Autobiography of a Yogi

Yogananda tells about the time he visited Rabindranath Tagore in Calcutta, soon after Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Two years after founding his school, Tagore invites Yogananda to visit him in Santiniketan to discuss their educational ideals. Yogananda sees many similarities between Tagore’s school and his own. The differences are that Tagore places greater emphasis on the study of literature and poetry and the performance of music and song and does not include instruction in yoga. Tagore listens attentively as Yogananda explains the Yogoda exercises. Tagore talks about his own life, including the fact that he dropped out of school in the fifth grade. His aim in his own school is not to cram students with information from outside sources but to encourage their discovery of the wisdom they hold within themselves.

Yogananda explains the law of miracles by first supplying some metaphysical background. Humans are normally subject to the dualism of appearances. God is a unity, but creation is made up of duality. This is the nature of maya, or illusion, whereby the One takes on the appearance of many.