Autobiography of a Yogi: Summary
Introduction
In 1946, the book simply titled Autobiography of a Yogi was published. It was written by a hitherto unknown saint from India named Paramahansa Yogananda. Paramahansa Yogananda was an Indian Yogi who left the shores of India in 1920 to teach God realization to people of the West. In this inspiring book, he describes his meetings with miracle performing yogis in India such as the levitating saint, a tiger fighting swami, a yogi who bilocates and other great saints search for a guru, and his encounters with leading spiritual figures such as Therese Neumann, the Hindu saint Sri Anandamoyi Ma, Mohandas Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize winning physicist Sir C. V. Raman, and noted American plant scientist Luther Burbank, to whom it is dedicated. With superb writing skills that match that of a professional writer, Yogananda describes with characteristic humour, his childhood struggles towards attaining God realization and difficulties he faced with his family's opposition to his spiritual pursuits. His description of running away to the Himalayas in his childhood in search of God cannot help but touch a chord in the reader's heart. Yogananda also gives a good life sketch of his great guru Sri Yukteshwar who trained the former in Kriya Yoga and encouraged him to go to the West to spread the teachings to Yoga.
Amelita Galli-Curci, one of the most famous opera singers of the early twentieth century, said about the book:
"Amazing, true stories of saints and masters of India, blended with priceless superphysical information–much needed to balance the Western material efficiency with Eastern spiritual efficiency–come from the vigorous pen of Paramhansa Yogananda, whose teachings my husband and myself have had the pleasure of studying for twenty years."
The value of Yogananda's Autobiography is greatly enhanced by the fact that it is one of the few books in English about the wise men of India which has been written, not by a journalist or foreigner,
In 1946, the book simply titled Autobiography of a Yogi was published. It was written by a hitherto unknown saint from India named Paramahansa Yogananda. Paramahansa Yogananda was an Indian Yogi who left the shores of India in 1920 to teach God realization to people of the West. In this inspiring book, he describes his meetings with miracle performing yogis in India such as the levitating saint, a tiger fighting swami, a yogi who bilocates and other great saints search for a guru, and his encounters with leading spiritual figures such as Therese Neumann, the Hindu saint Sri Anandamoyi Ma, Mohandas Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize winning physicist Sir C. V. Raman, and noted American plant scientist Luther Burbank, to whom it is dedicated. With superb writing skills that match that of a professional writer, Yogananda describes with characteristic humour, his childhood struggles towards attaining God realization and difficulties he faced with his family's opposition to his spiritual pursuits. His description of running away to the Himalayas in his childhood in search of God cannot help but touch a chord in the reader's heart. Yogananda also gives a good life sketch of his great guru Sri Yukteshwar who trained the former in Kriya Yoga and encouraged him to go to the West to spread the teachings to Yoga.
Amelita Galli-Curci, one of the most famous opera singers of the early twentieth century, said about the book:
"Amazing, true stories of saints and masters of India, blended with priceless superphysical information–much needed to balance the Western material efficiency with Eastern spiritual efficiency–come from the vigorous pen of Paramhansa Yogananda, whose teachings my husband and myself have had the pleasure of studying for twenty years."
The value of Yogananda's Autobiography is greatly enhanced by the fact that it is one of the few books in English about the wise men of India which has been written, not by a journalist or foreigner,