The popular actress Mariel Hemingway wrote in her book Finding My Balance that she was “mesmerized by the Autobiography of a Yogi and loved the whole great Hindu tradition of spiritual seeking …” The Beatles are said to be inspired by this great book by Paramahansa Yogananda and countless are the names and big names and people. Whom did not this book inspire and put on the ‘right track’ of spiritual rebirth of a kind? Paramahansa Yogananda was surely a gem for India and the great Indian Hindu culture and a way of living with traditions such high that anyone in the world’s diverse corners bows his head unto. His great work Autobiography of a Yogi brought this great tradition to the light and then the world knew not only a Yogi but also the entire clan of Yogis and a tradition of Yogis.

Translated into more than 45 languages, Autobiography of a Yogi is one of the best-selling autobiographies in the world and it has been listed on the various lists which measure the best books with various measures. First published in 1946 by The Philosophical Library, this book received tremendous fame and encouragement and praises poured in for the book as well as the author. Famous author Thomas Mann wrote:

“This renewed contract with the Yogi-sphere, its mental superiority to material reality, and its spiritual discipline was very instructive for me, and I am grateful to you for granting me some insight into this fascinating world.”

Autobiography of a Yogi is the account of divine Sri Paramahansa Yogananda’s journey from his boyhood to the sainthood and various of his encounters with the great minds of the east and of the west as well. Moreover, the book also contains some of the chapters which are solely the personal opinions of the Yogi himself. In chapter 30, The Law of Miracles, Sri Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda writes:

“Maya or avidya can never be destroyed through intellectual conviction or analysis, but solely through attaining the interior state of nirbikalpa samaadhi.”

In short, the grand-book of books, Autobiography of a Yogi is the gateway which opens a new world of the greatest of the Indian and the Western minds to the common readers. You can know who were some of the best spiritual saints and philosophical seekers in the world and also blessed with the opinions on them by none other than this great saint of Indian soil Paramahansa Yogananda. Anyone whos is interested in reading something thrilling and enchanting and at the same time calm and dearly enlightening, this book is for him or her!

You can get a copy of this book by visiting the Amazon link below.

Autobiography of a Yogi on Amazon

by a BTR contributor