My Interview with Philip Goldberg on His Book, “The Life of Yogananda”

 

 

Philip Goldberg

Welcome Phil, thank you for joining us today.
Hey, it’s good to be with you, Phil. Double Phil.

Allow me to introduce you. Philip Goldberg is the author of American Veda, which explores how the spirituality of India seeped into the cultural bloodstream of America. He co-hosts a spiritually themed podcast, leads American Veda Tours through India, and blogs regularly for popular media sites. His latest book, and the subject of our conversation today, is The Life of Yogananda, which is a biography of Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi.

(Click here to order your copy of The Life of Yogananda.)

Phil, why did you choose to write a biography of Yogananda, whose iconic autobiography has been read by millions of people?
I’m sure you will appreciate that that is the most commonly asked question I’ve had in the last few years as I worked on the book, and the answer is there’s an awful lot about Yogananda’s life that is not in his iconic memoir. Especially his life after he left India and came to America, where he would spend just about the rest of his life.

I did a page count of Autobiography of a Yogi, and it turns out that less than 10 percent of the book is about his years in America, and there are portions of those years that he summarizes in a sentence or two that in fact lasted four or five years. So there’s an awful lot that people don’t know about Yogananda if all they’ve ever read is Autobiography of a Yogi, and I wanted to fill the gaps.

What do you see as Yogananda’s place in the overall spiritual history of the western world?
It’s immense, actually. You know, when I first read Autobiography of a Yogi, at the risk of giving away my age, it was 1970, and it had a big impact on me and a big impact on my whole cohort of young spiritual seekers that were just then discovering Indian philosophy and the practices that come from the yogic repertoire, like meditation. The Beatles had just gone to India, and not long before that, the whole interest exploded.

Autobiography of a Yogi was probably the most borrowed and most often ripped-off book among that cohort of youngsters doing all that spiritual exploring. Falling in love with India, falling in love with practices like meditation, and with gurus like Yogananda. He was of course long gone by then, but the autobiography was a big deal, and launched millions of

Awake: The Life of Yogananda

AWAKE: THE LIFE OF YOGANANDA TRAILER

Click here to order the Awake DVD.

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Co-director Paola di Florio

Awake: The Life of Yogananda, the documentary exploring the life of Indian guru Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi, opened in theaters nationwide in the fall of 2014.

Co-director Lisa Leeman

The film quickly gained great acclaim, winning prestigious awards at major film fests, including the

Steve Jobs’ Final Gift

In this four-minute video, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff reveals the gift that Steve Jobs had arranged for all the guests at his memorial service to receive on their way out the door.

Hint: It’s commonly

Life After Death After Life

Paramahansa Yogananda

In chapter 43 of his spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda recalls the miraculous day when his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, revealed to him the details of the afterlife.

I found this chapter both thrilling and uplifting. I love the idea that we continue to learn and grow and improve ourselves through countless lifetimes, whether we are incarnated or not.

So which would you prefer, an eternity of playing the harp on fluffy clouds or the worlds within worlds described by Yogananda’s guru?

Here is a long excerpt from that chapter.

“As prophets are sent on earth to help men work out their physical karma, so I have been directed by God to serve on an astral planet as a savior,” Sri Yukteswar explained. “It is called Hiranyaloka or ‘Illumined Astral Planet.’ There I am aiding advanced beings to rid themselves of astral karma and thus attain liberation from astral rebirths. The dwellers on Hiranyaloka are highly developed spiritually; all of them had acquired, in their last earth-incarnation, the meditation-given power of consciously leaving their physical bodies at death. No one can enter Hiranyaloka unless

Outwitting the Stars

Swami Sri Yukteswar and Paramahansa Yogananda

I never had much of an appreciation for astrology. Over the years, a number of people I highly respected spoke glowingly of its value and validity but I just didn’t care enough about the subject to invetsigate it further.

Then one day, I happened to read a chapter in a life-changing book that burned off the fog of ignorance and answered every question I had about astrology. It was written with clarity, precision, wit and wisdom, and I felt the subject come brilliantly alive for me as I read it.

Here is the beginning of that chapter from the spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda.

It is a dialogue between Yogananda and his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar.

OUTWITTING THE STARS

“Mukunda, why don’t you get an astrological armlet?”

“Should I, Master? I don’t believe in astrology.”

“It is never a question of belief; the only scientific attitude one can take on any subject is whether it is true. The law of gravitation worked as efficiently before Newton as after him. The cosmos would be fairly chaotic if its laws could not operate without the sanction of human belief.

“Charlatans

Three Books

If you could recommend just three books to all your friends, which three would you choose? The only rules are that they each have to be very different from each other (different authors, genres, etc.) and your list cannot include the Bible.

Here are my three:

Reading Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda at the age of forty-two was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. From the beginning chapter, I felt like I had finally come home. This was the life I had always wished was possible but never dreamed it could be. Read my full post on this book.


Picking up a battered old copy of

Masters Continue to Walk the Earth

Babaji

I have heard many a person scoff at the notion that avatars (those who have achieved oneness with divine consciousness) have been present throughout every age. They ask, “If such exalted beings existed, why haven’t we heard of them?”

One reason is that skeptics are the least likely to read accounts of such lives, which can be found in a number of spiritual texts. Indeed, evidence suggests that these masters have walked the Earth and continue to do so to this day. Their lives serve as both proof and inspiration that all things are possible when you wholeheartedly give your life to God.

While these contemporary Christ-like figures can effortlessly perform miracles that defy the laws of physics, the general public will remain unaware of their existence. Uniting with divine consciousness necessitates the death of the ego; the notion that these selfless saints would flaunt their abilities is unthinkable. Holiness and humility walk hand in hand.

Eckhart Tolle made another important point on page 87 of his powerful book, The Power of Now:

Never personalize Christ. Don’t make Christ into a form identity. Avatars, divine mothers, enlightened masters, the very few that are real, are not special as persons. Without a false self to uphold, defend, and feed, they are

“Autobiography of a Yogi” Changed My Life

Reading Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda at the age of forty-two was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. From the beginning chapter, I felt like I had finally come home. This was the life I had always wished was possible but never dreamed it could be! After finishing it, I sent away to Self-Realization Fellowship, the organization Yogananda founded in 1920, for the three-and-a-half years’ worth of bimonthly lessons on “right living” and follow Yogananda’s teachings today as part of my daily spiritual discipline.

I just now finished listening to Chapter 23 in my car. I’ve listened to the audiobook version, read by Ben Kingsley, three times now and it never fails to thrill me. Everything in this book resonates in harmony with who I am and who I wish to become. I was already teaching spiritual classes by the time I encountered this book and was amazed at how much deeper it took me in my knowledge and practice.

Yogananda teaches that direct contact with God is

Bathed in Loving Energy in Encinitas

The SRF Encinitas Temple

I first visited Encinitas, California, in June 2000 as part of the annual Self-Realization Fellowship Convocation. When I walked into the SRF temple where dozens of devotees were silently meditating, I was immediately enveloped in thick, palpable loving energy. I stopped in my tracks, transfixed. I wanted to stay right where I was, rooted to the ground, and let this incredible energy wash over me for hours. I forced myself to sit in a pew but was too