136 Biography of a Yogiwith some, like Satyeswarananda, expressing great consternation over how the
body is to levitate during the final stages of Kriya practice if the legs are left
dangling free.
In addition to the excisions and modifications, Yogananda also made some
additions to his version of the Kriya Yoga practice. Most notable are the thirty-
seven Energization Exercises that form the backbone of his Yogoda method, as
well as the Hong- Saw and Om meditation techniques. The latter two are actu-
ally not so much Yogananda’s own additions as they are simplified transpositions
of techniques appearing elsewhere in the practice. Hong- Saw is an anglicization
of the “haṃ- sa”^27 mantra reportedly taught by Sri Yukteswar. Both techniques
are geared toward introducing the practitioner to basic concentration and breath
control.
Charging the Body Battery: The Origins of Yogoda
Although this fact is seldom emphasized by current insider and scholarly
accounts alike, Yogananda exhibited an early interest in physical culture on par
with any of the typically cited giants of postural yoga. In his youth Yogananda
was an avid athlete who excelled in running, wrestling, and soccer. He also
regularly trained with weights. As spiritual pursuits began to consume more
of Yogananda’s time, he left behind the distracting realm of team and competi-
tive sports. However, physical culture would become a permanent fixture of
his work, ultimately culminating in the Energization Exercises that are taught
by the SRF to this day. These exercises, consisting largely of gentle calisthenics
and muscle control through interchanging tension and relaxation, were origi-
nally introduced as part of Yogananda’s Yogoda system, which constituted a
core aspect of his marketed teaching during the initial decade after his arrival
to the United States.
The system was first implemented at Yogananda’s school for young boys at
Ranchi, where he incorporated it into a broader curriculum of general educa-
tion. Despite the modern attitude articulated by Yogananda’s devotees and
expressed in the materials of the SRF and Ananda— namely, that these teachings
stem from ancient yogic truths— the Energization Exercises in fact appear to
have a less exotic origin. Yogananda himself states that the Yogoda method was
“discovered” by him in 1916,^28 the same year as the founding of his school. The
details of this discovery are illuminated by Satyananda’s account, which specifies
the following :
About a year before the founding of the school, a book written by a
German physical culturalist named Miller came into Yoganandaji’s hands.