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| | | | Ananda at the SRF Convocation
News from Asha
Friday, August 24, 2001 |
Dear Friends:
Today is the Kriya day at the convocation and we all decided it was not a day for us to demonstrate. So we are taking the whole day off. We have two vans and most people are going to Lake Shrine and to the Crypt. A few will stay behind to staff the Ananda Room.
This situation is getting to be like a job: the early shift, the noon duty, the late shift. Last night, for the first time since we arrived, I went out on the night shift, which runs from 9:45 to about 10:30 pm. The convocation meditation ends at 10 pm so at 9:45 pm we station ourselves outside the hotel on “our sidewalk” and greet them as they exit.
I have been amazed at how many people have been going out both early and late. Last night I found out why. It is much quieter and calmer at night. There are just a few shuttle buses running; the SRF people are coming from meditation. It has a magic feeling. You arrive tired, thinking more about sleep than lawsuits, and leave full of energy and joy. We figured out that one of the secrets of our beautiful musical sound is that the buses parked right behind us form a kind of acoustical shell that amplify and direct our singing right to the front of the hotel. We could never have arranged such a thing ourselves. Divine lila.
Last night a woman came up to Karen and was slightly belligerent but a little incoherent in her belligerence. Karen assumed she was a disgruntled SRFer struggling to communicate her displeasure. Then Karen caught a whiff of her breath and realized she was dealing with an ordinary drunk, not a divinely intoxicated devotee!
Another man stationed himself in front of us like a choir director and began to speak. Of course, we were singing, and couldn’t hear him. So I went and stood closer. He just wanted to tell us that this was a spiritual event and it was not the place for politics. We were being political. They were being spiritual. I asked politely whether he wanted me to explain it to him. Emphatically he said, “No.” And then walked off.
Many times this week we have remembered Master’s delightful retort, “I bow to the colossal temple of ignorance I see standing before me.”
About the security guards. SRF apparently always hires some kind of a security force for the convocation. But this year, in honor of our coming, they seemed to have beefed it up. These are off-duty policeman. The man in charge carries a gun. We were a little puzzled at first by the way the security people were dealing with us. They were cordial but also kind of poised and ready when we were around. Now, of course, we are all best pals. We have made their job a piece of cake!
Of course, we now realize, SRF must have briefed them in advance about the potential threat we would pose to the peace, and, quite possibly even, the safety of the convocation. When the first group went to Hollywood Church, David P. went with them. They went on the metro and he had scoped it out in advance.
When they arrived at the church, there was a security guard stationed there and David introduced himself. Then he said he would be leaving, and pointed to several other people, anyone of whom could help him out if the guard felt we needed to know anything. The security guard said in a tough, professional sort of way, “I want just one leader. I just want one man to deal with.” So David designated a leader and that was that.
The guards then witnessed over the next several days our “protest”: chanting and singing beautiful, uplifting music. And we all watched the guards visibly relax, enjoy the music, and, by yesterday, really become part of the scene.
The head security man told Dharmaraj that he had assured the SRF people that there was nothing to worry about from us, that we were entirely peaceful. Then he said “Now don’t you make me eat my words. You don’t have big thing planned for the end do you? Locking arms? Blocking entrances? Nothing like that, huh?”
Dharmaraj assured him we didn’t and he was very relieved.
The Hollywood Church faces right on a main street. SRF blocked off the parking spaces in front of the entry gate. Buses full of SRFers pull right up, cross the sidewalk and go onto the grounds. The sidewalk is our turf, so we and our signs and our music are there to educate and serenade them as they arrive and depart. Buses come and go all morning long. Sometimes we sing continuously the whole time we are there. Yesterday, people decided to be a little more casual, so when there were no “guests” we just relaxed and chatted with each other and went into music mode when we saw the bus coming.
After a while the guards got the pattern—they are there to watch us so they got pretty familiar with what we were doing. So much so that they started directing the action.
The guard saw a bus coming. Alerted us saying “Signs UP!”
Then, “Voices READY!” Then his buddy took over, waving his hands like a conductor, he started crooning “Night and day, night and day, I look for Thee night and day.......”
Toward the end of our time there, the monk-in-charge invited us into the Temple for a few minutes, since there were no SRFers on the scene. They had allowed us in the day before when we asked. This time they invited us in.
As we were all filing off into the church a bus appeared down the road. The security guard called out, “Hey, what are you guys doing? Where are you going? A bus is coming!”
Since these guys are all Los Angeles Police officers, we realized if we ever find ourselves in jail here, we can just start singing “Night and day, night and day.....” Until one of our Convocation buddies recognizes the tune and comes to rescue us.
The security guard at Mt. Washington, too, has become a pal. He said that adding a guard to Mt. Washington was done specifically in our honor. When we finished singing yesterday—which was our last day there—he thanked us for livening up what was otherwise a very dull job for him. “The two hours you are here are the best hours of the day,” he said.
The chanters at Mt. Washington sat on a set of stairs that were part of some house that is no longer there a very short distance from the entry gate. A motorcycle policeman came by and pulled over. “How come you are over here?” he asked, “Did they make you move over here? You have a right to be there,” he said pointing nearer to the gate. We explained that we preferred the steps. We pointed out that our chanting went all over the SRF grounds easily from where we were. We talked a little about why we were there. The policeman responded, “Lots of people are mad at these people,” meaning SRF.
A number of cars passed by and people almost all gave a thumbs-up sign to us as they passed. A neighbor lady came to listen for a while and as she was walking away, Diana caught up with her. They talked a little and Diana asked if it might be possible to use her bathroom! A small practical problem about the Mt. Washington site. She was happy to comply. She said she had written a letter in support of the SRF project. She had gone to a Cander meeting but didn’t like the energy. The neighbor said she didn’t know at first why everyone was so mad at SRF. But after talking to Diana, and going through the whole process with the expansion project, she says she now knows why.
Joy,
Asha for Ananda-at-the-Convocation
And more stories from Thursday and Friday, from Karen and David:
• An orange-robed sister stepped out of ranks to speak to Mary Bicknell. The monastics are often people of great personal magnetism and energy, and she was powerful. Mary was holding one of the “love, not lawsuits signs.” The nun put her arm around her and looked right into her eyes with a lot of energy, and said, “We love you. But you need to know the facts. SRF made several settlement offers to Ananda that you didn’t accept.” Without hesitation, Mary replied, “None that would allow us to exist.” Before she was able to reply, the sister was pulled back into her ranks and whisked away. (When we all heard her story at a group meeting, we burst into spontaneous applause).
• As of Friday morning, we passed out about 1,500 to 1,600 newspapers to Convocation attendees (out of about 4,000 attendees) since the start of the week! We ourselves are amazed.
• An SRF member entered an elevator with an Ananda member already standing inside. Often there is a bit of tension between people in this situation. In this case, the SRF member said, “Are you with Ananda? I love your blue bags. They don’t give us bags nearly as nice.”
• Very few SRF members have connected with us more than once or twice, once they have a long talk with us. But one in particular has been reaching out warmly every day, all week. He just learned of Ananda this week and what has been happening to us. He bravely broke ranks with his “line” of SRF members going into the Hollywood Church and came up to Linda Diane, saying, “I love you people. When you were singing “joy, joy, joy” this morning at the Bonaventure bus loading area, my heart melted. Did you see me chanting with you? I want to visit you and experience Ananda. I think you are beautiful people.”
“I am so concerned about what is happening to you. So I have talked to many monks this week. They have tried to tell me that “SRF and the guru are one”. But I told them no. Do you know how I know? Because I was Yogananda’s disciple for 15 years before I found SRF. I know it in my heart.” This man reminded many of us of Ram, with his power and his devotion, both in large measure. He is a forceful man. If he spoke to the monks, he spoke with energy. Some SRF people may be sympathetic to our cause, but few have the courage to talk to SRF leaders about us, much less try to get beyond their misleading answers. So we appreciate when someone seems to be willing to make the effort.
• Thursday morning in front of the Bonaventure was more self-controlled than yesterday. Concentrated power, more in the spine. Inspired by a note Swami wrote, we added one new sign to our collection on the streets: “SRF leaders: Let’s talk. Let’s have a public debate of the issues. See page 9 of the newspaper.” We sang some music of Swami’s today, and not only chants of Master.
• There were a few SRF members who were slightly more relaxed this morning, and several took pictures of us. One Indian couple, not realizing that we were not part of SRF, came right over and planted themselves in front of our phalanx of singers, smiled happily, and asked someone to take their photograph with us all behind them. Other SRF people were tapping their feet to the music. When we sang Cloisters, several SRF people wept.
But lest you think it was a love fest, the predominant energy was stunned silence, with long stares at our signs, and questioning looks in faces. It seemed that most people were thinking and wondering to themselves, “what is happening, and why?”
• A young SRF member shared with one of our people that he has been involved with them for about a year. He loves Yogananda, but confessed, “I went to the Hollywood Church a few times, and I felt this overwhelming urge to slap people on the side of the head - just to wake them up!”
• We spent the morning demonstrating outside of Hollywood Temple as busloads of pilgrims came and went, just a few feet from our signs and our singing. This was the church where Swami was the main minister for many years. As we were packing up to leave for lunch, a security guard called out after us, “Thank you for your peacefulness and tranquillity. And see you tonight!”
• Swami’s writings and lectures have given us a much better understanding of the historic struggle between the organization and the individual, in which the organization often wins out, at least here in the West. Nothing better illustrates the organizational approach to spirituality than SRF’s new 2002 calendar, available for sale now in their gift shop. It consists entirely of photographs of...SRF buildings and rooms. There is not a single photograph of Yogananda anywhere in the calendar, except for a small photo of Master at a desk, which happens to be in one of the rooms featured.
• A Japanese friend of an SRF member flew in for the day to watch her take Kriya. She happened by our hospitality room, and remarked, “How wonderful it is to find a place where they know how to spell Paramhansa Yogananda.” (without the extra “a” for those who might be wondering. This is how Master, himself, spelled it).
• During Thursday evening’s singing outside the Bonaventure, there were two episodes of strong negative outburst against Ananda people by SRF members. Our people responded very well; after one instance, Dharmaraj immediately began singing “door of my heart,” and within a few minutes, nearly all of the negative energy was dissipated. Some of us began visualizing a massive wall of light, moving slowly through the building, which also helped to depersonalize the work we were doing.
• We have met a number of attorneys who are SRF members, and have had some very powerful conversations with them. This morning, another attorney came into our hospitality room and said that he had picked up a newspaper the night before. He said, “I stayed up all night reading your newspaper and I found it compelling. It looks like you are doing the right thing. What SRF is doing reminds me of the Catholic Church.” He also said he had admired Ananda music for years, and had a few very well worn tapes from Ananda music from the early 80’s that he listens to all the time. He inquired about connecting with an Ananda meditation group in his area, which we were able to find. He said that he loved the music this week, and plans to bring his whole family to Ananda next year.
• A woman just walked into our hospitality room. “I am very upset by what SRF is doing to you. And I am not happy about many things have seen of SRF this week. I refused to take Kriya today because of the form they require everyone to sign, which requests you to list any other organizational affiliations. My journal is full of questions for the monastics and leaders of this organization. I will be asking them today.”
• A woman came to Convocation, for the first time. As she left the building after the opening program, she saw us singing outside with our signs and thought, “How terrible that these people have to do this. She picked up our paper and was horrified to learn about everything. She never returned to Convocation after that day. “It is just like the Catholic Church.” She was so upset. It took her days, somehow, to find our hospitality room, but she finally came by on Friday. She said, “What a relief that I have found you. Otherwise, I might have joined SRF!”
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Updated: November 26, 2001
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