My Parents and Early Life
Chapter 1: The seeds of spiritual seeking
The Roots of a Spiritual 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.
What This Chapter Reveals
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.
Applying This Today
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.
Life Concepts from This Chapter
The Role of Environment in Shaping Inner Direction
While we cannot choose the circumstances of our birth, our early environment plants seeds that influence our later direction. The values modeled by caregivers—whether spiritual, intellectual, or material—create a framework through which we initially interpret the world. However, environment provides conditions, not guarantees.
Everyday Application
Recognize that your current interests and drives may have roots in early exposure, even if you've moved far from your original environment. Understanding these influences helps you consciously choose which seeds to nurture and which to let go.
Modern Example
A person raised in a household that valued financial security above all else may find themselves driven by money even when materially comfortable. Recognizing this conditioning allows them to ask: "Is this drive truly mine, or am I still responding to childhood programming?"
Believing your family environment determines your destiny.
"I can't develop qualities my family didn't model for me."
"My environment provided starting conditions, but I can cultivate any quality I genuinely commit to developing."
What values were modeled in your childhood home? Which have you consciously kept, and which have you outgrown?
Inner Yearning as a Valid Starting Point
A persistent pull toward something—whether spiritual seeking, creative expression, or a particular calling—often precedes any logical explanation for it. This yearning, when genuine, can be trusted as a signal worth following, even when its origin is unclear.
Everyday Application
Rather than waiting for external validation or perfect clarity, treat consistent inner pulls as information worth investigating. The yearning itself is the qualification to begin.
Modern Example
A successful lawyer feels an unexplained draw toward environmental work. Rather than dismissing this as impractical, she begins volunteering on weekends. This exploration—not a dramatic career change—helps her understand what the yearning actually points to.
Thinking you need to understand why you want something before pursuing it.
"If I can't logically justify this interest, it must not be valid."
"Genuine yearning contains information that my rational mind may not yet have access to."
What consistent pull have you felt but dismissed because it didn't seem practical or explainable?
Multiple Influences Creating a Single Direction
Rarely does one factor alone create a life direction. Usually, multiple influences—family, personal temperament, chance encounters, natural abilities—converge to point somewhere. Recognizing this multiplicity prevents over-attributing your path to any single cause.
Everyday Application
When trying to understand your current direction, look for the confluence of factors rather than a single origin story. Your path likely makes sense only when multiple threads are considered together.
Modern Example
Someone becomes a therapist. Looking back, they can see: a family experience with mental illness created early awareness, a natural inclination to listen made friends confide in them, a college professor sparked intellectual interest, and a personal crisis made the work feel urgent. No single factor explains the choice.
Believing there's one pivotal moment or cause that explains everything.
"If I can just identify the one thing that made me this way, I'll understand myself."
"I am the product of countless influences converging; understanding myself requires holding multiple factors simultaneously."
What three or more influences combined to create your current primary interest or life direction?
Practice Exercise
Trace your spiritual roots. Spend 10-15 minutes in quiet reflection on your earliest spiritual memories or curiosities. When did you first wonder about life's deeper meaning? What experiences from childhood or youth planted seeds that have grown into your current seeking?
Write down three specific moments when you felt drawn to something beyond the material—moments of wonder, unexplained knowing, or encounters that left lasting impressions. Notice how these early seeds connect to who you are today.
Go Deeper
"What drew me to spiritual seeking? Was it a specific event, a gradual awakening, or something that always seemed present? How do my earliest inclinations connect to what I'm searching for now?"
Key Points
Seeds from the Past
Spiritual tendencies may carry forward from previous lives
Environment Supports, Not Creates
A supportive family helps but isn't essential for awakening
Inner Yearning Is Primary
The sincerity of your seeking matters more than circumstances
Test Your Understanding
Complete a quick quiz to reinforce what you've learned from Chapter 1.