Introduction 17
Such representations can generally be organized according to the following para-
digm: Yogis may tend to be feminine in appearance (as descriptions often linger on
their long flowing hair, soft dark eyes, and so forth), but this gentle exterior belies
a hyper- masculine and even predatory sexuality. Moreover, this sexuality is inex-
tricably tied to the Yogi’s superhuman power. Female disciples— disaffected and
otherwise— frequently describe being drawn to the mysterious spiritual power
of their teachers. On the other hand, in a predictable turn of perspective, critics
attribute this phenomenon to a malicious hypnotic influence. In this sense, the
Yogi’s power, real or imagined, once again becomes fundamental to his identity.
Positioning Yogananda
One last question thus remains: why Yogananda? I must admit that the general
lack of scholarship on him is still somewhat of a mystery to me. Yogananda has
thus far received little attention in studies of modern yoga because what he taught
does not look to us like yoga. The reality, as this study will demonstrate, is that
Yogananda’s method as it is still taught by the Self- Realization Fellowship is essen-
tially haṭha yoga par excellence due to its inherent logic of energ y but has been
excluded from histories of modern yoga because it largely lacks āsanas (postures).
However, to put things into perspective, though Vivekananda is often hailed as
the father of modern yoga,^36 his brand of yoga resembles modern practice even
less than Yogananda’s. Others have recently nominated Americans like Pierre
Arnold Bernard and Ida Craddock for the title.^37 Suffice it to say that yoga’s pater-
nity remains a rather ambiguous matter.
While I have no intention to plead Yogananda’s case as the authentic yoga
patriarch, I do wish to nominate him as the best exemplum of an early Western
Yogi that history can give us. He was certainly not the first. That title probably
goes to Vivekananda. Nor was he the only. There are many other Yogis— foreign
and domestic in origin— that dot the American landscape of the early twentieth
century. However, he represents a unique constellation of characteristics: Indian
origins (and lineage) combined with half a lifetime spent in America; a modern
practice grounded in physical culture combined with haṭha yogic metaphysics;
a groomed mystic exterior combined with stints on the vaudeville circuit; and,
finally, a legacy of practice that survives to the present day.
Mark Stephens credits Yogananda with creating the very first American yoga
“brand”— his Yogoda method— which he nevertheless describes as “primar-
ily bhakti and raja and very little Hatha.”^38 Meanwhile, Shreena Gandhi briefly
mentions that “the figure and philosophies of Paramahansa Yogananda best
embodies the guru of the 1920s, 30s, 40s & 50s.”^39 However, although Yogananda