“Autobiography of a Yogi”
Title:Autobiography of a Yogi Author:Yogananda, Paramahansa Editor:- Review in brief:
The life story of the first yoga master to live and teach for most of his life (over 30 years) in the West. Includes his meetings with spiritual seekers and saints around the world. Throughout the story of his fascinating life, Yogananda interweaves many key concepts of yoga’s ancient sciences of meditation and relates them to spiritual practices of varied religions and to modern science. Used in numerous university-level World Religions courses, Yogananda's work has remained on lists of spiritual bestsellers since it was first released over fifty years ago. He provides more insight in the the spiritual side of yoga - in particular its meditation practices - than anything else available in the west. The continuing work of the organization that Yogananda founded, Self-Realization Fellowship, is explained; by contacting Self-Realization headquarters one may still obtain today the same personal guidance in meditation that Yogananda offered to students during his lifetime. The yoga practice taught by Yogananda is far more than common postures and breathing exercises, taught in Western countries: it is the ancient science of Raja Yoga - the royal meditative science of single-minded focus on God. The book contains contact information for the educational society (S.R.F.) that Yogananda founded in Los Angeles in the 1920’s and that continues to thrive today (or examine its web site S.R.F.). |
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Full review:
Like Gandhi, Yogananda writes humbly and includes his foibles and the pratfalls he takes as he journeys through life’s lessons. In fact, unless you read elsewhere about his life you won’t realize how much he understates his own accomplishments while he honors other spiritual seekers and teachers he encounters.
His stories of encounters with amazing saints of all regions and religions are spell-binding, and you may find yourself (like me) devouring the whole book on your first read — just reveling in the wonders of these true spiritual seekers. On successive readings I delved deeper into the equally fascinating footnotes, learning about the exotic realms of Indian spirituality and its unexpected parallels with the original Christian teachings of Christ, St. John, and St. Paul. In fact, the countless strata of insights and implications that surface with repeated readings of Autobiography of a Yogi argue for spending a few more dollars on the trade paperback rather than the mass market paperback edition, since you'll want to return numerous times over the years. The Self-Realization Fellowship editions are to be preferred over others. Yogananda himself started that organization (SRF), and the award-winning quality of SRF editing and printing shines through them - in contrast to one of the pirated editions floating around.
In all my reading in spirituality, yoga, and comparative religion, I have discovered no other work that so completely fulfills Carl Jung’s prophecy: yoga sciencewill offer you (the whole science, not just the athletic postures) “undreamed-of possibilities.” As the author explains, yoga comes from the Sanskrit root meaning “union.” He reveals the underlying oneness of Christian and yoga goals, of spiritual truth and scientific truth, of the worldly and the spiritual. It will deepen anyone’s own faith and sensibility — of whatever religion (or none) — of the interconnecting sciences of matter... and mind... and Spirit. [ —RP, 11/08/2002 ]
© Richard Pinneau, 2003 Your feedback is appreciated: rp(at)richardpinneau(dot)com |
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