Mathew 18:20

“Group meditations sustain the yogi’s spiritual enthusiasm, inspiring him to meditate when he might otherwise neglect his devotions, encouraging him to spiritualize life’s duties when he might otherwise perform them heedless of God, the real Doer.”
— Self-Realization Fellowship, Meeting for Group Meditation

“Group meetings to practice the techniques of meditation are vitally important. Group meetings strengthen the individual Self-realization that one has acquired in private at home.”
— Paramahansa Yogananda, Seeking God Together

“Group meditation holds people together because of their own Self-realization. Then, of their own accord, they want to get together often to worship God on the altar of their commingled devotion. When you go to an SRF temple or center, let it be for one purpose: to be with God. Do not go for the words, do not go for the singing. Go to feel His presence by meditation!”
— Paramahansa Yogananda, Seeking God Together

“Go into little groups for meditation. Not for gossip, not for personalities, but just to sit quietly and meditate. Christ said, ‘Where two or three are gathered in my name there am I.’ I remember once years ago sitting in this very chapel where Guruji used to sit and have satsang with us. Then he went to the eastern part of the United States to give classes, to teach, to visit with other devotees. And during that period we had a leader here who was very dry, very uninteresting, very boring. No inspiration came to me. And I said to myself, I’m not going to go to the chapel anymore. I do much better in my room. I’m going to stay in my room and meditate. Guruji came back, called me to him, and he said, I understand you’re not going to meditation? I said, Oh yes Master. See we always have excuses. We all have them. We love to rationalize, don’t we? Oh yes Master, I am meditating, I am meditating. But you’re not going to the chapel anymore? I said, no, I meditate much better in my room. I can go much deeper. Down there the teacher is very boring. He said, ‘You go just the same! You go not to be inspired by the teacher. You go in order to begin to seek deeply within yourself. Pay no attention to anyone else. You haven’t gone there except for one reason that you might commune with God.’ I never forgot that. That was a lesson that remained with me throughout my life. It was a great and wonderful lesson. So when devotees go to groups forget everybody else. You go there for one reason, to commune with God. There is no question about it, when our own will is weak mixing with a group of like interests helps to strengthen you. And that is true.”
— Sri Daya Mata, The Way to Peace, Humility, and Love for God

“We become like the people we mingle with, not only through their conversation, but through the silent magnetic vibration that emanates from them. When we come into the range of their magnetism we are affected.”
— Paramahansa Yogananda, Seeking God Together

“If your spiritual progress is at a standstill, or is ebbing, the practice of meditation on God or on any of the Great Ones, in the company of other devotees, will uplift you from your precarious state. The proximity of others’ spiritual vibrations has the power of raising your own. Meditation with other devotees thus helps you to quicken your evolution. They inspire you on your climb up the ladder of Self-realization; and you, by your example, can also be helpful to them.”
— Paramahansa Yogananda, Seeking God Together

“Group meditation helps to disperse the dark clouds of man’s obliviousness to the Sun of All Life, that its warm, liberating rays may burst forth in his soul.”
— Self-Realization Fellowship, Meeting For Group Meditation

“Instead of big costly churches with intellectually trained ministers intent on securing more and more religious “customers”, small meditation centers should be started in quiet places where a few truth seekers will come to meditate and learn the way to commune with God in the company of a few other deeply earnest and deeply meditating persons.”
— Paramahansa Yogananda, Seeking God Together

“But you go (to group meditations) for the right reasons, because you want to change. You’re not there because you want to change anyone else. You want to change. They give you strength in that environment and you give them strength. That’s why Christ said, ‘Where two or three are gathered in my name…’. That was the idea of Guruji when he started these little meditation groups and centers all over the world. He used to say, I am not interested in building huge edifices of stone. My temples must always be small, many small ones, where there will be that spirit of the consciousness of God and the united seeking of God. Better that there be groups where they come together each the friend of the other, each interested in serving the group as a whole.”
— Sri Daya Mata, The Way to Peace, Humility, and Love for God

“One of the things that Master used to always say was, What is the meaning of Self Realization Fellowship? Realization of God through the Self and fellowship with all through that realization.”
— Sri Daya Mata, The Way to Peace, Humility, and Love for God

“If a man wants to become an artist, he should associate with artists. If he wants to be a good businessman, he should associate with successful leaders in the business field. If he wants to become a spiritual giant, he should associate with devotees of God!”
— Paramahansa Yogananda, Seeking God Together