A loyal disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda for 47 years, Tara Mata (Laurie Pratt, 1900-1971) was a member of Self-Realization Fellowship board of directors; served as SRF vice president from 1960 to 1966; editor-in-chief of all publications of Self Realization Fellowship, and Yogoda Satsanga Society of India.
From the SRF website:
To help him with the editorial work [GTWA], Gurudeva relied on Tara Mata (Laurie V. Pratt), a highly advanced disciple who had met him in 1924 and worked with him on his books and other writings at various times for a period of more than twenty-five years. I know without doubt that Paramahansaji would not have allowed this book to be published without due acknowledgment and commendation of the role played by this faithful disciple. “She was a great yogi,” he told me, “who lived many lives hidden away from the world in India. She has come in this life to serve this work.” On many public occasions he expressed his considered evaluation of her literary acumen and philosophical wisdom: “She is the best editor in the country; maybe anywhere. Excepting my great guru, Sri Yukteswar, there is no one with whom I have more enjoyed talking of Indian philosophy than Laurie.”
https://yogananda.org/yogananda-and-the-bhagavad-gita
In the following video, SRF/YSS President Brother Chidananda shares a story on the origins of Scientific Healing Affirmations, as told by Tara Mata, an advanced Kriya Yoga disciple who served as Paramahansa Yogananda’s editor on Autobiography of a Yogi and other works by him until her passing in 1971:
https://yogananda.org/blog/touching-truth-guided-meditation-with-brother-chidananda
Additional articles and resources:
Tara Mata ~ A Loving Tribute ~ Memorial Article – Yogananda Site
Tara Mata’s Role in Autobiography of a Yogi – Yogananda Site
Tara Mata ~ Praises from Paramahansaji – Yogananda Site
Tara Mata’s Writing – Yogananda Site
SRF Publication – E-booklet by Tara Mata
Description: Tara Mata was an advanced Kriya Yoga disciple who served as Paramahansa Yogananda’s editor on Autobiography of a Yogi and other works by him from 1924 until her passing in 1971. Not long after Tara Mata had met Paramahansaji in 1924, she wrote this treatise about a “man” who was blessed with the experience of cosmic consciousness. Though she humbly avoided identification with the person mentioned, the experiences Tara Mata describes were her own. She writes: “The fact that there is a technique, such as Self-Realization Fellowship teaches, whereby cosmic consciousness can be attained, is in itself proof that this higher sense is indeed an inherent faculty of all men, needing but the necessary training to call it forth…. Realization that there is a definite way to contact God, a technique usable by all men in all circumstances, has come as such a liberating shock to a number of Self-Realization students that they feel they have undergone a new birth.”
A Forerunner of the New Race is one of a series of booklets presenting inspiring and practical guidance from the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, on how to live in a spiritually harmonious way—with grace, simplicity, and with an inner equanimity in the face of life’s seeming contradictions.
https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/product/a-forerunner-of-the-new-race-ebook/