This is not an ordinary biography. It is as much an inner story as an outer one. And someone who has an inner life as rich as Yogi does, naturally provides teachings through the telling of the outer biography. Yogi has dedicated his life to a deep and enthusiastic pursuit of the ancient path of Yoga and Tantra. Unlike many Western interpretations that trivialise these topics, Yogi presents a profound and illuminating journey through this mystical terrain. Yogi Matsyendranath is the Western world's spiritual leader of the Nath Yoga tradition. Born in Bryansk in the USSR, he graduated from Youngdong University in South Korea and trained in Shri Vidya and Shakta Tantra of Nepal. As well as the Nath tradition, he is an expert in Tantric Puja and Hatha Yoga practice. Author Keith Simons embarked on a personal and interpersonal journey with Yogi in a collaborative creative process. He asked, how did someone born and raised in communist Soviet Union become a leader of Nath Yoga, one of India's oldest spiritual traditions? How did Yogi Matsyendranath become a resident in Australia? After-all, growing up in the atheistic environment of the Soviet Union wasn't exactly conducive to a deep interest and practice of any spiritual path. And Australia is a long way from Russia. I soon began to realise how unusual Yogi's life story was. Interspersed between his life in Russia and becoming a resident of Australia, there were years in other countries, mainly India and South Korea. Yogi is not only an authentic spiritual teacher but also a cosmopolitan citizen in the truest sense. The impressive authenticity and gentle kindness of his character embedded themselves into my daily rhythms of working with him. He was always natural, easygoing and relaxed about how and when we would next meet and so we met as many times as felt necessary to capture the main features of his life story and teachings. I'd never before worked on a draft in this way. There were many challenges in crafting a story in the first person, but on the other hand, the natural empathy I experienced with Yogi helped me to forge ahead with confidence. His aura of fine spiritual qualities never diminished. He was consistently conveying and manifesting authenticity, integrity, wisdom and compassion, and often a delightful childlike humour. His words were penetrating in their simplicity but he could also share difficult and subtle areas of teaching. Such an uprightness and noble persona did Yogi emanate that others often felt in awe of him. His presence naturally and without intention drew attention. This book is dedicated to the spirit of open-minded spiritual research and practice. It is also an example of following one's heart. It is one person's story but in many ways our story too, ordinary and extraordinary at the same time.

The autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda (1893 - 1952) details his search for a guru, during which he encountered many spiritual leaders and world-renowned scientists. When it was published in 1946 it was the first introduction of many westerners to yoga and meditation. The famous opera singer Amelita Galli-Curci said about the book: "Amazing, true stories of saints and masters of India, blended with priceless superphysical information-much needed to balance the Western material efficiency with Eastern spiritual efficiency-come from the vigorous pen of Paramhansa Yogananda, whose teachings my husband and myself have had the pleasure of studying for twenty years."

New York Times best-selling author Michelle Goldberg tells the globetrotting story of the incredible woman who brought yoga to the West. When Indra Devi was born in Russia in 1899, yoga was virtually unknown outside of India. By the time of her death, in 2002, it was being practiced around the world. Here Michelle Goldberg tells the globetrotting story of the incredible woman who helped usher in a craze that continues unabated to this day. A sweeping picture of the twentieth century that travels from the cabarets of Berlin to the Mysore Palace to Golden Age Hollywood and beyond, The Goddess Pose brings the Devi’s little known but extraordinary adventures vividly to life.

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.

An amazing, often overlooked story of the man who brought Yoga and Tibetan culture to America. Theos Bernard’s colorful, enigmatic, and sometimes contradictory life captures an intersection of East and West that changed our world. After years of forcibly stopping foreigners at the borders, the leaders of Tibet opened the doors to their kingdom in 1937 for Theos Bernard. He was the third American to set foot in Tibet and the first American ever initiated into Tantric practices by the highest lama in Tibet. When Bernard left that sacred land, he was sent home with fifty mule loads of priceless, essential Buddhist scriptures from government and monastery vaults. Bernard brought these writings to America, where he achieved celebrity as a spiritual master. Appearing four times on the cover of the largest-circulation magazine of the day, befriending some of the most famous figures of his era, including Charles Lindbergh, Lowell Thomas, Ganna Walska, and W. Y. Evans-Wentz, and working with legendary editor Maxwell Perkins, the charismatic and controversial “White Lama” introduced a new vision of life and spiritual path to American culture before mysteriously disappearing in the Himalayas in 1947. Biography, travel and adventure, a history of Tibet’s opening to the West, and the story of Buddhism and Yoga’s arrival in America, White Lama: The Life of Tantric Yogi Theos Bernard, Tibet’s Lost Emissary to the West is the first work to tell his groundbreaking story in full and is a narrative that thrills from beginning to end. Includes 15 photographs shot in Tibet in 1937 by Theos Bernard, part of a collection that has been described as the best photographic record of Tibet in existence.

Although this book often reads like a fast-paced adventure story, it is the true account of a nineteen-year-old American (the son of a Beverly Hills pediatric surgeon) who in the late 1960s, after experimenting with drugs, sex, and political activism, set off for India in search of the truth. He arrived with twenty dollars in his pocket and, enchanted by the extraordinary world he found there, explored the country until he stumbled into the presence of Hari Puri Baba, a yogi in the ancient tradition of the Renunciates of the Ten Names. Hari Puri proceeded to shave the young stranger's head and initiate him into his order. Now called Rampuri, the young man embarked on a discipleship unlike anything he had ever imagined. He had to learn Hindi and Sanskrit, overcome opposition as an outsider, and deal with the battle that raged within him as he attempted to reconcile the Western view of India with the reality of its culture and beliefs. Despite overwhelming odds and the mysterious death of his guru, he stayed the course and has remained in India to this day. As Rampuri reveals the teachings he received and describes the rituals and pilgrimages in which he participated, it becomes clear that this is an unprecedented telling of one man's sacred initiation and training and a must-read for any serious seeker.

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