Hagiography of a Yogi 171
contemporary concepts of electrodynamics— to provide a grounding for the sub-
tle laws of nature that govern yogic practice and the resulting superpowers. This
metaphysical exposition reaches its crescendo as a full- blown revelation delivered
by the astrally resurrected Sri Yukteswar. Thus, the resolution of the narrative’s
primary “conflict”— that is, the vacillating relationship between Yogananda
and his guru— corresponds to the resolution of the mystery that surrounds the
physical possibility of the narrative’s many wondrous occurrences. Yukteswar’s
resurrection serves not only as a final affirmation of the unbroken commitment
between guru and disciple but also as an irrefutable testament to the reality of the
metaphysical concepts the reader is finally made to understand.
In providing us with a full cosmolog y, Yogananda draws out a roadmap for the
gradual perfection of the Yogi. In doing so, he introduces a typolog y of divinized
or perfected beings. His overall schema proposes three types of bodies: (1) the
idea or causal body; (2) the subtle astral body; and (3) the gross physical body.
The latter includes self- realized human yogis whose bodies may show signs of per-
fection and who exhibit superhuman abilities in accordance with their degree of
accomplishment. There are also, however, beings who inhabit astral bodies com-
posed of prāṇa or, as Yogananda translates it, “lifetrons.” These include “resur-
rected” bodies, which Yogananda treats as perfected forms willfully reconstituted
from subtle elements but which may appear as gross matter. Still higher are causal-
bodied beings that exist beyond the “finer- than- atomic energies” of lifetrons^38 in
“the minutest particles of God- thought.”^39 Finally, there are beings who appear to
be a conflation of traditional concepts of siddha and avatāra, existing outside of
the aforementioned system of embodiment but choosing to manifest themselves
and become embodied for a specific purpose.
Yogananda’s tripartite system of embodiment appears to be closely modeled
on a generic Vedāntin framework, which likewise consists of three aspects referred
to as kāraṇa śarīra (causal body), sūkṣma or liṅga śarīra (subtle body), and sthūla
śarīra (gross body). The two lower aspects are grounded in a basically Sāṃkhyan
framework, with the gross body consisting of the mahābhūtas, or gross elements,
and the subtle body encompassing the higher evolutes of prakṛti (everything from
the tanmātras, the subtle elements, to the buddhi, intellect) in addition to three
components— kāma (desire), karma (action), and avidyā (ignorance)— that
reflect the binding aspects of subjectivity, along with five prānas (vital breaths).
Yogananda’s system likewise includes a causal body, which he states is com-
posed of the thirty- five ideas that result in the manifestations of the components
of the two lower bodies. The first of these is the astral body, a term that he may
have adopted from Theosophy or more likely from a more diffuse Western meta-
physical context, which for him becomes synonymous with the subtle body as a
whole.^40 This subtle body includes the typical aspects of intellect (buddhi), ego