Paramahansa Yogananda arrived in Boston in 1920 as India's delegate to the International Congress of Religious Liberals. He was 27. He gave his first lecture, on "The Science of Religion," to an audience that had no framework for what he was describing. They gave him a standing ovation. He decided to stay. Born Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, India on January 5, 1893, Yogananda was initiated into the Kriya Yoga lineage by his guru, Sri Yukteswar Giri, who was himself a disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya. The meditation technique involves specific breathing exercises and mental focus designed to accelerate spiritual development. Yogananda believed it could be taught to Westerners, which was a radical proposition in 1920. He founded the Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles and spent the next thirty years crisscrossing America, giving lectures that filled Carnegie Hall and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium. He built ashrams in Los Angeles and Encinitas, California, established a correspondence course in meditation, and attracted followers ranging from Hollywood figures to Midwestern housewives. His approach was ecumenical: he quoted Christ and Krishna in the same sentence and argued they taught the same truth in different language. His 1946 autobiography, Autobiography of a Yogi, became one of the most influential spiritual books of the twentieth century. It sold millions of copies and introduced Eastern meditation practices to a Western audience largely unfamiliar with them. Steve Jobs reportedly arranged for copies to be distributed at his own memorial service. George Harrison kept a copy on his nightstand. Yogananda died on March 7, 1952, after giving a speech at a banquet for the Indian Ambassador in Los Angeles. He collapsed mid-sentence. The mortuary director later reported that his body showed no visible signs of decay for twenty days after death, a claim published in a notarized letter. His followers consider this a sign of spiritual attainment. The scientific community has never investigated the claim.