| Youth
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| | life's mission with the founding and
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| Yogananda was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh in
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| | running of a school for boys in a remote
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| Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India into a
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| | hamlet of Bengal, called Dihika, by the
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| devout Bengali family.[1] According to
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| | side of river Damodar, that combined
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| his elder brother, Sananda, from his
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| | modern educational techniques with yoga
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| earliest years young Mukunda's awareness
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| | training and spiritual ideals. A year
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| and experience of the spiritual was far
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| | later, the school relocated to Ranchi.
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| beyond the ordinary. In his youth he
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| | This school would later become Yogoda
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| sought out many of India's Hindu sages
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| | Satsanga Society of India, the Indian
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| and saints, hoping to find an illuminated
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| | branch of Yogananda's American
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| teacher to guide him in his spiritual
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| | organization.
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| quest.
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| | Move to America
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| In Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi,
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| | In 1920, he went to the United States as
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| he relates numerous stories of saints,
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| | India's delegate to an International
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| scientists, and miracle workers that he
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| | Congress of Religious Liberals convening
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| visited as a youth, including the
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| | in Boston. That same year he founded
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| renowned scientist Jagdish Chandra Bose,
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| | Self-Realization Fellowship to
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| his personal tutor Mahendranath Gupta
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| | disseminate worldwide his teachings on
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| (biographer of Ramakrishna), the Nobel
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| | India's ancient practices and philosophy
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| winning Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore,
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| | of Yoga and its tradition of meditation.
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| the 'Tiger Swami', the 'Perfume Saint',
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| | For the next several years, he lectured
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| the 'Saint with Two Bodies', the
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| | and taught on the East coast and in 1924
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| 'Levitating Saint', and others.
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| | embarked on a cross-continental speaking
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| Yogananda's seeking after various saints
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| | tour. Thousands came to his lectures. [2]
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| mostly ended when he met his guru, Swami
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| | The following year, he established in Los
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| Sri Yukteswar Giri, in 1910, at the age
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| | Angeles an international headquarters for
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| of 17. He describes his first meeting
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| | Self-Realization Fellowship, which became
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| with Sri Yukteswar as a rekindling of a
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| | the spiritual and administrative heart of
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| relationship that had lasted for many
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| | his growing work. Yogananda was the first
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| lifetimes:
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| | Hindu teacher of yoga to make his
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| We entered a oneness of silence; words
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| | permanent home in America, living there
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| seemed the rankest superfluities.
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| | from 1920-1952.
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| Eloquence flowed in soundless chant from
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| | Visit to India, 1935-6
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| heart of master to disciple. With an
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| | In 1935, he returned to India to visit
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| antenna of irrefragable insight I sensed
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| | Sri Yukteswar and to help establish his
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| that my guru knew God, and would lead me
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| | Yogoda Satsanga work in India. During
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| to Him. The obscuration of this life
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| | this visit, as told in his autobiography,
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| disappeared in a fragile dawn of prenatal
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| | he met with Mahatma Gandhi, the Bengali
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| memories. Dramatic time! Past, present,
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| | saint Sri Anandamoyi Ma, Nobel winning
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| and future are its cycling scenes. This
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| | physicist Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman,
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| was not the first sun to find me at these
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| | and several disciples of Sri Yukteswar's
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| holy feet!
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| | Guru Lahiri Mahasaya.[2] While in India,
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| After passing his Intermediate
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| | Sri Yukteswar conferred upon him the
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| Examination in Arts from the Scottish
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| | title Paramahansa, which means "supreme
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| Church College, Calcutta, he did his
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| | swan."[2] In 1936, while visiting
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| graduation in religious studies from the
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| | Calcutta, Yogananda lost his Guru, Sri
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| Serampore College, a constituent college
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| | Yukteswar, who died in the town of Puri.
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| of the University of Calcutta. This
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| | Back in America
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| allowed him to spend time at Sri
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| | After returning to America, he continued
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| Yukteswar's ashram in Serampore. In 1915,
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| | to lecture, write, and establish churches
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| he took formal vows into the monastic
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| | in Southern California. On March 7, 1952,
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| Swami Order and became 'Swami Yogananda
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| | he died while giving a lecture at the
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| Giri'.[2] In 1917, Yogananda began his
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| | Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.
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