Mejda :Mejda :
The Family and the Early Life of Paramahansa Yogananda
by Sananda Lal Ghosh
328 pages
Published by Self Realization
Publication date: December 1980
ISBN: 0876122659
Synopsis:
Sananda Lal Ghosh had the unique perspective of being the younger brother to one of India's best known modern saints. Relating many previously unpublished stories, this fascinating biography presents a fresh view of numerous incidents recounted by Paramahansa Yogananda in Autobiography of a Yogi. Mejda offers readers a vivid, firsthand chronicle of Yogananda's years in India.
Reviews:
DEVASIS CHOWDHURY, 10/29/98
A beautiful book.The author younger brother ofParamhansa Yoganada gives a very personal yet touching account of how he grew up in a family of pious people.
He rode on a motorbike to transport his brother to his Guru Shri Yukteshwar,drove him around the country when he returned from the United States.
Obviously he adored his elder brother and grew up spiritually with him.A beautiful account ,a loving tribute to his Mejda.The YOGI can be seen in his more intimate self growing into the world teacher and spiritual giant.
Very tender very informative. A must for all Yogananada bhaktas!
Ondrej, 9/21/98, Sublime Supplement to Autobiography of a Yogi
In his humble introduction the author, Sananda Lal Ghosh (who is none other than Yogananda's younger brother), explains that it was never Paramahansaji's intention to call attention to himself in writing the Autobiography of a Yogi. He therefore omitted numerous events of his formative years and of his own personal search for God which, had he included in his life's document, "he would have surpassed the very contemporaries he extolled." His "contemporaries" meaning the wealth of saints and sages whose paths crossed his own and whose lives he recounts in the Autobiography, it is difficult indeed to attempt to fathom the stature of such a one who would surpass some of the holiest influences on our planet in the modern era.
Yet this is the claim of Yogananda's own brother; one of the few people who would have had a remarkably close and unique relationship with this God-incarnate, and therefore also a revealingly accurate estimation of the great yogi's character; the inner influences that drove him toward the heights of Self-Realization and the tender compassion that urged him to dedicate his life for the sake of the 'sleeping God' in the ignorant, suffering masses.
It is not surprising then, to find in this book (which includes the events Yogananda chose to omit), passages which give us key insights into the very mind and heart of the young boy Mukunda (later to become the monk Yogananda). His undaunted will and courage are unmistakably portrayed in many of his childhood escapades which, though centered around trifling incidents, yet give us a glimpse of the great man he was to become.
Also related in Mejda, are many indications which the author and others had regarding the spiritual stature of Mukunda (whom the author lovingly reffered to as 'Mejda', the Bengali term for one's second elder brother). Several astounding stories concerning Mukunda's spiritual powers and depth of attunement to God are made known as well as a truly miraculous meeting the young boy (and the author) had with Lahiri Mahasaya, the legendary Yogavatar oft mentioned by Yogananda in his Autobiography. The miracle concerned was the fact that this meeting took place years after the great house-holder yogi had left his physical form. It was to encourage and bless Mukunda for the life-long mission to spread the sacred kriya yoga science world-wide that the Yogavatar had chosen to assume a physical form once again.
I personally found the book an invaluable aid to understanding with greater depth and clarity the profoundly inspiring awakening I had experienced by reading the Autobiography of a Yogi and was very happy to discover that Sananda shared in so much of his brother's spiritual adventurousness so that he could provide such a wonderful and amusing sidelight on the great guru's life and teachings. A most treasured number of chapters in the book also contain spiritual discourses the author had with Paramahansaji and the wealth of knowledge and wisdom these talks reveal is hardly to be found in books dealing specifically with the science of yoga meditation. A must have book for all those who know and revere Paramahansa Yogananda and his spiritual lineage and for those who have read or plan to read his Autobiography of a Yogi.
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