Autobiography of a Yogi

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Independently Published, 2021 M05 18 - 458 pages
Autobiography of a Yogi is an autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda (5 January 1893-7 March 1952) first published in 1946. Paramahansa Yogananda was born as Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, India, into a Bengali Hindu family.Autobiography of a Yogi introduces the reader to the life of Paramahansa Yogananda and his encounters with spiritual figures of both the Eastern and the Western world. The book begins with his childhood family life, to finding his guru, to becoming a monk and establishing his teachings of Kriya Yoga meditation. The book continues in 1920 when Yogananda accepts an invitation to speak in a religious congress in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He then travels across America lecturing and establishing his teachings in Los Angeles, California. In 1935, he returns to India for a yearlong visit. When he returns to America, he continues to establish his teachings, including writing this book.The book is an introduction to the methods of attaining God-realization and to the spiritual wisdom of the East, which had only been available to a few in 1946. The author claims that the writing of the book was prophesied long ago by the nineteenth-century master Lahiri Mahasaya (Paramguru of Yogananda) also known as the Yogiraj and Kashi baba. Before becoming a yogi, Lahiri Mahasaya's actual name was Shyama Charan Lahiri.

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About the author (2021)

Swami Yogananda, a young Hindu monk, delivered his first address, "The Science of Religion," to the International Congress of Religious Liberals meeting in Boston on October 6, 1920. He remained in America and began to attract thousands to his public lectures. In 1925, Yogananda established the headquarters of his organization, the Self-Realization Fellowship, on Mount Washington in Los Angeles. (One of his most distinguished disciples was the horticulturist Luther Burbank.) His Autobiography of a Yogi Autobiography of a Yogi was published in 1946 and has been translated into 18 languages. Yogananda and the Self-Realization Fellowship have been the means by which many Americans have been introduced to and have adopted Hindu modes of thought and religious practice. Yogananda taught that Hindu mysticism was compatible with and similar to Western and Christian mysticism. In 1935 his guru gave Yogananda the title Paramahansa, which means "supreme swan" and is a title indicating the highest spiritual attainment. His disciples regard the manner of Yogananda's death---he expired immediately after addressing a banquet in honor of the ambassador from India---as a demonstration of his supreme yogic bodily control. The Self-Realization Fellowship continues to be an important alternative religion in America, and it has a strong institutional presence in and around the Los Angeles area.

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