Cold Cold Heart: Tara Mata's influence on SRF

SRF Walrus

Mt. Washington, Ca

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SRF Walrus > SRF Teachings and Ideals > Cold Cold Heart: Tara Mata's influence on SRF
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Author	Comment
username Registered User (2/12/02 8:56 am) Reply	Re: Tara Mata' behavior and speculations on why no correctio thanks for the different perspective. Is SRF Indian monastery in the state of Bengal? If Kriyananda speaks Bengali, this does not necessary mean he speaks Hindi, and reading Sanskrit is a serious study often left to pundits, so probably if Kriyananda reads any Sanskrit it is most likely just the ability to read Sanskrit chants or other simple things.
Musicman Unregistered User (2/13/02 12:00 pm) Reply	Tara Mata, schizophrenic Tara Mata did indeed write about her extended experience of a radical transformation of consciousness after meeting Swami Yogananda (as he was then known). She goes into some detail about it in her article Forerunner of a New Race, which appeared in the SRF Magazine years ago. A psychologist reading it would conclude that anyone looking into a mirror and seeing a reflection not of herself but of her East Indian guru was suffering from schizophrenia (of which that is a typical symptom). If she did achieve some breakthrough to a higher plane of existence, she didn't remain there indefinitely. The earthly charms of sexual communion held too great a lure. In the days before reliable contraception, the result was often a child out of wedlock, a fate that befell her while still a "nun." Who the father was will never be known, perhaps. One could, I think, be excused for suspecting a certain Indian someone close to her and in a position of authority (Nerode, Dhirananda, or PY). I'm intrigued that she, the self-styled Orientalist with a Berkeley pedigree, would have manufactured a faux-Indian text in gibberish. This could be yet another sign that her elevator didn't go to the top floor. I remember years ago that a venerable personage, of dark hue and large girth, recently deceased, was to be seen at the Hollywood Temple absolutely every Sunday at the left end of the front row, taking copious notes during Brother's sermon. I was always mystified by this, so one Sunday I positioned myself right behind him to see what he was jotting down so assiduously. Much to my astonishment, he was writing nothing but an endless series of squiggles, like the "the" in shorthand (or the clivis in medieval musical notation), page after page after page. After several years in Hollywood, I came to the conclusion that schizophrenia and a wide variety of other mental and emotional illnesses are conspicuous in the ranks of SRF devotees, new and old. There is something about religion, this religion in particular, that is very attractive to people whose grasp on reality is tenuous at best. If such ones are indeed the forerunners of a new race, then there is good reason to be gravely concerned about the future. Someone earlier asked, in a response to my posting about holding PY accountable for the behavior of his disciples, if I believed in Jesus and thought that he was responsible for the behavior of Judas. This is a difficult question to answer. First, one has to pose another question: What do you mean by "Jesus"? I don't know if I believe in the Jesus you believe in. (We encounter the same problem in answering questions about God.) If you're asking me if I believe in the biblical Jesus, I have to say that I have serious reservations. I don't believe the Bible, either Christian or Hebrew, is accurate or reliable history, and I doubt many of the stories told about Jesus in the Gospels and most of the words attributed to him by the anonymous early Christian propagandists who wrote them. (I have no use for the Judas story, except as a useful metaphor for the perils and inevitability of betrayal. I think it is largely fiction.) So, the question becomes, in a sense, irrelevant. Instead of using Jesus as a point of reference, let's try a more homely example: a music teacher. If a teacher's students win numerous awards at competitions, hold choice academic sinecures at prestigious music schools, and have successful concert careers, then we judge that teacher to be highly effective, whether or not he or she is especially accomplished (though such teachers usually are). If a teacher produces students who are mediocre, that could mean a couple of things: 1) that the teacher is also a mediocre performer, and/or 2) that the teacher can't teach. The problem with a self-described God-realized master is that there are no excuses or exceptions. Such a one should be a living embodiment of everything he preaches, and his closest disciples, whom he places in positions of highest authority in his organization, should reflect the excellence of this training and of his foresight and judgement. In short, you can't separate PY from DM or MM or the rest of them. They sat at his feet for years absorbing his teachings and vibrations, and they meditated their ample asses off (to hear them tell it, at least) for untold thousands of manhours. The results of attempted Self-realization don't conform to the theory. Therefore, the theory should be examined in a critical way, and probably discarded or drastically revised. The teacher cannot escape scrutiny in this process. I know I'm a starchy old SOB, but I've had enough humbug for one incarnation. Let's get real, folks!
Lobo Registered User (2/13/02 1:20 pm) Reply	Re: Tara Mata, schizophrenic Howdy Musicman, Could you define 'real' for me?
Musicman Unregistered User (2/13/02 1:59 pm) Reply	Get real Thanks for the chuckle, Lobo, touché. I was just borrowing a current colloquial expression. I've actually learned to tread lightly on the ground between reality and unreality. It does remind me of a story, though. There was a famous 18th-century philosopher named Samuel Johnson. His biographer, Boswell, related an instructive incident. In discussing the philosophy of Berkeley, a contemporary and the man after whom the famous university is named, Johnson took exception to the other man's insistence that there was a transcendent reality behind the everyday world (not an original idea, really, because it goes back at least to Plato, and to India well before that). Johnson, a true man of the Enlightenment, kicked a nearby rock and declared, "Thus I refute Berkeley." Now, he was an unapologetic materialist, and I'm rather partial to Berkeley and Neoplatonism myself. But when we ask what is real and what isn't, sometimes (just sometimes) kicking a rock might be the best answer. There may be other planes of existence, but this is where we are right now, and this is what we have to deal with. If that same rock drops on my head, transcendent reality or not, it's going to hurt. I felt and still feel that sometimes in SRF we need some reality therapy. That's all I'm saying. Reality is like great art: I can't define it, but I know it when I see it. Homespun philosophy, maybe, but it works for me, most of the time.
redpurusha Registered User (2/15/02 10:18 pm) Reply	Re: Falling Through the Cracks You ask "why do virtually all "spiritual leaders" have strict prohibitions about sexual behaviour, when so many have been revealed to have been secretly breaking their own rules? Why in the name of all that's holy don't they just tell their followers that it's a natural act in which they, like most other beings, enjoy?" The bible teaches "Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy... and "For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. -Galatians 5:17 This is echoed also in the Bhagavad Gita. Sri Yogananda teaches, as Christ and his disciples, that although desire of the flesh is strong and gives temporary pleasure, we are to go into battle against it (against the abuse of sex for the purpose of pleasure). This does not mean we don't fall in the process, as disciples pursuing to be victorious, going into battle with a guru's guidance and daily meditation. Masters like Yogananda and Christ, avatars, should not be generalized or put in the same category with striving, not fully realized teachers and figures of high authority, such as Tara Mata or D. Walters. The former are Masters, the latter disciples. These disciples have each their own levels of realizaition and progress. In The Holy Science, Sri Yukteswar describes sex to be a natural act for the purpose of producing offspring, not natural to abuse for pleasure. The solution to keep the sexual impulse to a minumim is to avoid an environment that stimulates it, and to seek the company of a guru, or divinity within. He himself had a wife and fathered a daughter. Thus sex, in itself, is not something evil. Edited by: redpurusha at: 6/4/05 11:52 am
srflongago Registered User (2/24/02 7:54 pm) Reply	Re: Tara Mata Laurie Pratt's father was a Berkeley Professor (she was raised there), he was a son of Orson Pratt, a founder of the Mormon faith. Of course all the Wrights, Mather and Daughters Faye, Virginia, and son Richard, were Mormons from Salt Lake City, while Florina Darling (Ma Durga) was Roman Catholic. Laurie did my birth horoscope, which I still have, 17 pages. Florina was spiritual, Laurie was not.
Lobo Registered User (2/24/02 8:12 pm) Reply	Re: Tara Mata SRFL.A., Thanks for your post, it confirms what I'd been feeling and thinking for quite awhile concerning the spiritual advancement of those two nuns, Durga and Tara. Why is it, do you think, that Tara is perceived as the can-do-no-wrong direct disciple by the members, played up by the organization as the realized being that only needed, spiritually this life, to edit Master's work, not meditate? Why should she have so much cache with the organization, when Durga was far and away the disciple that Master relied upon to get things done? Is there anything you shed some light upon this glorification of Tara, particularly SRF's putting her upon a pedestal in their defense of her from Kriyananda's writings which seem to have her as their main anatagonist? Was she really all that special, all that close to Master. I remember when she passed, in 1970 or 71. A friend lived on the hill and when I went to visit him he told me that a monk had told him of Tara's passing, saying that, "she was just gazing at a picture of Master with a smile as she passed." He said that she was in a nursing home, which I wonder about as well, since it has now come to public knowledge that she didn't live at the ashram, instead having her own house, all this while still a renunciate. In short I guess I wonder why all the deference to this woman, this disciple of Master's. Could it all be due to her writings full of astrological analyzes and the like...Atlantis, Lemuria etc. These writings are taken as gospel by some of the more gullible devotees because, I suppose, of her supposed closeness to Master. Thanks
username Registered User (2/24/02 8:45 pm) Reply	Re: astrology Anyone ever see a chart of Yogananda? How about a chart for Self Realization Fellowship or Ananda? I would be interested in learning of this things. In India, charts are done when a baby is born, and burnt in the crematory fire at his death. Since Yogananda was not cremated his chart must be around someplace. I have a referal to a Vedic astrologer who is supposed to be good: M P Uniyal 626-256-9985 202 N Primrose Ave Monrovia, CA 91016 Has anyone ever gone to see him? I would be interested in your impressions if you know of him.
srflongago Registered User (2/24/02 9:21 pm) Reply	Re: Tara Mata I am correcting erroneous information in the previous version, based on thinking the only MONA PRATT in the social security death register was the right one, because the age approximately fit. I should merely say I knew Mona Pratt as a girl about 9 in 1938. Edited by: srflongago at: 3/1/02 5:47:49 pm
srflongago Registered User (2/24/02 9:39 pm) Reply	Re: Tara Mata In the 1930's Laurie Pratt often gave orders to everyone at Mothercenter when Yogananda was not there. No one else, including FLorina, felt free to do that without asking him first. They would have been terrified to do so since he had a real temper about who was leader. I suspect that since Florina was the only one of the women who, before the death of Lynn, had proper Kriya initiations, and she declined to take the presidency of SRF, her authority had to be undermined to establish the authority of those who took over without equivalent qualifications. None of them, including Florina, were fond of Lauri. She was a very abrasive person. I have no idea why she should be preferred as an authority, other than that there may be anancestral memory that she exercised authority earlier, with tacit permission from S.Y. This is all from personal recollections.
fromLA Unregistered User (2/25/02 6:28 am) Reply	More, please! srflongago: Please, tell us more, about anything and everything you can remember! Once you real "old timers" are gone, then the massive spin and lie machine on the hill will have no competition. Have you written your memoirs? Seriously. Maybe you can connect with the Walrus and he can take notes. Anyway, I hope you have the time to tell us more.
NewBoy Unregistered User (2/25/02 1:30 pm) Reply	Yes, please, say more Dear SRFlongago, Thank you for contributing to this board. When you say "Florina was the only woman who had proper Kriya initiations," what do you mean? Other early disciples like Kamala Silva (Mary Buchanan [sp?]) wrote that Master gave her instructions on the higher Kriyas right in the hallway of MW when she asked him a question about them! It was very casual indeed. Wouldn't other disciples also have access to them? I assume that the BOD had to subdue Ma Durga's influence once she refused the presidency since she obviously didn't stop having feelings or opinions on important matters affecting Master's work. Again, thanks for your generous, earlier posts.
Lobo Registered User (2/25/02 3:28 pm) Reply	Re: Tara Mata Dear SRFlongago, Thank you so much for your information. I admire you're words and find that they have the ring of truth, of someone who has been there and done that as the popular saying goes. I never met Tara (Laurie) but did meet Durga (Florina) on a couple of occasions and found Durga to be a spiritual giant, at least it appeared to this spiritual greenhorn. Though I could feel the power of realization in her she didn't have any air of superiority or anything like that, qualities that I've read were in great abundance in Tara/Laurie. As for the authority I suppose, after reading all the available information, that Tara/Laurie just had a powerful personality that sought to assert itself at every turn, overpowering those of a less assertive nature, with its sheer power. Maybe that's why Master let her be in charge while he was away during that time you've written about; he could've seen the character trait she had and felt that it could be put to good use. But it's interesting to note that in 1935 when he left for India he left Sister in charge. And Florina/Durga was the nun who did the actually carrying out of Sister's wishes, as Sister being elderly and frail wasn't in a position to physically take charge. So Master must have decided that an older, wiser, nun would have the right touch in the ashram while he was in India. Anyway thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions. I've never asked anyone at Mt. Washington about this stuff because I've just thought that I wouldn't get a truthful answer, so much has the organization changed since I first became a member in the late 60's/early 70's with its attempt to create an aura of perfection, and indulge in revisionist history. Peace to you
srflongago Registered User (2/25/02 7:04 pm) Reply	Re: Yes, please, say more When I said that Florina Darling was the only one of the women having had Kriya initiations, I was referring to the Board and those around the Board in 1955. Of Course Buchanan (Kamala) was a fully qualified Kriyan from the early 1920's, when she travelled extensively with Yogananda, in fact in the late 30's she was assistant pastor of the Downtown LA SRF church under Sri Nerode. There were others from that period as well.
srflongago Registered User (2/25/02 7:21 pm) Reply	Re: Tara Mata Edith Bisset was by no means frail when Yoganada left for India and put her in charge. She was the oldest and steadiest person in the Center, completely level headed and devoted to Kriya and Yogananda. Mrs Darling was the one who ran the Center, day to day, on a practical basis, Yogananda left the finances (and cash) in Richard Wright's hands. I heard him say that he trusted Mormons to handle money better than he trusted Indians! He did not regard most Yogis as practical. The Center was already being watched over by Lynn while Yogananda was gone. He was always an astute sensible businessman, self-trained to administer large enterprises The whole group was very responsive to his suggestions, both in running the Center and in ancillary matters, such as how to defend against the Dhirananda suit in Yogananda's absence. (Yogananda lost the case, so this did not work as they hoped.)
username Registered User (2/25/02 7:27 pm) Reply	Re: Tara Mata downtownLA SRF temple? Is this the Hollywood temple? or was there some other temple in those days?
Ringbearer Unregistered User (2/25/02 8:03 pm) Reply	Re: Yes, please say more Are you saying that none of the other women on the BOD besides Durga Ma had been initiated into Kriya as of 1955? I find this very hard to believe. Daya Mata and others had been with Paramahansaji since the early thirties, certainly she would have already received initiation into Kriya before Master's passing. It would be very suprising if this were not the case. Perhaps I misunderstood what you wrote. Could you please clarify? Thank you.
Lanfranc Unregistered User (2/25/02 8:38 pm) Reply	To SRFLongago It's great reading your posts on the board. It seems as if you were around when a lot of the stuff we wonder about was going on. Thank you so much for all you have already shared. In addition, I would like to ask you something. You mentioned in one of your posts that you "heard" Master say something. From what you write, I get the impression that you have many memories of Master. Would you be willing to add to the section on this board entitled "Stories of Yogananda"? Any little anecdote that you would recall would be a treasure that everyone who visits this board could appreciate and draw inspiration from. Thanks again for sharing with us.
srflongago Registered User (2/26/02 6:55 am) Reply	Re: To SRFLongago If those who were on the Board want to correct what I said about initiations, they are free to do so. This was "to the best of my knowledge". It was based on Florina instantly administering such initiations to them after Lynn's passing. Much could be said about the role of the sisters as administrators and workers, not teachers, up to 1955. For details about the downtown temple in the late 30's, (which I think was on 17th street), see East-West Magazine of SRFfor 1937-40. It is in few libraries, but some industrious devotees put it on the web. www.geocities.com/Athens/...azines.htm I will eventually publish personal memories of Yogananda, his Indian teachers at SRF, early lessons, letters written by Yogananda, Edith Bisset, Florina Darling, Laurie Pratt, and various Indian Yogi teachers who worked with SRF such as Hamid Bey (He gave joint lectures with Yogananda on tours. I have the press cuttings.) I have reasons for not doing so. You can easily surmise what these reason's are if you look at the treatment of others with direct knowledge. I chanced by accident on SRFWalrus, and could not resist .
Ringbearer Unregistered User (2/26/02 7:44 am) Reply	Re: To SRFLongago What do you think: P=NP?

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