PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA

'...you realise that all along there was something tremendous within you, and you did not know it.'

Perhaps one of the ways to describe Paramahansa Yogananda is that he was an Indian monk who gifted Kriya Yoga to the world. There are other great things about him: that he was among the first monks to settle in the US, that he was among the first yogis who were sent by his guru Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, to spread the teaching of yoga to the west, that he strove hard to balance between Western material growth and Indian spirituality and that the yoga culture of Los Angeles, led him to be considered by yoga experts as the 'Father of Yoga in the West. Yogananda's journey, the fact that he was the yogi who introduced millions to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization Self-Realization Fellowship and Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, and the fact that unlike most other monks, has not been riddled with controversies, is a journey full of mysticism.