Paramahansa Yogananda learned Hindu spiritual-
ity early in life. His father, a railway executive, was
a disciple of LAHIRI MAHASAYA, one of those who
revived KRIYA YOGA in the 20th century. Mukunda
relates that, as a child, he was healed by a photo-
graph of Lahiri. After high school, Mukunda joined
a hermitage in BENARES (Varanasi), the Sri Bharat
Charma Mahamandal, where he met Sri YUKESWAR
Giri. Sri Yukeswar gave him the vows of SANNYAS
(renunciation) in the Shankaracharya Order, Giri
branch, in 1914 and he became Yogananda, mean-
ing the “bliss that comes from yoga.”
In 1916 he discovered the techniques of
Yogoda, a system of life-energy control for physi-
cal and spiritual development, which, combined
with traditional yoga, became the central concern
of his teachings. Yogananda expressed a sustained
interest in education. He attended Scottish Church
College and later transferred to Serampore Col-
lege to be near Yukteswar. In 1917, he founded a
school for boys, Yogoda San-Sanga Brahmacharya
Vidyalaya, at Dihik, Bengal, and in 1918 moved
the school to Ranchi. His school included high
school subjects as well as yoga and MEDITATION.
In 1920 Yogananda went to the United States
to speak at the International Congress of Reli-
gious Liberals in Boston, where he remained to
teach for three years. In 1924 he conducted a
lecture tour of the United States that resulted in
the establishment of several centers in his name.
An American headquarters for these centers was
set up at Mount Washington in Los Angeles. His
personality was extremely effective in relaying
his message and the ancient wisdom of India to a
Western audience.
Yogananda taught kriya yoga, which he
describes as a scientific technique for God-real-
ization. The practice is conveyed in an initiation
ceremony and involves meditation and visualiza-
tion. His approach to kriya yoga is presented as a
form of raja yoga but also includes concepts and
exercises similar to those of KUNDALINI YOGA.
Yogananda originally called his work the
Yogoda Satsang Society, but, in 1935, he incorpo-
rated his organization as the Self-Realization Fel-
lowship. His lectures were collected into a home
correspondence course for students to study in
any location. Also in 1935, he visited India for
the last time and was given the title Paramahansa,
meaning “great swan,” because his guru recog-
nized that Yogananda had reached the state of
nirvikalpa samadhi (irrevocable God-union).
Once back in the United States, Yogananda
wrote his most famous book, Autobiography of
a Yogi, perhaps the most widely read account
of a Hindu teacher, published in 1946. His
account is an absorbing story of a search for
truth, interwoven with explanations of the subtle
laws by which yogis perform miracles and attain
self-mastery. He describes his years of training
in India under Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri and
his meetings with exceptional persons of theYogananda, Paramahansa 513 JParamahansa Yogananda (1893–1952), master of
kriya yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship
(Courtesy Self-Realization Fellowship, Encinitas, California)