Autobiography of a Yogi Chapter 1, first line:

“The characteristic features of Indian culture have long been a search for ultimate verities and the concomitant disciple-guru relationship.”

Yogananda ji on the importance of a Guru:

“Sri Yukteswar chose the following morning to grant me his Kriya Yoga initiation. The technique I had already received from two disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya–Father and my tutor, Swami Kebalananda. But Master possessed a transforming power; at his touch a great light broke upon my being, like the glory of countless suns blazing together. A flood of ineffable bliss overwhelmed my heart to an innermost core.” (Autobiography of a Yogi, Ch.12)

“I always thrilled at the touch of Sri Yukteswarji’s holy feet. A disciple is spiritually magnetized by reverent contact with a master; a subtle current is generated. The devotee’s undesirable habit-mechanisms in the brain are often as if cauterized; the grooves of his worldly tendencies are beneficially disturbed. Momentarily at least he may find the secret veils of maya lifting, and glimpse the reality of bliss. My whole body responded with liberating glow whenever I knelt in the Indian fashion before my guru.” (Autobiography of a Yogi, Ch.12)

” A healing calm descended at the mere sight of my guru. Each day with him was a new experience in joy, peace, and wisdom.”
(Autobiography of a Yogi, Ch.12)

” A master bestows the divine experience of cosmic consciousness when the disciple, by meditation, has strengthened his mind to a degree where the vast vistas would not overwhelm him. Mere intellectual willingness or openmindedness is not enough. Only adequate enlargement of consciousness by yoga practice and devotional bhakti can prepare one to absorb the liberating shock of omnipresence.”
(Autobiography of a Yogi, Ch.14)

Master Mahasaya to Yoganandaji:

” I am not your guru; he shall come a little later. Through his guidance, your experiences of the Divine in terms of love and devotion will be translated into his terms of fathomless wisdom.”
Autobiography of a Yogi (Ch.9)

Swami Vivikananda to Mr. Dickinson:

“‘No, my son, I am not your guru.’ Vivekananda gazed with his beautiful, piercing eyes deep into my own. ‘Your teacher will come later. He will give you a silver cup.’ After a little pause, he added, smiling, ‘He will pour out to you more blessings than you are now able to hold.’
Autobiography of a Yogi (Ch. 47)

Yoganandaji’s first meeting Swami Sri Yukteswarji:

” `Gurudeva!’ The divine face was the one I had seen in a thousand visions. These halcyon eyes, in a leonine head with pointed beard and flowing locks, had oft peered though the gloom of my nocturnal reveries, holding a promise I had not fully understood.”
Autobiography of a Yogi (Ch.10)

Swami Sri Yukteswarji’s first words to Yoganandaji:

“O my own, you have come to me! How many years I have waited for you!”
Autobiography of a Yogi (Ch.10)