Paramhansa Yogananda Autobiography of a Yogi (Original 1946 Edition)
CHAPTER 39 Therese Neumann, the Catholic Stigmatist Therese greeted me with a very gentle handshaking. We both beamed in silent communion, each knowing the other to be a lover of God. Dr. Wurz kindly offered to serve as interpreter. As we seated ourselves, I noticed that Therese was glancing at me with naive curiosity; evidently Hindus had been rare in Bavaria. "Don't you eat anything?" I wanted to hear the answer from her own lips. "No, except a consecrated rice-flour wafer, once every morning at six o'clock." "How large is the wafer?" "It is paper-thin, the size of a small coin." She added, "I take it for sacramental reasons; if it is unconsecrated, I am unable to swallow it." "Certainly you could not have lived on that, for twelve whole years?" "I live by God's light." How simple her reply, how Einsteinian! "I see you realize that energy flows to your body from the ether, sun, and air." A swift smile broke over her face. "I am so happy to know you understand how I live."
CHAPTER 46 The Woman Yogi Who Never Eats Mother," I went on, "please forgive me, then, for burdening you with many questions. Kindly answer only those that please you; I shall understand your silence, also." She spread her hands in a gracious gesture. "I am glad to reply, insofar as an insignificant person like myself can give satisfactory answers." "Oh, no, not insignificant!" I protested sincerely. "You are a great soul." "I am the humble servant of all." She added quaintly, "I love to cook and feed people." A strange pastime, I thought, for a non-eating saint!
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