“I came to Paramahansa Yogananda many years ago, not as a seeker, but as a writer with a sympathetic yet analytic and critical approach. I found in him a rare combination. While steadfast in the ancient principles of his profound faith, he had the gift of generous adaptability, so that he became Christian and American without ceasing to be Hindu and Indian. With his quick wit and great spirit, he was well fitted to promote reconciliation and truth among the religious seekers of the world. He brought peace and joy to multitudes.”
— Dr. Wendell Thomas,
author and former professor, College of the City of New York
“Those who have known Master Yogananda's work on behalf of the brotherhood of man and a closer understanding between the great religions of the world, between East and West, and have come in contact with him either directly or indirectly through his writings knew that his was a unique spiritual force....
“I remember the Mahatma Gandhi once talked to me about Yogananda with great admiration. It is spiritual men like Yogananda who brought a message of real hope for a deeper understanding between India and the West [more] than all politicians put together, he said.”
— Dr. Camille Honig,
Literary Editor, The California Jewish Voice
“For all future time, Paramahansa Yogananda, now no longer incarnate among us, will be regarded as one of the very greatest of India's ambassadors of the Higher Culture to the New World. The numerous centers of Self-Realization Fellowship, not only in the Americas but throughout all the continents, are self-evident proof of the remarkable success of his mission on earth.”
— Dr. W. Y. Evans-Wentz,
M.A., D. Litt., D.Sc., Jesus College, Oxford
“Paramahansa Yogananda was one of the finest figures of wisdom and humanity that this generation has seen.”
— Dr. Francis Rolt-Wheeler,
metaphysical scholar; editor of L'Astrosophie, Nice, France
“He was inspired....one of the greats. He was a special person in every way. Whatever he said was helpful to people. He showed the way for people into a purer, unadulterated type of faith, a universal type of faith....
“I think that the name Self-Realization Fellowship [SRF] is very descriptive of his work — it's a fellowship of people who are realizing themselves, their own potential....When I went through an SRF Center, wherever it was, whether it was the Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades or Mt. Washington [SRF Headquarters] or elsewhere, the element that attracted me greatly was the element of peace. They not only spoke of peace, they not only professed peace, but they actually believed in peace. They actually lived a peaceful life....Self-Realization Fellowship is a reflection of its founder, Yogananda.”
— Dan Thrapp,
former Religion Editor, Los Angeles Times
“I know all about pioneering, for I was a pioneer myself. We women who had to fight for suffrage were combating prejudice and fixed ideas....we were as much pioneers as those who laid the material foundations of America. Having been for many years a student of the philosophy of the Oriental sages I am glad to lay my little tributes at the feet of Swami Yogananda....
“He is a magnificent world teacher for whose teachings this century is ripe. He seems to me to be a liaison officer between the efficiency of this country and the spirituality of the East. Each needs the other and each must have the mingling of the two....Such a leader as Swami Yogananda is sorely needed....His philosophy appeals to the thinker, to those unsatisfied by materialism, who are weary of the evanescent, the unreal, which flee like shadows before the light of truth.”
— Hester M. Poole,
author and pioneer in women suffrage movement
“The Fellowship he established aimed at two things: contact with God through knowledge of the self as a divine spark of God, and fellowship with all mankind. Verily, Yogananda was attempting a sadly needed readjustment between the spiritual and the material plane, by harmonizing science and religion through realization of their underlying unity. Paramahansa Yogananda worked miracles. I still remember his magnetic personality beaming through his eyes and talks. I dubbed him a messenger of the East to the West. Indeed, he showed the way to happiness to all his fellow beings. India is proud of her son, so noble, loving, divinely human and cosmopolitan.”
— Sri Bhupindra Nath Sarkar,
Indian educator & writer, in Calcutta Hindustan Standard