Dedication:
This text is dedicated to our beloved Master, Paramhansa Yogananda, whose presence remains in this world also through his ever-inspiring Autobiography of a Yogi. It is, he said, “my principle work in life”, and will be “my messenger.”
A disciple once asked the Master if he would write a little thought in her copy. He wrote:
“Find the Infinite hidden
on the altar of these pages.”
This study, then, is offered with a full pronam to the Infinite Yogananda, whose eternal consciousness hides on the divine altar of the Autobiography of a Yogi.
Acknowledgement:
A great “thank you” and the main merit go to a devotee and passionate lover of the Autobiography of a Yogi, Bob, who did most of the long, detailed and precise side by side comparison of Yogananda’s Autobiography: Edition for edition, page for page, word for word; who generously shared the fruit of his long labor of love, and who thus made this text possible, for all interested devotees of Yogananda to read.
May God and Guru bless him!
Before reading:
This study was made because of personal interest and motivation, and is not some “official” document. Obviously it does not claim to be infallible, but is based on solid, verifiable facts. Facts can, of course, lead to different conclusions of what the facts actually mean. In any such disagreement, may we all remember Yogananda’s remark: “Fools argue, wise men discuss!” So please, dear reader, go through these pages with a friendly mind, even though controversial issues are being discussed. Yogananda dedicated his Autobiography of a Yogi to Luther Burbank, “an American saint.” May the saint in you be patient with any errors you will certainly find.
Introduction:
In the Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramhansa Yogananda (1893-1952) described not only his inspiring life and journey to Self-realization, but has left the world a precious jewel of highest spiritual literature. Where else, for example, does one find such a vivid and real description of the experience of Cosmic Consciousness, by a true Master?
Most music and books are popular only for some time, while truly great works remain loved and cherished for centuries. Seeing the development over more than half a century, such seems to become the case also with the Autobiography of a Yogi: Amazingly, it is listed even today, over 70 years after first being published, amongst the spiritual best-selling books in different parts of the world, and is generally and widely regarded as a true spiritual classic of highest nature. Today it is translated officially into 18 languages, unofficially into even more (Russian, Croatian…).
Yogananda stated that he had worked for 25 years on writing his most important book (meaning: from 1921!). The result was (and is) quite astonishing: Millions have read the Autobiography of a Yogi, and a steady stream of seekers is continuing to discover this precious spiritual pearl.
Here is a first little history:
1921-35: Yogananda collected and wrote down many stories which he planned to use in his Autobiography. Some of them he also used in his Praecepta Lessons: Hazrat-the Muslim Wonder-Worker (“ Allow to grow in the mind only that which is good”); the Missing Cauliflower (“a valuable lesson in concentration”); the policeman severing the saint’s arm (“Such is the power when you contact OM”).
1935-36: In India, Yogananda collected especially stories concerning the life of Lahiri Mahasaya.
1937-46: He worked on his autobiography, mostly in the tranquility of the Encinitas Hermitage. Especially from 1939/1940 on he dedicated himself intensely to his book. In Oct. 1943, in a letter Yogananda, Sister Gyanamata referred to “the book on which you are pressing to conclusion”.
When the Autobiography of a Yogi was first published in 1946, the Western world knew little or nothing about such words as “yoga”, “karma”, “Cosmic Consciousness”, “yogic powers” etc. Yogananda’s book has done an enormous service to open the Western world to the Eastern teachings of yoga. Yogananda was actually the first Eastern Master to have spent the larger part of his life in the West, spreading the liberating teachings of yoga. Vivekananda and a few others had visited America before him, but just for a few years. The impact was not the same. Later other great yogis came to teach in the West, and by now a huge number of Westerners practice yoga. Millions, according to a recent TIME-article, practice meditation- and not little merit goes to the magnetic, uplifting and God-inspired presence of Yogananda in the West, and his Autobiography, which launched this process mightily! This might be why David Frawley (director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies) described Yogananda as “the father of Yoga in the West”.
The Autobiography of a Yogi has also helped to launch the sacred Kriya Yoga mission in the Western hemisphere – a movement inspired and originated by Jesus Christ himself, as Yogananda stated. His teachings were “original Christianity” and “original Yoga”: Self-realization in God. “Self-realization will unite all religions,” he prophesied, because Self-realization is the eternal essence of all true religions.
“The time for knowing God has come”, he proclaimed with vigor and mighty voice! Kriya Yoga he explained to be an “airplane-route”. Still, he always sincerely respected and revered all other true paths and religions. Dogmatism, sectarianism, and “churchianity” (using his word) were alien to Yogananda. His freedom of spirit could easily be felt by his readers in his masterly Autobiography.
Even today the Autobiography of a Yogi seems to remain the strongest and most inspiring spokesman for Kriya Yoga in the West. Already during Yogananda’s lifetime, its impact was stronger than his own lecture tours, as he himself stated in 1948: His Autobiography was doing “what I meagerly did while traveling and lecturing to thousands.” Actually he lectured to hundreds of thousands, and initiated them into yoga. He filled the largest halls in America and was so well received as hardly any other speaker in the 20th century. Yogananda was even received in the White House by President Coolidge. People big and small were magnetized by his powerful speech and presence. And still, as he said, the Autobiography of a Yogi did even more: With it, a new era started for Yogananda’s mission: Soon his was to be a world audience.
There is a beautiful photo showing Yogananda happily holding his literary jewel, the Autobiography of a Yogi, in his hands: a book which he knew would find its way into the homes of millions of seekers, all over the globe. Startling miracles and concepts, beginning already on page 6 with the miraculous physical materialization of Lahiri Mahasaya, began to conquer the hearts and minds of many scientifically oriented Westerners. Readers often perceive in these pages the goodness and honesty of the author – a purity and truthfulness which is convincing in spite of a rationally doubting mind.
It is interesting, in this context, that Yogananda stated that the book carries his vibrations. And certainly these beautiful, inspiring, divine vibrations of the illumined Master must be the real reason behind the great success of the world-beloved Autobiography of a Yogi. People’s lives were transformed: Thus also, after its publication, a veritable flood of direct disciples found their way to Yogananda.
As Swami Kriyananda, one of Yogananda’s close disciples, commented beautifully: “The grace of the Autobiography of a Yogi just gets down inside, and it works bit by bit.” Yogananda knew it: he predicted that it will “change the lives of millions”.
However, he was extremely humble in writing his Autobiography. Reading it, he comes across as a sweet, sincere, but pretty normal spiritual seeker – fortunate enough to have met many great saints. One reads about his own intense search for saints and masters, his challenges and victories, about the greatness of other saints, his meeting with Mahatma Gandhi, with the Catholic stigmatist Therese Neumann, with Rabindranath Tagore, with Luther Burbank, with the non-eating Giri Bala, with the body-duplicating Swami Pranabananda, with the ecstatic saint in communion with Divine Mother, Master Mahasaya, with the levitating saint Bhaduri Mahasaya, etc.
It takes spiritual sensitivity to perceive, between the lines, Yogananda’s own stature as a towering God-filled saint. A leading spiritual figure in India, the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, perceived who Yogananda really was: “As a bright light shining in the midst of darkness, so was Yogananda’s presence in this world. Such a great soul comes on earth only rarely, when there is a real need among men.”
Yogananda’s close disciples recognized his greatness, too: Even though he was never a Master to “show off”, still they saw him at times performing miracles, levitating, knowing all their thoughts, and at times they tangibly experienced his divine power. Often his close disciples felt God’s presence around him, his total freedom from ego-consciousness (“I have killed Yogananda long ago- none lives in this temple but God”), sometimes witnessed his materializations, saw his miraculous after-death state, and some even experienced him appearing in flesh and blood after his Mahasamadhi.
Yogananda had told his disciples that he was, indeed, an avatar. Only such a soul, in fact, could ever write this incredible and unforgettable promise (from “God’s Boatman”, Whispers from Eternity, 1949):
“Oh, I will come again and again!
Crossing a million crags of suffering,
With bleeding feet, I will come-
If need be, a trillion times-
So long as I know
One stray brother is left behind.”
Such a one was the author of the Autobiography of a Yogi.
Next chapter: Before Publication