Paramahansa Yogananda entered mahasamadhi ~

After returning to America, he continued to lecture, write, and establish churches in southern California. In the days leading up to his death, he began hinting that it was time for him to leave the world. On March 7, 1952, he attended a dinner for the visiting Indian Ambassador to the U.S., Binay Ranjan Sen, and his wife at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. At the conclusion of the banquet Yogananda spoke of India and America, their contributions to world peace and human progress, and their future cooperation, expressing his hope for a “United World” that would combine the best qualities of “efficient America” and “spiritual India.” According to an eyewitness – Daya Mata, a direct disciple of Yogananda, who was head of Self-Realization Fellowship from 1955–2010, as Yogananda ended his speech, he read from his poem My India, concluding with the words “Where Ganges, woods, Himalayan caves, and men dream God—I am hallowed; my body touched that sod”. “As he uttered these words, he lifted his eyes to the Kutasha center, and his body slumped to the floor” Followers say that he entered mahasamadhi.

 (Mahasamadhi (the great and final samadhi) is the act of consciously and intentionally leaving one’s body at the time of enlightenment. A realized yogi (male) or yogini (female) who has attained the state of enlightenment, will, at an appropriate time, consciously exit from their body. This is known as mahasamadhi.)

 Twenty days after his death, a notarized statement signed by the Director of Forest Lawn Memorial-Park testified: “No physical disintegration was visible in his body…. it was apparently in a phenomenal state of immutability.” This state, in a sister-religion, Catholicism, is called “the incorruptibility of the flesh” and is considered one of the requisites of sainthood.