126 Biography of a Yogi“the most spectacular swami in Los Angeles”^1 was generally grounded more in
self- help than it was in full- blown self- realization. In the following chapter, we
will examine the details of Yogananda’s method and its connections with modern
forms of physical yoga practice. By incorporating the familiar forms of European
physical culture with yogic goals, Yogananda was among the first to establish the
bridge between the esoteric techniques of premodern haṭha yoga and the postural
practice of today.
Yogananda’s first address to the International Conference of Religious
Liberals, subsequently published as his first book, The Science of Religion (1920),
adheres quite closely to Vivekananda’s brand of yoga, down to rehearsing the
four- yoga model that the latter had propagated in the West.^2 However, whereas
Vivekananda saw this popularization of Indian spirituality almost exclusively as
a means of channeling prestige and, more important, funds back to his home
country, Yogananda’s eye was very much trained on the American continent itself.
Whereas, as Carl T. Jackson has stated, for Vivekananda, “the idea of establishing
Vedanta centers in the United States was an unanticipated result rather than the
original intent of this Western trip,”^3 Yogananda, from the start, perceived his
predecessor’s success as a spiritual beacon to be a shining light of opportunity
in its own right. Vivekananda had been an important, if at times begrudgingly
envied, model to Yogananda in his early youth. Having set out to seek his yogic
fortune in the New World, Yogananda no doubt clung to Vivekananda’s example
as a roadmap to success.
According to Wendell Thomas, whose Hinduism Invades America (1930) is
the first scholarly treatment of Yogananda and was published during the heyday
of the Swami’s rising popularity, Yogananda’s approach transformed drastically as
he gained familiarity with his new environment. Thomas writes of Yogananda’s
initial lecture to the 1920 International Congress of Religious Liberals:
Thinking this Congress wanted something theoretical and profoundly
Hindu, the swami did not explain his educational methods or yoga
technique, but spoke on “The Science of Religion,” a work which had
already been published in India, and was later elaborated and printed
in book form in America. While in Boston, however, he learned some-
thing very practical. Coming into contact with various American cults
such as Christian Science and New Thought, he began to admire their
efficient methods of propaganda. At the same time, he was convinced
that they were teaching only smatterings of the truth that Hinduism
possessed as a whole. So he conceived the idea of combining his genuine
Hindu message with American methods, and stayed in a new land to
teach.^4