Overview

With over four million copies in print, Paramahansa Yogananda's autobiography has served as a gateway into yoga and alternative spirituality for North American practitioners since 1946. Balancing traditional yoga, metaphysical spirituality, and a flair for the stage, Yogananda inspired countless people to practice Yogoda, his own brand of yoga. His method combined the spiritual and superhuman aspirations of Indian traditions with the health-oriented sensibilities of Western practice. Because the Yogoda program does not rely on recognizable postures and poses, it has remained under the radar of yoga scholarship. Biography of a Yogi examines Yogananda's career and Yogoda in the wider context of the development of yoga in the twentieth century. Focusing on Yogis during this early period of transnational popularization, Foxen highlights the continuities in the concept of the Yogi as superhuman and traces the transformation of yoga from a holistic and spiritual practice to its present-day postural practice.

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9780190668051

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Anya Foxen's Biography of a Yogi offers a breakthrough in the study of modern yoga and popular spirituality. Her historical analysis alerts readers to the unexpected significance of Paramahansa Yogananda as well as American metaphysical religion, and explains how yoga took form in the transnational spiritual marketplace. Foxen meticulously documents and analyzes Yogananda's life and work, resulting in a new vision of guru-based movements and modern yoga at large. -Andrea R. Jain, author of Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture

Author Information

Anya P. Foxen teaches in the Religious Studies Program at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and is a certified yoga instructor and long-time practitioner.

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