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