Opinions? Yogananda Books

[Amilius777]

What is everyone's general opinion of Autobiography of a Yogi and other Yogananda books?

I used to blindly believe everything this teacher said. And then I went through a period of anger and frustration towards him and some of his ideas. But now I am pretty even keen. I take what I like from him and the rest I just don't bother with.

I love his work on Jesus Christ. He probably has some of the best interpretations of Christ's life, death, and resurrection. He helped me become a better Catholic and understanding everything Christ was trying to say. I went through a period where I thought the Gospels were incomplete and were swayed by Gnostics and other stuff. When I got Yogananda's SCoC Two Volume set I would have no need to read anything outside the 4 Gospels to know Jesus.

Of course there are things I find a shaky. I don't really believe that there is a Himalayan avatar named Babaji who keeps himself alive forever. I don't frown upon sex as Yogananda does. I don't think the SRF Gurus are avatars. And I wonder if Yogananda was really a spiritual teacher with basically psychic intuition as opposed to some sort of "God-incarnation". Then again, psychic means "of the soul" in the dictionary and the yogi says that a Seer is one whose soul is one with God. The Seer, the Soul, Guru, and God are one. So its not too big of a stretch. In the East they call it Avatar. In West we call it Seer or Prophet I guess.

Any thoughts of these wonderful writings?