Perspective

Paramahansa Yogananda's autobiography is written strictly from his own perspective, although at times he presumes to speak for others. He often uses lengthy quotes that are obviously taken only from his own memory, but cannot possibly be perfectly accurate. For example, many of the stories he quotes are "told" by people who related them so many years ago, he would have to have taped them to accurately quote them. Thus, even his telling of other peoples' stories is from his own perspective and his own memory. Moreover, Yogananda describes other peoples' experiences as though he personally experienced them, too. In his case, it may be possible that he clairvoyantly experienced moments with others. However, it is more likely that it was just his writing style.

Yogananda was trained in English and his own native Indian languages. His English vocabulary is quite extensive and eloquent, and he often uses...