Editing Paramahansa Yogananda (section)

==Visit to India, 1935–1936==
In 1935, he returned to India via [[ocean liner]], along with two of his Western students, to visit his guru, Sri Yukteswar Giri, and to help establish his [[Yogoda Satsanga Society of India|Yogoda Satsanga]] work in India. While enroute, his ship detoured in Europe and the Middle East; he undertook visits to other living Western saints like [[Therese Neumann]], the Catholic [[Stigmatist]] of [[Konnersreuth]], and places of spiritual significance: [[Assisi|Assisi, Italy]] to honor [[Francis of Assisi|St. Francis]], the Athenian temples of Greece and prison cell of [[Socrates]], the Holy Land of [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] and the regions of the [[Ministry of Jesus]], and [[Cairo|Cairo, Egypt]] to view the ancient Pyramids.<ref name="autob2"/><ref>{{cite book|title=The Second Coming of Christ (book) / Volume I / Jesus Temptation in the wilderness / Discourse 8 / Mattew 4:1–4|last=Yogananda|first=Paramahansa|publisher=Self-Realization Fellowship|year=2004|isbn=9780876125557|pages=166–167}}</ref>

In August 1935, he arrived in India at the port of [[Mumbai]]; due to his fame in America, many photographers and journalists came to meet him during his short stay at the [[The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel|Taj Mahal Hotel]]. Upon taking a train eastward and reaching the [[Howrah Station]] near [[Kolkata]], he was received by a huge crowd and a ceremonious procession led by his brother [[Bishnu Charan Ghosh]] and the [[Maharaja]] of [[Cossimbazar|Kasimbazar]]. Visiting Serampore, he had an emotional reunion with his guru, Sri Yukteswar – this meeting was noted in detail by his Western student C. Richard Wright.<ref name="autob2" /> During his stay in India, he saw his Ranchi boys' school become legally incorporated, and took a touring group to visit various locales: the [[Taj Mahal]] in [[Agra]], the [[Chamundeshwari Temple]] in [[Mysore]], [[Allahabad]] for the [[Kumbh Mela]] of January 1936, and [[Brindaban]] to visit an exalted disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya, [[Swami Keshabananda]].<ref name="autob2" />

He also met various people who caught his interest: [[Mahatma Gandhi]], whom he initiated into Kriya Yoga; woman-saint [[Sri Anandamoyi Ma|Anandamoyi Ma]]; Giri Bala, an elderly yogi woman who survived without eating; renowned physicist [[Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman]]; and several disciples of Sri Yukteswar's guru, [[Lahiri Mahasaya]].<ref name="autob2"/> While in India, Sri Yukteswar gave Yogananda the monastic title of ''[[Paramahansa]],'' meaning "supreme swan" and indicating the highest spiritual attainment. This title formally superseded his previous title of "swami".<ref>"Paramahansa means "supreme swan" and is a title indicating the highest spiritual attainment." [[#Miller|Miller]], p. 188.</ref> In March 1936, upon Yogananda's return to Calcutta after visiting Brindaban, Sri Yukteswar died (or, in the yogic tradition, attained [[Mahasamādhi|mahasamadhi]])<ref>{{cite book |last=Melton |first=J. Gordon |title= Religious Celebrations|year=2011|publisher= ABC-CLIO |isbn= 978-1598842050|page=512}}</ref> at his hermitage in [[Puri]]. After conducting his guru's funeral rites, Yogananda continued to teach, conduct interviews, and meet with friends for several months, before planning to return to the US in mid-1936.{{sfn|Yogananda|1998|p=395–398}}

According to his autobiography, in June 1936, after having a vision of [[Krishna]], he had a supernatural encounter with the resurrected form of his guru, Sri Yukteswar, while in a room at the Regent Hotel in Mumbai. During the experience, in which Yogananda physically grasped and held onto his guru's solid form, Sri Yukteswar explained that he now served as a spiritual guide on a high-astral planet, and expounded truths in deep detail regarding: the [[astral realm]], astral planets and the afterlife; the lifestyles, abilities and varying levels of freedoms of astral beings; the workings of karma; man's various superphysical bodies and how he works through them, and other metaphysical topics.<ref name="autob2" />

Yogananda and his two western students left India via ocean liner from Mumbai; staying for several weeks in England, they conducted several yoga classes in London and visited historical sites, before leaving for the US in October 1936.{{Sfn|Yogananda|1998|p=454}}