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SRF Walrus > Core Issues > What is SRF's mission?
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crogman1 Registered User (5/19/03 7:04 am) Reply	What is SRF's mission? The following letter, www.friendsofsrf.com/srf_letter1.html , posted on the Friends of SRF website is a good view into the minds of SRF. The organization speaks of how those who know her support Daya Mata and love her and think she is an ideal disciple. She is carrying on in the great Master’s footsteps so perfectly. (Drawing comparisons to the recent 100% election of the President in Iraq are too obvious I suppose) For every person that knows her and loves and supports her we can find two that know her and think the elevator does not quite go to the top floor. So what kind of job is she doing? What is the mission of SRF anyway? Are they helping the sick? Helping their community? Publishing Yogananda’s words, all that they have? Are they promoting themselves? Are they promoting the president of SRF and other _direct disciples_ above other devotees? Keeping black lists of potentially problem devotees? Have they built an exclusionary monastic order to create a privileged class? Was that really part of the mission Yogananda set out for them? I would be real curious to find out what SRF thinks it is accomplishing in the world.
True Enuf Registered User (5/19/03 9:07 am) Reply	Re: What is SRF's mission? They're accomplishing nothing at this point. All they're doing now is hunkering down with a bunker-like 'us-against-them' mind-set, not trusting anyone outside of a tiny circle, while the monastic order continues to hemorrhage, one here, one there gone, the money pot shrinking away.
dawnrays Registered User (5/19/03 10:02 am) Reply	Re: What is SRF's mission? To make a few monks and nuns (maybe even a few committee members) feel loved and important...Oh, um besides that you mean? Well, let's see, waste people's time and money, initiate multi-million dollar lawsuits, chip away at people's self-esteem and confidence until they leave, become robots or have nervouse breakdowns.... Sorry, I'm afraid they are not yet at that admirable yogic rung on the karmic ladder where they have achieved "harmlessness". Certainly the whole thing is a great idea (that's what kept me around so long) and there aren't a heck alot of alternatives (I have many churches in my town, none do chanting or meditation, let alone Kriya). But I think there will be more in time (alternatives). Edited by: dawnrays at: 5/19/03 3:48:49 pm
babaGEE Registered User (5/19/03 3:20 pm) Reply	Mail Order Lessons One purpose SRF serves is to mail out the Lessons which they were good at one time, however I've heard that now there are long delays. Isn't that the way a lot of us got involved? For me, I thought SRF was a good deal compared to other orgs that charge $200 for seminars on how to meditate. The Lake serves as a free tourist attraction. There is no way to meditate in the chapel on weekends with all the cameras, loud tourists and children. MC won't approve any effective means to control this problem (The signs say QUIET instead of SILENCE, etc.) and it's difficult for the volunteers to manage these people. SRF is also good at sticking their hands out for donations. MC now wants each temple to be responsible for the costs of upkeep. The Lake has a one million dollar budget and the retreat is running at a $600,000 annual deficit. The dollar devotees who serve as the slave labor are against charging fees to the Lake. I guess they still believe in the tooth fairy. The Temple was told they needed to raise $350,000 to build a new gate and resurface the parking lot. MC paid their consultant $30,000 to come up with the bright idea of sending out a donation letter asking for money. babaGEE- WHIZ.
True Enuf Registered User (5/19/03 5:27 pm) Reply	Re: Mail Order Lessons It's amateur hour, and not even a particularly good one at that, more like flailing around, a lot of 'sound and fury, signifying nothing.'
Lobo Registered User (5/19/03 9:55 pm) Reply	Re: Mail Order Lessons I am against charging anyone to visit PY's Lake Shrine. He said at the dedication that he wanted it to be a place for people to come and feel closer to God. I feel that he would be very much against charging for admission to a temple dedicated to God. If such a proposal is seriously being considered by those in power it only goes to show how far they've gone (in my opinion) since his mahasamadhi. It should be permanently ruled out. There are many people who come on a regular basis to the Lake Shrine who are not SRF members because they feel that peace or calmness or restfulness or escape from the terrible stress so endemic to modern life whilst walking along the path and enjoying the beauty. SRF, I also believe, is not suffering financially. I don't know that to be true, but if they are it might be due to financial mismanagement rather than a sudden downturn in their bottom line. They might wish to make each ashram financially independent but it won't work because they control all the financies at Mt. Washington with the resultant dependency of each ashram for whatever Mt. Washington decides to dole out. Mt. Washington controls the money and ashrams which means that if they want more money they must tighten the purse strings and start to live more simply, forgoing expensive homes and starting legal processes that drain millions of dollars of donations in lawyers, who are more than happy to take it. The Lake Shrine retreat is a boon-doggle as you show. I live within an hour of it and never been. It was something that looked good on paper, probably, but doesn't work in reality. Plus being up on the bluff it doesn't have the same vibes (nor does the new church) as down below on the lake. Also while I make a pilgrimage to Lake Shrine a few times a year long ago I gave up trying to meditate there. Whether in the Windmill Chapel or on one of the benches dotting the path I find it difficult to meditate with any seriousness while people walk and talk around me; especially if they aren't meditator's themselves (which the majority arent'). However the last time I went I saw a Buddhist monk wearing a simple monk's robe and flip-flop's walking and enjoying the property.
babaGEE Registered User (5/20/03 9:59 am) Reply	Mission Impossible I agree that it would be a bad move to charge a voluntary donation to enter the Lake grounds. MC is yanking the Lake Temples chains by saying they need to cough up the funds so what are they to do? I don't believe that MC is financially hurting either - just mismanaging their money. Let's see: $40 million for a lawsuit SRF lost over the course of 10 yrs. $6-8 million for PeopleSoft accounting software that doesn't work or they don't know how to use. $500,000 to remodel bathrooms at the Hollywood Temple $350,000 for a new gate at the Lake $600,000 per year for the Lake retreat no one knows about. $14 million for a new Temple at the Lake that has no plans for future expansion. $100 per hour consultants to tell them how to run their org. SRF budget methods: Hiring skeleton crews who are overworked and get paid substandard wages with no benefits. Demanding volunteers to run the Lake, the shop, the weddings and then expect the Lake Temple donations to cover the costs of gardeners, fish food, flowers, etc. SRF nuns also attempted to make an ENERGIZATION EXERCISE video. After the lengthy approval process and constant remakes, someone finally noticed that the monk who was in the demo had a beard in some of the shots and was clean shaven in others, so the video was shelved. More money wasted. There is an old Russian saying that goes, "The fish rots from the top down." Does that say it all?
wholetruth Registered User (5/20/03 6:06 pm) Reply	Re: What is SRF's mission? Yogananda's mission was to teach Kriya Yoga. SRF's mission, starting way back in the 50's and continuing to the present day, has been to present Yogananda as a Divine Incarnation, worthy of his own religion, and they have graciously provided that religion.
Lobo Registered User (5/20/03 8:28 pm) Reply	Re: Mission Impossible What is it that costs $600,000 per year to run the Lake? I'm not doubting your figures just trying to educate myself. Also what is taking so long with this new gate/parking lot? I understood from SRF's official website that it would be ready sometime after March 2003. But when I call to see if the Lake is open the person tells me that the project now won't be finished until June 2003; which means of course off-limits during the week to the members and public and only open on the weekends in the afternoon for those hardy enough to make the strenous climb up and down many stairs from the temple parking lot above. The EE video demonstration is long, long, overdue. Therefore the video, handled professionally, should be a top priority. Maybe the monks in the video department could take a break from all of the videotaping of the president and other board members, and actually do something that will have an immediate impact upon devotee's practice of PY's sadhana; the correct practice of the EE's, which are PY's alone among kriya teachers, thus making the correct pratice of them that much more important for the devotee.
True Enuf Registered User (5/20/03 8:49 pm) Reply	Re: Mission Impossible The monastics get the same ole questions, year after year, especially from new members, about the correct practice of the EE. So much of their time would be freed up with the simple addition of a demonstration video to the lessons, and the membership would be well served (as in service, for a change, TO the membership). A picture is worth a 1000 words, etc... Think aerobics, tae bo, home maintenance, gardening, on and on, all with videos. Yep, nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come. This means it's time to revisit the concept of an EE video, starting no doubt with an interminable series of committee meetings.
babaGEE Registered User (5/21/03 9:01 am) Reply	Re: Mission Impossible Maybe they should use a nun to demonstrate the exercises? That way she can't grow a beard and impede the editing procedure. It would probably take as many approval processes as there are exercises so a new tape could probably be made in about 2 years from now, you think? MC is also busy transferring all their old tapes to Digi-beta which is very expensive but perhaps needs to be done. Hope they aren't editing out too much to change history. Lobo, I don't know why the figures are so high to run the Lake except for extravagant waste and ineptness. Gardening is expensive too. In the past there wasn't a financial committee, just a Bramachari that approved all expenses who is no longer there. I was shocked when I heard those figures myself. If there is a loan payment on the retreat that would account for some of it, but I don't know. Several employees are gone and have not been replaced and there have been cut backs since the squeeze from MC so perhaps those figures are a tad lower now. The lengthy delay of the gate opening is that they are also paving paradise and putting up a parking lot :-) They are also redoing the court of religions. There have been a few problems along the way, they found infrastracture they had to deal with under the old pavement which caused delays and put them over budget. The weddings were to start again in May so I don't know what they are doing about that. Whole Truth, you mention something that has confused me since I set foot in the Temple. SRF is referred to as a church for all religions. Yogananda states in his Dedication tape that he is not trying to convert anyone. I understood that he came to the West to teach meditation to people of all different faiths. So why do die hard devotees construe the facts that he started his own religion? There are a lot of other gurus in this country that don't say they started a religion. Yogananda received most of his teachings from Sri Yukteswar and his line of gurus. Why state that Yogananda is WORTHY to have his own religion. That seems to be the devotees choice who want to own that idea. Yogananda was a practicing Hindu and also celebrated Christ. Since Yogananda instructed his disciples to start a monastic order when he was gone it has become much like the Catholic church with their outdated feudal ideas of royalty treating DM like she is the Queen. But I thought she was a monastic? babaGEE-WHIZ I'm so confused.
thatpilgrim Registered User (5/21/03 10:06 am) Reply	Re: Mission Impossible There's a very good Energization Exercises Video available from Ananda. They also have a great poster that has the entire sequence, an audio tape, and a booklet. The video has been available for years. You can order them at: http://www.crystalclarity.com/ananda/energization.asp
stermejo Registered User (5/21/03 6:24 pm) Reply	Re: Mission Impossible Did Master SAY, He wasn't trying to convert anyone or start a new religion? Did he set up the monastics to "run the show" after his passing? I don't know about that. But I HAVE heard other "spiritual" teachers make similar claims. Perhaps they weren't as forthcoming as they claimed to be. TSL
wholetruth Registered User (5/21/03 6:38 pm) Reply	Re: Mission Impossible You can thank the Matas--Tara, Daya, Mrinalini--and some of the Brothers--Anandamoy, primarily (from my Convocation experiences of decades ago) --for transforming their guru into a Divine Incarnation. This was started back in the 50's (See "Paramahansa Yogananda: In Memoriam") and continues to the present day. (See the current issue of Self-Realization Magazine.) Other organizations have acted more simply and humbly and let their guru's life and teachings speak for themselves. But when your mission is messianic, when you fancy yourself a new worldwide religion, that simply won't do. Add to that a huge measure of self-delusion and being out of touch with reality and the everyday world, and well, they've created a monster! (Of course, I'm not referring to Paramahansa Yogananda, but to SRF.)
Lobo Registered User (5/21/03 7:53 pm) Reply	Re: Mission Impossible Thanks babaGEE for the inside info about the goings on at the Lake Shrine. Too bad about the added hidden costs of the parking lot remodel. But, I suppose it is to be expected after, what, 42 years of almost daily usuage and the thousands of people who've walked upon it all these years. Probably not being done by an outside contractor, is it? If not, they might have tried to save some money by doing it in-house, but in the long run it pays to have professionals do the work, IMHO. Pilgrim, I was aware that Ananda has provided that service of the video of the EE's for years. I was trying to make the point that the "organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda (look for the symbol)" would've, after all these years, and probably everyone whose ever received the Lesson 8 not doing them correctly, gone ahead and put a professional produced video together for the devotees. Wholetruth, I agree with you that it is solely the influence of those particular Mata's and Brother(s) you named that we today have them trying to create a religion around an "avatar". I noticied that you left out Durga, which I agree with because she, along with Dr. Lewis, told the truth (through Ms. Wight's efforts and dedication) about PY with regards as to how he saw himself and his "mission" here in the west (reportedly he took pains to never even refer to himself as a guru!). In fact, it was only when Dr. died in 1960, Mrs. Lewis moved to San Diego, and Durgaji retired from the board that this nonsense started. It is now too far gone for any hope that the SRF we knew all those years ago will ever be again. And that is something that I've, personally, come to accept and understand (but not agree with). Yet, we do have the Lessons and the techniques, which is the best thing that could have happened as I see it now. I still consider myself a member, don't attend services, read the magazine and affiliate myself in that manner, but to me, SRF doesn't enter into the equation regarding my spiritual practice any longer. And from where I'm sitting, that's a very good thing!
ATrueBeliever Registered User (5/23/03 7:40 am) Reply	Re: Mission Impossible Regarding Avatars - Bhaktananda, when speaking about world teachers, has many times referred in public lectures to "Krishna, Buddha, Christ, and in our times Paramahansa Yogananda". He also states that Sri Ramakrishna was for Hinduism and thus I suppose on a lower plane than Yogananda.
Lobo Registered User (5/23/03 10:23 pm) Reply	Re: Mission Impossible Obviously Swami Bhaktanandaji knows more about PY than I do, or may ever know. He is a direct disciple since the 1940's, while I am just a Lesson's student/devotee from 20 + years later, without again obviously having ever met PY. Kriyananda writes that PY was asked by one of the monks if he was an avatar. PY's reported reply was that someone of that stature would be needed for a message/mission of the one that he taught. In other words, Kriyananda says that PY, using words deflecting from his spiritual stature, while still answering the direct question, confirms that he considered himself to be an avatar. I myself think of him as an avatar. Although now that I think of it, I've never heard anyone outside of SRF refer to him as an avatar. Sivanandaji speaks of PY's special stature so I guess that could be construed to be him acknowledging PY's avatar-ness. But it is nonetheless mainly something that is propagated by the organization, by the direct disciples, and occurring after his mahasamadhi. The point being that he did not call himself an avatar for public consumption. It's not in the AY. He considered himself a servant of God and all beings. He said that he was sufficently spiritually advanced so that he could make the redeeming promise to all that he would incarnate again and again until beings/brothers/sisters reached the same Shore where he Resides. Is it healthy and wise for the organization to proclaim publicly that he was/is an avatar? Do people think more of him because of it? Less? Or is it simply the Truth, which they feel bound to report? He was called an avatar by Rajasi, who did so after PY's death; so if his top, closest disciple recognized him as such, it must be so.
KS Registered User (5/24/03 6:55 am) Reply	Re: Mission Impossible Why would SRF feel the need to make any claims about Yogananda? A real devotee feels a connection to Master regardless of the label SRF puts out there. SRF puts out that label to elevate itself. It represents an Avatar! Not just a nice man, not just a religious man, not just a man who truly loved God, not just a Guru for thousands, no… an Avatar. If you have to brag about it something is wrong.
ATrueBeliever Registered User (5/25/03 8:17 am) Reply	Re: Mission Impossible The number of groups that claim an avatar is endless. Vedanta ("he who was Rama and he who was Krishna was born as Ramakrishna"), Sai Baba, Meher Baba (www.avatarmeherbaba.org/), Guru Maharaji, Adi Da, ... Maybe someone can add to this list. Also, see www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/gurus.htm In any case, since avatars supposedly come along every 500 - 1000 years, they can't all be right - can they? Also, how did srf go 4 for 4 on this one !? What a surprise - 4 avatars (6 if they co-opt Krsna and Jesus) in ONE organization. Probably Daya Mata will be canonized soon.
Lobo Registered User (5/26/03 9:25 pm) Reply	Re: Mission Impossible KS, You have said what I was trying to say. Of course their claiming avatara status for the founder speaks more for them and their purposes than it does for the founder, himself.

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