Finding God through Yoga: Paramahansa Yogananda and Modern American Religion in a Global Age DAVID J. NEUMANN Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019. xi +350 pp. 978-1-4696-4863-7 ...($29.95 paper) Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh on January 5, 1893, in Gorakhpur, India, had a profound impact on Western audiences in the field of yoga and the ancient science of self-realization by seeking to "disseminate yoga globally to promote unity through communion with the one God." By positioning Yogananda as a missionary, as an Indian, as an American, and as the founder of a global religious organization, Neumann contributes to a growing body of scholarship about yoga communities on a global scale as well as the guru and disciple relationship in the modern era. (101) While most are familiar with the Autobiography, Neumann's detailed analysis of East-West magazine, Yogananda's other writing as well as SRF marketing materials provide unique insight into the community of self-realization and the spiritual seekers who found themselves "disillusioned by modern materialism and longing for reenchantment."
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), a Hindu missionary to the United States, wrote one of the world's most highly acclaimed spiritual classics, Autobiography of a Yogi, which was first published in ...1946 and continues to be one of the best-selling spiritual philosophy titles of all time. In this critical biography, David Neumann tells the story of Yogananda's fascinating life while interpreting his position in religious history, transnational modernity, and American culture. Beginning with Yogananda's spiritual investigations in his native India, Neumann tells how this early "global guru" emigrated to the United States in 1920 and established his headquarters, the Self-Realization Fellowship, in Los Angeles, where it continues today.
Preaching his message of Hindu yogic philosophy in a land that routinely sent its own evangelists to India, Yogananda was fueled by a religious nationalism that led him to conclude that Hinduism could uniquely fill a spiritual void in America and Europe. At the same time, he embraced a growing belief that Hinduism's success outside South Asia hinged on a sincere understanding of Christian belief and practice. By "universalizing" Hinduism, Neumann argues, Yogananda helped create the novel vocation of Hindu yogi evangelist, generating fresh connections between religion and commercial culture in a deepening American religious pluralism.
Sri. Sri. Paramhansa Yogananda (5 January 1893 - 7 March 1952) is a mastermind who has sought an abode of peace in heaven, but he survives through his thoughts. His An Autobiography of a Yogi is a ...major work. Besides his several writings in volumes and speeches, his An Autobiography of a Yogi is very unusual and extraordinary in giving us rich human thought. All unusual, uncommon human experiences which have superhuman touch have been clearly expressed and explained to us. In the modern context, Paramhansa Yogananda is the most powerful voice whose teachings and experiences awaken among the common human beings the spark of spiritual bliss. In 1920, he was invited to the United States as India's representative to an international conference of world religious readers in Boston. On this occasion, he lectured so wonderfully, and his maiden speech was published soon after as The Science of Religion. Since then, it has been published in several additional languages. This lecture was so potential with meanings used as a reference work in colleges and universities.
With over four million copies in print, Parmahansa Yogananda's autobiography has been translated into thirty-three languages, and it still serves as a gateway into yoga and alternative spirituality ...for countless North American practitioners. This book examines Yogananda's life and work to clarify linkages between the seemingly disparate aspects of modern yoga, and illuminates the intimate connections between yoga and metaphysically-leaning American traditions such as Unitarianism, New Thought, and Theosophy.
