Autobiography of a Yogi is at once a beautifully written account of an exceptional life and a profound introduction to the ancient science of Yoga and its time-honored tradition of meditation. Profoundly inspiring, it is at the same time vastly entertaining, warmly humorous and filled with extraordinary personages.
Self-Realization Fellowship’s editions, and none others, include extensive material added by the author after the first edition was published, including a final chapter on the closing years of his life.
Selected as “One of the 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Twentieth Century”, Autobiography of a Yogi has been translated into more than thirty languages, and is regarded worldwide as a classic of religious literature. Several million copies have been sold, and it continues to appear on best-seller lists after more than sixty consecutive years in print.
With engaging candor, eloquence, and wit, Paramahansa Yogananda tells the inspiring chronicle of his life: the experiences of his remarkable childhood, encounters with many saints and sages during his youthful search throughout India for an illumined teacher, ten years of training in the hermitage of a revered yoga master, and the thirty years that he lived and taught in America. Also recorded here are his meetings with Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Luther Burbank, the Catholic stigmatist Therese Neumann, and other celebrated spiritual personalities of East and West. The author clearly explains the subtle but definite laws behind both the ordinary events of everyday life and the extraordinary events commonly termed miracles. His absorbing life story becomes the background for a penetrating and unforgettable look at the ultimate mysteries of human existence.
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952), author of the modern spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi and widely regarded as the father of Yoga in the West, contributed in far-reaching ways to a greater awareness and appreciation in the West of the spiritual wisdom of the East. Arriving in America from his native India in 1920, he established Self-Realization Fellowship that same year, and devoted his life to helping people of all races and creeds to realize and express more fully in their lives the beauty, nobility and divinity of the human spirit. Recognized from the beginning as a landmark work in its field, Autobiography of a Yogi has been in continuous print since its initial publication more than 75 years ago, and remains one of the most important, and most readable, works on Yoga and Eastern spiritual thought. Among Sri Yogananda’s other publications are acclaimed interpretations of the four Gospels, (The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You), the Bhagavad Gita (God Talks With Arjuna), and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Wine of the Mystic: A Spiritual Interpretation); a three-volume anthology series (Collected Talks and Essays on Realizing God in Daily Life); two collections of poetry and prayer; and numerous volumes of spiritual counsel.An award-winning documentary film about his life and teachings, Awake: The Life of Yogananda, was released in 2014. Today, the spiritual and humanitarian work begun by Paramahansa Yogananda continues under the direction of Brother Chidananda, president of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India.
Celebrated British actor Sir Ben Kingsley came to international prominence with his Academy Award® winning performance in the title role of Gandhi. He has received high praise as well for his work in other films—among them the critically acclaimed Schindler’s List and the epic television presentations of Joseph and Moses—and on the stage, both with the Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Theatre and on Broadway. Mr. Kingsley is also known for his inspired readings of audiobooks, including a series on the great religions of the world.