IN the 1960s and early 1970s I often picked up hitchhikers:

Because like many young people I thought I was immortal and nothing bad could happen to me. But, when I started living with my girlfriend and got married and had a child I stopped doing this.

During this time I often gave away paperback copies of "Autobiography of a Yogi" of Paramahansa Yogananda to the people I picked up hitch hiking because this seemed a way to keep them alive so they didn't die or get more screwed up.

This was my thinking at the time because it seemed to me like a good idea. I had always had good experiences with Self Realization Fellowship also even though Yogananda had passed away in 1952 when I was 4 years old. But, I always related to this book and especially his experiences while he was young as they were very much like My experiences too. So, I wanted people to see what someone could do in one lifetime in doing something positive for the world starting in 1920 when he came to the U.S. I can imagine that that was like. It would be like going to another planet then.

Even when I went to India in 1985 and 1986 while I was there with my family it was like going to another planet completely, so different was everything there then, especially out in the country away from the cities. It was like being 2000 years ago often with people dressed a lot like Jesus and Mary. It was amazing!

I learned later that one of my best friends in church's mother was a really good friend of Yogananda and visited him often. I didn't find this out until she had passed on so I didn't get to talk to her about her being friends with Yogananda. My friend from church passed away in 2006.