In 1946, Paramahansa Yogananda (January 5, 1893-March 7, 1952), published his life story, Autobiography of a Yogi, which introduced many westerners to meditation and yoga. It has since been translated into 25 languages, and the various editions published since its inception have sold over a million copies worldwide. The book describes Yogananda's search for a guru, and his encounters with leading spiritual figures such as Therese Neumann, the Hindu saint Sri Anandamoyi Ma, Mohandas Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Sir C. V. Raman, and noted American plant scientist Luther Burbank, to whom it is dedicated. Amelita Galli-Curci, one of the most famous opera singers of the early twentieth century, said about the book: Amazing, true stories of saints and masters of India, blended with priceless superphysical information-much needed to balance the Western material efficiency with Eastern spiritual efficiency-come from the vigorous pen of Paramhansa Yogananda, whose teachings my husband and myself have had the pleasure of studying for twenty years.