Paramhansa Yogananda was the first yoga master of India whose mission it was to live and teach in the West. In the 1920s, as he criss-crossed the United States on what he called his "spiritual cam paigns," his enthusiastic audiences filled the largest halls of America. His initial impact was truly impressive. But his lasting influence is greater still. This book, first published in 1946, helped launch, and continues to inspire, a spiritual revolution in the West. Only rarely does a sage of Paramhansa Yogananda's stature write a firsthand account of his life experience. Followers of many reli gious traditions have come to recognize Autobiography of a Yogi as a masterpiece of spiritual literature. Yet, for all its depth, it is full of gentle humor, lively stories, and practical common sense. This is a verbatim reprinting of the original 1946 edition. Although subsequent reprintings, reflecting revisions made after the author's death in 1952, have sold over a million copies and have been translated into more than 19 languages, the few thousand of the original have long since disappeared into the hands of collectors. Now, with this reprint, the 1946 edition is again available, with all its inherent power, just as the great master of yoga first presented it. "In the original edition, published during Yogananda's life, one is more in contact with Yogananda himself. While Yogananda founded centers and organizations, his concern was more with guiding individuals to direct communion with Divinity rather than with promoting any one church as opposed to another. This spirit is easier to grasp in the original edition of this great spiritual and yogic classic.".