Autobiography of a Yogi

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. —The Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram

Paramhansa Yogananda

Born in India in 1893, Paramhansa Yogananda was trained from his early years to bring India’s ancient science of Self-realization to the West. In 1920 he moved to the United States to begin what was to develop into a worldwide work touching millions of lives. Americans were hungry for India’s spiritual teachings, and for the liberating techniques of yoga.

In 1946 he published what has become a spiritual classic and one of the best-loved books of the 20th century, Autobiography of a Yogi. In addition, Yogananda established headquarters for a worldwide work, wrote a number of books and study courses, gave lectures to thousands in most major cities across the United States, wrote music and poetry, and trained disciples. He was invited to the White House by Calvin Coolidge, and he initiated Mahatma Gandhi into Kriya Yoga, his most advanced technique of meditation.

Yogananda’s message to the West highlighted the unity of all religions, and the importance of love for God combined with scientific techniques of meditation.

One of the foremost spiritual teachers of Yoga principles in the world. In 1948, at the age of twenty-two, he became a disciple of the Indian yoga master and world teacher, Paramhansa Yogananda (author of the classic, Autobiography of a Yogi). At Yogananda’s request, Swami Kriyananda devoted his life to teaching and writing, and helping others to experience the joy and living presence of God within. Over the course of more than sixty years, he lectured on four continents in seven languages. His television programs, audio and video recordings of his talks and music, and his many books in twenty-eight languages have touched the lives of millions.

Swami Kriyananda took the ancient teachings of Raja Yoga and made them intensely practical and immediately useful for people in every walk of life, on a daily basis. His books and teachings cover nearly every field of human endeavor, including spiritualizing business life, leadership, education, the arts, community life, and science. He wrote extensive commentaries on the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita.

Swami Kriyananda was also known as the “father of the intentional communities movement,” which began in the United States in the late 1960s. Inspired by his guru’s dream of establishing spiritual communities, in 1968 he founded the first of what are now ten Ananda communities worldwide. They provide a supportive environment of “simple living and high thinking,” where a thousand full-time residents live, work, and worship together. “The time has come for people to live lives of even higher dedication than that which inspired monks and nuns of the past. . . . The time has come for people to direct their spiritual awareness also downward into matter . . . to everything they do: their work, to education, to family life, to friendship, to their communications with strangers, to the way they build their homes — to all the most mundane, practical aspects of daily, human life."