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.