Paramahansa on the ship to America

I GO TO AMERICA

“America! Surely these people are Americans!” This was my thought as a panorama of Western faces passed before my inward view.*

[*Many of those faces I have since seen in the West, and instantly recognized.]

Immersed in meditation, I was sitting behind some dusty boxes in the storeroom of the Ranchi school. ** A private spot was difficult to find during those busy years with the youngsters!

[**In 1995, marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of Paramahansa Yogananda’s coming to America, a beautiful Smriti Mandir (commemorative temple) was dedicated on the site of the former storeroom in Ranchi where Paramahansaji’s vision occurred. (Publisher’s Note)]

The vision continued; a vast multitude, gazing at me intently, swept actorlike across the stage of consciousness.

The storeroom door opened; as usual, one of the young lads had discovered my hiding place.

“Come here, Bimal,” I cried gaily. “I have news for you: the Lord is calling me to America!”

“To America?” The boy echoed my words in a tone that implied I had said “to the moon.”

“Yes! I am going forth to discover America, like Columbus. He thought he had found India; surely there is a karmic link between those two lands!”...

Tears stood in my eyes as I cast a last look at the little boys and the sunny acres of Ranchi. A definite epoch in my life had now closed, I knew; henceforth I would dwell in far lands...

The following day I received an invitation to serve as the delegate from India to an International Congress of Religious Liberals in America. It was to convene that year in Boston...

My head in a whirl, I sought out Sri Yukteswar in Serampore. “Guruji, I have just been invited to address a religious congress in America. Shall I go?”

“All doors are open for you,” Master replied simply. “It is now or never.”...

Thanks - Autobiography of a Yogi