Biography of a Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda and the Origins of Modern Yoga

98 Biography of a Yogi

is most serious,” I replied. Then I made a remark out of context: “Someone

will call you in a moment.”

Almost immediately a knock on the door interrupted us. Mejda

was told that someone was at the front door downstairs and wanted to

see him.^18

Occasionally, Yogananda’s sessions with his younger brother took on the more
troubling character of spirit- possession:

Mejda was then experimenting with spiritualism; he used me as a medium

to contact departed souls. On one occasion a soul took possession of my

passive mind and body, and was unwilling to give up its newly acquired

residence. He said that he had been murdered near Talla Bridge and des-

perately wanted another physical form. He was determined to keep mine!^19

Fortunately, Yogananda was eventually able to exorcise the malicious spirit using
an image of Lahiri Mahasaya. With similar mediumistic aid, he was able on at
least one occasion to contact his deceased mother in the “astral world.”
If relying on Western terminolog y, these practices might in a mixed fash-
ion fall under the purview of both Spiritualism— which is the term Ghosh
uses— and Mesmerism. The latter is probably more correct, given Yogananda’s
active presence in the event, especially where it concerns his use of sugges-
tion. However, there is little evidence besides Satyananda’s vague but evoca-
tive statement regarding Yogananda’s interests, cited earlier, to illuminate
what he might have actually been exposed to in the way of source material,
whether Western or Indian in origin.^20 Eventually, like Yogananda’s foray into
tantra, these practices would be given up at his father’s reprimand. Later, in
his Autobiography, he would acknowledge the relative effectiveness of hypno-
tism, especially in medical contexts, but would reject it as a temporary phe-
nomenon having “nothing in common with the miracles performed by men of
divine self- realization,”^21 which is at best unethical and at worst damaging to
the brain. However, the attribution of some form of hypnotic ability, whether
sensationalized, censorious, or glorifying, would follow Yogananda for the
majority of his career.

Yogananda’s Influences and the Genesis of a Modern Yogi

Although little remains to shed light on some of Yogananda’s more esoteric influ-
ences, there are some more well- documented sources that played an important
role in the early formation of his thought. One important point of interest is