I originally listened to the audio version of Autobiography of a Yogi in 2000, published by SRF, and later read the book a couple of times. I’m interested in reading the original 1946 first edition that Ananda is offering. I noticed that SRF spells the author’s name as Paramahansa Yogananda and Ananda spells the author’s name as Paramhansa Yogananda. I’m wondering why there’s a difference, which is correct and is it important energetically and spiritually?
—Lee, United States
Dear Lee,
Yogananda himself spelled his title “Paramhansa.” This is the way you will find it in all books and magazines during his lifetime and for years afterward. In 1959, seven years after his passing, following suggestions from Indian scholars who insisted that this spelling is incorrect in Sanskrit, SRF changed it — even in Yogananda’s signature. That’s how the difference was born.
Is it important spiritually or energetically? I don’t think so. India is free-style; they write names in a thousand different ways. The one thing that is a little borderline, spiritually speaking, is that they altered their own Master’s signature. That seems not completely inconsequential – “correcting” him. It now appears altered on all the covers of the SRF books. Ananda instead prefers to maintain Yogananda’s spelling.
However, one shouldn’t give too much attention to such details. What is really important for us is to absorb Yogananda’s divine blessings which shine so brightly through his Autobiography of a Yogi, no matter if there is an “a” more or less in the title. I am sure, however, that you will love the original 1946 version of the book.
May the Autobiography fill you with his luminous vibrations,
Jayadev
