Description
This is the first time that an authentic Hindu yogi has written his life story for a Western audience. Describing in vivid detail his many years of spiritual training under a Christlike master – Sri Yukteswar of Serampore, Bengal – Yogananda has here revealed a fascinating and little-known phase of modern India. The subtle but definite laws by which yogis perform miracles and attain complete self-mastery are explained with a scientific clarity.
There are colorful chapters on the author’s visits to Mahatma Gandhi, Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose, and Rabindranath Tagore. The section dealing with Yogananda’s Western experiences includes a chapter on his great friend, Luther Burbank , and an account of the author’s pilgrimage to Bavaria in 1935 to meet Therese Neumann, the amazing Catholic stigmatist.
After establishing a high school with yoga training at Ranchi, India, Yogananda came to America in 1920 as the Indian delegate to the International Congress of Religious Liberals. H e has lectured extensively in the United States and abroad, and is the founder of a Yoga Institute at Encinitas, California.
Yogananda is a graduate of Calcutta University; he writes not only with unforgettable sincerity but with an incisive wit.