Paramhansa Yogananda’s Mother

Paramhansa Yogananda’s mother, Gyana Prabha Ghosh, was a disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya, who bestowed a blessing on the young Yogananda while he was still a baby in his mother’s arms. Lahiri Mahasaya declared to Yogananda’s mother, “Little mother, thy son will be a yogi. As a spiritual engine, he will carry many souls to God’s kingdom,” and touched the young Yogananda in blessing.

She was saintly in her own right, worshiping God as the Divine Mother, and helping young Mukunda (shown in the website masthead at the age of six, with his mother looking over his shoulder) learn to love God, first through his earthly mother, and then through the Divine Mother.

When she passed away while Yogananda was still young, his search for the healing of his anguish was finally fulfilled in an experience of the Divine Mother. He described it in Autobiography of a Yogi:

Years passed before any reconciliation entered my heart. Storming the very gates of heaven, my cries at last summoned the Divine Mother. Her words brought final healing to my suppurating wounds:

“It is I who have watched over thee, life after life, in the tenderness of many mothers! See in My gaze the two black eyes, the lost beautiful eyes, thou seekest!”

• Read The Lost Two Black Eyes, a poem written after his mother’s passing
• My Mother’s Death And The Mystic Amulet, chapter from Autobiography of a Yogi describing his mother

Further Resources

• Mejda, by Sananda Lal Ghosh