Autobiography of a Yogi

The following quotation from the gospel of John appears on the title page of Autobiography of a Yogi: “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe” (4:48). Yogananda follows this maxim, providing an overwhelming number of “signs and wonders” including divine visions, predictions of the future, telepathic communication, and miraculous healings to convince his Western readers that the East has something to offer them. The first supernatural occurrence is in Chapter 1, when the spiritual master Lahiri Mahasaya appears before Yogananda’s father’s eyes to tell him that he is being too hard on his employee in mocking his desire to visit his guru. Father is so impressed by the guru’s ability to materialize and intercede for his disciple that he becomes a disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya himself, virtually on the spot. The miracles described in the text usually have this kind of transformative effect on those who witness them. People find their lives permanently changed by the divine intervention. Also in Chapter 1, eight-year-old Mukunda is healed from Asiatic cholera—an illness that was frequently fatal at that time—simply by gazing at the photograph of Lahiri Mahasaya that adorns the family altar. Later in the same chapter, Mukunda has a vision of a group of saints who declare themselves to be Himalayan yogis.