This book is supposed to be an autobiography of the very celebrated Guru Paramahansa Yogananda. He is supposed to be one of the first Indian Gurus who traveled to the West to spread awareness about Hinduism and Yoga. It seems he introduced many Westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his lectures and books. I read a lot of good things about this book and this book was mentioned even in the biography of Steve Jobs as one of the reasons he visited India. I was very interested in reading this book and finally got a chance to read it when it was available from the Kindle store on Amazon. I was really excited to get this book and it started really well but after a few chapters, I started seeing where this book was going, and my doubt became reality when slowly Yogananda started mentioning all the so-called miracles that he claimed that he personally witnessed in his life. The book is full of descriptions of the supernatural powers of his Gurus and some other people.
I have no problem with him believing that his Gurus were phenomenal human beings and had some exceptional qualities. Many people are exceptionally talented and naturally gifted, but to claim that they had some supernatural powers and attribute so many miracles to them doesn't make any sense. All this looks like a very cheap publicity stunt. Some of the miracles mentioned in the book are, predicting consistently future events, curing sick or even dead, making people sick just to make them realize the power of their god, producing babies by blessings, being present at two places at the same time, claiming that some of them never age and are 100s or even 1000s of years old, etc (the list is too long). I don't think there is any need for these types of stories (that too so many of them) in a nonfiction book. I can understand these things if they are mentioned in a fiction book or as dream sequences in a nonfiction book but we all know that these things are not possible in reality, sometimes somethings might click by chance (like future prediction) but most other supernatural claims are impossible to prove because they really don't happen. I think Yogananda was not aware that in the future science will make so much progress that many things written in his book will be exposed. I was still looking for some interesting stuff in this crowd of miracles but found very little that was useful.
Especially one should read his conversation with his Guru Yukteshwar when his guru comes and visits him after his (Guru's) death. It seems Yogananda had the unique ability to visit dead people in person. I wonder why he felt sad when they died as this should not have made any difference to him. If he knew that he could meet these people whenever both of them (the dead person and Yogananda) want then why worry whether the person is dead or alive? In this conversation they talk about some "astral world" or "Hiranya loka" and all they describe is like scene from some fictional movie. It's somewhat funny but mostly sounds like some child talking about Candy Land, trying his best to put all his imagination to work but honestly, I was not expecting to read such things in the autobiography of a celebrated yogi. He tells us in his book why his guru was so fond of him, it seems his guru wanted to have a son (and not a daughter, these so-called spiritual masters also failed to lift themselves above the social norms of that time) so that he can teach his son all vedik and other spiritual knowledge, but he couldn't produce his own son, which is again a big surprise as the book mentioned that he gave blessings to others which resulted in children of whatever gender he desired. As the guru didn't have his own son when Yogananda came to him, his desire (to have a son) was fulfilled.
There is no doubt that Yogananda must have been a very popular spiritual leader of his time. In this book, he recounts his meetings with famous personalities like Ravindranath Thakur (Tagore) and Mahatma Gandhi. Another interesting aspect is he never talks anything about the independence movement of India or any problems faced by Indians because of British rule even though his entire life in India was spent during the British Raj. I wonder how he didn't find any problem with foreign rule in his own country. Freedom movement of India was at its peak during that time but he didn't bother to mention anything about it in this book. I don't expect to read about the freedom movement in any spiritual book but definitely expect some mentions in an autobiography of a person who was there when such an important historical event was happening. I think the autobiography of any person no matter how self-centered he or she is should say something about other important events happening around them.
The only chapter that was interesting to read and was without any miracles mentioned in it was related to his stay at Gandi's ashram in Wardha. The chapter is a nice break from the heavy dose of supernatural things happening in the book. There is nothing like a person with bleeding eyes, or a person surviving without any food or water for 40 years, etc. so this chapter is a nice relief. I enjoyed reading this part of the book, but apart from this, this book was a huge disappointment for me.
Yogananda's main aim was to attract the Western population (especially people from North America) to his philosophy that's why I think he strategically praised Jesus so many times in his book. He conveniently ignored similar personalities from other religions (like Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, etc.). This book, also like many other books belonging to many cult movements, is a self-praising story written by Yogananda, especially for his devotees. I am sure they all love it and worship it as a holy book or scripture but for me, it was very disappointing and boring. There are a few good lines or good paragraphs here and there but in general, there is so much junk that you even forget when was the last you read any meaningful line which can teach you something new. Maybe I expected too much.
I have no problem with him believing that his Gurus were phenomenal human beings and had some exceptional qualities. Many people are exceptionally talented and naturally gifted, but to claim that they had some supernatural powers and attribute so many miracles to them doesn't make any sense. All this looks like a very cheap publicity stunt. Some of the miracles mentioned in the book are, predicting consistently future events, curing sick or even dead, making people sick just to make them realize the power of their god, producing babies by blessings, being present at two places at the same time, claiming that some of them never age and are 100s or even 1000s of years old, etc (the list is too long). I don't think there is any need for these types of stories (that too so many of them) in a nonfiction book. I can understand these things if they are mentioned in a fiction book or as dream sequences in a nonfiction book but we all know that these things are not possible in reality, sometimes somethings might click by chance (like future prediction) but most other supernatural claims are impossible to prove because they really don't happen. I think Yogananda was not aware that in the future science will make so much progress that many things written in his book will be exposed. I was still looking for some interesting stuff in this crowd of miracles but found very little that was useful.
Especially one should read his conversation with his Guru Yukteshwar when his guru comes and visits him after his (Guru's) death. It seems Yogananda had the unique ability to visit dead people in person. I wonder why he felt sad when they died as this should not have made any difference to him. If he knew that he could meet these people whenever both of them (the dead person and Yogananda) want then why worry whether the person is dead or alive? In this conversation they talk about some "astral world" or "Hiranya loka" and all they describe is like scene from some fictional movie. It's somewhat funny but mostly sounds like some child talking about Candy Land, trying his best to put all his imagination to work but honestly, I was not expecting to read such things in the autobiography of a celebrated yogi. He tells us in his book why his guru was so fond of him, it seems his guru wanted to have a son (and not a daughter, these so-called spiritual masters also failed to lift themselves above the social norms of that time) so that he can teach his son all vedik and other spiritual knowledge, but he couldn't produce his own son, which is again a big surprise as the book mentioned that he gave blessings to others which resulted in children of whatever gender he desired. As the guru didn't have his own son when Yogananda came to him, his desire (to have a son) was fulfilled.
There is no doubt that Yogananda must have been a very popular spiritual leader of his time. In this book, he recounts his meetings with famous personalities like Ravindranath Thakur (Tagore) and Mahatma Gandhi. Another interesting aspect is he never talks anything about the independence movement of India or any problems faced by Indians because of British rule even though his entire life in India was spent during the British Raj. I wonder how he didn't find any problem with foreign rule in his own country. Freedom movement of India was at its peak during that time but he didn't bother to mention anything about it in this book. I don't expect to read about the freedom movement in any spiritual book but definitely expect some mentions in an autobiography of a person who was there when such an important historical event was happening. I think the autobiography of any person no matter how self-centered he or she is should say something about other important events happening around them.
The only chapter that was interesting to read and was without any miracles mentioned in it was related to his stay at Gandi's ashram in Wardha. The chapter is a nice break from the heavy dose of supernatural things happening in the book. There is nothing like a person with bleeding eyes, or a person surviving without any food or water for 40 years, etc. so this chapter is a nice relief. I enjoyed reading this part of the book, but apart from this, this book was a huge disappointment for me.
Yogananda's main aim was to attract the Western population (especially people from North America) to his philosophy that's why I think he strategically praised Jesus so many times in his book. He conveniently ignored similar personalities from other religions (like Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, etc.). This book, also like many other books belonging to many cult movements, is a self-praising story written by Yogananda, especially for his devotees. I am sure they all love it and worship it as a holy book or scripture but for me, it was very disappointing and boring. There are a few good lines or good paragraphs here and there but in general, there is so much junk that you even forget when was the last you read any meaningful line which can teach you something new. Maybe I expected too much.
Thanks for reading and please share your views about this topic.
(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)
Links:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiography_of_a_Yogi
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramahansa_Yogananda
