Chapters 44-45 Summary and Analysis

Yogananda visits Gandhi on a Monday, his day of silence, which lasts until 8:00 p.m. In mutual admiration, they eat lunch together and Gandhi asks him to initiate him into kriya yoga. Yogananda reviews Gandhi's attitudes toward ahimsa, or non-violence, and discusses Gandhi's daily rituals in this chapter. Gandhi lives in stark renunciation, and Yogananda recalls Yukteswar saying that "a beggar cannot renounce anything." Yogananda prints a letter in this chapter that Kasturbai Gandhi wrote to her husband in honor of their relationship, which is that of guru and disciple. Yogananda introduces Gandhi to the idea of avocados as a source of physical energy. Gandhi says that unfertilized eggs are appropriate, since no killing is involved. A small group comes to learn the techniques of kriya yoga from Yogananda.

Yogananda pays tribute to Gandhi in this chapter by reprinting...