In 1958 and 1972, Swami Kriyananda (a close and direct disciple of the great Indian spiritual master Paramhansa Yogananda—author of Autobiography of a Yogi) traveled to India, meeting a number of great saints in that distant land and writing about his experiences in a series of letters to spiritual friends, and brother and sister disciples. This book captures the spirit of Yogananda's classic autobiography and other enlightening accounts of sacred experiences in the East. In Visits to Saints of India we walk alongside Kriyananda and see India and its spiritual representatives through his eyes—the eyes of an advanced Western yogi and truth seeker. As Kriyananda wrote in the prologue to this book: India! Land of great saints and yogis. One has only to set foot on that sacred ground, if he is sensitive, to feel the blessings rising up therefrom. Fittingly did Paramhansa Yogananda end his life with the last words of his poem, “My India”: “I am hallowed. My body touched that sod.”

In this book, Sri Mrinalini Mata, president of Self-Realization Fellowship / Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, recounts her experiences of traveling with Sri Daya Mata during a trip to India in 1961. Sri Mrinalini Mata's experiences in India were truly remarkable, for she not only came in contact with two of India's most revered twentieth-century saints Sri Anandamoyi Ma and Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath but she also was night and day in the presence of Daya Mata, who today is widely revered as a saint herself. There are more than 40 color and sepia tone images in this beautifully presented book. Many of the photos were taken by Sri Ananda Mata, sister of Sri Daya Mata, and also by Mrinalini Mata herself. As 2017 marks the centennial of Paramahansa Yogananda's work in India, it is a fitting occasion to bring out this inspiring account for the first time in book form.

In 1958 and 1972, Swami Kriyananda (a close disciple of the great yoga master Paramhansa Yogananda--author of the classic Autobiography of a Yogi) traveled to India, meeting a number of great saints and writing about his experiences in a series of letters to spiritual friends. In Visits to Saints of India, we walk alongside Kriyananda and see India and its spiritual representatives through his eyes--the eyes of an advanced Western yogi and truth-seeker.

India is not just a geography or history. It is not only a nation, a country, a mere piece of land. It is something more: it is a metaphor, poetry, something invisible but very tangible. It is vibrating with certain energy fields that no other country can claim. For almost ten thousand years, thousands of people have reached to the ultimate explosion of consciousness. Their vibration is still alive, their impact is in the very air; you just need a certain perceptivity, a certain capacity to receive the invisible that surrounds this strange land. It is strange because it has renounced everything for a single search, the search for the truth. In these pages, we are treated to a spellbinding vision of what Osho calls "the real India," the India that has given birth to enlightened mystics and master musicians, to the inspired poetry of the Upanishads and the breathtaking architecture of the Taj Mahal. We travel through the landscape of India's golden past with Alexander the Great and meet the strange people he met along the way. We are given a front-row seat in the proceedings of the legendary court of the Moghul Emperor Akbar, and an insider's view of the assemblies of Gautama the Buddha and his disciples. In the process, we discover just what it is about India that has made it a magnet for seekers for centuries, and the importance of India's unique contribution to our human search for truth.