Paramahansa Yogananda

Paramahansa Yogananda परमहंस योगानन्‍द (January 5, 1893 – March 7, 1952), was an Indian yogi and guru. He was instrumental in bringing Kriya Yoga to the West.

Claims of bodily incorruptibility

Some of Yogananda's followers have made claims of his bodily incorruptibility. As reported in Time Magazine on August 4, 1952, Harry T. Rowe, Los Angeles Mortuary Director of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California where he is interred, stated in a notarized letter:

Related Topics:
Time Magazine - August 4 - Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery - Glendale, California

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:The absence of any visual signs of decay in the dead body of Paramahansa Yogananda offers the most extraordinary case in our experience.... No physical disintegration was visible in his body even twenty days after death.... No indication of mold was visible on his skin, and no visible drying up took place in the bodily tissues. This state of perfect preservation of a body is, so far as we know from mortuary annals, an unparalleled one.... No odor of decay emanated from his body at any time....

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skeptics point to Yogananda's death certificate, which indicates his body was embalmed. They claim the full text of Rowe's letter, as included in a memorial booklet put out by the SRF, indicates his surprise at the described effect was based merely on the lack of use of special creams in addition to the embalming fluid.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~