Paramahansa Yogananda

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) was an Indian yogi who moved to the United States in 1920 and became, over three decades, the most influential Eastern spiritual teacher in early-twentieth-century America.

He founded the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) to disseminate Kriya Yoga, an energy-and-breath meditation technique he received through his guru Sri Yukteswar and the lineage of Lahiri Mahasaya and the legendary Babaji.

His Autobiography of a Yogi (1946) became one of the best-selling and most enduring spiritual books of the century, carrying its accounts of miracles, masters, and meditative realization to a vast Western readership and famously influencing figures from Steve Jobs to generations of seekers.

For the mind-power lineage, Yogananda is doubly important. First, his Kriya Yoga centers on the subtle body and life-energy (prana) — directing the flow of energy up the spine to expand consciousness — which is a clear ancestor of the “energy” and “vibration” language that pervades New Age and manifestation thought.

Second, Yogananda actively built bridges to Western mind-science: he praised and engaged New Thought, taught the creative power of thought, will, and concentrated attention, and authored works (Scientific Healing Affirmations, the Law of Success) that read almost interchangeably with New Thought self-help.

His framing of God as Cosmic Consciousness and of the human being as able to draw on infinite inner energy and intelligence fused Indian yogic metaphysics with the American gospel of mental causation, making him a principal conduit through which yoga’s consciousness-first, energy-based worldview entered the manifestation mainstream.