Autobiography of a Yogi summary

Mukunda guarded his amulet jealously in a safe box. He’d open the box, admire the talisman, and then relock the box. One day, he went into his room at the ashram where he was staying and discovered that his prized possession had vanished. Sad and disillusioned, he searched around the ashram in disbelief. Still searching, he was summoned and sent on an errand. Out on the streets, he felt a magnetic force draw him toward an angelic presence – the sublime aura of his guru Sri Yukteswar Giri. They’d never met, but they instantly connected.

"Gurudeva!''

Born with an unrelenting desire to make contact with God, Yogananda grew impatient many times during his education at the ashram of Sri Yukteswar.

After several attempts to reach the holy mountains of the Himalayas were thwarted by his discerning guru, he finally made the pilgrimage. There, he saw a vision of the future headquarters of the Self-Realization Fellowship on Mount Washington in Los Angeles.

During one of their illuminating chats, Sri Yukteswar asked Yogananda how he’d cope in old age without the companionship of a family. You see, Yogananda had an aversion to organizational work, focusing his energy on self-realization and God contact. His guru gave him a nudge: the newly-initiated monk wouldn’t be the self-realized being he was if generations of generous masters hadn’t shared their knowledge.

The seeds of Yogananda’s missionary work started with the planting of a liberal boys’ school in Ranchi, near Calcutta. Students were taught the art of living in spiritual and physical domains. They were also schooled in subjects like agriculture, commerce, industry, and other academic disciplines. Studies were conducted outdoors and students were also taught meditation. This, the yogi said, would help the kids seek for answers from within. The idea spread to other places and more schools were opened.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus embarked on his fateful mission to find India, and as you might have heard, landed in America. What does this have to do with the autobiography of a yogi born several centuries later? It turns out, according to Paramahansa Yogananda, Columbus was a pawn in that ancient karmic transaction between East and West.

When Yogananda set foot in America, he set up a union of the mystics by meeting and exchanging ideas with people in religious and public life.