With his arrival in America in 1920, Paramahansa Yogananda brought India’s universal art of devotional chanting to the West, introducing thousands to the experience of chanting together in devotion to God.

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With concentration and sincere devotion, rather than the mere increasing of emotion, you can apply yourself to this divine art form — one that Paramahansaji promises has wonderful results. “While praying or chanting, do not think of the words, but of their meaning, and intensely mentally offer the thought behind them to God,” he says in the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons, “and your prayer will drop straight like a plummet into the depths of the sea of God’s consciousness.”