Finding God through Yoga

“Neumann seeks to provide a balanced perspective, presenting Yogananda both as spiritual and religious—as a manwho sought to lead people to spiritual enlightenment and to authentic encounters with God.”—CHOICE

“Exceptional on many accounts. . . . Wonderfully written. . . . A powerful and insightful scholarly account that reframes Paramahansa Yogananda in thought-provoking ways that will undoubtedly intrigue scholarly and lay audiences alike.”—Southern California Quarterly

“As the first scholarly biography of Yogananda, Finding God through Yoga makes several important contributions to our understanding of religion, race, and gender in early twentieth-century California and the United States. . . . This extensively researched and evenhanded book should be read by historians interested in the growth of yoga in America, the spread of transnational Hinduism, and the contours of religio-racial diversity in Southern California.”—California History

“A well-researched, engaging biography of a historically significant, previously understudied Indian American Hindu yoga guru, Paramahansa Yogananda, known as the Father of Yoga in the West. . . . This book will be of great use to historians of yoga, transnational religions, and globalization in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.”—Journal of American History

“Neumann is to be applauded on this fine work of scholarship in revealing the impact of a yogic consciousness on the world outside of India and the contribution of Yogananda in it.”—Western Historical Quarterly

“Offers an important counterpoint to the dominant historiography of both Yoga and the evangelical missionary work of adherents of Eastern religions.”—World History Bulletin

“Very well-written. . . . [S]cholars of Religious Studies will readily appreciate the nuanced transitions between history, theoretical speculation, and contextual vignettes. . . . Neumann is to be superbly commended for this work, which will undoubtedly complement any study into the transculturation of religion between South Asia, North America, and beyond.”–

“Uniformly perceptive and utterly convincing, Neumann reveals Paramahansa Yogananda’s penchant for ‘imaginative reconstruction’ while preserving the guru’s humanity through it all. At once fair, honest, and unflinching, this book will certainly be warmly welcomed and used widely as the standard scholarly source for the life and teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, as well as for the understanding of Hinduism—and religious charisma—in America. There is nothing else like it.”—Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religion, Rice University

“In fine style that makes this book fun to read, Neumann’s much-needed study of Paramahansa Yogananda clarifies the relationship between Christianity and Yogananda’s Hindu roots. Highlighting the development of an American Hinduism, Neumann reminds us that the great yogi died as an American citizen buried in the soil of his adopted country but also as a thoroughly global guru well before the term became widely adopted. I will use this book in my classes, too, as an insightful way to understand Yogananda’s ever-popular classic, Autobiography of a Yogi.”—Joanne Punzo Waghorne, Syracuse University

“An interesting study of the cultural phenomenology of a guru and his movement — its light and shadow, its success and contradictions.” — William IrwinThompson, author of The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light