Oct 02, 2016 02:56 PM
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I think anyone who is interested should read it. It's available for free online(on Ananda.org, Wikipedia, and elsewhere) as its in the public domain. It's a great book in every sense of the word.
First things first, Guruji has a gift of detail. Reading AOY is as good as watching a live video of so many places and the list is endless.
A dedicated reading of the AOY is sure to open your mind in new directions. You will start to think that there is lot more to the world than what you just see
The other answers are great as well, I'll just add a few thoughts: I think it's two things, particularly: what it is and what it does for people.
It's a book about masters of yoga(Yogananda called them "yogi-Christs") written by someone who was himself a master of yoga. It talks about miracles, the yogic teachings, and the teachings of Jesus Christ in a relatively modern way, and in a way that is easy to understand, even entertaining. For someone interested in spirituality, or even just different ways of looking at life, it's incredibly illuminating.
I don't think it's going too far to say that the world is a different place than it would be without this book. The New Age movement in the West, the impact the book has had on thought leaders in many fields, Steve Jobs among them, and the rise in the practice of yoga and meditation are due in large part to Yogananda's influence and the influence of this book.
Philip Goldberg wrote in his book, American Veda, "Among the people I interviewed about their key spiritual influences, a high percentage named a book, and by far the book most often mentioned was Yogananda's unique memoir. A distant second was Be Here Now by Ram Dass, and he mentioned the Autobiography."
Sometimes people will read it and have their life turned around entirely. I think that's why you find such a deep devotion to it as Steve Jobs exhibited(though I don't know why he liked the book so much himself).
