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Anya P. Foxen - Biography of a Yogi: Paramahansa Yogananda and the Origins of Modern Yoga - 9780190668051 - V9780190668051
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Biography of a Yogi: Paramahansa Yogananda and the Origins of Modern Yoga

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Description for Biography of a Yogi: Paramahansa Yogananda and the Origins of Modern Yoga Paperback. Num Pages: 256 pages. BIC Classification: HRKN; HRLM. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 235 x 156. .
With over four million copies in print, Parmahansa Yogananda's autobiography has been translated into thirty-three languages, and it still serves as a gateway into yoga and alternative spirituality for countless North American practitioners. This book examines Yogananda's life and work to clarify linkages between the seemingly disparate aspects of modern yoga, and illuminates the intimate connections between yoga and metaphysically-leaning American traditions such as Unitarianism, New Thought, and Theosophy. Instead of treating yoga as a stable practice, Anya P. Foxen proposes that it is the figure of the Yogi that give the practice of his followers both form and meaning. Focusing on Yogis rather than yoga during the period of transnational popularization highlights the continuities in the concept of the Yogi as superhuman even as it illuminates the transformation of the practice itself. Skillfully balancing traditional yogic ritual, metaphysical spirituality, physical culture, and a flair for the stage, Foxen shows, Yogananda taught a proto-modern yoga to his American audiences. His Yogoda program has remained under the radar of yoga scholarship due to its lack of reliance on recognizable postures. However, as a regimen of training for the modern Yogi, Yogananda's method synthesizes the spiritual and superhuman aspirations of Indian traditions with the metaphysical and health-oriented sensibilities of Euro-American progressivism in a way that exactly prefigures present-day transnational yoga culture. Yet, at the heart of it all, Yogananda retains a sense of what it means to be a Yogi: his message is that the natural destiny of the human is the superhuman.

Product Details

Publisher
Oxford University Press Inc
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2017
Condition
New
Weight
28g
Number of Pages
264
Place of Publication
New York, United States
ISBN
9780190668051
SKU
V9780190668051
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-40

About Anya P. Foxen
Anya P. Foxen teaches in the Religious Studies Program at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and is a certified yoga instructor and long-time practitioner.

Reviews for Biography of a Yogi: Paramahansa Yogananda and the Origins of Modern Yoga
The monograph is carefully edited, includes an index, and offers a thorough introduction. Scholars of modern yoga, metaphysical religion, and therapeutic spirituality will find Foxen's study to be a valuable resource for further research.
Dominic Zoehrer, Religious Studies Review

Goodreads reviews for Biography of a Yogi: Paramahansa Yogananda and the Origins of Modern Yoga


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