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

102 Biography of a Yogi

Yogananda thus began preparations to travel abroad for the first time:

Under the supervision of [his friend] Amar Mitra, Yogananda’s new suit

had been tailored. His hair was handsomely cut. Yogananda again became

Mukundalal Ghosh ... Guru Maharaj [Sri Yukteswar] had the desire that

Yogananda at least keep his turban instead of donning a cap, but that was

not possible.^27

The whole affair, however, proved somewhat anticlimactic. Yogananda spent no
more than a week in Japan before boarding the next ship back to India. His close
friends had only just mailed off the first round of letters inquiring about his new
situation when he suddenly reappeared. According to Yogananda, he was imme-
diately disenchanted by what he perceived as Japan’s extremely “outward” lifestyle
and especially the “liberal mixing of men and women.”^28 It is possible that the
four years that separated this trip from his later journey to the United States had
softened his standards, since it is unlikely that he would have found the American
lifestyle comparatively more conservative. It is perhaps more likely that he sim-
ply found himself disillusioned with the opportunities that Japanese agricultural
program could provide him in his yogic quest. His own Autobiography makes
no mention of the program and instead frames the sudden trip as a distressed
response to his oldest brother’s failing health. Nevertheless, the trip was not
altogether a waste. On the returning ship to India, Yogananda encountered an
American couple who became quite fascinated with his expositions on monism
and the oneness of all religions and encouraged him to come to the United States.
These conversations would become the basis of Yogananda’s first publication, The
Science of Religion, which he then and there resolved to write.
It would be another four years before Yogananda would follow the advice of
his American acquaintances. Upon his return to India, he busied himself with
the development of his school. The Yogoda Satsanga Brahmacharya Vidyalaya
was first founded in 1916, its initial location being in Calcutta at the home of
Tulsi Narayana Bose. Soon after, the establishment was moved to Dihika when
patronage was obtained from Maharaja Chandra Nandy of the Kasimbazar
Estate and then to Ranchi after a few of the students contracted malaria.^29 In
1920, however, news came of an International Conference of Religious Liberals in
Boston. Brahmo Samāj leader Herambra Chandra Maitra was to be the executive
member from India. At the time Maitra was also principal of the City College of
Calcutta, where Satyananda was one of his students. Satyananda requested that
Maitra submit Yogananda’s name as the delegate from India, and it was subse-
quently arranged that Yogananda would travel to the conference to present on
the subject matter of The Science of Religion (1920), which was speedily completed