Hagiography of a Yogi 177
largely beside the point. From a non- enlightened being’s point of view, however,
this distinction makes all the difference in the world. On the one hand, we have a
walking, talking, fire- ball levitating Babaji and on the other we have ... nothing.
The impersonal universe.
The subtle undergirding of Yogananda’s narrative, especially where it con-
cerns his fascination with superpowers, is specifically a struggle with this
distinction. When Sri Yukteswar bestows upon him a vision of the undifferen-
tiated bliss of samādhi, he nevertheless persists in petulantly asking when he
might acquire the miraculous powers that are, in his mind, equated with hav-
ing found God. While there is an unmistakable tinge of monism throughout
Yogananda’s writings, it is at every turn balanced with the prospect of superhu-
man embodiment. One suspects that Yogananda’s personal theolog y is very
much based on the ultimate divinization of the human self. His reinterpreta-
tion of the nature of avatāric descent is testament to this. Although it appears
nowhere in the Autobiography, he would frequently insist to his disciples that
Babaji was in fact Krishna in a former incarnation.^57 This does not seem ter-
ribly earth- shattering until one combines it with the parallel proposition that
Babaji started out human. In response to White’s chicken- or- egg question^58
of whether Yogis are modeled on the gods, or the gods on Yogis, Yogananda
would almost certainly have asserted the latter.
This prospect presents an interesting possibility. According to Yogananda, the
science of Kriya Yoga is not so much a reagent as it is a catalyst or simply an accel-
erant. That is, the practice is not a necessary condition without which this process
of spiritual evolution would be impossible. Rather, it serves to significantly accel-
erate an already ongoing natural process. From a narrative standpoint, Babaji’s
origins are never revealed (and the generic title Babaji is used as a familial hon-
orific often ascribed to renunciants) precisely because Babaji’s particular identity
does not matter. He is the Everyman par excellence. In Yogananda’s own words,
Babaji is the proof of the possibility of human immortality and therefore of the
final telos of the human as superhuman. Insomuch as we are all potential Yogis,
we are also all Babaji.