Brother Chidananda

Brother Chidananda (born Christopher Bagley, 1953) is the President of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsang Society of India, founded by Paramahansa Yogananda. He was born in Annapolis, Maryland, USA. His monastic name Chidananda means bliss (ananda) through the infinite Divine Consciousness (chit).
Biography.
Brother Chidananda’s first contact with the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda was in the early 1970s in Encinitas, California – where SRF has a retreat and ashram center – when he was a student of sociology and philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. Months later, he came across a copy of Autobiography of a Yogi. Brother Chidananda entered the monks’ postulant ashram of SRF in Encinitas in 1977. He completed his postulant training in 1979 and was transferred to the SRF Headquarters at Mt. Washington and was assigned to editorial work in the Publications Department. He was appointed a member of the SRF and YSS Boards of Directors in 2009. On 30 August 2017, he was elected as the next president and spiritual head of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India in a unanimous vote by the SRF Board of Directors. He succeeded Sri Mrinalini Mata, who passed away in early August 2017.