Daya's House and Retreat Houses

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SRF Walrus > History of SRF > Daya's House and Retreat Houses
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crogman1 Registered User (11/21/02 7:14 am) Reply	Daya's House and Retreat Houses How did SRF get all these homes? There are messages on their board about her home but I can't find them. I also wonder about all the retreat homes the monastics have in the Los Angeles are that they try to keep secret. There is even one up in the mountains. Are they buying homes for investments or what reason? What is the history of all this. SRF just loves secrets. It seems silly that these things should be considered secrets. There is really nothing wrong with it.
username Registered User (11/21/02 2:58 pm) Reply	Re: Daya's House and Retreat Houses Does anyone have access to title search service, where you can search on a name and it will list all properties own by that person/entity? Then, you have to figure out what names SRF uses. Since there 990 is a secret, you can't obtain it there. Has anyone in accounting left the organization? Maybe they could help.
ATrueBeliever Registered User (11/21/02 10:19 pm) Reply	Re: Daya's House and Retreat Houses I did a title search a few years ago (I just called First American Title Company and did a search on Self-Realization Fellowship) and found that SRF had over 40 properties in L.A. This included Sierra Madre and Pacific Palisades.
History Buff 2002 Registered User (11/22/02 2:10 pm) Reply	Re: Daya's House and Retreat Houses Crogman, SRF gets the houses from people who donate them in their wills. Considering the way real estate has appreciated in Los Angeles, SRF is doing fine.
srflongago Registered User (11/22/02 5:05 pm) Reply	Re: Daya's House and Retreat Houses I have been informed today that large clusters of properties are owned by SRF around every city in which SRF has had a long term interest, due to inheritance. My informant says that those in most of the houses are devotees who pay the taxes and keep the buildings up, in return for easy access to centers. It thus costs SRF very little if anything to maintain this vast array of real property. To verify this would require a search into the records of many title companies. So this cannot be held verified until that is done, or SRF publishes a list of its properties. With declining attendence and membership, the long term future of SRF may be as a large realty company. Edited by: srflongago at: 11/22/02 5:57:39 pm
username Registered User (11/22/02 7:48 pm) Reply	Re: Daya's House and Retreat Houses How do you know that membership and attendance is declining? Aren't there new centers opening up?
srflongago Registered User (11/23/02 2:06 am) Reply	Re: Daya's House and Retreat Houses The declining membership was reported by interested and worried informants scattered widely. Inevitably they see only the declines in their neighboorhoods. It is possible that these declines are more than made up for by opening new centers and increases in centers of which my informants are unaware. I have heard not one single report that says there is an increase in any particular neighborhood. Those in the LA area report a large decline in the applications for becoming monastics, and the loss of many monastics in the last couple of years. They report the recent near closing down of access to several important facilities, and a lack of care to the grounds of these facilities due to lack of manpower. They report a large decline in church attendence. Those at the convocation described it as much smaller than previous ones. Others on this board can report on their posibly conflicting information. It would be nice to put together a coherent view. It would also be nice if SRF published its membership numbers, as do many conventional religious groups who like to emphasize their loyal following. The leadership, being a bit secretive, may not wish to publicize their problems the way many denominations do. Access to information is often the key to causing change.
TheHolySinner Registered User (11/23/02 2:07 pm) Reply	Attendance is Declining I had been attending services and meditations at Fullerton temple regularly for the last three years. Since Brother Satyananda was transferred to Phoenix Temple this last June I noticed the attendance had drop about 30%. Not yet aware of Walrus at the time and just how big the lawsuit was, I thought it was because of the change of ministers. I heard the turnout for India night was also low this year. I was under the impression that India Night was their major fund raiser? We went to one night of Convocation and were surprised by the drop in attendance compared to the year before. We assumed 9-11 and the economy the reason. We went to Lake Shrine about a month ago. We were surprised again, to see the place wasn't packed like it was the last time we were there in the early spring. Still unaware of all the issues surrounding SRF we didn't think much about it. (My inner Miss Marple must have been snoozing at the time.) Attanding a committee meeting OVER A YEAR AGO at Fullerton I was shocked to hear they had an approved budget of $25,000.00 to spend on upgrading the book room. I thought, "is that what you do with my donation money, what a waste!" We were told we would be inconvienced by the work being done: by the way they were speaking I was under the impression that the work was to start right away. Two weeks ago I was in the book room and saw no sign of work being done.... I haven't been to a committee meeting since so I don't know what happened. Keep in mind these are just my observations, no real satistics here.
crogman1 Registered User (11/23/02 3:44 pm) Reply	Re: Attendance is Declining SRF is the most inefficient place you can imagine. The place is run on fear and many would die rather than make a decision. The general rule is to do nothing but keep planning and stirring things up to keep busy. Anyone who makes a decision runs the risk of � gasp � a mistake! Things take forever. Decisions to move forward with layoffs were made over 15 months ago but they are just now starting them. But even that is quick for them. By the way, the lawsuit has been going on for 10 years or more. They have had recent major setbacks financially including replacing a $20,000 accounting system with a $13 million dollar accounting system (which is not working well) and the loss of a major inheritance from a man from Georgia. The lawsuit also cost them a lot but the major impact was on that other organization.
username Registered User (11/23/02 6:43 pm) Reply	Re: Attendance is Declining why did they lose the inheritance?
crogman1 Registered User (11/24/02 2:45 am) Reply	Re: Attendance is Declining Nothing too complicated. The family sued to get the money. They were not part of the SRF thing so they thought leaving millions to a California eastern church was a bit much. SRF felt it was a done deal and spent the money.
srflongago Registered User (11/24/02 1:18 pm) Reply	Re: Attendance is Declining This is all very sad. If the main administrative functions are farmed out because there is no administrative competence or will or decisiveness at home, and the membership and contributions drop continually, then the commercial companies and lawyers who offer their expensive services will extract their charges until even a large endowment and property are used up. They are after riches, what motivation do they have to do anything else? It is what often happens to very rich old people who leave all their affairs to others, the estate gets eaten away. This scenario would be a tortured slow end to what started as a noble cause. Let us hope someone rises to the occasion.
KS Registered User (11/24/02 3:10 pm) Reply	Re: Attendance is Declining Seems to describe the situation pretty well!
Lobo Registered User (11/25/02 9:11 pm) Reply	Re: Daya's House and Retreat Houses I recently drove by Daya's and Ananda's home in Sierra Madre. I got the address from the New Times Los Angeles, the "Finger" column, who wrote after the initial story appeared claiming that she had lived there since the 60's, that he was inundated with calls from "glassy eyed" followers disputing that she lived there. Anyway it is a nice home in a very quiet neighborhood. The house next door, reportedly the one SRF purchased for the nuns, is also very nice. But neither home struck me as a mansion, like one finds in Beverly Hills. With the current over-priced housing market here in LA I guess it would be over a million bucks for either home. Also, there didn't seem to be any sign of life at either home. No cars in the driveways, no people to be seen. I understand that the original home was a gift from Ms. Doris Duke, the tobacco heiress. The nuns home was reportedly bought by our tithes. The 1935 Incorporation papers of SRF lists the buying, holding, acquiring of real property as it's first purpose. Seeing that took me by surprise as I knew that PY was still very much in charge of the organization. Serving others, teaching meditation etc., were much further down the list.
srflongago Registered User (11/26/02 8:02 am) Reply	Re: Daya's House and Retreat Houses In about 1928 Yogananda founded a commercial publisher, Yogoda Publishing, (192 to publish his books. He sold stock to devotees. You can find in East-West ads for shares at ten dollars each. He also founded a commercial Yogoda Importing Company. I think he would have founded almost anything to generate income to support Mt Washington and its inhabitants and the outreach program. Moneybags Lynn was not as yet a big donor in March 1935. The boiler plate in the articles of incorporation of SRF of March 1935 allowed Yogananda to do almost any commercial activity within the organization, if new opportunities arose. The tax exempt religious charter also gave partial protection as well against assets being won in more suits against him like Dhirananda's. It would not be correct to conclude from the place of business in the charter that the Fellowship was incorporated to pursue commercial goals under tax-free religious auspices. Lawyers drew up the documents. Putting the business boilerplate phrases at the beginning is a sign of this being most important to lawyers, not to Yogananda. Whatever you may assess as the motivations of the current leadership, who are allowed full commercial discretion by the articles of incorporation, in 1935 commercial aspects were there to generate income to spread Kriya in the West. Remember, and you can read Ma Durga for this, once Yogananda had access to Lynn's money through Ma Durga, he kept asking for more money for large external projects for spreading the word. He was not trying to accumulate a fortune in a non-profit religious bank. He spent it on projects faster than it came in, and did not allocate part for upkeep and running expenses. He kept hoping each new activity would be self-supporting. Mostly they were not. SRF may well be suffering still from launching larger projects than they have funds to support afterwards. Yogananda was a terrible money manager. Outsourcing administration now probably means SRF lacks a good one now. This is unfortunate.
username Registered User (11/26/02 10:01 pm) Reply	Re: Daya's House and Retreat Houses what is really unfortunate is that SRF probably has lots of members with the needed skills but won't let them help
Lobo Registered User (11/26/02 10:30 pm) Reply	Re: Daya's House and Retreat Houses SRFlongago, Regarding the drawing up of the Articles of Incorporation I was somehow under the impression that Ma Durga had done them, which of course colored my view with relation to which corporate objectives were stated in terms of chronological order. But after reading your post I just re-read the relevant part of Ma Durga's book, page 28, where she does indeed say that a lawyer was hired to draw up the documents. That, as you say, makes them irrelevant regarding PY's non-profit corporation, as lawyers arent' normally trained to consider religious goals as paramount. Wasn't Yogananda always trying to spread the work, meaning as you have presented it through projects that were income producing like the Yoga College, World Brotherhood Colonies, Convocations, Yoga retreats at Mt. Washington etc? As a renunciate it must have been difficult to more easily obtain the funds that were necessary to keep the work moving forward, and to support all the people, buildings, and future plans. To me it is a reflection of his creativity that he tried these various enterprises, always it seemed revolving them around spirituality through yoga; thereby focusing on elevating consciousness while providing monetary relief and income.
srflongago Registered User (11/27/02 2:48 am) Reply	Re: Daya's House and Retreat Houses Your new summary accords perfectly with my understanding. The only drawback in these endless and creative projects was that his conviction that they would be self-supporting failed. He did protect himself by making center directors sign pledges that they would not ask him for funds; few such pledges survive. Here is my assessment. Others may have better information, but those who do seem unwilling to part with that information. Those projects he did carry out in his lifetime were those Lynn's fortune covered. The fortune provided was not a tenth of what the aspirations called for. Lynn was not usually willing to spend capital. In other organizations with more success in this securing of funds for widespread activities, I believe this was mostly achieved by delegation of authority to others, who worked as mostly independent satellites to acquire funds. Look at the Catholic and other Christian churches, and their structures locally. Yogananda lost or got rid of those who had demonstrated talent to be independently successful in carrying out religious missions and raising funds by recruiting more members with cash to spare. I think he simply wanted total control to the last detail. But by taking all on himself, he was spread too thin, he simply could not make the endevours you mentioned financially independent.
chela2020 Registered User (1/3/03 10:10 am) Reply	Re: Daya's House and Retreat Houses I am not quite sure what everyone is getting at in these postings of Daya's house. Is it that people don't consider her a renunciant if she lives in a nice home away from the temple? If that is so, I have since learned that being a renunciant has nothing to do with how much or how little you own, but is a vow to cease craving for things. So whether Daya craves for things or not, how would we know?
MastersChela Registered User (1/3/03 12:57 pm) Reply	Inner vs. Outer renunciation-Daya's "personal retreat&q Sister Chela2020, You do have a very valid point here. Master and Lahiri Mahasaya (and Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita) continuously refer to the issue of outer renunciation as much less important than inner renunciation. This is a tenant of our line of Gurus and the lineage of disciples that have followed. Master's two most advanced pupils, Saint Lynn and Yogacharya Oliver Black were both multi-millionares. Before he donned the ochre robes, Sri Yukeshwar was a wealthy landowner, and didn't give away his properties, but converted them to ashrams when he became a Swami. Lahiri Mahasaya went to work every day (until retirement), earned a paycheck, and supported his family, taking visitors and disciples in the evening hours. I think that more likely what people here take issue with in regards to Daya (and I would include myself in this group) is the dishonest way that she and the rest of SRF have chosen to handle the situation. Until an outside news reporter uncovered the location of her home, she was still claiming to be in full-time residence at Mt. Washington. Even now, the official SRF spin is that the house is only a personal retreat... "Just like Master had the Twenty-Nine Palms retreat." I think that this might have sat better with people had they just said this upfront... And if it was true. It is not a "retreat." She's been living there for years. Also, in the last couple years of his life when Master was spending great deals of time at his desert retreat, he was in a flurry of activity, writing the commentaries on the Gita, the Gospels and The Rubayat. What has Daya been doing with her time in retreat? I agree with you Chela, that we cannot truly know if Daya has inner renunciation. This is between her and God alone. But I believe that people take issue more with the honesty of the organization and of Daya herself in regards to this house more than they do with the house's existence per se. I think if we all really thought about it, the concept of Daya having her own residence isn't really that strange. Many people look up to her and desire her advice, energy, and time (if this attention is warrented is beyond the scope of my point entirely) and therefore she would probably have very little privacy or time for inner attunement and meditation if she did not have a place of her own. After all, she is over 80 years old. I think we can at least say that she may need people to help her get around and help her in day-to-day living. It's only a shame that she (and SRF) couldn't see fit to extend the same courtesies to other great Disciples of Master (Kamala, Durga Ma). Edited by: MastersChela at: 1/3/03 12:59:32 pm
GregsBrother Registered User (1/3/03 1:00 pm) Reply	Re: Daya's House and Retreat Houses You make an excellent point Chela2020- The only problem I see is if SRF leadership was telling people that Daya Mata lives at Mt. Washington, when she actually does not. I went to convocation in '93. I asked some person who was in our group where Daya Mata lives. I was told she lives nearby, but not at Mt. Washington. So it seemed like common knowledge to me (anything I know must be common). But according to that slimy newspaper article, and what some people are saying here, SRF was telling people Daya Mata lived at Mt. Washington. I dont care where she lives. However it would be quite sad if SRF was telling people she lives at Mt. Washington when she doesn't.

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