At Encinitas in California
"A surprise, sir! During your absence abroad we have had this Encinitas hermitage built; it is a 'welcome-home' gift!" Mr. Lynn, Sister Gyanamata, Durga Ma, and a few other devotees smilingly led me through a gate and up a tree-shaded walk. I saw a building jutting out like a great white ocean liner toward the blue brine. First speechlessly, then with "Oh's!" and "Ah's!", finally with man's insufficient vocabulary of joy and gratitude, I examined the ashram: sixteen unusually large rooms, each one charmingly appointed.
The stately central hall, with immense ceiling-high windows, looks out on an altar of grass, ocean, and sky: a symphony in emerald, opal, and sapphire. A mantel over the huge fireplace of the hall holds pictures of Christ, Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Sri Yukteswar; bestowing, I feel, their blessings on this tranquil Western ashram. Directly below the hall, built into the very bluff, two meditation caves confront the infinities of sky and sea. On the grounds are sun-bathing nooks, flagstone paths leading to quiet arbors, rose gardens, a eucalyptus grove, and a fruit orchard.
"May the good and heroic souls of the saints come here (so reads 'A Prayer for a Dwelling,' from the Zend-Avesta, that hangs on one of the hermitage doors) and may they go hand in hand with us, giving the healing virtues of their blessed gifts that are as ample as the earth, as high-reaching as the heavens!" The large estate in Encinitas, California, is a gift to Self-Realization Fellowship from Mr. James J. Lynn, a faithful Kriya Yogi since his initiation in January 1932. An American businessman of endless responsibilities (as head of vast oil interests and as president of the world's largest reciprocal fire-insurance exchange), Mr. Lynn nevertheless finds time daily for long and deep Kriya Yoga meditation. Leading thus a balanced life, he has attained in samadhi the grace of unshakable peace.
During my stay in India and Europe (June 1935 to October 1936), Mr. Lynn¹ had lovingly plotted with my correspondents in California to prevent any word from reaching me about the construction of the ashram in Encinitas. Astonishment, delight! During my earlier years in America I had combed the coast of California in quest of a small site for a seaside ashram. Whenever I had found a suitable location some obstacle had invariably arisen to thwart me. Gazing now over the sunny acres in Encinitas, humbly I saw the fulfillment of Sri Yukteswar's long-ago prophecy: "a retreat by the ocean."
A few months later, Easter of 1937, I conducted on the lawn of the new ashram the first of many Easter sunrise services. Like the Magi of old, several hundred students gazed in devotional awe at the daily miracle: the awakening solar rite in the eastern sky. To the west lay the Pacific Ocean, booming its solemn praise; in the distance a tiny white sailing boat and the lonely flight of a seagull. "Christ, thou art risen!" Not with the vernal sun alone, but in Spirit's eternal dawn.
Many happy months went by. In the Encinitas setting of perfect beauty, I completed a long-projected work, Cosmic Chants.² I gave English words and Western musical notation to many Indian songs. Included were Shankara's chant, "No Birth, No Death"; the Sanskrit "Hymn to Brahma"; Tagore's "Who Is in My Temple?"; and a number of my compositions: "I Will Be Thine Always," "In the Land Beyond My Dreams," "I Give You My Soul Call," "Come, Listen to My Soul Song," and "In the Temple of Silence."
In the preface to the songbook I recounted my first outstanding experience with Western reaction to Eastern chants. The occasion had been a public lecture; the time, April 18, 1926; the place, Carnegie Hall in New York. On April 17 I had confided to an American student, Mr. Alvin Hunsicker, "I am planning to ask the audience to sing an old Hindu chant, 'O God Beautiful.'"² Mr. Hunsicker had protested that Oriental songs are not easily understood by Americans.
"Music is a universal language," I had replied. "Americans will not fail to feel the soul aspiration in this lofty chant." The following night the devotional strains of "O God Beautiful" had come for over an hour from three thousand throats. Blasé no longer, dear New Yorkers! your hearts had soared out in a simple paean of rejoicing. Divine healings had taken place that evening among the devotees chanting with love the Lord's blessed name.
In 1941 I paid a visit to the Self-Realization Fellowship Center in Boston. The Boston center leader, Dr. M. W. Lewis, lodged me in an artistically decorated suite. "Sir," Dr. Lewis said, smiling, "during your early years in America you stayed in this city in a single room, without bath. I wanted you to know that Boston boasts some luxurious apartments!" Happy years in California sped by, filled with activity. A Self-Realization Fellowship Colony⁴ in Encinitas was established in 1937. The numerous activities at the Colony give many-sided training to disciples in accordance with
Self-Realization Fellowship ideals. Fruits and vegetables are grown for the use of residents of the Encinitas and Los Angeles centers. "He hath made of one blood all nations of men."² "World brotherhood" is a large term, but man must enlarge his sympathies, considering himself in the light of a world citizen. He who truly understands that "it is my America, my India, my Philippines, my Europe, my Africa" and so on, will never lack scope for a useful and happy life.
Though the body of Sri Yukteswar never dwelt on any soil except India's, he knew this brotherly truth: "The world is my homeland."
Mr. Lynn entered mahasamadhi in 1955. (Publisher's Note)