Sunday Service
Schedule for Sunday Service in Bothell:
9:15 am: Silent group meditation
10 am: Sunday Service
10:10am: Circle of Joy (Sunday School)
Sundays at Ananda Meditation Temple are the highlight of the week and are an excellent occasion for your first visit. Sunday Service is drawn from the ancient meditation tradition of the East and the mystical traditions of Christ, with scriptural readings from both the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita. Service includes music, chanting, a brief period of meditation, inspirational talk, and a beautiful ceremony called A Festival of Light.
Paramhansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi and guru-preceptor for the work of Ananda, encouraged respect for all religions and all forms of sincere worship, service, and meditation. His own line of guru-preceptors include Jesus Christ, Babaji (formerly Krishna), Lahiri Mahasaya, and Swami Sri Yukteswar. Therefore we show particular respect and reverence to Yogananda and these illumined souls who sent him to the West. But our devotion is essentially and always, as he taught us, to God alone, and to the manifest divinity in those whom God sends to earth in human form to teach and uplift others.
At Ananda, each person who comes and participates does so with his or her own, inner realization and recognition. No one form of reverence, belief, or personal relationship to God or the gurus is expected or assumed. All are welcome to the weekly services and meditations. The only suggestion we make is to come with an open heart and an open mind.
Families with children are welcome to come to regular Sunday Service at 10am. Shortly after the service starts, at around 10:10am, children will be dismissed to attend Circle of Joy (Sunday School) in the downstairs classroom. Circle of Joy is appropriate for children ages 4-10. One Sunday a month, parents are also invited to attend a parent support meeting. Read about Ananda’s full children’s offerings here.
Past Recordings

The Divine Ascension with Murali Venkatrao | Sunday, December 28, 2025
Christmas is behind us, and a New Year beckons us. What is the intent we set for this new year? We could resolve to run faster, eat better, be thinner, anger less, be more disciplined, or strive for any one of a myriad of such goals. At the heart of all these pursuits lies humanity’s fundamental drive: all to avoid



What is it to fail Spiritually? with Nayaswami Hriman | Sunday Service Dec 7, 2025
In the life of the soul there can be an accumulation of “bad karma” from our wrong actions but there’s also the failure to make the right spiritual effort, such as in prayer, meditation and service. What are the consequences? Could it really be that eternal damnation awaits our blackened souls! Does belief in reincarnation just buy us plenty of
