Autobiography of a Yogi: Some Take Aways

Autobiography of a yogi response.

This book heavily impacted my life. When you first hold the book, its spiritual power is palpable and I am always brought to a place of deep peace. Yogananda’s smiling face and gentle, holy glow on the cover is the very picture of compassion, beckoning one to dive deeper into oneself so that you too may find what he has found.

During my time reading “Autobiography of a Yogi”, I treated it as a holy book, taking all of its words for fact, all of his proclamations as gospel. During my first period of time reading this book, there was no doubt in my mind that all which he said was true. I figured if one of his ethical vows was to only speak truth, then he may only write true events in this book. Upon reading of saints who teleport, fight tigers, see the future, and heal incurable diseases, I resolved to meditate for an hour on multiple occasions. Animating my mind with colorful images of what is possible in the spiritual world, my spiritual progress quickened, but my ego became attached to achieving siddhi. What person could possibly hear of all this power, believe it is attainable, yet not devote his will striving for it?

There came a point in my intellectual development where I decided to question everything. This was brought about by my recognition that the term religion implies a degree of organization and social control. Why else would Hinduism have a caste system? So the wealthy may remain wealthy while the poor remain poor. So the powerful remain powerful while the weak remain weak. Blindly following any religion, or any human’s claim to know a “truth,” became impossible for me. Yogis bringing people back to life, creating entire palaces from nothing but their God connection, and firmly asserting that some people are inherently lower than others contradicts my sensibilities and deepest held convictions.

I then began to question some of the moral and ethical components of the yoga system, mainly the vow to always tell the truth. I can believe the internal spiritual claims to be true, such as finding constant bliss or being visited by a god; but I had a difficult time believing that advanced yogis can be capable of such feats. If an advanced yogi can heal any disease, why wouldn’t they save everyone’s life? Maybe the individual who suffers has karma that dictates they cannot be saved this hardship, but even that is pretty far out. My only thought was that each part of the first limb is rated in terms of importance. The first tenant is ahimsa, or nonviolence, often interpreted as love for all beings. The second is satya, or truthfulness. Perhaps it is ok to lie (my opinion is that they are lies, this is not fact) if it serves the purpose of promoting hinduism, and therefore promoting a more peaceful and enlightened world. Those who follow hinduism tend to believe it is the most clear way to find happiness and peace in the world; it is dogmatic like all other religions. What if by not telling these tales, the yogis believe that they are actually doing harm to the world and are willing to sacrifice satya for ahimsa?

All of this is not to say I do not appreciate the book or the religion behind the book, it has changed my life for the better. All of this is to say that there are many nuances when it comes to anything in life. The only way to work your way through is to realize you can only speak from the context in which you find yourself. Empathy and understanding is incredibly important.

All in all, please read this book, it is certainly one of the more enlightening books I have ever had the pleasure to read. Yogananda’s life is filled with wonder and he has the capacity to inspire compassion in anyone who crosses his path, either meeting the man himself, or his legacy, the yoga schools he created, self realization fellowship, or his books. I would recommend this book to anyone searching for faith, or just interested in a compelling story.