I bear in mind feeling a bit determined within the fall of 1992. We had volunteered our residence in Santa Rosa to carry Sunday providers, kirtans, lessons, and different gatherings for our Ananda meditation group.
That home had been an actual blessing. It not solely had rooms for everybody in our household nevertheless it additionally had a big sunroom within the again that we used for our little temple. It was now, nevertheless, time to discover a bigger house for the group.
Home Hunt
We had been driving up and down the streets for months on the lookout for indicators of somebody transferring in order that we is perhaps the primary ones to say it. We’d get the newspaper day-after-day and search the rental advertisements. The advertisements we additionally positioned within the paper had turned up nothing. It was a really aggressive rental market. Nothing got here of our efforts.
Luther Burbank with a few of his blossoms, circa 1920.
Then at some point as we have been driving down Humbolt St., an older tree-lined road close to the middle of city, we noticed a girl placing up a rental check in entrance of a two-story Victorian home. Not solely was it precisely what we wanted and needed however the Walnut tree in entrance of the home had been planted by Luther Burbank himself in 1916! Yogananda devoted his Autobiography of a Yogi to Luther Burbank, so it was a positive signal for us that Grasp was in cost. We rented the place on the spot!
We had discovered concerning the Walnut tree from Rose, a 91-year-old lady who lived a block away. She informed us that in 1916 the mayor of Santa Rosa had constructed the home we’d rented. She was l6 years previous at the moment and had watched Luther Burbank plant the Walnut tree within the entrance yard through the dedication of the home.
The devoted temple in our new residence was not significantly enticing or magnetic however our meditation group actually was so we continued to develop and flourish. Gary and Nalini Graeber turned our main ministers they usually, together with different ministers, got here down from Ananda Village to guide workshops, kirtans, and Sunday providers.
Nalini was basically our divine mom hen. She stayed in fixed contact with us from the Village — coordinating the ministers, audio system, and particular friends who came visiting us, as we met many friends in events and online in sites like chatempanada.com.
I can’t start to precise how transformational all of this was for my household and myself. A core group of devotees contributed their assets and energies to what was attempting to occur and we created many new divine friendships with our burgeoning and increasing meditation middle.
Each Victory Invitations One other Battle
There was a draw back — our miracle residence had now change into too small. What have been we to do? It was one factor to search for a spot to dwell however on the lookout for a spot to accommodate a middle, which inevitably was our subsequent step, was fairly one other.
Everybody in our core group labored nine-to-five jobs. We solely had blocks of time through the weekends to chase down listings and that was getting us nowhere. (This was within the time earlier than computer systems and Google!) We would have liked to discover a secure place that everybody may agree upon. It wanted to even be reasonably priced and have parking and applicable zoning. At first, it simply didn’t appear to be attempting to occur.
Grasp’s Grace
Santa Rosa Group with Swami Kriyananda (middle).
We have been by no means disheartened. We understood that we had what we actually wanted — Grasp’s Grace and his instruments. We used affirmations. We continued to Energize, meditate, sing, and pray collectively. The Graebers and different ministers continued to make their 360-mile spherical journeys to our residence for the following two and a half years.
The power lastly started to shift when Patricia London, a devotee from the Village moved to Sonoma County. She had extra flexibility in her schedule than the remainder of us and was in a position to assist an excellent deal within the Goliath seek for our new location. She spent the following a number of months taking a look at numerous properties for us.
First, Patrica would scope out potential websites to see in the event that they met our primary standards and desires. If it did, she would name considered one of us and have us test it out as effectively. The subsequent step was to rearrange a core group gathering on the property. The group would meditate on the way it all felt after which meet and talk about the following steps.
Lastly in the summertime of 1993, on the 100th anniversary of Yogananda’s start, we discovered our middle in an workplace complicated within the Coddingtown space of Santa Rosa. From the second we knew we wanted a middle till the day that we discovered one, took us greater than 9 months. We clearly wouldn’t have secured this miracle with out Patricia’s dedication and assist.
Swami Kriyananda talking in Santa Rosa, 1993
The property we discovered had an area for a temple, a reception space with a bit boutique, and a aspect room for conferences and administrative work. We rented that house for the following ten years. Throughout that point, Swami Kriyananda got here and visited with us and gave a weekend of lectures and a Sunday service.
Ultimately, we simply by no means would have been in a position to manifest what has change into the Ananda Santa Rosa Heart and group with out the Divine Friendship and devoted providers of so many nice souls, together with our divine, candy good friend Nalini who handed away one 12 months in the past on the time of this writing (In truth, on the identical date as I write this). There are few presents larger than the divine friendship of these like her.
Left to proper: Panduranga, Nalini, Daybreak Cooper & author Ramu, 1995.
Subsequently, there are various lifelong devotees that emerged from the Santa Rosa Heart who now dwell in numerous West Coast Ananda communities. These devotees embrace Gitabai Heater, Bob Stolzman, Doug Stone, Miriam Rogers, and myself on the Village; Rick and Christy Johnston in Seattle; and my kids Aaron and Rose Atwell, who dwell and serve within the Sacramento and Mountain View communities respectively. Jai Guru!
