Paramahansa Yogananda: biography of a yogi

Paramahansa Yogananda was responsible for transmitting his knowledge about the practice of daily meditation to the West. His teachings were completely new.

The life and teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda continue to be, to this day, a great source of inspiration for people around the world. His fame and recognition are due to having become the person in charge of transmitting Indian spiritual teachings to the West.

Paramahansa Yogananda decided to teach the kriya yoga to the West in order to bring their knowledge to the world. But what exactly does it consist of?

To get to know this teacher, it is important to know that he kriya yoga It is a very advanced spiritual technique that is developed based on a series of meditation practices pranayana.

The origin of the term kriya It comes from Sanskrit and means to act and react. It has the same root as the word karma, defined as cause and effect. The full term, kriya yogameans union with the infinite through certain practices or actions.

Educated from a very young age in this spiritual science, Paramahansa Yogananda He was designated as a child to be the chosen one to bring this ancient knowledge to the Western world. A mission to which he dedicated his training and the work of his entire life.

His early years

He was born in 1893 in Gorakhpur, into a wealthy Bengali family. Already in the arms of his mother, the spiritual teacher of his parents predicted that the boy would be a yogi called to be the spiritual mover of many souls.

At the age of seventeen, he became a disciple of the great yoga master Swami Sri Yukteswar. With him, she would spend the next ten years of his life training in his spiritual discipline.

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His teacher had decided, already from their first meeting, that Paramahansa Yogananda would be in charge of spreading the science of kriya yoga In America And in the rest of the world. After graduating from the University of Calcutta, he would take the vows of a monk.

In 1917, he began work on founding a school for boys on the outskirts of Calcutta. It was there, three years later, that Paramahansa Yogananda He had a vision that showed him that the time had come to undertake his task. to the other side of the world and teach the West the keys to meditation. Yogananda was invited to participate in a conference of religious leaders in Boston.

Paramahansa Yogananda and his mission in the West

His teacher had indicated to him that the science of kriya yoga would help harmonize all countries through personal and transcendental perception of the world. And, with that premise, the young swami arrived in Boston, where he gave his first speech on the science of religion, which was received with great enthusiasm.

In 1920, coinciding with the year of his arrival in the United States, he founded the first SRF (Self-Realization Fellowship) meditation center in Boston. He spent the next four years lecturing and sharing his teachings throughout the East Coast. In 1924, he headed to Los Angeles, where he established another headquarters for the SRF. This headquarters, built on Mount Washington, would end up becoming the spiritual and administrative heart From his job.

Many Prominent figures from the world of arts, business and science became his students. The West began to soak up his wisdom and he was even welcomed into the White House. In 1929, he traveled to Mexico to begin his work there to disseminate the science of kriya yoga in Latin America.

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Return to India and final years

In 1935, Paramahansa Yogananda He decides to return to the side of his teacher Sri Yukteswar, who would die just a few months later.. During his stay in India, he continued his teachings of the kriya yoga in the most important cities. He often met with Mahatma Ghandi, who had become one of the followers of Paramahansa Yogananda’s teachings.

It was during that year in India that he received the spiritual title of Paramahansa. This title is given to teachers who are in the final state of union with God, and means “supreme swan.” Upon the death of his teacher, Paramahansa Yogananda returned to the United States, specifically, to his seat of Mount Washington. He opened a few more temples and continued giving teachings of kriya yoga for the rest of his life.

The last years of his life were spent in isolation and dedicated to writing.. In 1946, he published Autobiography of a yogi, a book that has not stopped being published since then and has been translated into countless languages. Which gives us a clue of his great impact and the interest that his knowledge aroused – and continues to arouse -.

Paramahansa Yogananda He died on March 7, 1952. His disciples say that it was a conscious departure from his body, which remained intact for the next twenty days after his death. An extraordinary phenomenon that ended up enveloping and generating the legend of this great spiritual teacher.

Some revolutionary teachings

The purpose of Paramahansa Yogananda’s teachings was to provide the population with the spiritual tools for the transition to the new era.he Duapara Yuga. His most revolutionary teachings, in the Western world, were based on the fact that man should wake up from the dream in which he lives to become aware of his unity with God.