title: Historical fiction

text: Nobel Prize laureate William Golding wrote a number of historical novels. "The Inheritors" (1955) is set in prehistoric times, and shows "new people" (generally identified with "Homo sapiens sapiens") triumphing over a gentler race (generally identified with Neanderthals) by deceit and violence. "The Spire" (1964) follows the building (and near collapse) of a huge spire onto a medieval cathedral (generally assumed to be Salisbury Cathedral); the spire symbolizing both spiritual aspiration and worldly vanity. "The Scorpion God" (1971) consists of three novellas, the first set in a prehistoric African hunter-gatherer band ("Clonk, Clonk"), the second in an ancient Egyptian court ("The Scorpion God") and the third in the court of a Roman emperor ("Envoy Extraordinary"). The trilogy "To the Ends of the Earth", which includes the "Rites of Passage" (1980), "Close Quarters" (1987), and "Fire Down Below" (1989), describes sea voyages in the early 19th century. Anthony Burgess also wrote several historical novels; his last novel, "A Dead Man in Deptford", is about the murder of Christopher Marlowe in the 16th century.


title: Historical fiction

text: Though the genre has evolved since its inception, the historical novel remains popular with authors and readers to this day and bestsellers include Patrick O'Brian's "Aubrey–Maturin series", Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth" and Dorothy Dunnett's "Lymond Chronicles". A development in British and Irish writing in the past 25 years has been a renewed interest in the First World War. Works include William Boyd's "An Ice-Cream War"; Sebastian Faulks' "Birdsong" and "The Girl at the Lion d'Or" (concerned with the War's consequences); Pat Barker's "Regeneration Trilogy" and Sebastian Barry's "A Long Long Way".


title: Historical fiction

text: American Nobel laureate William Faulkner's novel "Absalom, Absalom!" (1936) is set before, during and after the American Civil War. Kenneth Roberts wrote several books set around the events of the American Revolution, of which "Northwest Passage" (1937), "Oliver Wiswell" (1940) and "Lydia Bailey" (1947) all became best-sellers in the 1930s and 1940s. The following American authors have also written historical novels in the 20th century: Gore Vidal, John Barth, Norman Mailer, E. L. Doctorow and William Kennedy. Thomas Pynchon's historical novel "Mason & Dixon" (1997) tells the story of the two English surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who were charged with marking the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland in the 18th century. More recently there have been works such as Neal Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle".


title: Historical fiction

text: In Italy, the tradition of historical fiction has flourished in the modern age, the nineteenth century in particular having caught writers’ interests. Southern Italian novelists like Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (The Leopard), Francesco Iovine ("Lady Ava"), Carlo Alianello ("The Heritage of the Prioress") and more recently Andrea Camilleri ("The Preston Brewer") retold the events of the Italian Unification, at times overturning its traditionally heroic and progressive image. The conservative Riccardo Bacchelli in "The Devil at the Long Point" and the communist Vasco Pratolini in "Metello" described, from ideologically opposite points of view, the birth of Italian Socialism. Bacchelli also wrote "The Mill on the Po", a patchwork saga of a family of millers from the time of Napoleon to the First World War, one of the most epic novels of the last century.


title: Historical fiction

text: In 1980, Umberto Eco achieved international success with "The Name of the Rose", a novel set in an Italian abbey in 1327 readable as a historical mystery, as an allegory of Italy during the Years of Lead, and as an erudite joke. Eco’s work, like Manzoni's preceding it, relaunched Italian interest in historical fiction. Many novelists who till then had preferred the contemporary novel tried their hand at stories set in previous centuries. Among them were Fulvio Tomizza ("The Evil Coming from North", about the Reformation), Dacia Maraini ("The Silent Duchess", about the female condition in the eighteenth century), Sebastiano Vassalli ("The Chimera", about a witch hunt), Ernesto Ferrero ("N") and Valerio Manfredi ("The Last Legion").


title: Historical fiction

text: Fani Popova–Mutafova (1902-1977) was a Bulgarian author who is considered by many to have been the best-selling Bulgarian historical fiction author ever. Her books sold in record numbers in the 1930s and the early 1940s. However, she was eventually sentenced to seven years of imprisonment by the Bulgarian communist regime because of some of her writings celebrating Hitler, and though released after only eleven months for health reasons, was forbidden to publish anything between 1943 and 1972. Stoyan Zagorchinov (1889–1969) also a Bulgarian writer, author of "Last Day, God's Day" trilogy and "Ivaylo", continuing the tradition in the Bulgarian historical novel, led by Ivan Vazov. Yana Yazova (1912–1974) also has several novels that can be considered historical as ""Alexander of Macedon"", her only novel on non-Bulgarian thematic, as well as her trilogy ""Balkani"". Vera Mutafchieva (1929–2009) is the author of historical novels which were translated into 11 languages. Anton Donchev (1930–) is an old living author, whose first independent novel, "Samuel's Testimony", was published in 1961. His second book, "Time of Parting", which dealt with the Islamization of the population in the Rhodopes during the XVII century was written in 1964. The novel was adapted in the serial movie "Time of Violence", divided into two parts with the subtitles ("The Threat" and "The Violence") by 1987 by the director Lyudmil Staykov. In June 2015, "Time of Violence" was chosen as the most beloved film of Bulgarian viewers in "Laced Shoes of Bulgarian Cinema", a large-scale consultation with the audience of Bulgarian National Television.


title: Historical fiction

text: One of the best known Scandinavian historical novels is Sigrid Undset's "Kristin Lavransdatter" (1920–1922) set in medieval Norway. For this trilogy Undset was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928. Johannes V. Jensen's trilogy "Kongens fald" (1900–1901, "The Fall of the King"), set in 16th century Denmark, has been called "the finest historical novel in Danish literature". The epic historical novel series "Den lange rejse" (1908–1921, "The Long Journey") is generally regarded as Jensen's masterpiece and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1944 partly on the strength of it. The Finnish writer Mika Waltari is known for the historical novel "The Egyptian" (1945). Faroes–Danish writer William Heinesen wrote several historical novels, most notably "Det gode håb" (1964, "Fair Hope") set in the Faroe Islands in 17th century.


title: Historical fiction

text: Historical fiction has long been a popular genre in Sweden, especially since the 1960s a huge number of historical novels has been written. Nobel laureates Eyvind Johnson and Pär Lagerkvist wrote acclaimed historical novels such as "Return to Ithaca" (1946) and "Barabbas" (1950). Vilhelm Moberg's "Ride This Night" (1941) is set in 16th century Småland and his widely read novel series "The Emigrants" tells the story of Småland emigrants to the United States in the 19th century. Per Anders Fogelström wrote a hugely popular series of five historical novels set in his native Stockholm beginning with "City of My Dreams" (1960). Other writers of historical fiction in Swedish literature include Sara Lidman, Birgitta Trotzig, Per Olov Enquist and Artur Lundkvist.


title: Historical fiction

text: The historical novel was quite popular in 20th century Latin American literature, including works such as "The Kingdom of This World" (1949) by Alejo Carpentier, "I, the Supreme" (1974) by Augusto Roa Bastos, "Terra Nostra" (1975) by Carlos Fuentes, "News from the Empire" (1987) by Fernando del Paso, "The Lightning of August" (1964) by Jorge Ibargüengoitia, "The War of the End of the World" (1981) by Mario Vargas Llosa and "The Autumn of the Patriarch" (1975) by Gabriel García Marquez. Other writers of historical fiction include Abel Posse, Antonio Benitez Rojo, João Ubaldo Ribeiro, Jorge Amado, Homero Aridjis.


title: Historical fiction

text: In the first decades of the 21st century, an increased interest for historical fiction has been noted. One of the most successful writers of historical novels is Hilary Mantel. Other writers of historical fiction include Philippa Gregory, Bernard Cornwell, Sarah Waters, Ken Follett, George Saunders, Shirley Hazzard and Julie Orringer. The historical novel "The Books of Jacob" set in 18th century Poland has been praised as the magnum opus by the 2018 Nobel Prize laureate Olga Tokarczuk.


title: Historical fiction

text: A 20th-century variant of the historical novel is documentary fiction, which incorporates "not only historical characters and events, but also reports of everyday events" found in contemporary newspapers. Examples of this variant form of historical novel include "U.S.A." (1938), and "Ragtime" (1975) by E.L. Doctorow.


title: Historical fiction

text: "Memoirs of Hadrian" by the Belgian-born French writer Marguerite Yourcenar is about the life and death of Roman Emperor Hadrian. First published in France in French in 1951 as "Mémoires d'Hadrien", the book was an immediate success, meeting with enormous critical acclaim. Margaret George has written fictional biographies about historical persons in "The Memoirs of Cleopatra" (1997) and "Mary, called Magdalene" (2002). An earlier example is "Peter I" (1929–34) by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, and "I, Claudius" (1934) and "King Jesus" (1946) by Robert Graves. Other recent biographical novel series, include "Conqueror" and "Emperor" by Conn Iggulden and "Cicero Trilogy" by Robert Harris.


title: Historical fiction

text: The gothic novel was popular in the late eighteenth century. Set in the historical past it has an interest in the mysterious, terrifying and haunting. Horace Walpole's 1764 novel "The Castle of Otranto" is considered to be an influential work.


title: Historical fiction

text: Historical mysteries or "historical whodunits" are set by their authors in the distant past, with a plot that which involves the solving of a mystery or crime (usually murder). Though works combining these genres have existed since at least the early 1900s, many credit Ellis Peters's "Cadfael Chronicles" (1977–1994) with popularizing them. These are set between 1137 and 1145 A.D. The increasing popularity of this type of fiction in subsequent decades has created a distinct subgenre recognized by both publishers and libraries.


title: Historical fiction

text: Romantic themes have also been portrayed, such as "Doctor Zhivago" by Boris Pasternak and "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell. One of the first popular historical romances appeared in 1921, when Georgette Heyer published "The Black Moth", which is set in 1751. It was not until 1935 that she wrote the first of her signature Regency novels, set around the English Regency period (1811–1820), when the Prince Regent ruled England in place of his ill father, George III. Heyer's Regency novels were inspired by Jane Austen's novels of the late 18th and early 19th century. Because Heyer's writing was set in the midst of events that had occurred over 100 years previously, she included authentic period detail in order for her readers to understand. Where Heyer referred to historical events, it was as background detail to set the period, and did not usually play a key role in the narrative. Heyer's characters often contained more modern-day sensibilities, and more conventional characters in the novels would point out the heroine's eccentricities, such as wanting to marry for love.


title: Historical fiction

text: Some historical novels explore life at sea, including C. S. Forester's Hornblower series, Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series, Alexander Kent's The Bolitho novels, Dudley Pope's Lord Ramage's series, all of which all deal with the Napoleonic Wars. There are also adventure novels with pirate characters like Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" (1883), Emilio Salgari's Sandokan (1895–1913) and "Captain Blood" (1922) by Rafael Sabatini. Recent examples of historical novels about pirates are "The Adventures of Hector Lynch" by Tim Severin, "The White Devil (Белият Дявол)" by Hristo Kalchev and "The Pirate Devlin" novels by Mark Keating.


title: Historical fiction

text: "The Plot Against America" is a novel by Philip Roth published in 2004. It is an alternative history in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh and a fascist, anti-semitic government is established. There are other examples, such as Robert Silverberg's "Roma Eterna", in which the Roman Empire survives to the present day and time travel to the past, such as the "Company" stories of Kage Baker. There are authors who write in both subgenres, like Harry Turtledove in his Timeline 191 series and "The Guns of the South" novel, respectively. Isaac Asimov's short story "What If--" is about a couple who can explore alternate realities by means of a television-like device. This idea can also be found in Asimov's 1955 novel "The End of Eternity". In that novel, the "Eternals" can change the realities of the world, without people being aware of it.


title: Historical fiction

text: There is also a historical fantasy subgenre. Poul Anderson has a number of historical fantasy novels set in Viking times including The Broken Sword and "Hrolf Kraki's Saga". Otherwise space opera author C. J. Cherryh has a whole historical fantasy series "The Russian Stories" set in Medieval Kievan Rus times. Guy Gavriel Kay has a number of historical fantasy novels, such as "The Lions of Al-Rassan", set in a fantasy version of Renaissance Spain, and "The Sarantine Mosaic", set in a fantasy version of the Byzantine Empire. David Gemmel has only two historical fantasy series. The first is the "Greek series", which are about Parmenion, a general of Alexander the Great. The story is loosely based on historic events, but adds fantasy elements such as supernatural creatures and sorcery. His posthumous "Troy Series" features a fictional version of the Trojan War. "The Sevenwaters Trilogy" (later expanded) by Juliet Marillier is set in 9th-century Ireland.


title: Historical fiction

text: Historiographic metafiction combines historical fiction with metafiction. The term is closely associated with postmodern literature including writers such as Salman Rushdie and Thomas Pynchon.


title: Historical fiction

text: Several novels by Nobel Prize laureate José Saramago are set in historical times including "Baltasar and Blimunda", "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" and "The History of the Siege of Lisbon". In a parallel plot set in the 12th and 20th century where history and fiction are constantly overlapping, the latter novel questions the reliability of historical sources and deals with the difference of writing history and fiction.


title: Historical fiction

text: A prominent subgenre within historical fiction is the children's historical novel. Often following a pedagogical bent, children's historical fiction may follow the conventions of many of the other subgenres of historical fiction. A number of such works include elements of historical fantasy or time travel to facilitate the transition between the contemporary world and the past in the tradition of children's portal fiction. Sometimes publishers will commission series of historical novels that explore different periods and times. Among the most popular contemporary series include the American Girl novels and the Magic Tree House series. A prominent award within children's historical fiction is the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.


title: Historical fiction

text: Historical narratives have also found their way in comics and graphic novels. There are Prehistorical elements in jungle comics like Akim and Rahan. Ancient Greece inspired graphic novels are "300" created by Frank Miller, centered around Battle of Thermopylae, and "Age of Bronze series" by Eric Shanower, that retells Trojan War. Historical subjects can also be found in manhua comics like "Three Kingdoms" and "Sun Zi's Tactics" by Lee Chi Ching, "Weapons of the Gods" by Wong Yuk Long as well as "The Ravages of Time" by Chan Mou. There are also straight series like "Path of the Assassin", "Vagabond", "Rurouni Kenshin" and "Azumi". Several comics and graphic novels have been produced into anime series or a movie adaptations like "Azumi" and "300".


title: Historical fiction

text: Historical drama film stories are based upon historical events and famous people. Some historical dramas are docudramas, which attempt an accurate portrayal of a historical event or biography, to the degree that the available historical research will allow. Other historical dramas are fictionalized tales that are based on an actual person and their deeds, such as "Braveheart", which is loosely based on the 13th-century knight William Wallace's fight for Scotland's independence. For films pertaining to the history of East Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia, there are historical drama films set in Asia, also known as Jidaigeki in Japan. like "The Hidden Power of the Dragon Sabre" (1984) and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000), based on novels by Jin Yong and Wang Dulu, have also been produced. Zhang Yimou has directed several acclaimed wuxia films like "Hero" (2002), "House of Flying Daggers" (2004) and "Curse of the Golden Flower" (2006). Although largely fictional some wuxia films are considered historical drama. Samurai films like Zatoichi and Lone Wolf and Cub series also fall under historical drama umbrella. Peplum films also known as sword-and-sandal, is a genre of largely Italian-made historical or biblical epics (costume dramas) that dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965. Most pepla featured a superhumanly strong man as the protagonist, such as Hercules, Samson, Goliath, Ursus or Italy's own popular folk hero Maciste. These supermen often rescued captive princesses from tyrannical despots and fought mythological creatures. Not all the films were fantasy-based, however. Many featured actual historical personalities such as Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Hannibal, although great liberties were taken with the storylines. Gladiators, pirates, knights, Vikings, and slaves rebelling against tyrannical kings were also popular subjects. There are also films based on Medieval narratives like Ridley Scott's historical epics "Robin Hood" (2010) and "Kingdom of Heaven" (2005) and the subgenred films based on the Arthurian legend such as "" (2008) and "King Arthur" (2004).


title: Historical fiction

text: Many historical narratives have been expanded into television series. Notable ancient history inspired TV series include: "Rome", "Spartacus", "Egypt", "The Last Kingdom" and "I Claudius". Tudor England is also a very prominent subject in television series like "The Tudors", "The Virgin Queen" and "Elizabeth I". Programs about the Napoleonic Wars have also been produced, like "Sharpe" and "Hornblower". Historical soap operas have also been popular, including the Turkish TV series "The Magnificent Century" and "". Chinese studios have also produced television series like "The Legend and the Hero", its "sequel series", "King's War" and "The Qin Empire". There have also been produced pure , many based on works by Jin Yong like "Condor Trilogy" and "Swordsman", also "Lu Xiaofeng" and "Chu Liuxiang" by Gu Long. They have been very popular in China, but largely unnoticed in Western media.


title: Historical fiction

text: History is one of the three main genres in Western theatre alongside tragedy and comedy, although it originated, in its modern form, thousands of years later than the other primary genres. For this reason, it is often treated as a subset of tragedy. A play in this genre is known as a history play and is based on a historical narrative, often set in the medieval or early modern past. History emerged as a distinct genre from tragedy in Renaissance England. The best known examples of the genre are the history plays written by William Shakespeare, whose plays still serve to define the genre. Shakespeare wrote numerous history plays, some included in the First Folio as histories, and other listed as tragedies, or Roman plays. Among the most famous histories are "Richard III", and "Henry IV, Part 1", "Henry IV, Part 2", and "Henry V". Other plays that feature historical characters, are the tragedy "Macbeth", set in the mid-11th century during the reigns of Duncan I of Scotland and Edward the Confessor, and the Roman plays "Coriolanus", "Julius Caesar", and "Antony and Cleopatra". Another tragedy "King Lear", is based on British legend, as is the romanc "Cymbeline, King of Britain", which is set in Ancient Britain.


title: Historical fiction

text: Other playwrights contemporary to Shakespeare, such as Christopher Marlowe, also dramatized historical topics. Marlowe wrote "Edward the Second" which deals with the deposition of King Edward II by his barons and the Queen, who resent the undue influence the king's favourites have in court and state affairs, and "The Massacre at Paris", which dramatizes the events of the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France in 1572. Marlowe's "Tamburlaine the Great" (1587 or 1588) is a play in two parts, loosely based on the life of the Central Asian emperor, Timur "the lame".


title: Historical fiction

text: History plays also appear elsewhere in other western literature. The German authors Goethe and Schiller wrote a number of historical plays, including Goethe's "Egmont" (1788), which is set in the 16th century, and is heavily influenced by Shakespearean tragedy, and Schiller's "Mary Stuart", which depicts the last days of Mary, Queen of Scots (1800). This play formed the basis for Donizetti's opera "Maria Stuarda" (1834). Beethoven wrote incidental music for "Egmont".


title: Historical fiction

text: Later Irish author George Bernard Shaw wrote several histories, including "Caesar and Cleopatra" (1898) and "Saint Joan", which based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. Published in 1924, not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, the play dramatises what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial. One of the most famous 20th-century history plays is "The Life of Galileo" by Bertolt Brecht which dramatises the latter period of the life of Galileo Galilei, the great Italian natural philosopher, who was persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church for the promulgation of his scientific discoveries; for details, see Galileo affair. The play embraces such themes as the conflict between dogmatism and scientific evidence, as well as interrogating the values of constancy in the face of oppression.


title: Historical fiction

text: More recently British dramatist Howard Brenton has written several histories. He gained notoriety for his play "The Romans in Britain", first staged at the National Theatre in October 1980, which drew parallels between the Roman invasion of Britain in 54BC and the contemporary British military presence in Northern Ireland. Its concerns with politics were, however, overshadowed by controversy surrounding a rape scene. Brenton also wrote "Anne Boleyn" a play on the life of Anne Boleyn, which premiered at Shakespeare's Globe in 2010. Anne Boleyn is portrayed as a significant force in the political and religious in-fighting at court and a furtherer of the cause of Protestantism in her enthusiasm for the Tyndale Bible.


title: Historical fiction

text: One of the first operas to use historical events and people is Claudio Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, which was first performed in Venice during the 1643 carnival season. it describes how Poppaea, mistress of the Roman emperor Nero, is able to achieve her ambition and be crowned empress. The opera was revived in Naples in 1651, but was then neglected until the rediscovery of the score in 1888, after which it became the subject of scholarly attention in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the 1960s, the opera has been performed and recorded many times. George Frederick Handel also wrote several operas based on historical characters, including "Giulio Cesare" (1724), "Tamerlano" (1724) and "Rodelinda" (1725).


title: Historical fiction

text: Historical subjects for operas also developed during the 19th century. Usually with 4 or 5 acts, they are large-scale casts and orchestras, and spectacular staging. Several operas by Gaspare Spontini, Luigi Cherubini, and Gioachino Rossini can be regarded as precursors to French grand opera. These include Spontini's "La vestale" (1807) and "Fernand Cortez" (1809, revised 1817), Cherubini's "Les Abencérages" (1813), and Rossini's "Le siège de Corinthe" (1827) and "Moïse et Pharaon" (1828). All of these have some of the characteristics of size and spectacle that are normally associated with French grand opera. Another important forerunner was "Il crociato in Egitto" by Meyerbeer, who eventually became the acknowledged king of the grand opera genre. Amongst the most important opera composers on historical topics are Giuseppe Verdi, and Richard Wagner.


title: Historical fiction

text: Russian composers also wrote operas based on historical figures, including "Boris Godunov" by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881), which was composed between 1868 and 1873, and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar (1598 to 1605). Equally famous is Alexander Borodin's "Prince Igor", the libretto for which the composer developed from the Ancient Russian epic "The Lay of Igor's Host", which recounts the campaign of Rus prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Cuman ("Polovtsian") tribes in 1185.


title: Historical fiction

text: Historical reenactment is an educational or entertainment activity in which people follow a plan to recreate aspects of a historical event or period. This may be as narrow as a specific moment from a battle, such as the reenactment of Pickett's Charge presented during the Great Reunion of 1913, or as broad as an entire period, such as Regency reenactment or The 1920s Berlin Project.


title: Historical fiction

text: The Marxist literary critic, essayist, and social theorist György Lukács wrote extensively on the aesthetic and political significance of the historical novel. In 1937's "Der historische Roman", published originally in Russian, Lukács developed critical readings of several historical novels by various authors, including Gottfried Keller, Charles Dickens, and Gustave Flaubert. He interprets the advent of the "genuinely" historical novel at the beginning of the 19th century in terms of two developments, or processes. The first is the development of a specific genre in a specific medium—the historical novel's unique stylistic and narrative elements. The second is the development of a representative, organic artwork that can capture the fractures, contradictions, and problems of the particular productive mode of its time (i.e., developing, early, entrenched capitalism).


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: Michaela Antonia Jaé Rodriguez (born January 7, 1991), formerly known as MJ Rodriguez, is an American actress and singer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Rodriguez attended several performing arts schools in her youth before being cast in a theater production of "Rent" as Angel Dumott Schunard, winning the 2011 Clive Barnes Award for her performance.


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: Following her performance in "Rent", Rodriguez took a hiatus from performing to transition. From 2012 to 2016, Rodriguez began to work on stage again and appeared in small television roles, including "Nurse Jackie", "The Carrie Diaries", and "Luke Cage".


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: In 2017, Rodriguez was cast as one of the lead roles in the FX television series "Pose", making her part of the largest cast of transgender actresses to be starring as series regulars in a scripted series. Her performance as Blanca Evangelista garnered critical acclaim. In 2021, she became the first transgender woman to earn an Emmy Award nomination in a major acting category; she was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in the third and final season of "Pose" and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama.


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: Rodriguez was born on January 7, 1991, in Newark, New Jersey to an African-American mother and a father of half Puerto Rican and half African-American descent. Rodriguez attended the Queen of Angels Catholic School. She wanted to become an actress since the age of seven, and began pursuing the profession at the age of 11 after her mother enrolled her in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center—where she became an eight-year veteran of the program and participated in its New Jersey Youth Theater program.


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: While she had "prayed to become female" beginning at age 7, Rodriguez states that she was in denial for many years and initially came out to her parents as "bisexual/gay" at the age of 14. At 14, Rodriguez became involved in the ballroom scene where she found support from her house father who taught her to vogue. She is a graduate of Newark Arts High School, and later attended Berklee College of Music, where she was a 2009 "Star-Ledger" scholarship recipient and a 2009 Young Arts first level scholarship recipient. She eventually took the stage name "Mj" Rodriguez after the Marvel Comics character Mary Jane "MJ" Watson, being a self-described comic book geek and from putting the letters together from parts of her birth name.


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: While attending college, Rodriguez was cast in a theater production of "Rent" as Angel Dumott Schunard. Rodriguez had wanted to play the role since first seeing the 2005 film adaptation. She connected with actress Fredi Walker-Browne (the actress who originated the Broadway role of Joanne Jefferson in "Rent)" who was in attendance at one of Rodriguez's performances. Walker-Browne asked Rodriguez to read for the part of Angel and helped her to land an audition in an upcoming off-Broadway production of "Rent". Rodriguez was cast for the role in the off-Broadway production, and acted alongside then-up and coming stage actor Annaleigh Ashford (cast as Maureen). Rodriguez' performance garnered her the 2011 Clive Barnes Award that was established in honor of the late English writer and critic Clive Barnes.


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: During this period, Rodriguez began to fully explore the transitioning process. Following the conclusion of the off-Broadway revival in 2012, Rodriguez made the decision to go on hiatus to begin transition. Beginning with hormone replacement therapy in early 2016, and allowing sufficient time for privacy, Rodriguez reemerged as an actress. Rodriguez then contacted her representation to inform them that she was no longer auditioning for male roles. Despite her concerns, Rodriguez found her representation to be fully supportive of her new gender identity.


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: From 2012 to 2016, Rodriguez appeared in small television roles, including "Nurse Jackie", "The Carrie Diaries", and "Luke Cage". Her 2016 appearance in the non-speaking role of "Sister Boy" on "Luke Cage" also marked the first appearance of both a transgender actress and character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: Following her reemergence, Rodriguez uploaded a video of herself on Facebook singing the number "Satisfied" from the Broadway musical "Hamilton". The video received a positive response and landed her an invitation to audition for the role of Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds in "Hamilton". The news of her audition as a trans-actress for a cisgender role made various Broadway and LGBT news outlets. She then appeared in several additional stage productions:


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: Rodriguez also landed a supporting role in the independent film "Saturday Church" as Ebony. The 2017 film, which premiered in January 2018, depicted a runaway teenager exploring their gender identity and becoming involved in the contemporary underground ball culture scene. Her portrayal of Ebony earned her a nomination for Best Actress at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: In 2017, Rodriguez was cast in the leading role of Blanca Evangelista in the FX series "Pose" following a six-month casting search. The show was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Steven Canals and made history by casting five transgender actresses in leading roles. As of 2018, the show features the largest cast of transgender actors as series regulars in a scripted series. The pilot for "Pose" went into production in November 2017 and premiered in June 2018 to positive reviews.


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: The series is set in New York City during the 1980s and explores the lives of queer people of color (especially Black trans women) who are involved with the underground ballroom scene. Rodriguez's Blanca is a young woman who forms her own "house"—the House of Evangelista—after receiving a positive diagnosis for HIV. As the head of the House of Evangelista, she becomes a surrogate mother to several abandoned queer youth of color. Described as a "breakout, starring role," her performance has been praised by critics. Among the show's regular cast are Rodriguez's "Saturday Church" co-star Indya Moore, Tony Award-winner Billy Porter, model Dominique Jackson, trans rights advocate Angelica Ross, Evan Peters, Kate Mara, and James Van Der Beek.


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: Rodriguez performed with "Pose" co-stars Dyllón Burnside, Billy Porter and Ryan Jamaal Swain in a benefit concert on July 23, 2018, to celebrate the season 1 finale and raise money for GLSEN and sing "Waving Through a Window" from "Dear Evan Hansen".


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: In 2019 Rodriguez became the first openly transgender woman to win Best Actress - Television at the Imagen Awards.


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: In the fall of 2019, Rodriguez played Audrey, the leading lady in Pasadena Playhouse's production of "Little Shop of Horrors", becoming the first transgender woman of color to play the role in a major production. Her cast mates included George Salazar (from Broadway's Be More Chill) as Seymour and Amber Riley (Glee) as Audrey II. About the role she told Broadway.com, """I’m simply an actress. I think any woman should be considered for this role. [My casting] shouldn’t be something that’s trending—it should be normal."


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: On October 1, 2019, she and "Little Shop of Horrors" co-star George Salazar were the musical guests on "The Late Late Show with James Corden" on CBS where they performed "Suddenly Seymour."


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: In November 2019, Rodriguez landed a contract with Olay Body, becoming the first Latina trans woman to enter a partnership with the company. On May 7, 2021, it was reported by "Variety" that Rodriguez would star alongside Maya Rudolph in Apple TV's upcoming comedy series directed by Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard.


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: In 2021, she became the first transgender woman to receive an Emmy Award nomination in a major acting category; she was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in the third and final season of "Pose".


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: On June 4, 2021, Rodriguez released her debut single "Something to Say" under the record label Access Records. The song serves as the lead single for her upcoming debut EP.


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: In September 2021, Rodriguez announced that she now goes by Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, stating, "I wanted people to see that I was more than just this character that I played on a television screen. ... It was only right and even more personal to let people know who the woman inside of Mj is".


title: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez

text: On January 9, 2022, Rodriguez won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama at the 79th Golden Globe Awards, becoming the first transgender actor to win a Golden Globe in the history of the awards.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: Goosebumps is a 2015 American horror comedy film directed by Rob Letterman and written by Darren Lemke. Based on R. L. Stine's children's horror book series of the same name, it stars Jack Black as a fictionalized version of Stine who teams up with his teenage daughter (Odeya Rush), and their neighbor (Dylan Minnette), to save their hometown after all of the monsters from the "Goosebumps" franchise escape from his works, wreaking havoc in the real world. Amy Ryan, Ryan Lee, and Jillian Bell appear in supporting roles.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: Development on a "Goosebumps" feature film adaptation began in 1998, with Tim Burton attached to direct. After failing to find a script to determine which book to adapt, the project was halted. In early 2008, Columbia Pictures acquired the rights to create a "Goosebumps"-based film, and the project reentered development. Principal photography lasted from April to July 2014 in Candler Park, Atlanta.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: "Goosebumps" was theatrically released in the United States on October 16, 2015, by Columbia Pictures. The film was a commercial success and garnered generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its humor and many references to the "Goosebumps" franchise, and grossed $158 million against its $84 million budget.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: A standalone sequel, "", was released on October 12, 2018, with only Black returning in an uncredited supporting role.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: Following his father's death, teen Zach Cooper and his mother Gale move from New York City to the small town of Madison, Delaware. Settling in the neighborhood, Zach meets his neighbor Hannah, whose overprotective father tells him to stay away.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: The next morning at the local high school where Gale is introduced as the new vice-principal, Zach befriends Champ, a cowardly but friendly student. That night, Hannah invites Zach to an abandoned amusement park where they get to know each other. Upon returning home, Hannah's father again warns him to stay away, or bad things will happen.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: Later, Gale has to supervise a school dance, leaving Zach with his aunt Lorraine. Fearing Hannah is in danger, Zach tricks her father into going to the police station while he and Champ enter his house. They find a bookshelf with numerous locked manuscripts, each one cataloging entries from the "Goosebumps" franchise. In response to Champ's curiosity, Zach unlocks "The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena" and the story's titular monster emerges from it and escapes. With Hannah's help, they track the Abominable Snowman to a local ice rink where Hannah's father appears and reimprisons it in the manuscript.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: Hannah's father unintentionally reveals he is R. L. Stine, the creator of the "Goosebumps" franchise. He originally wrote the stories to cope with severe bullying, but the monsters featured in them became real as a result of his imagination, forcing him to keep them imprisoned in their house manuscripts. Back home, they encounter Slappy the Dummy from the "Night of the Living Dummy" series, who has now been freed from his manuscript. Seeking revenge on Stine for his imprisonment, Slappy incinerates his manuscript, which leaves no other way to reimprison the monsters, before fleeing with the others in "The Haunted Car".


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: Stine and the kids are attacked by the titular gnomes from "Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes" and are forced to escape. Slappy releases several of his fellow monsters, causing havoc around Madison. Meanwhile, Lorraine is attacked by Fifi the Vampire Poodle from "Please Don't Feed the Vampire!". Zach convinces Stine to recapture the monsters by writing a single manuscript, but it can only be done with his supernatural typewriter, which is currently on display at the high school. Along the way, they are attacked by Brent Green from "My Best Friend Is Invisible" and the giant mantis from "A Shocker on Shock Street", forcing them to hide in the supermarket. Will Blake from "The Werewolf of Fever Swamp" chases them to the parking lot where he is run over by Lorraine, who survived Fifi's attack.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: Stine and the kids go through a cemetery, where Zach sees Hannah become ghost-like in the moonlight before being attacked by the titular characters from "Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls". Arriving at the school, Stine confesses to Zach that Hannah is actually Hannah Fairchild from "The Ghost Next Door," and he originally created her to cope with his loneliness, but Hannah is unaware of this. Stine begins to write a story based on the events around them, while Zach and Champ attempt to warn everyone, but nobody believes them until the mantis attacks the building.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: The rest of the monsters are then released and Slappy orders them to storm the school. Despite the best efforts of the school's staff and students to keep the monsters out, they break in nonetheless. Slappy finds Stine, breaking his fingers with the typewriter's case before he can finish the story.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: Stine and the kids trick the monsters into following a school bus rigged with explosives while they board another and head for the abandoned amusement park. Realizing he'd been fooled, Slappy tracks them down and releases the Blob from "The Blob That Ate Everyone" as the other monsters arrive. Stine confronts it and is devoured, while the trio seek refuge in the park's ferris wheel where Zach finishes the story just before the structure is damaged by the mantis, causing it to roll towards the forest. After surviving the ordeal, Zach refuses to open the story's manuscript, because Hannah will also be sucked in, but she reveals she knew the truth about herself all along and opens it, sucking the monsters into it, kissing Zach before accepting her fate.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: Sometime later, Stine begins working as a substitute teacher at the school while starting a relationship with Lorraine. After class, Stine reveals to Zach that he brought Hannah back into reality by writing a new copy of her story. Zach and Hannah kiss and leave together, Stine incinerates the copy and prepares to leave, but then finds his typewriter writing by itself. It turns out that Brent Green evaded imprisonment and is using the typewriter to write a new "Goosebumps" story entitled "The Invisible Boy's Revenge", much to Stine's horror.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: The real R. L. Stine has a cameo as Mr. Black, a drama teacher at Madison High School, credited as "Hallway Player". Kumail Nanjiani and Luka Jones appear as two movers who encounter Slappy in an alternate opening sequence featured on home media releases.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: The popularity of the Fox Kids' "Goosebumps" television series generated an interest among fans for a full-feature film based upon the show. In 1998, Tim Burton was attached to direct a "Goosebumps" film for 20th Century Fox. Chris Meledandri, the president of Fox Family Films at the time, said, "I think you'll see us tackling a scale of story that would be prohibitive to do on the small screen". However, the film did not materialize since they could not find a script they liked or determine which book to adapt into a film.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: In the mid 90's, George A. Romero wrote a script for a film adaptation of the first original "Goosebumps" book "Welcome To Dead House". It also introduces a villain in this version, named Foster DeVries, who is responsible for the chemical leak that turns everyone in Dark Falls into zombies. It was unknowningly rejected. It was then kept at The University of Pittsburgh. [79]


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: In 2008, Columbia Pictures acquired rights to create a "Goosebumps" film. Neal Moritz and Deborah Forte, the latter of whom had previously worked on the "Goosebumps" television series in the 1990s, were chosen to produce the film. Screenwriting team Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski were hired as screenwriters, and wrote the original script for the film. The duo decided against adapting any one book in the series, feeling the individual books in the series were too short. Thinking of ways to create a universe where all the creatures in the books could live together, they elected to do a fake biographical film where R. L. Stine writes a book and the monsters within it become real. In 2010, Carl Ellsworth was chosen to write the screenplay. On January 14, 2012, it was reported that a new draft of the screenplay would be written by Darren Lemke; Lemke co-wrote the screenplays for "Shrek Forever After" and Bryan Singer's "Jack the Giant Slayer". In November 2012, Stine expressed pessimism about the prospect of the film, saying that he would believe that a film can be based on his "Goosebumps" series when he sees it. The screenplay was rated PG-13. He also mentioned "Where the Wild Things Are" being adapted into a film almost 50 years after publication.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: In September 2013, it was reported that Jack Black was in talks to "play a Stine-like author whose scary characters literally leap off the page, forcing him to hide from his own creepy creations". Black stated that he tried to make the character "more of a sort of curmudgeonly dark, brooding beast master". He also said that he attempted to approach this film the same way he does others, trying to "make it as funny as possible". Black met with R. L. Stine to get his consent for the film, but determined that his character could not be too similar to the real one; Black explained that he needed the character to be more sinister. Rob Letterman was chosen as the director, reuniting him with Black, after working together on "Shark Tale" and "Gulliver's Travels".


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: It was announced in February 2014 that Dylan Minnette had been cast as Zach Cooper, and Odeya Rush as the Stine-like author's daughter, Hannah. On February 26, 2014, it was announced that the film would be released on March 23, 2016. On April 4, 2014, it was announced that Amy Ryan and Jillian Bell had joined the cast as Cooper's mother and aunt respectively. On April 10, 2014, Ken Marino joined the cast as Coach Carr. On April 28, 2014, Halston Sage joined the cast. On May 1, 2014, the film's release date was moved up to August 7, 2015. Stine stated on May 20, 2014, that he was going to make a cameo appearance in the film.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: The film was promoted at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International where Jack Black and Rob Letterstein interacted with Slappy the Dummy. Slappy even brought some of his "friends" out consisting of the Bog Monster from "How to Kill a Monster", two Graveyard Ghouls from "Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls", Cronby the Troll and a Mulgani from "Deep in the Jungle of Doom", the Lord High Executioner from "A Night in Terror Tower", Murder the Clown from "A Nightmare on Clown Street", the Mummy of Prince Khor-Ru from "Return of the Mummy", Captain Long Ben One-Leg from "Creep from the Deep", Professor Shock from "The Creepy Creations of Professor Shock", Count Nightwing from "Vampire Breath", a Creep from "Calling All Creeps!", a Body Squeezer from "Invasion of the Body Squeezers: Part 1" and "Part 2", Carly Beth Caldwell's Haunted Mask form from "The Haunted Mask", a Scarecrow from "The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight", and a Pumpkin Head from "Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns". When Jack Black tells Slappy that it is him that Slappy wants, Slappy instructs the Lord High Executioner, Murder the Clown, and Professor Shock to take Jack Black outside to his car. As the monsters leave, Slappy tells Rob some of his pitches causing Rob to leave as well.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: Some monsters due for an appearance in the film were cut for budgetary reasons, but Letterman stated that the crew tried to choose the monsters most appropriate to the story. Letterman also stated that he tried to combine both humor and horror in the film, commenting that "[t]he books themselves are legitimately scary, but they're legitimately funny, and we try to capture that". In November 2014, the release date was moved back to April 15, 2016. In January 2015, the release date was pushed forward to October 16, 2015.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: In mid-April 2014, a crew of six spent three days gathering visual data for the film in downtown Madison, Georgia. The crew used a theodolite to collect points in three-dimensional space to complete a detailed survey of the city. The visual data was used to create a CGI background of the downtown. Neal Moritz and Rob Letterman stated that Madison was their first choice for the film after scouting the city. Principal photography on the film began on April 23, 2014, in Candler Park in Atlanta; they were also set to shoot the film in Conyers and Madison. On May 19, filming was taking place in the streets of Madison, with 480 "Goosebumps" crew members working in Madison and Morgan County. Principal photography ended on July 16, 2014. A stretch of Dawsonville Highway in Georgia was intermittently closed to film a car travelling up and down multiple bridges for the film.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: The soundtrack for the film, featuring original music composed by Danny Elfman, was released on CD on October 23, 2015, by Sony Classical Records. The digital version was released by Madison Gate Records the week before.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: "Goosebumps" had its world premiere screening on June 24, 2015, at the CineEurope film distributors' trade fair in Barcelona, Spain, where the film was presented by Black on stage.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: "Goosebumps" was released on Blu-ray (2D and 3D) and DVD on January 5, 2016, and includes deleted scenes, a blooper reel, interviews with the cast and crew, an alternate opening, an alternate ending, and a featurette about Slappy.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: "Goosebumps" grossed $80.1 million in North America and $70.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $150.2 million, against a budget of $58 million.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: In the United States and Canada, pre-release trackings indicated the film would open to between $20–31 million at 3,501 theaters. However, Sony was more conservative, and projected the film to take between $12–15 million. The film opened on October 16, 2015, alongside "Bridge of Spies", "Crimson Peak", and "Woodlawn", however box office pundits noted that it did not face serious competition except for "The Martian", which was entering its third week. It made $600,000 from its early Thursday night screenings at 2,567 theaters, and $7.4 million on its opening day. In its opening weekend the film grossed $23.5 million, beating studio projections and finishing first at the box office. It marked the fourth Sony film to reign at the top of the box office during the fall. Previously the studio scored No. 1 spots over the last seven weeks with "War Room", "The Perfect Guy" and "Hotel Transylvania 2". Families represented the largest demographics with 60%, followed by under 25 with 59% and male/female ratio was split evenly at 50/50.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: Outside North America, "Goosebumps" was released in a total of 66 countries. Mexico has so far represented its largest opening as well as the biggest market in terms of total earnings with $7.1 million followed by Australia ($6.3 million) and the United Kingdom and Ireland ($6 million). It opened at No. 1 in the United Kingdom and Ireland ($3.9 million). In the United Kingdom, preview takings helped "Goosebumps" top the box office ahead of the more heavily hyped "Dad's Army". In Russia, it opened at No. 2 behind "In the Heart of the Sea" with $1.27 million. Furthermore, it opened in France with $1 million.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 78% based on 161 reviews, with an average rating of 6.38/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""Goosebumps" boasts more than enough of its spooky source material's kid-friendly charm to make up for some slightly scattershot humor and a hurried pace." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 60 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: Kevin P. Sullivan of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a B rating, citing at the end of his review: "Nothing about "Goosebumps" is revolutionary—at a certain point you may realize that it's as if Nickelodeon produced "Cabin in the Woods"—but it's a never-boring trip to a world, where stories and imagination are powerful tools, that just might inspire kids to do the scariest thing of all: pick up a book".


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: Geoff Berkshire of "Variety" wrote: "The ADD overload combined with an understandably kid-friendly approach to horror (no one’s ever in real danger, and the monsters are never too scary) results in a disposable product intended to appeal to everyone but likely to resonate with no one."


title: Goosebumps (film)

text: On September 2, 2015, it was reported that a sequel was in the planning stages, with Sony looking for a screenwriter. On January 17, 2017, a January 26, 2018, release date was set and Rob Letterman confirmed that he is to return as director for the sequel. On February 6, 2017, it was announced that the film's release date has been delayed to September 21, 2018, taking the place of the release date previously held by "". In May 2017, the title was revealed to be "Goosebumps: Horror Land". It was confirmed that Jack Black will reprise his role as R.L. Stine. It was also confirmed that Odeya Rush would return as Hannah Fairchild, R.L Stine's daughter from the first film. However, it was confirmed that the sequel will not feature any of the original cast. In November 2017, Rob Lieber was tapped to pen the script. Shortly after Ari Sandel was announced as Letterman's replacement as director. "Variety" reported that two scripts have been written. One script has Black reprising his role, while the other has Black cut out entirely. In December 2017, the sequel's release date was pushed to October 12, 2018. Production began on February 25, 2018, Jack Black will return in the sequel, making his characters the only one from the previous film to return. New cast members include Madison Iseman, Ben O'Brien, Caleel Harris, and Jeremy Ray Taylor. Ken Jeong, Chris Parnell, and Wendi McLendon-Covey joined the following month. Filming officially began on March 7, 2018, and in April 2018 the new title was announced as "".


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Paramahansa Yogananda (born Mukunda Lal Ghosh; January 5, 1893March 7, 1952) was an Indian Hindu monk, yogi and guru who introduced millions to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) / Yogoda Satsanga Society (YSS) of India, and who lived his last 32 years in America. A chief disciple of the Bengali yoga guru Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, he was sent by his lineage to spread the teachings of yoga to the West, to prove the unity between Eastern and Western religions and to preach a balance between Western material growth and Indian spirituality. His long-standing influence in the American yoga movement, and especially the yoga culture of Los Angeles, led him to be considered by yoga experts as the "Father of Yoga in the West."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Yogananda was the first major Indian teacher to settle in America, and the first prominent Indian to be hosted in the White House (by President Calvin Coolidge in 1927); his early acclaim led to him being dubbed "the 20th century's first superstar guru" by the "Los Angeles Times". Arriving in Boston in 1920, he embarked on a successful transcontinental speaking tour before settling in Los Angeles in 1925. For the next two and a half decades, he gained local fame as well as expanded his influence worldwide: he created a monastic order and trained disciples, went on teaching-tours, bought properties for his organization in various California locales, and initiated thousands into Kriya Yoga. By 1952, SRF had over 100 centers in both India and the US; today, they have groups in nearly every major American city. His "plain living and high thinking" principles attracted people from all backgrounds among his followers.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: He published his book, "Autobiography of a Yogi", in 1946, to critical and commercial acclaim; since its first publishing, it has sold over four million copies, with HarperSan Francisco listing it as one of the "100 best spiritual books of the 20th Century". Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs had ordered 500 copies of the book for his own memorial, for each guest to be given a copy. The book has been regularly reprinted and is known as "the book that changed the lives of millions." A documentary about his life commissioned by the SRF, "", was released in 2014. His continued legacy around the world, remaining a leading figure in Western spirituality to the current day, led authors such as Philip Goldberg to consider him "the best known and most beloved of all Indian spiritual teachers who have come to the West...through the strength of his character and his skillful transmission of perennial wisdom, he showed the way for millions to transcend barriers to the liberation of the soul."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Yogananda was born in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, to a Hindu Bengali, Kayastha - Kshatriya family. He was the fourth of the eight children, and second of the four sons, of Bhagabati Charan Ghosh, the Vice President of Bengal-Nagpur Railway, and Gyanprabha Devi. According to his younger brother, Sananda, from his earliest years young Mukunda's awareness and experience of the spiritual was far beyond the ordinary. Since his father was a Vice-President of the Bengal Nagpur Railway, the nature of his job caused the family to move several times during Yogananda's childhood, including to Lahore, Bareilly, and Kolkata. According to "Autobiography of a Yogi", he was eleven years old when his mother died, just before the marriage of his eldest brother Ananta; she left behind a sacred amulet for Mukunda, given to her by a holy man, who told her that Mukunda was to possess it for some years, after which it would vanish into the ether from which it came. Throughout his childhood, his father would fund train-passes for his many sight-seeing trips to distant cities and pilgrimage spots, which he would often take with friends. In his youth he sought out many of India's Hindu sages and saints, including the Soham "Tiger" Swami, Gandha Baba, and Mahendranath Gupta, hoping to find an illumined teacher to guide him in his spiritual quest.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: After finishing high school, Yogananda formally left home and joined a Mahamandal Hermitage in Varanasi; however, he soon became dissatisfied with its insistence on organizational work instead of meditation and God-perception. He began praying for guidance; in 1910, his seeking after various teachers mostly ended when, at the age of 17, he met his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri; at that time his well-guarded amulet mysteriously vanished, having served its spiritual purpose. In his autobiography, he describes his first meeting with Sri Yukteswar as a rekindling of a relationship that had lasted for many lifetimes:


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: "We entered a oneness of silence; words seemed the rankest superfluities. Eloquence flowed in soundless chant from heart of master to disciple. With an antenna of irrefragable insight I sensed that my guru knew God, and would lead me to Him. The obscuration of this life disappeared in a fragile dawn of prenatal memories. Dramatic time! Past, present, and future are its cycling scenes. This was not the first sun to find me at these holy feet!"


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: He would go on to train under Sri Yukteswar as his disciple for the next ten years (1910–1920), at his hermitages in Serampore and Puri. Later on Sri Yukteswar informed Yogananda that he had been sent to him by the great guru of their lineage, Mahavatar Babaji, for a special world purpose of yoga dissemination.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: After passing his Intermediate Examination in Arts from the Scottish Church College, Calcutta, in 1915, he graduated with a degree similar to a current day Bachelor of Arts or B.A. (at the time referred to as an A.B.), from Serampore College, the college having two entities, one as a constituent college of the Senate of Serampore College (University) and the other as an affiliated college of the University of Calcutta. This allowed him to spend time at Yukteswar's ashram in Serampore.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: In July 1915, several weeks after graduating from college, he took formal vows into the monastic Swami order; Sri Yukteswar allowed him to choose his own name: Swami Yogananda Giri. In 1917, Yogananda founded a school for boys in Dihika, West Bengal, that combined modern educational techniques with yoga training and spiritual ideals. A year later, the school relocated to Ranchi. One of the school's first group of pupils was his youngest brother, Bishnu Charan Ghosh, who learned yoga asanas there and in turn taught asanas to Bikram Choudhury. This school would later become the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, the Indian branch of Yogananda's American organization, Self-Realization Fellowship.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: In 1920, while in meditation one day at his Ranchi school, Yogananda received a vision - faces of a multitude of Americans passed before his mind's eye, intimating to him that he would soon go to America. After giving charge of the school over to its faculty (and eventually to his brother disciple Swami Satyananda), he left for Calcutta; the following day he received an invitation from the American Unitarian Association to serve as India's delegate to an International Congress of Religious Liberals convening that year in Boston. Seeking out his guru's advice, Sri Yukteswar advised him to go. According to Philip Goldberg, Yogananda shared the following account in his book "Autobiography of a Yogi". While in deep prayer in his room, he received a surprise visit from Mahavatar Babaji, the Great Guru of his lineage, who told him directly that he was the one chosen to spread Kriya Yoga to the West. Reassured and uplifted, Yogananda soon afterwards accepted the offer to go to Boston. This account became a standard feature of his lectures.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: In August 1920, he left for the United States aboard the ship "The City of Sparta," on a two-month voyage that landed near Boston by late September. He spoke at the International Congress in early October, and was well received; later that year he founded the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) to disseminate worldwide his teachings on India's ancient practices and philosophy of Yoga and its tradition of meditation. Yogananda spent the next four years in Boston; in the interim, he lectured and taught on the East Coast and in 1924 embarked on a cross-continental speaking tour. Thousands came to his lectures. During this time he attracted a number of celebrity followers, including soprano Amelita Galli-Curci, tenor Vladimir Rosing and Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch, the daughter of Mark Twain. In 1925, he established an international center for Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles, California, which became the spiritual and administrative heart of his growing work. Yogananda was the first Hindu teacher of yoga to spend a major portion of his life in America. He lived in the United States from 1920 to 1952, interrupted by an extended trip abroad in 1935–1936, and through his disciples he developed various Kriya Yoga centers around the world.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Yogananda was put on a government watch list and kept under surveillance by the FBI and the British authorities, who were concerned about the growing independence movement in India. A confidential file was kept on him from 1926 to 1937 due to concern over his religious and moral practices. Philip Goldberg's biography describes Yogananda as being up against a perfect storm of America's worst defects: media sensationalism, religious bigotry, ethnic stereotyping, paternalism, sexual anxiety, and brazen racism.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: In 1928, Yogananda received unfavorable publicity in Miami and the police chief, Leslie Quigg, prohibited Yogananda from holding any further events. Quiggs said it was not due to a personal grudge against the Swami but rather in the interest of public order and Yogananda's own safety. Quigg had received veiled threats against Yogananda. According to Phil Goldberg, it turns out that Miami officials had summoned the British vice consulate to advise them on the matter ... one consulate officer said that the Miami city manager and Chief Quigg 'recognized the fact that the swami was a British subject and apparently an educated man, but unfortunately he was what is considered in this part of the country a coloured man.’ Given the South’s cultural mores, he noted, ‘the swami was in great danger of suffering bodily harm from the populace.’"


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: In 1935, he returned to India via ocean liner, along with two of his western students, to visit his guru Sri Yukteswar Giri and to help establish his Yogoda Satsanga work in India. While enroute, his ship detoured in Europe and the Middle East; he undertook visits to other living western saints like Therese Neumann, the Catholic Stigmatist of Konnersreuth, and places of spiritual significance: Assisi, Italy to honor St. Francis, the Athenian temples of Greece and prison cell of Socrates, the Holy Land of Palestine and the regions of the Ministry of Jesus, and Cairo, Egypt to view the ancient Pyramids.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: In August 1935, he arrived in India at the port of Mumbai, then called Bombay, and due to his fame in America, he was met with many photographers and journalists during his short stay at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Upon taking a train eastward and reaching the Howrah Station near Kolkata, than called Calcutta, he was met with a huge crowd and a ceremonious procession led by his brother, Bishnu Charan Ghosh, and the Maharaja of Kasimbazar. Visiting Serampore, he had an emotional reunion with his guru Sri Yukteswar, which was noted in detail by his western student C. Richard Wright. During his stay in India, he saw his Ranchi boys' school become legally incorporated, and took a touring group to visit various locales: the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Chamundeshwari Temple in Mysore, Allahabad for the Kumbh Mela of January 1936, and Brindaban to visit an exalted disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Keshabananda.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: He also met with other various people who caught his interest: Mahatma Gandhi, whom he initiated into Kriya Yoga; woman-saint Anandamoyi Ma; Giri Bala, an elderly yogi woman who survived without eating; renowned physicist Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, and several disciples of Sri Yukteswar's guru Lahiri Mahasaya. While in India, Sri Yukteswar gave Yogananda the monastic title of "Paramahansa," meaning "supreme swan" and indicating the highest spiritual attainment, which formally superseded his previous title of "swami." In March 1936, upon Yogananda's return to Calcutta after visiting Brindaban, Sri Yukteswar died (or, in the yogic tradition, attained mahasamadhi) at his hermitage in Puri. After conducting his guru's funeral rites, Yogananda continued to teach, conduct interviews, and meet with friends for several months, before planning to return to the US in mid-1936.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: According to his autobiography, in June 1936, after having a vision of Krishna, he had a supernatural encounter with the resurrected Spirit of his guru Sri Yukteswar while in a room at the Regent Hotel in Mumbai. During the experience, in which Yogananda physically grasped and held onto his guru's solid form, Sri Yukteswar explained that he now served as a spiritual guide on a high-astral planet, and expounded truths in deep detail regarding: the astral realm, astral planets and the afterlife; the lifestyles, abilities and varying levels of freedoms of astral beings; the workings of karma; man's various super physical bodies and how he works through them, and other metaphysical topics. With new wisdom and renewed from the encounter, Yogananda and his two western students left India via ocean liner from Mumbai; staying for several weeks in England, they conducted several yoga classes in London and visited historical sites, before leaving for the US in October 1936.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: In late 1936, Yogananda's ship arrived in New York harbor, passing the Statue of Liberty; he and his companions then drove in his Ford car across the continental US back to his Mount Washington, California headquarters. Rejoined with his American disciples, he continued to lecture, write, and establish churches in southern California. He took up residence at the SRF hermitage in Encinitas, California which was a surprise gift from his advanced disciple Rajarsi Janakananda. It was at this hermitage that Yogananda wrote his famous "Autobiography of a Yogi" and other writings. Also, at this time he created an "enduring foundation for the spiritual and humanitarian work of Self‑Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: In 1946, Yogananda took advantage of a change in immigration laws and applied for citizenship. His application was approved in 1949, and he became a naturalized U.S. citizen.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: The last four years of his life were spent primarily in seclusion with some of his inner circle of disciples at his desert retreat in Twentynine Palms, California to finish his writings and to finish revising books, articles and lessons written previously over the years. During this period he gave few interviews and public lectures. He told his close disciples, "I can do much more now to reach others with my pen."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Yogananda began hinting to his disciples that it was time for him to leave the world. According to Phil Goldberg, one example was what Yogananda said to Daya Mata just before the dinner, "Do you realize that it is just a matter of hours and I will be gone from this earth?"


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: On March 7, 1952, he attended a dinner for the visiting Indian Ambassador to the U.S., Binay Ranjan Sen, and his wife at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. At the conclusion of the banquet, Yogananda spoke of India and America, their contributions to world peace and human progress, and their future co-operation, expressing his hope for a "United World" that would combine the best qualities of "efficient America" and "spiritual India." According to his direct disciple and eventual head of the SRF Daya Mata, who was present at the banquet, as Yogananda ended his speech, he read from his poem "My India", concluding with the words "Where Ganges, woods, Himalayan caves, and men dream God—I am hallowed; my body touched that sod." Daya Mata stated that "as he uttered these words, he lifted his eyes to the Kutastha center, and his body slumped to the floor."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: According to TIME Magazine and others, "Self-Realization disciples claim that their teacher thus performed mahasamadhi (a yogi's conscious exit from the body). The medical verdict was "acute coronary occlusion," i.e., a heart attack." His funeral service, with hundreds attending, was held at the SRF headquarters atop Mt. Washington in Los Angeles. Rajarsi Janakananda, who Yogananda chose to succeed him as the new president of the Self-Realization Fellowship, "performed a sacred ritual releasing the body to God."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: According to the book "Divine Interventions: True Stories of Mysteries and Miracles That Change Lives", for three weeks after his death Yogananda's body "showed no signs of physical deterioration and 'his unchanged face shone with the divine luster of incorruptibility.'" A notarized letter from Harry T. Rowe, the mortuary director, added: "The absence of any visual signs of decay … offers the most extraordinary case in our experience... This state of perfect preservation of a body is, so far as we know from mortuary annals, an unparalleled one... Yogananda's body was apparently in a phenomenal state of immutability... No odor of decay emanated from his body at any time... For these reasons we state again that the case of Paramahansa Yogananda is unique in our experience." Rowe wrote that Yogananda's body was embalmed approximately twenty-four hours after his death. On March 26 a barely noticeable desiccation on his nose was seen and on March 27 Rowe noted that Yogananda's body looked fresh and unravaged by decay as it did on the day of his death. Yogananda's remains are interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Great Mausoleum (normally closed off to visitors but Yogananda's tomb is accessible) in Glendale, California.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: In 1917, Yogananda, in India, "began his life's work with the founding of a 'how-to-live' school for boys, where modern educational methods were combined with yoga training and instruction in spiritual ideals." In 1920 "he was invited to serve as India's delegate to an International Congress of Religious Liberals convening in Boston. His address to the Congress, on 'The Science of Religion,' was enthusiastically received." For the next several years he lectured and taught across the United States. His discourses taught of the "unity of 'the original teachings of Jesus Christ and the original Yoga taught by Bhagavan Krishna.'"


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: In 1920, he founded the Self-Realization Fellowship and in 1925 established in Los Angeles, California, USA, the international headquarters for SRF.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Yogananda wrote the "Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You" and "" to explain his belief in the harmony and oneness of original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ and original Yoga as taught by Bhagavan Krishna; and to present that these principles of truth are the common scientific foundation of all true religions.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: In his published work, "The Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons", Yogananda gives "his in-depth instruction in the practice of the highest yoga science of God-realization. That ancient science is embodied in the specific principles and meditation techniques of "Kriya Yoga"." Yogananda taught his students the need for direct experience of truth, as opposed to blind belief. He said that "The true basis of religion is not belief, but intuitive experience. Intuition is the soul's power of knowing God. To know what religion is really all about, one must know God."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Echoing traditional Hindu teachings, he taught that the entire universe is God's cosmic motion picture, and that individuals are merely actors in the divine play who change roles through reincarnation. He taught that mankind's deep suffering is rooted in identifying too closely with one's current role, rather than with the movie's director, or God.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: He taught Kriya Yoga and other meditation practices to help people achieve that understanding, which he called Self-realization:


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Self-realization is the knowing – in body, mind, and soul – that we are one with the omnipresence of God; that we do not have to pray that it come to us, that we are not merely near it at all times, but that God's omnipresence is our omnipresence; and that we are just as much a part of Him now as we ever will be. All we have to do is improve our knowing.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: In his book, "How you can talk with God", he claims that anyone can talk with God, if the person keeps persevering in the request to speak with God with devotion. He also claimed that God had spoken to him many times, apart from making miracles happen in his life. In the book, he claims that, "We may in a vision see a face of some divine/saintly being, or we may hear a Divine voice talking to us, and will know it is God. When our heart-call is intense, and we do not give up, God will come. It is important that we remove from our mind all doubt that God will answer."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: The "science" of Kriya Yoga is the foundation of Yogananda's teachings. An ancient spiritual practice, Kriya Yoga is "union (yoga) with the Infinite through a certain action or rite (kriya). The Sanskrit root of "kriya" is "kri", to do, to act and react." Kriya Yoga was passed down through Yogananda's spiritual lineage: Mahavatar Babaji taught the Kriya technique to Lahiri Mahasaya, who taught it to his disciple, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, Yogananda's Guru.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: "The Kriya Yogi mentally directs his life energy to revolve, upward and downward, around the six spinal centers (medullary, cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal plexuses) which correspond to the twelve astral signs of the zodiac, the symbolic Cosmic Man. One-half-minute of revolution of energy around the sensitive spinal cord of man effects subtle progress in his evolution; that half-minute of Kriya equals one year of natural spiritual unfoldment".


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Sri Mrinalini Mata, the former president of SRF/YSS, said, "Kriya Yoga is so effective, so complete, because it brings God's love – the universal power through which God draws all souls back to reunion with Him – into operation in the devotee's life."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Yogananda wrote in "Autobiography of a Yogi" that the "actual technique should be learned from an authorized Kriyaban (Kriya Yogi) of Self-Realization Fellowship /Yogoda Satsanga Society of India."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: In 1946, Yogananda published his life story, "Autobiography of a Yogi". It has since been translated into 45 languages. In 1999, it was designated one of the "100 Most Important Spiritual Books of the 20th Century" by a panel of spiritual authors convened by Philip Zaleski and HarperCollins publishers. "Autobiography of a Yogi" is the most popular among Yogananda's books. According to Philip Goldberg, who wrote "American Veda", "the Self-Realization Fellowship which represents Yogananda's Legacy, is justified in using the slogan, "The Book that Changed the Lives of Millions." It has sold more than four million copies and counting". In 2006, the publisher, Self-Realization Fellowship, honored the 60th anniversary of "Autobiography of a Yogi" "with a series of projects designed to promote the legacy of the man thousands of disciples still refer to as 'master'."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: "Autobiography of a Yogi" describes Yogananda's spiritual search for enlightenment, in addition to encounters with notable spiritual figures such as Therese Neumann, Anandamayi Ma, Vishuddhananda Paramahansa, Mohandas Gandhi, Nobel laureate in literature Rabindranath Tagore, noted plant scientist Luther Burbank (the book is 'Dedicated to the Memory of Luther Burbank, An American Saint'), famous Indian scientist Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose and Nobel laureate in physics Sir C. V. Raman. One notable chapter of this book is "The Law of Miracles", where he gives scientific explanations for seemingly miraculous feats. He writes: "the word 'impossible' is becoming less prominent in man's vocabulary."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: The "Autobiography" has been an inspiration for many people including George Harrison, Ravi Shankar and Steve Jobs. In the 2011 book "Steve Jobs: A Biography" the author writes that Jobs first read the "Autobiography" as a teenager. He re-read it in India and later while preparing for a trip, he downloaded it onto his iPad2 and then re-read it once a year ever since. Jon Anderson was inspired by Paramahansa Yogananda and his book "Autobiography of a Yogi" when he wrote "Tales From Topographic Oceans" India national cricket team captain, Virat Kohli said that the "Autobiography" influenced his life in a positive manner and also urged everyone to read it.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: As reported in "Time" on August 4, 1952, Harry T. Rowe, Mortuary Director of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, where Yogananda's body was received, embalmed and interred, wrote in a notarized letter


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: The absence of any visual signs of decay in the dead body of Paramahansa Yogananda offers the most extraordinary case in our experience... No physical disintegration was visible in his body even twenty days after death... No indication of mold was visible on his skin, and no visible drying up took place in the bodily tissues. This state of perfect preservation of a body is, so far as we know from mortuary annals, an unparalleled one... No odour of decay emanated from his body at any time...


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Because of two statements in Rowe's letter, some have questioned whether the term "incorruptibility" is appropriate. First, in his fourth paragraph he wrote: "For protection of the public health, embalming is desirable if a dead body is to be exposed for several days to public view. Embalming of the body of Paramahansa Yogananda took place twenty-four hours after his demise." Claims of incorruptibility require that a body not be embalmed, whereas the letter notes that Yogananda's body was embalmed soon after his death. Second, in the eleventh paragraph he wrote: "On the late morning of March 26th, we observed a very slight, a barely noticeable, change – the appearance on the tip of the nose of a brown spot, about one-fourth inch in diameter. This small faint spot indicated that the process of desiccation (drying up) might finally be starting. No visible mold appeared however."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Rowe continued in paragraphs fourteen and fifteen: "The physical appearance of Paramahansa Yogananda on March 27th just before the bronze cover for the casket was put into position, was the same as it was on March 7th. He looked on March 27th as fresh and unravaged by decay as he had looked on the night of his death. On March 27th there was no reason to say that his body had suffered any physical disintegration at all. For these reason we state again that the case of Paramahansa Yogananda is unique in our experience. On May 11, 1952, during a telephone conversation between an officer of Forest Lawn and an officer of Self-Realization Fellowship, the amazing story was brought out for the first time."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Self-Realization Fellowship published Rowe's four-page notarized letter in its entirety in the May–June 1952 issue of its magazine "Self-Realization". From 1958 to the present it has been included in that organization's booklet "Paramahansa Yogananda: In Memoriam".


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: The location of Yogananda's crypt is in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Golden Slumber, Mausoleum Crypt 13857, Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale).


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS) is a non-profit religious organization founded by Yogananda in 1917. In countries outside the Indian subcontinent it is known as the Self-Realization Fellowship. Yogananda's dissemination of his teachings is continued through this organization – the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) /Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS). Yogananda founded the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India in 1917 and then expanded it in 1920 to the United States naming it the Self-Realization Fellowship. In 1935, he legally incorporated it in the U.S. to serve as his instrument for the preservation and worldwide dissemination of his teachings. Yogananda expressed this intention again in 1939 in his magazine "Inner Culture for Self-Realization" that he published through his organization:


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: SRF/YSS is headquartered in Los Angeles and has grown to include more than 500 temples and centers around the world. It has members in over 175 countries including the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine. In India and surrounding countries, Paramahansa Yogananda's teachings are disseminated by YSS which has more than 100 centers, retreats, and ashrams. Rajarsi Janakananda was chosen by Yogananda to become the President of SRF/YSS when he was gone. Daya Mata, a religious leader and a direct disciple of Yogananda who was personally chosen and trained by Yogananda, was head of Self-Realization Fellowship /Yogoda Satsanga Society of India from 1955 to 2010. According to Linda Johnsen, the new wave today is women, for major Indian gurus have passed on their spiritual mantle to women including Yogananda to the American-born Daya Mata and then to Mrinalini Mata. Mrinalini Mata, a direct disciple of Yogananda, was the president and spiritual head of Self-Realization Fellowship /Yogoda Satsanga Society of India from January 9, 2011, until her death on August 3, 2017. She, too, was personally chosen and trained by Yogananda to help guide the dissemination of his teachings after his death. On August 30, 2017, Brother Chidananda was elected as the next president in a unanimous vote by the SRF Board of Directors. Yogananda incorporated the Self-Realization Fellowship as a nonprofit organization and reassigned all of his property including Mt. Washington to the corporation, thereby protecting his assets.


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: On November 15, 2017, the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind visited the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India's Ranchi Ashram on its centennial anniversary in honor of the official release of the Hindi translation of Yogananda's book "God Talks with Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita".


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: India released a commemorative stamp in honor of Yogananda in 1977. "Department of Post issued a commemorative postage stamp on the occasion of the twenty‑fifth anniversary of Yogananda's passing in honor of his far‑reaching contributions to the spiritual upliftment of humanity. "The ideal of love for God and service to humanity found full expression in the life of Paramahansa Yogananda. Though the major part of his life was spent outside India, still he takes his place among our great saints. His work continues to grow and shine ever more brightly, drawing people everywhere on the path of the pilgrimage of the Spirit."


title: Paramahansa Yogananda

text: On March 7, 2017, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, released another commemorative postage stamp honoring the 100th anniversary of the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. Prime Minister Modi at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi appreciated Yogananda for spreading the message of India's spirituality in foreign shores. He said that though Yogananda left the shores of India to spread his message, he always remained connected with India.


title: Gangs of Wasseypur

text: Gangs of Wasseypur is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language two-part crime film produced and directed by Anurag Kashyap, and written by Kashyap and Zeishan Quadri. Centered on the coal mafia (Mafia Raj) of Dhanbad, and the underlying power struggles, politics and vengeance between three crime families, the film has an ensemble cast, with Manoj Bajpai, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Pankaj Tripathi, Richa Chadda, Huma Qureshi and Tigmanshu Dhulia in the major roles. Its story spans 68 years from 1941 to 2009.


title: Gangs of Wasseypur

text: Both parts were originally shot as a single film measuring a total of 321 minutes and screened at the 2012 Cannes Directors' Fortnight, but, since no Indian theatre would volunteer to screen a more-than-five-hour film, it was split into two parts for that market.


title: Gangs of Wasseypur

text: Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that the film holds a 97% approval rating, based on 31 reviews, with an average score of 8.2/10. The website's critics' consensus reads: "More than five hours go by in a blink in this frantic Indian crime epic that spans generations and encompasses hundreds of characters in a bloody spiral of brutality, all masterfully filmed by Anurag Kashyap." The film holds a Metacritic score of 89 based on 10 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Gangs of Wasseypur

text: Critic Danny Bowes of RogerEbert.com called it "[o]ne of the most ambitious gangster films ever made, and quite possibly one of the best", writing that it is "worthy of discussion alongside Coppola's first two "Godfather" films, or Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America"." Salon's Andrew O'Hehir wrote: "As a rich and exuberant character-driven crime saga in an idiom you absolutely have not encountered before, and a dense, unsentimental portrayal of the collision between democracy, capitalism, and gangsterism on the frayed margins of the post-colonial world, "Gangs of Wasseypur" is a signal achievement in 21st-century cinema." Martin Scorsese, one of Kashyap's influences on the films and personal heroes, sent a letter to Kashyap, offering praise, stating that he "loved them", even expressing a desire to meet him.".


title: Gangs of Wasseypur

text: In September 2019, "The Guardian" ranked "Gangs of Wasseypur" in 59th place in its 100 best films of the 21st century list, and give it review as:


title: Gangs of Wasseypur

text: "A possible turning point in Hindi cinema, Anurag Kashyap's epic drama doesn't pull any punches in its portrayal of gangster life in an Indian mining town".


title: Gangs of Wasseypur

text: There was a rumored third part of the franchise, named "Gangs of Wasseypur 1.5". However, Director Kashyap discarded the rumors and confirmed there won't be a third part of the franchise.


title: Gangs of Wasseypur

text: However, Gangs of Wasseypur's box office records vary from website to website, sources to sources, but ""it did a great business at box office"" stated by "The Guardian".


title: Sam Bradford

text: Samuel Jacob Bradford (born November 8, 1987) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons, most notably with the St. Louis Rams and Minnesota Vikings. He was also a member of the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals. Bradford attended Putnam City North High School in Oklahoma City, where he starred in football, basketball and golf. As a senior quarterback in 2005, he threw for 2,029 yards and 17 touchdowns in 12 games. Bradford was not highly recruited coming out of high school, but he did receive a scholarship offer from the University of Oklahoma, which he accepted. After a redshirt season in 2006, Bradford threw for 3,121 yards and 36 touchdowns as a redshirt freshman. In 2008, Bradford became only the second sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy as he led the highest-scoring offense in NCAA history, passing for 4,720 yards with 50 touchdowns and just eight interceptions. He again led the nation in passing and also added five rushing touchdowns as the Sooners went 12–1 and advanced to the BCS national title game.


title: Sam Bradford

text: Bradford declared for the NFL Draft following the 2009 season and was drafted by the St. Louis Rams with the first overall selection in the 2010 NFL Draft. That year, Bradford set the record for most completions by a rookie in NFL history, which helped earn him the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award. Prior to the start of the 2015 season, the Rams traded Bradford along with a 2015 fifth round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for quarterback Nick Foles, a 2015 fourth-round pick, and a 2016 second-round pick. Following his 2015 campaign with the Eagles, in which he set career-highs in passing yards (3,725), completion percentage (65%) and yards per attempt (7.0), Minnesota Vikings acquired Bradford after their starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was lost to a season-ending knee injury before the start of the season. Bradford signed with the Arizona Cardinals in 2018 and started three games, but was replaced by rookie Josh Rosen and eventually released.


title: Sam Bradford

text: Bradford was born to Kent and Martha Bradford in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He attended Putnam City North High School in Oklahoma City, where he starred in football, basketball, baseball, and golf for the Putnam City North Panthers. Bradford played as a pitcher in baseball, but gave up baseball after his freshman year. He earned All-City honors as a junior quarterback in football by "The Oklahoman". Following his senior season in which he threw for 2,029 yards and 17 touchdowns in 12 games, Bradford was named to the Oklahoma Coaches Association All-State Team and was a Second-Team All-State pick by "The Oklahoman".


title: Sam Bradford

text: Bradford was also a Division I-caliber basketball player. As a senior, he averaged 18.6 points and 10.5 rebounds per game and played on the same elite AAU team as fellow Oklahoma City native and NBA star Blake Griffin. In golf, Bradford defeated future PGA touring pros Kevin Tway and Robert Streb during his high school career. In addition to the aforementioned sports, Bradford also played ice hockey in his youth. In 1999, when Bradford was 12, his travel team, the Junior Blazers, won a regional championship, beating a team from Houston. He quit the sport that same year, and according to his former hockey coach Mike McEwen, who played on three Stanley Cup championship teams with the New York Islanders, Bradford had the talent to make it in the NHL. McEwen also said that Bradford was one of the best players he ever coached.


title: Sam Bradford

text: In the spring of 2005, by the end of Bradford's junior season, he garnered interest from several Division I football programs, including Stanford, Michigan, Texas Tech, and nearby Oklahoma. Following his senior season, Bradford was viewed as a two-to-three-star recruit (out of five) and was not that highly ranked among the high school class of 2006, with his highest ranking being No. 12 among only pro-style quarterbacks by recruiting source "Rivals.com". Bradford was ranked behind Pat Devlin, "Juice" Williams and Josh Freeman, and was overshadowed by five-star recruits such as Mitch Mustain, Matthew Stafford and Tim Tebow.


title: Sam Bradford

text: Bradford received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Oklahoma, where he played for coach Bob Stoops's Oklahoma Sooners football team. He redshirted as a freshman in 2006. The same year, Oklahoma's starting quarterback Rhett Bomar, then a sophomore, was dismissed from the team for violating NCAA rules. Paul Thompson, a senior quarterback-turned-wide receiver, converted back to quarterback and led the 2006 Oklahoma Sooners football team to win the Big 12 Championship Game. His departure left a void at the quarterback position at Oklahoma. Six players on the roster tried out for the starting position during the following off-season, including three walk-on quarterbacks, true freshman Keith Nichol (a Rivals.com 4-star recruit and 6th-ranked dual-threat quarterback in the 2007 recruiting class, who later transferred to Michigan State University), junior Joey Halzle (the only one with game experience), and Bradford. On August 21, 2007, Bradford won the starting quarterback role for the 2007 team.


title: Sam Bradford

text: In his first game for the Sooners, against the University of North Texas, Bradford completed 21 of 23 passing attempts for 363 yards and three touchdowns in a little over two quarters, breaking the school record for passing yards in a half, held by his quarterback coach Josh Heupel, with 350. The very next game, Bradford broke Heisman Trophy winner Jason White's school record for most consecutive pass completions with 22 (18 came in the first half and 4 at the start of the second).


title: Sam Bradford

text: In the second week of the 2007 season, Bradford was named the college national offensive player of the week by the Walter Camp Football Foundation after tying the school record for most touchdown passes in a game with five. Having thrown 25 touchdowns through his first nine games, Bradford was on pace to break the NCAA freshman record of 29 touchdowns set by David Neill in 1998 and tied by Colt McCoy in 2006.


title: Sam Bradford

text: In the November 17, 2007, game against Texas Tech, Bradford suffered a concussion. He was removed from the game and replaced by back-up quarterback Joey Halzle. The Sooners lost the game, 27–34. Bradford was able to play in the Bedlam game against Oklahoma State a week later. During the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys, Bradford broke the NCAA freshman record of 29 touchdowns by passing his 30th touchdown to Joe Jon Finley during the second quarter. At the Missouri Tigers game, Bradford threw for 209 yards and 0 interceptions. He was 18–26 and threw for two touchdowns.


title: Sam Bradford

text: The Sooners won the Big 12 Championship after defeating Missouri for the second time in a season. The Sooners played the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Fiesta Bowl on January 2, 2008, and lost 48–28.


title: Sam Bradford

text: The following season Bradford surpassed quarterback coach Josh Heupel's school record for passing yards in a single game with 468 yards. Bradford led the Sooners to their third straight Big 12 Championship and defeated Missouri 62–21. In the process, the Sooners broke Hawaii's 2006 record for the most points in a single season with 702 points. Also, the Sooners were the first team in NCAA history to score 60 or more points in five straight games. Oklahoma finished the 2008 regular season with a 12–1 record, ranking #2 in the AP Poll and #1 in the BCS Standings. The Sooners earned a trip to play Florida at the 2009 BCS National Championship Game. Bradford turned in one of the best seasons ever by a quarterback, passing for 4,720 yards with 50 touchdowns and just eight interceptions.