The task to write the message of his gurus and the great Indian saints came from Swami Sri Yukteswar, and was prophesied by Lahiri Mahasaya. One reads in Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi:
“About fifty years after my passing,” [Lahiri Mahasaya] said, “my life will be written because of a deep interest in yoga which the West will manifest. The yogic message will encircle the globe, and aid in establishing that brotherhood of man, which results from direct perception of the One Father.” “My son Yogananda,” Sri Yukteswar went on, “you must do your part in spreading that message, and in writing that sacred life.” Fifty years after Lahiri Mahasaya’s passing in 1895 culminated in 1945, the year of completion of this present book….”
In a later chapter, Yogananda continues:
“My object in seeking out Keshabananda was connected with this book. I had never forgotten Sri Yukteswar’s request that I write the life of Lahiri Mahasaya. During my stay in India I was taking every opportunity of contacting direct disciples and relatives of the Yogavatar. Recording their conversations in voluminous notes, I verified facts and dates, and collected photographs, old letters, and documents. My Lahiri Mahasaya portfolio began to swell; I realized with dismay that ahead of me lay arduous labors in authorship.”
Durga Ma writes that much of his authorship happened in Encinitas. Most of the time, Yogananda wrote longhand. At other times he dictated to Daya Mata’s shorthand. Or she and Mataji (Daya Mata’s sister, Ananda Mata) would alternate in taking dictation on the typewriter. Yogananda liked it when they read the text back to him. The typed text, as Daya Mata recalls, was then given, piece after piece, to Tara Mata for editing. While writing, Yogananda would often pause, look up, and enter samadhi.
Yogananda originally intended to call his autobiography Yogi-Christs of India. At the end of the 1938 version of Cosmic Chants, where he publicized his other books, Yogananda announced its future publishing:
“YOGI-CHRISTS OF INDIA. The product of twenty years of metaphysical research. Stranger than fiction, and yet a record of authentic happenings, and personal experiences of the author. Many amazing stories of the miraculous lives of the great masters and saints of India. True, illuminating and entertaining from beginning to end. Contains an extraordinary description of the Astral World, the true Hereafter to which all mortals repair between incarnations. Will be published in Feb. 1944.”
But it took quite a bit longer for Yogananda’s literary jewel to be born: Yoganada recounts that there was a great lesson for him in the book he has been writing, because he used to write without ever reading over the manuscript- a task he always avoided. But he had to go “over and over” every bit of his Autobiography. Yogananda added that the Lord disciplined him, yet in a noble way, because he has enjoyed reliving those wondrous experiences as he read the account again.
In August 1945 he may have fished the manuscript, since one of the very last sentences is this joyful exclamation:
“August 15, 1945, close of Global War II!”
During New Year 1945, however, Yogananda was still making revisions. In the last chapter he writes:
“New Year’s week of 1945 found me at work in my Encinitas study, revising the manuscript of this book.”
Yogananda obviously expected the book to be published in early 1946: In “East-West” (Jan.-March 1946), in a 1946 New Year’s message, he urged the readers of the magazine to “spread the message” by sharing with others their copy of Autobiography of a Yogi, or by presenting copies to their friends. He even announced how he would use the proceeds of his book: to build the “Golden World City” (World Brotherhood Colony) in Encinitas.
But it took almost one more year before his masterpiece could finally reach his readers. It turned out that it was not at all easy to find a publishing house for the Autobiography of a Yogi. Tara Mata had to search for a long time before she found one. Innovative and challenging thoughts never tread a smooth path. It was not an easy job for her: for one year she lived away from her ashram and her guru, by herself, in an unheated cold-water flat in New York, hitting a worldly environment (Yogananda writes in a letter that one promising publisher, drunk, even demanded physical gratification from her) – all to get the sacred book published. “She almost died”, Yogananda wrote. No wonder that later he gratefully said: “Without her, the book would have never gone through.”
It was, interestingly, the first and only time that Yogananda chose an outside publisher. Whispers, Cosmic Chants, and all his other books had been printed by SRF. Was it to have wider distribution? Or was it a matter of cost? Or did Yogananda have some other reason?
At any rate, the task was finally given to the Philosophical Library in New York.
A sidelight about giving publishing rights away: in 1929 Yogananda publicly announced that he has “turned over all the business part of the Yogoda work to Mr. Sieber and his associates.” Mr. Sieber, a student and a former bank president, set up the YOGODA PUBLISHING COMPANY in Philadelphia, whose business it was to “acquire by purchase from Swami Yogananda all his writings, East-West Magazine, Correspondence Course, etc., and to publish, advertise, market the same. The control of the voting stock is to be held by Swami Yogananda.” The Master in this way wanted to free himself from business responsibilities in order to serve all his beloved students and friends “unhampered”.
Later in 1929, however, Yogananda was badly betrayed by his close disciple, Swami Dhirananda, who even sued him and won. The Guru, deeply hurt, left for Mexico to forget. It might have been an indirect consequence of this unfortunate event that Mr. Sieber’s business was not to be.
Soon after Tara Mata’s efforts, the Autobiography of a Yogi was finally ready to begin its blessed role in East and West:
“May all men come to know that there is a definite, scientific technique of Self-realization for the overcoming of all human misery!”
Next chapter: 1946, 1st edition