Awake: The Life of Yogananda

Filmmakers Paola di Florio and Lisa Leeman's lively documentary focuses on the life and legacy of Paramahansa Yogananda, the Hindu swami who made Vedic teachings accessible to the world—sans the dogma and rules of organized religion. As American musician Herb Jeffries says in archival footage, Yogananda's message was that you could study and meditate with him and still go out and drink, smoke, and be promiscuous—but you would likely not want to do so anymore. Yogananda taught self-realization: discovering one's link to the divine through neural pathways in the brain and spine, achieved through consciousness-raising via yoga and meditation. After developing a devoted following in India, Yoganahda came to the United States in the 1920s and stayed on, despite sometimes brutal resistance in the South and being tarnished by muckraking journalists as a cult leader. Yogananda eventually amassed thousands of followers, and he established a monastery in Los Angeles where he wrote his famous Autobiography of a Yogi in his later years. Awake uses a combination of archival images and newsreel footage, as well as new and old interview clips (with George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, and others), to deliver a fine portrait of a key figure who brought yoga to the West. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)