01 – Preface
These are true stories. The fourteen anecdotes are among those that Paramhansa Yogananda recounted to lecture audiences in American or that were told to SRF disciples by his relatives and friends who had known him in his early life in India.
In his narratives the great Master did not always mention names, dates, and places. He would often start out: “One time, this friend and I . . .” and then proceed with the tale. Therefore, in writing the stories, I have not always been certain about the chronology, settings, and personal names. I have found it expedient to bestow fictitious names on certain people in various episodes. The only true names are Mukunda, Sri Yukteswarji, Ananta, Roma, Prabhas Chandra Ghose, and “Maid-Ma.”
To increase narrative interest, in a few instances I have included in one story two or more incidents that in actuality were not closely connected in time.
I am grateful to several disciples at SRF headquarters who edited the manuscript, read the proof sheets, and supplied me with additional factual details.
During Paramhansaji’s last years I had the blessing, as a disciple at Mount Washington Center, of seeing the Master often. In this book I have tried to depict in words, which are inadequate at best, the spirit of Yoganandaji: a spirit ardent with love for God, tender with sympathy for all men, forgiving, kindly, humorous; yet resolute and forceful when strength was needed; never afraid to side with a righteous cause, however unpopular.
What wonder that the Master’s message of man’s divinity was blazoned across the earth even during his lifetime? Or that thousands heard and answered it, changing their lives with a newborn faith to conform to the ideals set before them by the compassionate Guru?
BROTHER KRIYANANDA
(formerly Donald Walters)
Minister,
Self-Realization Fellowship Church
Los Angeles, California
December 16, 1953
