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Finding God through Yoga: Paramahansa Yogananda and Modern American Religion in a Global Age. By David J. Neumann

2020; Oxford University Press; Volume: 51; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/whq/whaa083

1939-8603

Susan Love Brown,

Study and Philosophy of Religion

When an interest in Eastern religions became a trend among baby boomers in the late twentieth century, few Americans realized how deeply the roots of this interest in the East were embedded in American history, particularly in the spiritual work of Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952), founder of the Yogoda Satsanga Society (YSS) in India and the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) in California. Credited by the author as being the “Father of Yoga” in the Western world (p. 3), Yogananda and the rise of yogic consciousness in the United States has been hardly studied as an important event in the American history of religion. Neumann remedies this situation by providing a well-researched and scholarly account of the rise of Yogananda. This book traces the historical journey of this Indian guru from his boyhood in Bengal, his finding of his own guru and his development as an evangelist of Kriya Yoga, which he was...