43 Facts About Paramahansa Yogananda

Paramahansa Yogananda immigrated to the US at the age of 27 to demonstrate the unity between Eastern and Western religions and to advocate for a balance between Western material growth and Indian spirituality.

Paramahansa Yogananda lived his last 32 years in the US.

Paramahansa Yogananda's "plain living and high thinking" principles attracted people from all backgrounds among his followers.

Paramahansa Yogananda published his Autobiography of a Yogi in 1946 to critical and commercial acclaim.

Paramahansa Yogananda was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India to a Hindu Bengali Kayastha family.

Paramahansa Yogananda was the fourth of the eight children, and second of the four sons, of Bhagabati Charan Ghosh, the vice president of Bengal-Nagpur Railway, and Gyanprabha Devi.

Paramahansa Yogananda began praying for guidance; in 1910, his seeking after various teachers mostly ended when, at the age of 17, he met his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri; at that time his well-guarded amulet mysteriously vanished, having served its spiritual purpose.

Paramahansa Yogananda would go on to train under Sri Yukteswar as his disciple for the next ten years at his hermitages in Serampore and Puri.

In 1917, Paramahansa Yogananda founded a school for boys in Dihika, West Bengal that combined modern educational techniques with yoga training and spiritual ideals.

Paramahansa Yogananda sought his guru's advice, and Sri Yukteswar advised him to go.

Paramahansa Yogananda spent the next four years in Boston; in the interim, he lectured and taught on the East Coast and in 1924 embarked on a cross-continental speaking tour.

Paramahansa Yogananda was the first Hindu teacher of yoga to spend a major portion of his life in America.

Paramahansa Yogananda was put on a government watch list and kept under surveillance by the FBI and the British authorities, who were concerned about the growing independence movement in India.

In 1928, Paramahansa Yogananda received unfavorable publicity in Miami, and the police chief, Leslie Quigg, prohibited Paramahansa Yogananda from holding any further events.

Bagchi claimed that they had a business partnership and that Paramahansa Yogananda owed him wages and royalties.

The lawsuit was eventually settled, but some of Paramahansa Yogananda's students chose to instead follow Bagchi, who shed his monastic name and became a married academic.

Paramahansa Yogananda met various people who caught his interest: Mahatma Gandhi, whom he initiated into Kriya Yoga; woman-saint Anandamoyi Ma; Giri Bala, an elderly yogi woman who survived without eating; renowned physicist Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman; and several disciples of Sri Yukteswar's guru, Lahiri Mahasaya.

In late 1936, Paramahansa Yogananda's ship arrived in New York harbor, passing the Statue of Liberty; he and his companions then drove in his Ford car across the continental US back to his Mount Washington, California, headquarters.

Paramahansa Yogananda took up residence at the SRF hermitage in Encinitas, California, which was a surprise gift from his advanced disciple Rajarsi Janakananda.

In 1946, Paramahansa Yogananda took advantage of a change in immigration laws and applied for citizenship.

Paramahansa Yogananda's application was approved in 1949, and he became a naturalized US citizen.

Paramahansa Yogananda began hinting to his disciples that it was time for him to leave the world.

Paramahansa Yogananda's body was apparently in a phenomenal state of immutability.

Paramahansa Yogananda's remains are interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Great Mausoleum in Glendale, California.

Paramahansa Yogananda taught that mankind's deep suffering is rooted in identifying too closely with one's current role, rather than with the movie's director, or God.

Paramahansa Yogananda taught Kriya Yoga and other meditation practices to help people achieve that understanding, which he called Self-realization:.

Paramahansa Yogananda claimed that God had spoken to him many times, apart from making miracles happen in his life.

Paramahansa Yogananda gave a general description of Kriya Yoga in his Autobiography:.

In 1946, Paramahansa Yogananda published his life story, Autobiography of a Yogi.

Paramahansa Yogananda re-read it in India and later while preparing for a trip, he downloaded it onto his iPad2 and then re-read it once a year ever since.

The absence of any visual signs of decay in the dead body of Paramahansa Yogananda offers the most extraordinary case in our experience.

Embalming of the body of Paramahansa Yogananda took place twenty-four hours after his demise.

The location of Paramahansa Yogananda's crypt is in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Golden Slumber, Mausoleum Crypt 13857, Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

Paramahansa Yogananda founded the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India in 1917 and then expanded it in 1920 to the United States naming it the Self-Realization Fellowship.

Paramahansa Yogananda expressed this intention again in 1939 in his magazine Inner Culture for Self-Realization that he published through his organization:.

Paramahansa Swami Yogananda renounced all his ownership rights in the Self-Realization Fellowship when it was incorporated as a nonprofit religious organization under the laws of California, March 29,1935.

In India and surrounding countries, Paramahansa Yogananda's teachings are disseminated by YSS which has more than 100 centers, retreats, and ashrams.

She, too, was personally chosen and trained by Paramahansa Yogananda to help guide the dissemination of his teachings after his death.

Paramahansa Yogananda incorporated the Self-Realization Fellowship as a nonprofit organization and reassigned all of his property including Mt.

Paramahansa Yogananda's work continues to grow and shine ever more brightly, drawing people everywhere on the path of the pilgrimage of the Spirit.

Prime Minister Modi at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi appreciated Paramahansa Yogananda for spreading the message of India's spirituality in foreign shores.

Paramahansa Yogananda said that though Yogananda left the shores of India to spread his message, he always remained connected with India.

Paramahansa Yogananda initiated about 100,000 students into Kriya Yoga during his time in the West.