Yogananda was born in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, to a Hindu family of Bengali Kayastha. According to his younger brother, Sananda, from his earliest years young Mukunda's awareness and experience of the spiritual was far beyond the ordinary. His father, Bhagabati Charan Ghosh, was a Vice-President of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway; the traveling nature of his job would move his family to several cities during Yogananda's childhood, including Lahore, Bareilly, and Kolkata. According to "Autobiography of a Yogi" when he was eleven years old, his mother passed away, just before the betrothal of his eldest brother Ananta; she left behind for Mukunda a sacred amulet, 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.