Will I love Autobiography of a Yogi?

I first read this iconic memoir in 1970, and I still have the five-dollar hardcover I borrowed and never returned. I’ve read it many times now and teach courses on it, yet I find something new every time. Published in 1946, it’s more than a unique life story (in fact, Yogananda left out so much that I felt compelled to write a complete biography of him, The Life of Yogananda).

The book also offers a primer on Indian philosophy and yogic practices, profiles of extraordinary people, vivid glimpses of early 20th-century Indian culture, and eye-popping miracles and wonders, along… show more.

This book opened my mind to the possibility of spiritual superpowers and the wealth of wisdom that lives in the ancient spiritual traditions of the world.

A little on the dense side, this amazing book blew my mind as I felt like I was transported in time to study at the feet of great masters. I was amazed by stories of miracles and incredible gifts of consciousness that had otherwise seemed only the stuff of movies and fiction.

The images were so compelling to me that I could not stop reading it. It felt like a course in deep metaphysics.… show more.

I read this book once a year. Ever since I first read it many years ago. The reasons are simple and clear. It reminds me that the world is beautiful and there are multiple dimensions to it.

It renews my hope, and it furthers my interest in leading an authentic yet inquisitive life.

One can’t put together a yoga memoir list without including this classic. So much has been written about it (including that it was George Harrison’s favorite book) but I’ll add my two cents, which is that this memoir helps one believe that there’s a greater force, source, being, or something out there orchestrating some of the uncanny stuff we meet up with in our lives. Yogananda was a revered spiritual teacher, but he was also a human being. When he couldn’t be with his mother at her death, he writes that the “Intervening Hand” arranged his absence because his presence… show more.

This was the first book I read on Yoga and it gave me a wonderful creative look at the effects yoga can have on a life. Inspiring and quite beautiful to read. It actually took me into a dream state as I envisioned the magnificence of this lifestyle. I still have the original copy I read which is tattered over so many re-reads. Decades later, my dissertation in Education included numerous references to this book and the profound influence it had on my teaching and on my life.

If I were stranded on a desert island, the one book I would want would be Autobiography of a Yogi. It holds every principle we need for the evolution of consciousness, all within a captivating story of one yoga master’s fascinating life. I have read it 6 times now and every time I find new ah-ha’s and things that will improve my life. Since reading it the first time, I feel my capacity to love has increased exponentially and I understand far more about the purpose of life. 

This is a breakthrough, must-read, buy-it-now yoga book that will set the broader context for your home yoga practice. If I stumble across a copy in a secondhand bookshop, I always buy it, because I’m constantly giving away the copy I own. That’s how good it is. Paramahansa Yogananda, a university graduate, was one of the first great yoga masters to come over from India to the West.

This book tells the tale of studying with his guru – and it is a fantastical and magical story of expanded notions of what reality is. There’s everything from dematerialising gurus to… show more.

Named one of the 100 best spiritual books of the 20th century, this autobiography of a guru’s spiritual search for enlightenment reads like a page-turner thriller. Here’s one story: when he was a young boy, his atheist brother dared him (if he believed so firmly in God) to go without money to a far-off city, live well for a day, and return without having spent a cent. That story alone changed my life.