What makes Ananda yoga unique?

* The Energization Exercises were developed by Paramhansa Yogananda. Their effect is both immediate and long-term, for their purpose is to increase the amount of vitality and energy drawn into the body by concentration and will power, sensitively applied. Their benefits are numerous and include enhanced health, accelerated healing, emotional balance, concentration and self-control, positive attitude, and will power. They serve as excellent warm-ups for hatha yoga and for meditation. 

* Each yoga posture is paired with its own affirmation, which one practices silently while in the posture. The affirmation is designed to reinforce the posture’s natural effect on one’s state of consciousness, bringing the mind actively and directly into one’s practice.

What is the Lineage and History of Ananda Yoga?

Ananda Yoga is an expression of the Raja and Kriya Yoga precepts of Paramhansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi.

Yogananda was the first great master of yoga to make his home permanently in the West. (He became a U.S. citizen in the 1930s.) Ananda Yoga arose from his training of close disciples and was later developed from that training into its current form by his direct disciple, Swami Kriyananda, the founder of Ananda, and by those yoga teachers whom Kriyananda commissioned to do so.