Born 1893 in Gorakhpur, India. From childhood he was obsessed with finding a guru; at seventeen he met Sri Yukteswar and began the training that would define his life. In 1920 he sailed to the United States to represent India at the International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston. He never fully returned.
He founded the Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles and spent the next thirty-two years teaching Kriya Yoga to Americans. His Autobiography of a Yogi (1946) is one of the most widely read spiritual books of the twentieth century — Steve Jobs famously asked for it to be given to every attendee at his memorial.
He died on 7 March 1952 in Los Angeles, mid-speech, at a banquet honouring India's ambassador. The mortuary that received his body issued a notarised letter stating that over twenty days, no physical decay was observed. Read it literally or read it symbolically — the teaching he left is the same either way.
Autobiography of a Yogi
One of the most influential spiritual autobiographies ever written — Yogananda's account of his life and the masters of India, the transmission of Kriya Yoga, and a master who lived in continuous communion with the Source. Steve Jobs requested it be distributed at his memorial. Required reading.
The Second Coming of Christ
Yogananda's interpretation of the Gospels through the lens of Kriya Yoga and universal mystical principles.