His brother found him and gave him a letter from his mother. Yogananda was drawn to the Himalayas and he tried to run away. Then the Divine Mother (a Hindu goddess) appeared and assured Yogananda that he would be provided for. She was supposed to be at a wedding, but she told them that she was dying. Three years later, Yogananda’s mother appeared to him and his father in their bedroom. When Yogananda turned eight years old, he unexpectedly came down with Asiatic cholera however, when his mother implored him to mentally bow towards the picture of Mahasaya that they owned because he was too weak to do so physically, it caused him to be surrounded by blinding light and healed from his sickness. He also gravitated instantly to a picture of his guru that his devout Hindu parents kept after he died shortly before Yogananda was born. From an early age, he showed a profound proclivity for spiritual pursuits and claimed to remember a previous life as a yogi living in the Himalayas. His autobiography gives us an idea of how his beliefs were shaped early on and provides first-hand accounts of the miracles he saw or performed throughout his quest for becoming a swami (Hindu religious leader).īorn in 1893, Yogananda was originally known as Mukunda Lal Ghosh. He believed he was destined to spread the teachings of Hinduism in Western countries, where Eastern philosophy had not yet been embraced.

Yogananda knew from a young age that he wanted to follow a spiritual path. Kriya yoga focuses on meditation with the goal of using one’s breath to achieve unity between mind, body, and spirit. He left India for the United States to spread the practice of kriya yoga. If a guru clad in orange robes told you to leave your family and study yoga, would you do it? In Autobiography of a Yogi (1946), Indian monk Paramahansa Yogananda describes his spiritual journey. 1-Page Summary of Autobiography Of A Yogi Overview

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