Autobiography of a Yogi

Born in India in 1893, Mukunda Lal Ghosh wanted one thing from childhood: to find God, preferably with a teacher who had already made the trip. His autobiography recounts that search with disarming humor, the saints and sages he sought out across India, the schoolboy escapades, the meeting with his guru Sri Yukteswar that reshaped his life, and his eventual journey west, where as Paramahansa Yogananda he became one of the first teachers to bring yoga and meditation to America.

Published in 1946, the book became a spiritual classic read far beyond any single tradition. Famously, it was the one book Steve Jobs is said to have kept on his iPad. Whether you read it as testimony, as travelogue, or as one of the great personality-driven memoirs of the century, Yogananda is marvelous company: warm, funny, and utterly certain that the universe is stranger and kinder than it looks.

At roughly 163,800 words, Autobiography of a Yogi runs about 18 hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

Autobiography of a Yogi is in the public domain, so the complete text is free on Project Gutenberg and LoudReader has the entire Project Gutenberg catalog built in. To listen:

1. Download LoudReader for Mac or iPhone (free, no account).
2. Search for “Autobiography of a Yogi” in the built-in catalog and add it to your library.
3. Press play. A natural offline voice reads the book while each word highlights on screen, and your place is saved between sessions.

LoudReader reads with natural offline voices, so the whole book works on a plane or underground. It is fully on-device and private, your library never leaves your device. Listening is unlimited on the free tier.