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

162 Biography of a Yogi

to his conviction that superhuman displays were sometimes necessary to instill
faith in the doubting hearts of disciples. Tracing his spiritual journey as narrated
in the Autobiography, it becomes abundantly clear that this method was instru-
mental in the solidification of his own convictions. If indeed anything changes in
his attitude between the meetings with Gandha Baba and Giri Bala, it appears as
a shift from skeptical wonder to weighed understanding.
Yogananda’s own superhuman displays are, of course, never mentioned in
the Autobiography, which goes no further than describing moments of divinely
inspired intuition or miraculously answered prayers. It does not befit a Yogi to
catalogue his own superpowers. However, Yogananda’s education in becoming
a proper Yogi is inextricably tied to the elaboration of his relationship with Sri
Yukteswar. Interestingly, he does not fully surrender to Sri Yukteswar as his guru—
despite claiming to recognize him as such upon their very first meeting— until Sri
Yukteswar fulfills the condition to which he agreed upon accepting Yogananda as
his disciple: to bestow upon him a vision of God, or samādhi. Restless, Yogananda
seeks to once again escape to the Himalayas after only six months with Sri
Yukteswar, admitting to ignoring his guru’s “plain hint that he, and not a hill, was
[his] teacher.”^20 He finally returns, duly reprimanded by Ram Gopal Muzumdar,
the “Sleepless Saint,” who refuses to bestow samādhi upon him but intimates that
his teacher will do so in due time. Yet even after the promised event solidifies
Yogananda’s commitment to his guru, the narrative proceeds to pivot on the con-
tinual interplay of doubt and reaffirmation between the two until the final climax
of Sri Yukteswar’s death and the resolution of his astral resurrection.

The Narrative Arc of a Spiritual Search

The very first sentence— and, more broadly, paragraph— of Yogananda’s
Autobiography is profoundly telling :

The characteristic features of Indian culture have long been a search for

ultimate verities and the concomitant disciple- guru relationship. My own

path led me to a Christlike sage whose beautiful life was chiseled for the

ages. He was one of the great masters who are India’s sole remaining wealth.

Emerging in every generation, they have bulwarked their land against the

fate of Babylon and Eg ypt.^21

Directly following this, he launches into vague recollections of a past life and
memories of infancy and early childhood. Sri Yukteswar is not mentioned again
for several chapters. The reader nevertheless knows from the very outset that
Yogananda’s search for truth will be indelibly tied to his search for this Christlike