Integral Yoga® Interfaith Offerings
LOTUS Center for All Faiths (LCAF)
The LOTUS Center for All Faiths (LCAF) was founded in 1996, by Sri Swami Satchidananda, to share the message of the Light Of Truth Universal Shrine: “Truth is one, paths are many.” Its mission is to promote world peace and interfaith harmony through a greater understanding of the unity underlying the diversity of the various spiritual paths.
LCAF organizes educational interfaith programs, oversees Yogaville’s celebration of the main holidays of the major faith traditions, and it coordinates interfaith prayer services at Yogaville. Additionally, staff members attend interfaith gatherings coordinated by other organizations and they invite representatives from local and national faith-based groups to give talks at Yogaville.
Light of Truth Universal Service
During the early 1970s, Swami Satchidananda created an interfaith service: the Yoga Ecumenical Service—now known as the Light of Truth Universal Service. At that time there was very little real discourse among clergy of all the world faiths. The Light of Truth Universal Service provided an opportunity for clergy of diverse faiths to discover the commonalities that inform those faiths. It also made available the unique opportunity for those attending the service to experience, firsthand, the essential unity of those faiths. Today, this service is widely celebrated around the world.
All Faiths Yantra
During the 1960s, the Integral Yoga Yantra was envisioned by Swami Satchidananda during meditation. Originally conceived of as a geometrical pattern that represents the entire universe and is used for meditation, twenty years later, he added the petals for each of the twelve faiths represented on the altars in the upper sanctuary of the LOTUS. This new version was renamed: The All Faiths Yantra. The dot in the center of the Yantra represents the first physical expression of that, the very core of the cosmos. And all the rays of manifestation—shown in the rings, the petals and the colors—come out of it. The entire Yantra is then surrounded by an open border, to show that the Divine Expression is infinite and unlimited.
In this way, the Yantra is also a beautiful reminder that we can respect and learn from all the paths, and follow any one of them to reach the Divine.
Integral Yoga Kirtan
In the 1980s, Swami Satchidananda created the Integral Yoga Interfaith Kirtan, which was, perhaps, the first interfaith kirtan of its kind developed in the United States. It includes a series of chants utilizing divine names from the major world’s faiths. It is chanted each week at Yogaville and at Integral Yoga centers around the world.