190 EpilogueIt is not common to hear modern Yogis promise their followers superpow-
ers, as Yogananda had once done. Bikram Choudhury too is likely a dying breed.
Today’s Yogi icons, who are increasingly blonde and female, generally stop at
promising toned bodies and the kind of spiritual fulfillment that feels like watch-
ing a sunset placidly melt into the California ocean. The Yogi’s superpowers, in
the meantime, have migrated into the superhero lore that serves as our modern-
day mytholog y. From that perspective, it is not surprising that Ashok Kumar
Malhotra’s contribution to the Ashgate World Philosophies Series— entitled An
Annotated Introduction to Yoga Philosophy (2001) but essentially comprising an
annotated translation of the Yoga Sūtras— features an entire section on “Yoga and
Yoda.” The Jedi (Jogi. Yogi?) is the adept struggling with the lure of superpower,
Darth Vader is the fallen master bound to his mortal body by his mechanized
breathing, and Yoda is the wizened mystic who has become a wave on the ocean
of the Force.^27
If Yogananda’s legacy teaches us only one thing, it is perhaps that the Yogiman
is perpetually somewhere between the Bogeyman and Superman.