In India “Auto biography of a Yogi” is a Bible for millions of people who are the followers of Paramhamsa Yoganada. He was the person who changed the concept of traditional spiritual leadership. This is a beautiful example of a spiritual leader writing his own biography with a mere intension of penning all his spiritual experience to help his followers.

In this book Yoganada simply narrates his spiritual journey and without our knowledge guiding us to the spiritual path. For a beginner it may take some time to digest the philosophy behind the narrations but if he goes on reading again and again, slowly but steadily he will be taken to the unknown world of spiritual happiness, which I believe, will not be available to every body. In the whole book, we cannot find any preaching but at the end we will realize, his life story itself a preaching for us. I think buying this book is a noble idea, because who knows what is stored in our life for us.

Since I was born into a Catholic family, I grew up watching the grim, sorrowful, unsmiling visages of our innumerable saints. I firmly believed that a saint does not smile; he/she is a saint because he/she bleeds and suffers.

After reading this great book, which is the life story of Paramahamsa Yogananda, I laughed in sheer ecstasy. He changed all my ideas of sainthood forever. Saints do have a mischievous smile, and saints do laugh, sing, and dance for joy because they see God everywhere. For them, God is existence itself and the world a playhouse of delight. Therefore, they are joyous, ever smiling, tender, loving, gracious, and understanding. This is the message of Yogananda’s “Autobiography of a Yogi.”

Of course, Yogananda is not a saint in the Christian sense of the term; he is a real Yogi, an enlightened person. Reading the story of his life is a great spiritual exercise. I just love Yogananda, who is so human, and yet so divine. Truly, he bridges the gap between the divine and the human in a way no other Yogi has done. The Autobiography is a great book that can spiritually transform you.

This book can be a little overwhelming for a beginning student of eastern studies, but I think if you stick with it, you are going to learn a lot about the traditions and culture of meditation, gurus and transcendence.

This story covers the life of a great guru, and how he took the words of his masters and passed them on to the western world.

Full of colorful cultural insight, a bit of philosophy and adventure to boot, this book really is a good read. Be ready to look up terms that may not be failure to you, and maybe even do more reading of the materials Yogananda wrote over his lifetime, just to round this out.

This is one of the earliest books I ever encountered that talked about eastern religious thought, this book helped increase awareness and acceptance in the west for eastern philosophy, meditation, yoga and the whole Guru culture way back before yoga was a mainstream exercise discipline! This book is a classic, I still have my well worn copy, even after so many years.

I read this book a long time ago, much before my personal spiritual journey started. At that time, I considered Yogi's and Guru's to be a different class of creation..... almost as if they were of different species ! Though my religious background was hinduism, we were raised to be skeptical of all "gurus".

Therefore I read this book with a lot of curiosity. To me my purpose was to raise a family and make money just like my parents. It was sufficient for me to be a "good" person, follow the rules and that's it! So my whole concept of spiritual people was..... people leaving home to live in wild places and undergo tremendous hardship to realise God. This book did not dispel those ideas.
But for the first time, I got a peak into how these spiritual beings actually lived. The book has a lot of instances and incidents which look miraculous, like astral travelling, healing etc. But I read it with fascination. Through all this comes a picture of an exalted being, a person who though was blessed with immense spiritual power, is also human.

What I loved about the book is that it had no preachings, it didn't ask you to believe in anything, but simply related the events and let you draw you own impressions. So the choice is left to you, whether to believe in some of the ideas it conveys, or to remain a skeptic. Either way, you will not get bored reading this book.

This is the highly doctored version that was published by the Self-Realization Fellowship. It is NOT ACCURATE. Instead, buy the book with the BLUE cover. It is the original, untouched version by P. Yogananda.

About the TRUE BLUE book, it is a fabulous story for seekers. The book is a powerful recitation of many of dear Yogananda's experiences while he was on his way to enlightenment. It is a fascinating insight into an incredible life of a true saint. The blue covered "Autobiography of a Yogi" I give 10 stars but not the orange covered one.

This is the story of the life of a spiritual seeker, the most famous in the west, Paramahansa Yogananda. The book has great pictures, and constantly talks about what Mr. Yogananda believes to be a method to obtain ultimate realization, Kriya Yoga. Stories in the book are hypnotic, and seem to defy the material reality of the West. Many precepts of the Hindu religion are explored throughout this autobiography, and some of them shed light from a different perception upon the Christian and Judaic faiths. Yogananda writes humbly and includes his foibles and the pratfalls he takes as he journeys through life's lessons. In fact, unless you read elsewhere about his life you won't realize how much he understates his own accomplishments while he honors other spiritual seekers and teachers he encounters. His stories of encounters with amazing saints of all regions and religions are spell-binding, and you may find yourself devouring the whole book on your first read -- just reveling in the wonders of these true spiritual seekers. you experience this book as you move from one paragraph to another...you will be a changed person before you'll reach its final chapter.