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Mukti Mata, a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda for more than 60 years, passed away on February 6, 2008. The following is from an interview by Margaret Wolff which was published in the Spring 1999 issue of Self-Realization magazine. Copyright © 1999 Self-Realization Fellowship. All rights reserved.
You were with Paramahansa Yogananda from 1945 until his passing in 1952. How did you first meet him?
The story actually begins several years before I met Paramahansaji. Throughout my childhood I often wondered if there was someone on this earth who could tell me about the purpose of life and what we were all here to learn. As I grew older I would periodically—about every two or three years—draw a pair of brown eyes in which I would try to create an expression of eternity. There were times when my concentration on those eyes became so one-pointed that they took on a dimension all their own, as if they were a route into heaven. Each time this occurred I would proceed no further with the drawing, but for some time afterward I would search the faces of strangers looking for those eyes. Never finding what I was looking for, the experience brought on by the drawing would eventually fade from my mind, temporarily forgotten.
At the beginning of World War II, I began a job as a technical illustrator. Each day on my way to work I passed a church. Inscribed on the cornerstone were the words “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” One day I had walked a block past the church when my mind was drawn to that inscription, as if by a strong, unseen magnetism. I stopped and pondered those words for quite some time and realized then that very few of us actually knew what Truth was. Later, I determined that, just maybe, Truth and God might be one and the same.
My interest in Truth—and my need for it—increased. One day I called out, “Lord, if You exist, prove it to me!” Instantly I became aware of a powerful Presence—unseen yet filled with joy and humor. “Don’t laugh!” I said, “I mean business!” As if in response, the Presence immediately sobered up a little. Realizing I had just challenged the Lord Himself, I mentally placed the entire incident in an imaginary cupboard, locked the door, and resolved to attend to only those parts of my life that were tangible, and thus explainable.
Two weeks later a friend came by and invited me to go to Hollywood. I thought, “Hollywood! What are we going to do there? Visit movie stars’ homes?” But since I didn’t have anything planned that morning, I agreed to go. To my surprise, we went to the service at the Self-Realization Fellowship Hollywood Temple. As we entered the chapel I felt a deep peace permeating the building and I said to my companion, “I have been in churches before, but this is the first real church I’ve been in!” Then the curtains behind the podium parted, and I saw Paramahansa Yogananda for the first time. It was obvious he was no ordinary man. I whispered to my friend, “This man has eyes like Jesus.” Though I had never had the blessing of seeing Jesus, I knew that somehow I had spoken the truth. I realized then that, in Paramahansa Yogananda, I had found the eyes I had tried to draw years before.
I was awed at the immensity of his consciousness and intuitively knew it was not limited in the same way ordinary human consciousness is limited. I began to envision him in a cathedral, something suited to his spiritual stature, but nothing I could imagine seemed large enough. I remember thinking, “Only the sky can be the roof of his cathedral.” When I left the temple that day my mind and my soul were locked on his message about God.
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