Notes on Autobiography of a Yogi

In Steve Jobs' bio, it said he read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda every year. So I figured there must be something to it. (I had also heard of the book several times from other yogis and figured I would give it a try.)

The book was slow to start (and sometimes included way too much detail), and I had trouble getting used to the writing style for a while. I also didn't really understand the overall point or trajectory of the work. Then, part of the way through, I began to enjoy it, and I noticed more and more pearls of wisdom on the pages.

The book is about religion, but it's also not about religion. It's about faith and spirituality and the common one-ness uniting everyone, and I like those ideas. (The book is not about doing yoga sports exercises. It's about meditation and mind control, some of the most difficult and rewarding activities a human can apparently engage in.) The book featured many accounts of supernatural episodes (visions, reincarnations, levitation, and teleportation); those didn't sit well with me, but I will tolerate it as there's enough good elements in the book ignoring the supernatural events.

After reading the book, I'm wondering what parts of it appealed most to Jobs. Meditation? Spirituality?

Below are my notes. I apologize for butchering the spellings of many of the people and places mentioned in the book; I was listening to the audio version (which again unfortunately but understandably featured a reader with an English accent).

Ch. 1: My parents and early life

• Bengali
  
• Life as infant
  
• Born 1/5/1893 near Himalayas
  
• Kshatriya caste parents
  
• Aversion of instant acceptance
  
• Due reflection
  
• Recreation in spiritual practices
  
• No luxuries
  
• No pursuit of money
  
• Started bank but didn't want shares in it
  
• Man arrives penniless and departs same way
  
• Magic power of man's words spoken confidently
  
• Guru photo 
  

Ch. 2: Mothers' death and amulet

• Saw vision of mother dying and was true
  
• Powerfully drawn to Himalayas where yogis and swamis lived from vision
  
• Guru told his mom he would be yogi and bring souls to light
  
• Magical amulet materialized for mom who gave it to son
  

Ch. 3: The saint with 2 bodies

• Second pension from divine of peace
  
• Story of transportation/2 bodies of swami
  
• Yogi Lahiri Mahasaya
  

Ch. 4: Interrupted flight to Himalayas

• Escape failed
  
• Got tutor at home
  
• Deep meditation
  
• Learned Sanskrit
  
• Kriya yoga
  
• Magic healing
  

Ch. 5: Perfume saint

• Perfume magic
  
• Electrons and protons manipulated by prana lifetrons
  

Ch. 6: Tiger swami

• Fought tigers with hands
  
• Mind and determination control body
  
• Tamer of wild passions
  

Ch. 7: Levitating saint

• Only true way to know divine is love
  

Ch. 8: Indians great scientist JC Bose

• Botany and physics research
  
• Uniform plan links all life
  

Ch. 9: The blissful devotee

• Classroom boredom
  

Ch. 10: I meet my master

• Unprepared for school finals
  
• Finished school and ready to leave home to seek divine
  
• Had to detach from family
  
• Finally met guru
  
• Had to leave ashram
  

Ch. 11: Two penniless boys

• Passed tests to show faith in divine
  
• Went without money, found people who provided for him
  

Ch. 12: Years in my master's hermitage

• Guru told him to get university degree so would be more accepted in future by westerners
  
• Vegetarian
  
• Morning strolls with guru
  
• Be comfortable within your purse
  
• Sri Yukteswar
  
• Yogic trance with no vital signs
  
• Super conscious state
  
• Mosquitos: just change consciousness and will not bite
  
• Thoughts heal, placebo
  
• Every natural passion can be mastered
  

Ch. 13: A sleepless saint

• Thought would have to go to Himalayas to study
  
• Guru told him does not need to do so
  
• What one does not find within cannot be found outside
  

Ch. 14: An experience in cosmic consciousness

• Cosmic vision of connection to all life
  
• Soul must have cosmic reach while body does daily mundane work
  

Ch. 15: The cauliflower robbery

• Importance of music
  

Ch. 16: Outwitting the stars

• Astrology
  

Ch. 17: Sasi and the 3 sapphires

• Divine responds to urgent prayers
  
• Astrological bangles
  

Ch. 18: A Mohammedan wonder worker

Ch. 19: My master

• Teleportation
  

Ch. 20: We do not visit Kashmir

• Got sick when wanted to go to Himalayas
  

Ch. 21: We visit Kashmir

• Guru finally blesses him to go to Himalayas
  
• Physical transfer of disease to cure others
  
• Lots of mentions and comparisons to Jesus
  

Ch. 22: The heart of the stone age

• Reformed brother in law through example of spiritual miracle
  

Ch. 23: University degree

• Little time for study
  
• Repeatedly doubted divine and then was saved
  
• Received degree
  

Ch. 24: I become monk of swami order

• Guru finally allowed him to join order
  
• Selected new name
  
• Yoga and swami orthogonal
  
• Yoga is science of mind control
  
• Patanjali Yoga Sutras
  
• Eightfold path
  
• Yama: moral
  
• Viyama: religious
  
• Asana: posture
  
• Pranayama: breath
  
• Pratyahara: withdraw from external
  
• Dharana: concentration
  
• Dhyana: meditation
  
• Samadhi: super conscious experience
  
• Yoga ok for worldly people
  
• Hatha yoga just one branch
  

Ch. 25: Brother and sister

• Brother died and he felt sad
  
• He and his guru healed sister
  

Ch. 26: Science of Kriya yoga

• Cause and effect
  
• Rejuvenates body
  
• Transmute cells into energy to teleport
  
• Christ used it
  
• Life force control
  
• Neutralize lungs and current
  
• Om sound to concentrate / Amen
• Life force controlled by breath action
  

Ch. 27: Founding yoga school

• Man must have some family, either wife or school
  
• So founded school
  
• Class instruction outdoors
  
• Yoga and agriculture
  
• True development of body and mind
  
• Death doesn't end all
  
• Unattachment: let dead move on to higher role
  

Ch. 28: Reborn and discovered

• Relocated reborn child
  

Ch. 29: Compare schools

• Visited other school
  
• Also outdoors, child's natural setting
  
• All learn yoga concentration skill
  

Ch. 30: The art of miracles

• Maya world of illusion
  
• Relativity
  
• Unified field theory
  
• Light
  
• Duality of nature
  
• Light speed only world constant
  
• Matter energy duality
  
• All matter light, yogi can manipulate
  
• Motion pictures directed by people like yogis can direct real light and matter
  
• Miracles are just natural to masters
  
• Everything is a miracle
  

Ch. 31: Interview with sacred mother

• Wife of Lahiri Mahasaya
  
• Levitation in lotus pose
  

Ch. 32: Rama is raised from the death

• Account needed in west of Lahiri Mahasaya
  

Ch. 33: Babaji Christ of India

• Guru of LM
  
• Avatar: body free from material bondage
  

Ch. 34: Materializing a palace In the Himalayas

• Spiritual enlightenment comes to worldly people who still fulfill civic responsibilities
  

Ch. 35: Christ like life of LM

• Life of balance
  
• Kriya initiation to worldly
  

Ch. 36: Babaji's interst in the West

• Saint told author to write book equalizing Christian and Indian beliefs
  
• LM reincarnated
  

Ch. 37: I go to America

• 2 legged newspaper (word of mouth)
  
• Invited to speak at conference in Boston
  
• Chosen to spread message of Kriya yoga to West
  
• Meant to unite nations under one holy father
  
• Lectured throughout America
  
• Started Self-Realization Fellowship at Mount Washington in LA
  
• Spent 15 years in America 
  

Ch. 38: Luther Burbank

• Plant breeding from talking to plants and love
  

Ch. 39: Therese Neumann

• Eager to meet saint in Germany
  
• Saint who lived without food
  
• Stigmata wounds on hands
  
• Weekly trance of Christ's Passion
  
• Visited holy sites of Europe
  

Ch. 40: I return to India

• Return to see guru
  
• Created permanently endowed school
  
• Free hospital
  

Ch. 41: An idyl in south India

• Wanted to have best exchange between East and West
  

Ch. 42: Last days with my guru

Ch. 43: Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar

• Went to be prophet of astral planet
  
• Detailed description of astral beings and logistics
  
• Anything can be created from thought like we create any image on TV
  

Ch. 44: With Gandhi

• Weekly day of silence to devote to correspondence and spirituality
  
• Husband as guru of wife
  
• Worship of all religions equally
  
• Taught yoga to Gandhi
  
• Nonviolence
  
• Forgiveness is holiness
  

Ch. 45: The Bengali joy-permeated mother

Ch. 46: The woman who never eats

• Was at first over-eater
• Stopped eating at age 12
  
• Lives by external light
  
• No bodily excretions
  
• Uses Kriya breathing technique 
  

Ch. 47: I return to the West

• Lecture in London
  
• Christmas mediation in LA
  

Ch. 48: Encinitas California hermitage

• Retreat by the ocean
  

Ch. 49: The years 1940-51

• East West magazine
  
• Hollywood temple
  
• Translated New Testament and Bhagavad Gita
  
• Saw vision of Jesus
  
• Kriya yoga: breath as key to world and spirit
  
• Leave a few mysteries to explore in eternity
  

Afterword

• After died, his body did not decay (in mortuary records)
  
• One of India's great saints