The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Yogananda
(Paramahansa Yogananda) (pärämhäN´sä ygänän´dä) (KEY) , 18931952, Indian mystic. He was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, India, of a Kshatriya (warrior caste) family. Before attending Calcutta Univ. he met his guru, Sri Yukteswar, and after graduating (1914) he became a monk in the order of Shankara, taking the name Yogananda. In 1917 he founded the Yogoda Sat-sang school for boys in Calcutta (now Kolkata). In 1920 he went to the United States where he lectured widely, teaching a secret technique of meditation, which he called kriya yoga. He founded (1920) the Self-Realization Fellowship to carry on his work and lived in the United States until his death. His organization, which has its headquarters in Los Angeles, has centers throughout the world.