Word: mukunda
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Swami Yogananda belongs outside the most publicized U.S. Indian movement-the Vedanta-which includes Huxley, Isherwood, et al. He is also scorned by them. Yogananda, born plain Mukunda Lai Ghosh 46 years ago, is the son of the vice president of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway. Father Ghosh scorned money, food and sex, spent his free hours meditating, with his legs crossed. Both father & mother Ghosh were devout practitioners of the basic tenet of yoga: absolute discipline of the body and senses through concentration on the idea of union with God. "Your father and myself," said Mrs. Ghosh, "live together...
...Mukunda also drew inspiration from local yogis who were possessed of "miraculous powers." Among his inspirations was Gandha Baba ("The Perfume Saint") who could transform the "mundane vibrations" of the surrounding air into delicious tangerines ("The method, alas! is beyond the reach of the world's hungry hordes"). Another, Bhaduri Mahasaya ("The Levitating Saint"), often hung in the air, meditating without visible means of support. Another, called Krishnananda, shared his hermitage with a lioness, which he had taught to appreciate a strictly vegetarian diet and to utter the mystical word "Aum" (meaning "cosmic vibratory power") "in a deep, attractive...