Was Yogananda, in His Past Life, Swami Vivekananda?

Question

I wish to ask that often I have an intuition that Sri Yukteswarji and Paramhansa Yoganandaji must have been in their immediate previous lives, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Sri Swami Vivekanandaji. I may be wrong since I don't know the latter's birth dates and their nirvana(mahasamadhi) dates from this earth. Can you help me? If it is so - is there any karmic connection between these great four spirits. The conversation between Swami Yukteswar and Paramhansa Yogananda are quite similar when they met first to when Swami Vivekananda met first Sri Ramakrishna. All of them were devotee of ma kali.

—Bhushan, India

Answer

Dear Bhusan,
This is certainly an intriguing question!

However, Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Yukteswar were alive at the same time; Sri Ramakrishna from 1836 to 1886; Sri Yukteswar from 1855 to 1936.The same applies to Swami Vivekananda and Paramhansa Yogananda; Vivekananda lived from 1863 until 1902; Yogananda from 1893 until 1952.

The most important point is that each of these great souls are all saints who came to bring many other souls back to their true home in the Divine. Both Vivekananda and Yogananda came to the West to spread the teachings of Sanaatan Dharma, the eternal religion, to all those who would receive it.

In divine friendship,

Nayaswami Pranaba