Autobiography of a Yogi

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Summary: This Book Has Got To Be Made Into A Movie Like "Ghandi"
Review: This is a life-changing book. When I felt at my worst, this book helped heal and redeem me. It put me back on the path of spirituality and seeking conscious experince of the Divine through meditation and right life. I had been scared off of God through my mother's religion and my father's lack of it. My mother often used "God" to scare me into doing what she wanted. When I left her, I fell to pieces and this book was my sanctuary in showing me another world within the world we already live in. We are actually dying in this world but this book teaches you how to truly live. The only challenge, as with anything, is to apply the lessons and experiences described in this book into everyday life until it is habit. Once you can do this, you will live a life most Divine. A life full of happiness and free of fear.

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Summary: The Truth
Review: Words cannot describe the beauty of this book.It could be the book you have been searching all you life.It is the book I had been looking for.Thank you Paramahansaji,I owe my happiness,prosperity,success,faith and spiritual balance to you.I give this book a rating of a hundred stars.Thank you.
Dear reader this book could change your life.

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Summary: Eye Opener
Review: I love this book. It's a book that I read in a short amount of time, because I could not put it down. In parts it weaves eastern mysticism with the Bible. I loved it so much that I signed up with the Self Realization Fellowship for the lessons. So I can learn how to do the Kriya yoga meditation that's mentioned in the book.

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Summary: Great book
Review: If you are interested in the metaphysical, meditation, Yoga, or God, then you need to read this book. It's very captivating, and you will be turning the pages as if you were reading a thriller. A great book from a great man who brought Yoga, and it's TRUE teachings of spirituality to the West. If you think this book is going to cover asana, or anything related to Hatha Yoga, it won't. This books covers the spiritual aspect of all living things, and how we as humans have this precious chance to achieve God-realization.

If you don't have an open mind about spirituality, or if your current views are not in line with Yogananda's, you might have some trouble digesting this book. He backs everything up however, and makes great references throughout the book to different religious texts, especially the Bible.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has any of the above interests. However as mentioned in another review, don't expect to learn how to necessarily achieve God-Realization. I read the book and then became an SRF student. The lessons, (which come in the mail), go over specifically how to practice what Yogananda teaches in this book. And the lessons, like this book were written by Yogananda.

This book can have the power to change your life if your willing to listen. My suggestion is to set aside a weekend to read it and allow yourself a long moment of deep introspection. You could quite honestly become a different person after reading this book.

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Summary: Still No. 1 on the Metaphysicians' Hit Parade
Review: The classic book on yoga. A page turner, it reads like a sci fi thriller. Words from a true spiritual giant. Nevertheless, I agree with the reviewer who said this is not the best edition. Self-Realization was founded by Yogananda and they reshaped the text somewhat to promote their organization. But if this is the only edition you can get, buy it. Whatever their faults, Self-Realization keeps the book affordable and in print. One warning: throughout the book Yogananda keeps talking about the marvelous technique of kriya yoga. I kept waiting for him to explain how to do it. He never does, referring interested readers to an authorized teacher. I found that frustrating. For readers who want to learn the technique, or at least variations of it, check out Paulen's SACRED SCIENCE. Paulsen, a disciple of Yogananda, teaches the technique there. For the Taoist approach to the technique, check out Chia's AWAKEN HEALING ENERGY THROUGH THE TAO or Yang Jwing Ming's QIGONG FOR HEALTH AND MARTIAL ARTS. All available from Amazon.

Rating:
Summary: Have an open mind
Review: I read this book some twenty years ago and the teachings by this God-man have no equal. I was looking and what I found even surprised me. If you read this book it will help you to see beyond this world we all must live in to survive. His gift to us is similiar to any great teacher, he just happened to live in our time. Please do not accept my word for anything, read it yourself and think for your self, but it helps to have a true friend by your side. good luck jdr

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Summary: LIFE ALTERING!
Review: This book has forever changed my life. I have never in my life read a book that had the peaceful effect that this book had on my spirit. It actually took me 3 or 4 years of seeing the book before I picked it up and bought it. And when I open it up and began reading I felt as if Yoganandaji was with me. His words seem to come alive and his presence is so strong. I felt my chakras opening and it was the most wonderful book reading I have ever experienced.

I do think that Yoganandaji beautifully brings together christianity and Hinduism. I agree that for centuries people have mis interpreted the bible. And what is different is that he communed with God for his interpretations, other's seem to just insert their own beliefs. Guruji's writings are truly masterful. I am forever grateful for him bringing east and west together. I have finally found a teaching that will take me home....To God.

After reading this book I got in touch with SRF and began to receive the lessons. My life will forever be changed and I am glad that God lead me to Paramahansaji.
I also began reading one of his other books "Man's Eternal Quest". And you have no Idea how these writings helped me. My father was sick when I began reading this book (Man's eternal Quest) and there were so many practical things in the way of guidance. I called and spoke with the spiritual counselors at SRF and they were so wonderful and helpful. 6 weeks later when my dad died, I was able to mourn but also to see his death as a transition in life, and I was so comforted by common sense messages in Yoganandaji's writings half a century after his writing them. Anyway I encourage anyone to read this book and his other's with an open heart and mind. and if you really want to know yourself and know God in a way that you never thought possible consider taking the SRF Lessons, you'll be blessed beyond your imagination.

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Summary: Stimulating Read
Review: If you are open to exploring spirituality beyond religious boundaries, this book will surely enchant you. It brings the beauty and depth of both Eastern and Western traditions to light. I particularly enjoyed the footnotes comparing Catholic saints to saints from Indian spirituality. One of my favorite chapters presents Yogananda's meeting with Theresa Neumann, a woman who received the stigamata.
This book brought me closer to my Catholic faith and I also gained a greater understanding of Christ and the Crucifixion. I have realized more and more how those who are considered spiritual masters can see the beauty in all traditions. This book is a perfect example of this.

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Summary: Inspiration and Wisdom, Miracles and Joy
Review: This book will have you enthralled from cover to cover. I've read Paramhansa Yogananda's priceless wisdom many times, and find each new visit like taking a fresh draught at the well of supreme inspiration.

Yogananda was a Master of yoga and meditation. You can trust what he says implicitly, unlike many teachers who have vast book learning and excellent writing skills, but not the inner realization. For this reason, I would strongly recommend the original, unedited 1st edition in the blue cover. This version is available here on Amazon, published by Crystal Clarity. It's also published in India by SRF/YSS. The blue cover Autobiography of a Yogi is the only available edition that has kept Yogananda's own words, unchanged by later editors of far lesser realization.

Christians as well as Yogis will find this book helpful. I was raised Catholic, and found the chapter on the Catholic saint, Therese Neumann, to be very enlightening in explaining the sanctity of one Catholic saint.

The description of the astral spheres of existence, and what happens to people after death, was the most real and poignant account I have ever read.

Finally, Yogananda shares in a way that makes the subtle spiritual teachings accessible, and even enjoyable, to all readers.

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Summary: Cosmic Narcissism
Review: I first read Autobiography of a Yogi when I was in college in the 70s. I was young and frankly uninformed and vulnerable. None-the-less, the Holy Spirit was both stirring and protecting. He allowed me to journey and wanted me to broaden intellectually. And He also wanted me to come Home. I reached the inevitable dead-end with Yogananda and his Autobiography of a Yogi (and his many other books which I read; including the Bhagavad-Gita and commentary. Jesus met me in the emptiness of this blind alley. I fell into His arms, weeping with gratitude for His mercy, patience and guidance. Now to help others who are mislaid, I have re-read Autobiography of a Yogi. I return as an adult with a Ph.D. in psychology and with a solid grounding in the Bible and traditional commentary such as: C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Given such maturity, I note significant problems with Autobiography of a Yogi. The story of Yogananda's life is ostensibly to bring the East to the West and both together. In practice, Yogananda attempts to merge Hinduism/yoga with Judeo/Christianity and form a nonsectarian/universalistic way (religion-in-kind). He apparently had the blessing of a credible Hindu-yogic order and recognition by the Indian government. None-the-less, several difficulties arise. First, Yogananda is compelled to include Jesus but as "Christ consciousness" an absolute of sorts but not the living, personal God and Creator as we in the West believe. At the same time, Yogananda introduces life-force (prana "lifetrons"), the great mother, Krishna and yogis. By such melding he impersonalises Christianity and continues scrambling its Truth by pairing Jesus with yogis (great and "realized" teachers): all of whom are mutually "cosmically conscious" (absolute of sort). (As one follower of "Master" (Yogananda) informed me: 'the goal of all religion is cosmic consciousness, and Jesus doesn't own it.') The confusion continues as somehow karma, reincarnation, chakras and even Buddha (who professed no god, creator, cosmic consciousness, life force or chakra) are also incorporated. Yogis and Buddha are all coequal to Jesus. Still further, Yogananda does vaguely refer to god personally, typically as the atman ("Self")(transcendent absolute?) and as a/the "realized," yogi-personal guru and even as the great mother and or Krishna. In all, however, when moving from East to West, vital questions are never addressed by Yogananda such as: the problem of sin, fallenness; good and evil; and the historical fact of Christ's life, death, resurrection and continued work in and as the Holy Spirit; and Jesus' proclamation that 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Light' (and) 'No one comes to the Father except by me' (and) 'The Father and I are one.' Likewise, the Last Supper and Jesus' command to receive Him in the bread and wine (the Body and Blood in Holy Communion)-not to mention His extreme suffering, submission and sacrifice - are never acknowledged by Yogananda. Demoting Jesus to garden variety, cosmically conscious yogi does not align with this Truth or speak to these human conditions and historical facts. Putting blasphemy aside, more importantly, neither Jesus, nor any Biblical scripture for that matter, ever spoke/speaks of cosmic consciousness or any Hindu/yogic tenet such as: atman, cosmic consciousness, reincarnation, chakra or pan-deity. (In fact, quite the opposite, the greatest of all sins in the Old Testament is idolatry (the worship of foreign gods and false beliefs.) When Yogananda does refer to the Bible, the associations are contorted if not bizarre: Christ as a reincarnated Elijah; men as the absolute and John the Baptist as Jesus' guru. Such Biblical interpretations are blatantly wrong and thinly veiled as subordinating Judeo-Christianity into the assumed superior context of Hinduism/yoga. The result of all this merging, melding, misinterpreting and omitting is a befuddling, theological 'mish-mash,' which disallows any true theological discussion or clarity. The reader, therefore, is left with a feel-good (blissful) 'way' (religion), promising an eternal and infinitely spaced-out consciousness at no cost and assuming no submission to and personal relationship with God, Jesus. Eternity (the absolute) is achieved (or 'realized') by simply using mechanistic techniques (kriya yoga-"Self realization") at the convenience of the individual ego. (At one point in one of his books, Yogananda states that if you perform x amount of 'Kriyas,' then you will achieve cosmic consciousness.) Overall, one can detect in Autobiography of a Yogi and his other works that once Yogananda was introduced to the Truth of Jesus Christ in the Gospels, Yogananda realized that the individual, in fact, could no longer become the absolute as Hinduism/yoga postulates. Deep down Yogananda recognized that the Absolute had in stark reality come in the flesh as Jesus Christ and spoke/speaks nothing about: kriya yoga, life force, chakras, reincarnation, multiple god-manifestations, yogic masters, atman or cosmic consciousness. Hinduism/yoga, therefore, collapsed under the bulk of its own falsity. Rather than choosing the Truth, acceptance of and submission unto Christ, Yogananda defensively chose the opposite: to torture Jesus into Hinduism/yoga and to expand himself and his theological background into stunningly egotistical and fanciful proportions. Such 'cosmic narcissism' explains the pathological grandiosity of Autobiography of a Yogi, especially toward the end where yogic masters materialize and dematerialize at will in Christ-like resurrections; perform incarnations (inserting themselves into human wombs) and are purported to be unison with Jesus to bring Kriya yoga to the whole world (a one world (new age?) religion)(Keep in mind that Autobiography of a Yogi was written in the 30's and not the 60's(!). To conclude, if as C.S. Lewis postulates in The Screw Tape Letters, evil does exist and the subtle work of the devil is to keep human beings from Christ's deep and personal Love and intimate relationship with each of us, then Yogananda has succeeded in colluding with evil as such. For surely with Autobiography of a Yogi, one is lead far astray from a true and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, God. Therefore, this work may very well be an intricate dance of the devil. How many lost souls have wandered down Yogananda's labyrinth of confusion only to find a dead end? For those of you who are lost and confused and not deluded by evil into believing this misleading treatise, do no despair: abandon this flawed work of sin; pray earnestly to the Truth, the Lord Jesus, and read His Word, the Bible. Jesus is close. He will find and bring you home, personally and intimately.