Introduction 19
and, second, the shift from more metaphysically based and holistic under-
standings of yoga to the mass popularization of postural practice. From a his-
torical viewpoint, the Autobiography thus serves as an important artifact of
this period if one seeks to construct a history of ideas. However, Yogananda’s
Autobiography is also significant because it is precisely that— the Yogi’s own
story. Although we have many records of others representing and interpret-
ing the figure of the Yogi, we have far fewer records of the Yogi representing
and interpreting himself, especially in as sustained a way as Yogananda’s self-
portrait presents to us. Thus, Yogananda’s work provides a unique opportunity
to glimpse the construction of the Yogi as he himself effects it.
From a cultural perspective, if one has any remaining doubts as to Yogananda’s
significance, one has only to take a look at the album cover of the Beatles’ 1967
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which is a kind of “Where’s Waldo?” game
for Yogananda’s lineage, featuring Yogananda as well as his guru Sri Yukteswar, his
guru’s guru Lahiri Mahasaya, and even something that looks very much like the
upper half of the head of the great Mahavatar Babaji himself. George Harrison
apparently keeps stacks of the book around his house to hand out to people
who “need a bit of regrooving.”^47 Apple founder Steve Jobs allegedly re- read it
yearly and had it distributed at his memorial service in 2013.^48 However, while
Yogananda has gone down in popular history as one of the great spiritual masters
of the twentieth century, a closer look at his life reveals a much more compli-
cated story. It is this story that I will seek to contextualize and explore in the
present study.