Abraham Lincoln was a yogi. No . . . there is no record that he assumed the headstand during Cabinet meetings. Nor did he meditate in the lotus pose before delivering the Gettysburg Address. Yet, in many aspects of his life - in little things he did and in his reactions to situations - Lincoln behaved, quite naturally and unconsciously, just like a yogi. Yoga is more than a series of physical postures. It is a philosophy, a way of life, a spiritual path. In fact, whether they know it or not, many people today who consider themselves “spiritual” follow a yogic way of life. And so did Lincoln. Lincoln would have agreed, in his own way and to varying degrees, with certain points of view followed nowadays by spiritual people. He was, in some ways, a forerunner of the modern truth seeker. “Abraham Lincoln [in a past life] had been a yogi in the Himalayas.” —Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the classic Autobiography of a Yogi
