Rating: 
Summary: A SPIRITUAL REVELATION and Modern Legacy.
Review: Paramahansa Yogananda, a modern 20th century Yoga Master, who is living example of all that he wrote about, shows the reader a new and balanced approach to the spiritual life. He makes it clear, practical and sensible as well as appealing. You won't be able to put it down till it's finished. The recent editions with the orange covers, are His most up to date editions, which also includes the 49th chapter, and enhancemets made by Him and his appointed editors in chief before and after 1952. These most recent editions also give the reader a very complete view to Yogananda's final meanings. This truly remarkable autobiography will help the reader understand the purpose of life and how to reach true fulfillment. This work gives the reader an excellent overview of comparative religion and how to appreciate all true prophets and creeds. Paramahansa Yogananda established the Self-Realization Fellowship to represent Babaji's line of Masters and disseminate his teachings and Kriya Yoga world-wide. Also recommended: "God Talks With Arjuna", see Pages 426 & 427 where Yogananda makes the above declaration clear. --This text refers to the paperback edition of this title
Rating:
Summary: THE INNER MEANING OF SPIRITUALITY
Review: Reading this spiritual masterpiece was one of my lifes greatest inspirations. One can experience the great holy spirit at work through the writing and presence of Yogananda's perennial spiritual message. A message that India patiently waited so long to share with this evolving world.
A world that was ready for more than the limits of dogmatism and orthodoxy in the 20th century.
Yogananda's inspired writing lends it's power from a life that lived and experienced all that is written in His uplifting autobiography.
The latest editions [with orange covers] by Self-Realization Fellowship publishers will give the most accurate picture of what the Master was teaching by the time his body passed on.
As this is now a completion of a process which he himself began immediately after the publishing of the first edition of the Autobiograph of a Yogi.
Revising and updating, a polishing process that was accomplished by the author and his editors in chief for a number of years following that original but incomplete first edition. From which the 49th chapter is missing. Although Yogananda did not change his teachings, towards the close of his earthly work he did revise the presentation of said teachings,and took wise steps to clarify other matters. This is in direct contrast to the changes other teachers/prophets [and followers] made in some works which resulted in serious contradictions and inconsistencies. The original editions final editing was done by Yogananda's editor in chief at that time. Who later continued the master's approach of improving the book for many years after his transition. For those seeking answers to life's deeper questions in a balanced and mature way, free of exclusivism and narrowness, this book will provide you with an enriched and healing view of the world of comparative spirituality from the practical mystical level of Yoga philosphy and practice. There is little the master did not touch upon and explain in this and His other writings, the essence of which is all kept reliably intact by his successors. He will guide you through is still living presence.
Rating: 
Summary: My Hero!
Review: While I found this book difficult to read the first time, the second time was easier. Be patient. Take the time to really think what this man is saying to us all. His language is beautiful, his experiences poignant. I know I will never be a gwenuine Yogi (atleast ont in this life), but the author makes the practice seem to easy and natural. If you haven't read it yet (it's 100 years old), do so now. You'll thank me later!
Rating:
Summary: The best book I will ever read in my life.
Review: This book changed me forever, and I will never read anything for the rest of my life or incarnations as powerful as it. Yogananda's words are truly incredible, filled with wisdom, and he is one of the best teachers that has ever walked this planet.
Rating:
Summary: Let the teachings be the "guru"
Review: This book was one of the classics that I grew up with along with Jess Stearn's "Yoga Youth and Reincarnation," "Raja Yoga" by Vivekananda and many many books by H. Spencer Lewis. The second books actually inspired me to take up yoga, and although I've never had any experience even remotely resembling what is desribed in Autobiography of a Yogi, if from nothing more than a health perspective, the decision has been amply rewarded. What impressed me about Autobiography of a Yogi was Yogananda's assertions that the teachings were the guru. How refreshing! Yogananda seems to have anticipated the flood of pseudo "gurus" and "masters" and "coaches" that have erupted in the West during the last decades. Many of these so-called teachers whether they be of yoga, Eastern philosphy, Western new age spirituality or even Christian religion have had very unflattering exposes on the anti-cult website rickross.com. And if someone is urging you to try their new "thang" at their new organization, I urge you to research them at the Ross site first--espcially if it involves multi-day 12 to 14 hour sessions back to back. Often times you'll see "devotees" of some of these aforementioned groups at some religious or new age discussion group website hotly denying their "master's" so-called notoriety or getting into it with someone with the "my guru is better than your guru" schtik. Refreshingly the Self Realization Fellowship founded back in the twenties by Yogananda has none of the typical filth associated with it that so many yoga/new age/religious schools now are notorious for. In my mind, that alone says something both about Yoganda and his wish the the "teachings be the guru."
Rating:
Summary: Many things New in Yogananda, not new with Jesus
Review: Why is this book attracting so much interest around the world? There are many good reasons for this.
To begin with there are a lot of issues covered in this Autobiography and Paramahansa Yogananda's other writings that are very original, or for the first time in spiritual history are clearly and sensibly explained in clear and excellent English [ the world's most popular language.] But moreso is the author's teaching skill at explaining mystical and theological profundities in very simple down to earth language. Language that is even free of the laborious flowery drag-on writing style that would have made these deep matters even more difficult to understand. Some of these unique issues are ;
1.Explaining the Law of Miracles.
2.Explaining the Yogic Pranayama system and method,
which has proven to be one of the most
effective routes to salvation. [Self-Realization]
3.The creation of an entirely new system of
energy control based physical fitness, which is the
father of isometric/isotonic exercise systems.
A system which develops the human will so that one can
have the discipline to reach one's spiritual potential.
4.The revelatory concept showing the reincarnational
relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist.
5.The trans and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita,
the 4 Gospels, and the Rubaiyat that are totally
unique and original - and no doubt divinely inspired.
6.Being in a lineage that has more members of various
religions participating in a truly global ecumenical
interfaith movement that rivals any earlier similar attempts.
7.The proper/complete setting of a religious path that did
not fall prey to the common hijackings of most other religions.
[I refer here to St. Pauls' being the main influencer and
promoter of his brand and style of what is now called Christianity which led to the first corruptions of Christ's
Vedic concepts, and created exclusivism.]
8. First concepts of the universal applicability of Stem Cells.
[ See book ,"Man's Eternal Quest"]
9.Detailed teaching in English of Kriya Yoga. [this is the short list, a fraction of PY's innovations] Actually this stands as small stuff when one studies the life
of Paramahansa Yogananda, who like Lord Krishna & Buddha was
an outstanding example of A God-Realized being - a true son of God. And he managed to personally publish and oversee publication of enough of his writings so that no future attempts at misdirection [as happened in Christianity] would be possible. Although many persons attempt to relate historic events to the
presence of their favourite Guru/Prophet,
such connections are very dubious. History progresses on its own accord with or without such religious prophets.
If one tries do this with Yogananda - there are many historic
events of major significance such as India's relinquishing of British rule without attacking the British with violence and widespread terrorism.
The founding of the United Nations, the end of European inter nation wars. etc etc. But one problem that arises is, that if one considers the presence of the four major prophets discussed in the
Autobiography of a Yogi[which covers a period of about 100 years,]
The number of historical changes and technological events in all fields would be an astronomical list of blessings.
Now the followers of other prophets who live in those times may want to claim similar boasts.
The whole exercise is foolish and immature.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing New About Yogananda. Very Much New About Jesus.
Review: If Jesus would have been a mere Gnostic, Kabbalist, hellenized Jew, Bhuddist, Sufi, Magus or Yogi, his life, crucification, and resurrection would not have resulted in a new extraordinarily powerful world religion. Instead, he, like Yogananda, would have merely been another interesting follower and maybe renewer of an already existing tradition. There is nothing really revolutionary or new about Yogananda - nothing we do not already know since ancient times. As history shows, nothing really revolutionary happened after Yogananda's death. However, as René Girard has shown, there is something very new and revolutionary about Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. For the first time in history the unconscious workings of violence, sacrifice and the scapegoat mechanism were revealed and redeemed. As history shows, a lot of revolutionary things happened after Jesus Christ's resurrection. Of course, from the 2nd century onwards, original Christianity became [garbled]. But it became [garbled] under the influence of paganism and Gnosticism. However, the orthodox biblical texts have proved again and again in history to be really dangerous for established unjust and enslaving power and gender structures. This is why historians like Tacitus hated orthodox Jews and Christians, because he saw that prophetic Judaism and unperverted Christianity were a serious danger for the ruling classes and their hypocritic behaviour. This is why many people of Ghandi's liberation movement carried an - orthodox - New Testament with them, although they were Hindus (see E. Stanley Jones, Christ of the Indian Road). This is why Martin Luther King Jr. had to die. People who surpress others never have viewed esoteric teachings à la Yogananda as endangering for their exploitative practices. On the contrary, as the intellectual history of the Greek and Roman aristocracy and many other high society circles throughout all ages shows these circles supported such practices as more or less harmless things that rather supported their ways instead of revealing and threatening them.
Rating:
Summary: ALL RELIGIONS, pro-Judaism, pro-Hindu, pro-Mislim & Christn
Review: This Autobiography is truly a book for all religions, and especially for the study of comparative religion.
There is not a negative bone in the authors body.
The insights in this volume are not only amazing, but bring more common sense
and historical accurracy to the picture of our world spiritual history than most of what we can read anywhere. This book has become a spiritual classic not only because of
its outstanding wisdom and balanced views, but moreso
because the authors life is one of modern times most outstanding
examples of what all scriptures teach as the highest way to live. Intellectuals will come and go, but it is the truly wise and Self-realized who are showing us the way to perfection/salvation.
They also bring the powerful inspiration
which is a motivationg help most of us need to change ourselves.
Most of those same intellectuals have not yet
lived that life as
taught and demonstrated by the great ones all cultures. Their opinions, although interesting, are often contradicted even by themselves [but more often by new discoveries] as time goes by.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece on Yoga , not about scriptural polemics
Review: The sum and substance of this book is not rediscovered Jesus, although it is one of the important undercurrents of the book. Jesus is a controversial subject. The scholarship that has appeared in last 100 years proves with great authenticity that Jesus of popular Christianity is a fabrication invented to further the political agenda of criminally minded imperialists (Roman emperor Constantine, et al) . Let anyone who disputes this read the Christian history of first three centuries from a secular source. After the Council of Nicea in 4th Century AD, the version of Chrisitanity that imposed on masses with brute force and vicious propaganda is the one that survives today as "mainstream". So it is very normal for the ones still believing in this synchronized lie (i.e. "maintream" Chrisitanity) to cry foul when the disinterested studies show that the real Jesus was not as they have been brainwashed into believing. Modern historians and archaeoligists are now uncovering the real truth. In the last century excavations of Nag Hammadi revealed a treasure trove of literature about Jesus which points toward a completely different version of Jesus than was projected through the manipulations and propaganda of "mainstream" Chrisitanity. This original Jesus that we are now redicovering is very close to Yogananda's viewpoint of Jesus. This version of Jesus is human and divine at the same time and very much within the latent spiritual potentiality of all human beings. He is a completely non-sectarion Jesus who would have great respect of cultural and religious pluralism. He is not an exclusivist Jesus of totalitarians and absolutists that founded the Roman Catholic Church (a political body) after the Council of Nicea. It is amazing that Yogananda never had a clue about the Nag Hammadi excavations (discovered in late 1940s) and yet his conception of Jesus is almost same as the one given in the ancient scrolls. This shows Yogananda's deep attunement with greater historical current and great cosmic event that unfolded independently through the efforts of historians and archaeologists after he left his body. If you are a believer in Jungian psychology, then you could almost say that Yogananda's advent in West and rediscovery of real Jesus through Nag Hammadi scrolls in late 1940s were two independent events that werein a "cosmic synchronicty". One event did not influence the other and yet both the events fulfilled each other. It is wrong to say that Yogandanda taught a version of Christ that is removed from Judaism. Infact Yogananda's teaching is the same as those of esoteric Jewish philosophy of Kabbalah. Yogananda brought to West an esoteric truth that was known to all illumined Biblilcal prophets in varied forms and degrees. Yogananda's work is a great achievement for contemporary Bibilical hermeneutics which had suffered an irreparable damage at the hands of agnostic thinkers in the last two centuries due false representation of Jesus by popular Churches. That said, it is wrong to look at this classic from a polemical Chrisitan/Jewish viewpoint only. Yogananda was the one of the earliest pioneer of Yoga in the West. This is a book about Yoga, not about scriptural polemics. Yogananda demystifies the ancient science of the East with the precision of surgeon and brings out its hidden signifance that is very relevant our lives in West. Yogananda could confidently address a theologian and a scientist on their on turf. This is his real genius. His scietific explanations of miraculous in everyday life is something which impresses religious and scientific mind at the same time. If you want to read a book about Yogic practices and understanding Hinduism, this book is an excellent starting point. In Yogananda, both East and West meet in a harmonius and healthy way.
Rating:
Summary: Antisemitic Reading of Jesus Christ
Review: Recent international biblical scholarship agrees that Jesus Christ was deeply rooted in Jewish tradition. Yogananda (who wrote his book in the 1940s), on the other hand, still stands completly in the old antisemitic tradition - shared by traditional catholic and orthodox churches as well as Gnostics, Esoterics and Neohumanists alike - which views Jesus Christ as someone who has nothing to do with or overcomes Hebrew religion. Instead, those traditionalists believe that Jesus Christ's teachings were derived from his syncretistic hellenized environment. This kind of thought is simply obsolete (only people like Mel Gibson and his Caucasian bodied Jesus still seem to believe in this). The total disregard of the Jewish roots of Jesus makes it possible for Yogananda to interpret the New Testament through a typical Gnostic lens. So it is no wonder, for instance, that Yogananda still has a quite uncarnal view of Jesus, Paul and the early Christians. Research of scholars like Raymond Lawrence and Jane Schaberg indicates, however, that Jesus was a very different, much more earthy person as traditionalists dare to believe when viewed through Jewish eyes. Yogananda, on the other hand, not only tried to compare Jesus' life with his own uncarnal one - but, more importantly, shows that is very much a child of his times and not, as he asserts, the holder of eternal wisdom and knowledge.
| 
