Finding God Through Yoga: Paramahansa Yogananda and the Maki

‘at once fair honest and unflinching this book will be used widely as the standard scholarly source for the life and teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda as well as for the understanding of Hinduism religious charisma—in America.’—Jeffrey J. Kripal rice UniversityParamahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) wrote one of the world’s most acclaimed spiritual classics autobiography of a Yogi which was first published in 1946 and continues to be one of the highest-selling spiritual philosophy titles of all time. In this biography David Neumann tells the story of Yogananda’s fascinating life while interpreting his position in religious history transnational modernity and Western especially American culture. Beginning with Yogananda’s spiritual investigations in India Neumann describes 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 to this day. Preaching his message of Hindu yogic philosophy in a land that routinely sent its own evangelists to India Yogananda was fuelled 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 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 connection between religion and commercial culture in a deepening American religious pluralism.