My Parents and Early Life

Paramahansa Yogananda was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh in 1893 in Gorakhpur, India, into a devout Bengali family. His father, Bhagabati Charan Ghosh, served as a high-ranking railway executive—a man of discipline, integrity, and quiet spiritual devotion. His mother, Gyana Prabha, possessed deep intuition and often experienced spiritual visions. She recognized from Mukunda's infancy that her son was no ordinary child.

From his earliest years, young Mukunda displayed unusual spiritual awareness. He later recalled having clear memories of past incarnations and an innate, almost magnetic longing for the Divine that seemed to come from beyond his current life. This was not something taught to him—it arose from within, as natural as breathing.

The family maintained deep devotion to their guru, Lahiri Mahasaya, the great householder yogi who had revived the ancient science of Kriya Yoga. In this atmosphere, spiritual seeking was not unusual or forced—it was simply the air the children breathed. Yet Yogananda emphasizes that his parents never imposed beliefs; the spiritual environment simply allowed innate tendencies to flourish.

Spiritual inclination is not random. This opening chapter establishes a fundamental principle: the yearning for truth that brings someone to the spiritual path often has roots deeper than the current lifetime. Yogananda suggests that souls carry forward tendencies, interests, and even specific relationships from previous incarnations.

Environment supports but doesn't create. While a supportive family environment helped Yogananda's spiritual nature blossom, he makes clear that such support is helpful but not essential. Many great seekers have emerged from hostile or indifferent environments. What matters most is the sincerity of the inner calling—the flame that burns within regardless of outer circumstances.

The guru connection transcends physical presence. The family's connection to Lahiri Mahasaya, though the master had passed before Yogananda's conscious memory, created a spiritual atmosphere. This introduces the teaching that authentic spiritual influence operates beyond physical proximity and even beyond death.

Your spiritual interests, however they arose, are valid starting points. Whether you grew up in a religious household, discovered spirituality through crisis, stumbled upon it through a book, or simply felt an unexplained pull toward something deeper—the origin matters less than the sincerity of your current seeking.

Your family background—whether spiritually supportive or completely indifferent—does not determine your capacity for realization. Many begin their spiritual journey without any external support whatsoever. The question is not what environment produced you, but what you will do with the yearning you feel now.

Consider also that your current interests and inclinations may not be accidental. The things that draw you, the questions that won't leave you alone, the practices that feel strangely familiar—these may be threads from a longer story than you consciously remember.

His Parents: Discipline and Love

Yogananda paints a vivid portrait of his parents. His father was "kind, grave, at times stern"—a man who shunned luxuries, never visited theaters, and clung to one old pair of shoes until they were useless. His mother was generous to a fault—once spending more than a month's income feeding the poor. When Father gently protested, she ordered a carriage to leave for her mother's home. Only quick intervention prevented the ancient ultimatum of a wife's departure.

Father's Miraculous Conversion

Father became a disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya through an extraordinary event. His employee Abinash wanted leave to visit the guru in Benares, but Father ridiculed the idea. That same day, walking through the woods together, both men witnessed Lahiri Mahasaya materialize before them in a field. The master spoke directly: "Bhagabati, you are too hard on your employee!" Then he vanished. Father immediately requested leave himself, traveled to Benares, and both parents were initiated into Kriya Yoga.

Healed from Cholera at Age Eight

At the family estate in Ichapur, young Mukunda was stricken with Asiatic cholera—a usually fatal disease. Doctors could do nothing. At his bedside, his mother frantically pointed to Lahiri Mahasaya's photograph on the wall: "Bow to him mentally! If you really show your devotion and inwardly kneel before him, your life will be spared!"

Vision of the Himalayan Yogis

One morning, sitting on his bed, Mukunda fell into a deep reverie. He asked himself: "What is behind the darkness of closed eyes?" Immediately an immense flash of light appeared to his inner gaze. Divine shapes of saints meditating in mountain caves formed like miniature pictures on this screen of radiance.

"Who are you?" he spoke aloud. "We are the Himalayan yogis," came the celestial response. The vision expanded into silvery beams. "What is this wondrous glow?" The voice answered like murmuring clouds: "I am Iswara. I am Light."

The Power of Words: The Boil and the Kites

Young Mukunda demonstrated the power of concentrated intention twice. When his sister Uma was helping him with Bengali primers, she complained of a boil on her leg. Mukunda smeared ointment on his own healthy arm, declaring he would have a boil there tomorrow. Uma called him a liar three times. Angered, he made a fierce vow:

"By the power of will in me, I say that tomorrow I shall have a fairly large boil in this exact place on my arm; and YOUR boil shall swell to twice its present size!"

Morning proved both predictions true. His mother gravely instructed him never to use the power of words for doing harm. The scar from the doctor's incision remained on his forearm for life.

Later, standing with Uma at a household shrine, Mukunda mentioned how wonderful it was that Divine Mother gave him whatever he asked. Uma laughed, pointing to kites flying across the lane: "I suppose She would give you those two kites!" Mukunda began silent prayers. Through extraordinary circumstances, both kites landed directly in his hands. Uma fled, exclaiming: "Indeed, Divine Mother listens to you! This is all too uncanny for me!"