Born in India in 1893, he was trained from his early years to bring India's ancient science of Self-realization to the West.

In 1920 he moved to the United States. His arrival in Boston in marked the beginning of a new wave of spiritual consciousness in America and throughout the world. Beginning the development of a worldwide work touching millions of lives. Americans were hungry for India's spiritual teachings, and for the liberating techniques of yoga.

When he published his now famous Autobiography of a Yogi in 1946, it was soon after the close of the second World War, a conflict which he prayed would never be repeated. The book had tremendous influence and inspired spiritual leaders in the growing counter-culture movement which blossomed over a decade later, and has become a spiritual classic and one of the best-loved books of the 20th century, Autobiography of a Yogi.

In addition, Yogananda established headquarters for a worldwide work, wrote a number of books and study courses, gave lectures to thousands in most major cities across the United States, wrote music and poetry, and trained disciples. He was invited to the White House by Calvin Coolidge, and he initiated Mahatma Gandhi into Kriya Yoga, his most advanced technique of meditation.

Yogananda's message to the West highlighted the unity of all religions, and the importance of love for God combined with scientific techniques of meditation.

His mission was one of world peace and brotherhood, as well as individual Self-realization, both of which he said could be achieved through the practice of transformative meditation techniques such as Kriya Yoga, which he referred to as "the airplane route to God."

Through his books, teachings, and practices of meditation and yoga, Yogananda helped to usher in the sweeping increase in interest in peace, consciousness, and self-transformation. For this he is often known today as the "father of yoga in the West."