Did Yoganandaji ever claim that he was God-realised? Or maybe after he departed from this world he reached the highest state, ie, God-realised nirvikalpa samadhi?
—Niraj, India
Dear Niraj,
I could not find any where in Paramhansa Yogananda’s writing or lectures that he claimed to be God Realized. I did find in one instance when he was speaking with a devotee where he said “he who says he is God, isn’t God, and he who says he isn’t isn’t”. When he was talking with Swami Kriyananda about the subject, Kriyananda asked Yoganandya if he was self realized. Yoganandya said in effect, someone who is leading a work of this importance would have to be self realized. Yoganandya would never claim that “this body” was God realized. The ego can never claim to be free. The ego by definition is separate from God. He also said “I killed Yoganandya long ago, no one dwells in this body now but God.” Swami Kriyananda believed that Yoganandya had entered Nirbakalpa Samadhi many lifetimes before this one and that he came back to Earth to help the devotees. In the poem Samadhi Yogananda concludes,”Eternity and I , one united ray, A tiny bubble of laughter, I am become the Sea of Mirth itself.”
