01Serampore
He was born at Gorakhpur on 5 January 1893 into a Bengali family; his parents were disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya of Kashi, who had received Kriya Yoga from Mahavatar Babaji. As a boy he ran away more than once towards the Himalaya. In 1910 in Varanasi he met Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri and trained for ten years in his ashram at Serampore, while taking his degree from Calcutta University in 1915. That year he took sannyasa in the Giri branch of the Dashanami order as Swami Yogananda. In 1917 he started a boys’ school that moved to Ranchi in 1918, the start of the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India.
02Thirty years in America
In 1920 he sailed to Boston as India’s delegate to the International Congress of Religious Liberals and stayed, founding the Self-Realization Fellowship that year and, in 1925, its headquarters on Mount Washington in Los Angeles. He lectured to packed halls across America and taught Kriya Yoga to thousands. On a visit home in 1935–36 he met Gandhi at Wardha and his guru Sri Yukteswar gave him the title Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi appeared in 1946. He died in Los Angeles on 7 March 1952, just after speaking at a banquet for India’s ambassador.
