Autobiography of a Yogi | Page 2

Congress of
Religious Liberals, Boston, 1920 A Guru and Disciple in an Ancient
Hermitage Babaji, the Yogi-Christ of Modern India Lahiri Mahasaya A
Yoga Class in Washington, D.C. Luther Burbank Therese Neumann of
Konnersreuth, Bavaria The Taj Mahal at Agra Shankari Mai Jiew, Only
Living Disciple of the great Trailanga Swami Krishnananda with his
Tame Lioness Group on the Dining Patio of my Guru's Serampore
Hermitage Miss Bletch, Mr. Wright, and myself--in Egypt
Rabindranath Tagore Swami Keshabananda, at his Hermitage in
Brindaban Krishna, Ancient Prophet of India Mahatma Gandhi, at
Wardha Giri Bala, the Woman Yogi Who Never Eats Mr. E. E.
Dickinson My Guru and Myself Ranchi Students Encinitas Conference
in San Francisco Swami Premananda My Father

PREFACE
By W. Y. EVANS-WENTZ, M.A., D.Litt., D.Sc. Jesus College,
Oxford; Author of THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, TIBET'S
GREAT YOGI MILAREPA, TIBETAN YOGA AND SECRET
DOCTRINES, etc.
The value of Yogananda's AUTOBIOGRAPHYis 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, but by
one of their own race and training--in short, a book ABOUT yogis BY
a yogi. As an eyewitness recountal of the extraordinary lives and
powers of modern Hindu saints, the book has importance both timely
and timeless. To its illustrious author, whom I have had the pleasure of
knowing both in India and America, may every reader render due
appreciation and gratitude. His unusual life-document is certainly one
of the most revealing of the depths of the Hindu mind and heart, and of
the spiritual wealth of India, ever to be published in the West.
It has been my privilege to have met one of the sages whose life-history
is herein narrated-Sri Yukteswar Giri. A likeness of the venerable saint
appeared as part of the frontispiece of my TIBETAN YOGA AND
SECRET DOCTRINES. {FN1-1} It was at Puri, in Orissa, on the Bay
of Bengal, that I encountered Sri Yukteswar. He was then the head of a
quiet ashrama near the seashore there, and was chiefly occupied in the
spiritual training of a group of youthful disciples. He expressed keen
interest in the welfare of the people of the United States and of all the
Americas, and of England, too, and questioned me concerning the
distant activities, particularly those in California, of his chief disciple,
Paramhansa Yogananda, whom he dearly loved, and whom he had sent,
in 1920, as his emissary to the West.
Sri Yukteswar was of gentle mien and voice, of pleasing presence, and
worthy of the veneration which his followers spontaneously accorded
to him. Every person who knew him, whether of his own community or
not, held him in the highest esteem. I vividly recall his tall, straight,

ascetic figure, garbed in the saffron-colored garb of one who has
renounced worldly quests, as he stood at the entrance of the hermitage
to give me welcome. His hair was long and somewhat curly, and his
face bearded. His body was muscularly firm, but slender and
well-formed, and his step energetic. He had chosen as his place of
earthly abode the holy city of Puri, whither multitudes of pious Hindus,
representative of every province of India, come daily on pilgrimage to
the famed Temple of Jagannath, "Lord of the World." It was at Puri that
Sri Yukteswar closed his mortal eyes, in 1936, to the scenes of this
transitory state of being and passed on, knowing that his incarnation
had been carried to a triumphant completion. I am glad, indeed, to be
able to record this testimony to the high character and holiness of Sri
Yukteswar. Content to remain afar from the multitude, he gave himself
unreservedly and in tranquillity to that ideal life which Paramhansa
Yogananda, his disciple, has now described for the ages. W. Y.
EVANS-WENTZ
{FN1-1} Oxford University Press, 1935.

AUTHOR'S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am deeply indebted to Miss L. V. Pratt for her long editorial labors
over the manuscript of this book. My thanks are due also to Miss Ruth
Zahn for preparation of the index, to Mr. C. Richard Wright for
permission to use extracts from his Indian travel diary, and to Dr. W. Y.
Evans-Wentz for suggestions and encouragement.
PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA OCTOBER 28, 1945 ENCINITAS,
CALIFORNIA

CHAPTER: 1
MY PARENTS AND EARLY LIFE
The characteristic features of Indian culture have long been a search for

ultimate verities and the concomitant disciple-guru {FN1-2}
relationship. My own path led me to a Christlike sage whose beautiful
life was chiseled for the ages. He was one of the great masters who are
India's sole remaining wealth. Emerging in every generation, they have
bulwarked their land against the fate of Babylon and Egypt.
I find my earliest memories covering the anachronistic features of a