My SRF experience

My SRF experience

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Saints of SRF: Durga Mata

Book Review: Part one

In the next series of posts, I will talk about Stories from Durga Matas (1903- 1992) autobiography My life and service to my Guru. This is a rare book (SRF did not want it published) but I have  a copy and I think it is an interesting account of SRF history.

Dobby Mata. House elf.

The Basics
Durga Mata (Florina Darling) was an SRF nun. She was born in 1903 to a French Canadian Catholic family. When she was 19 she married and later adopted one of her nephews. She met Yogananda in 1927 and went to Mount Washington to live in 1929 at age 26. Yogananda gave her the name Durga as she was his housekeeper, servant and cook in a former life and that was her name then. She says she would fast herself to extreme thinness so she may have had anerexia. She left her husband to become an SRF nun. Her adopted son came to live at the ashram for a time but he was a bad seed "this boy was unsuited to live in a spiritual home" so he was sent away. "Mr. Darling willingly gave me up...My adopted son was removed and my brother and his family removed themselves with their evil actions. see how the Lord takes care of his own"(page 12).

The "evil actions" of her brother
Her brother and his family came to live at the ashram after taking the SRF lessons with Durga. They worked around the grounds and did bookeeping. After a couple of years the brother came to have a different opinion of Yogananda. He spoke out against Yogananda and the lessons. There was a big argument at the ashram that included shouting, some violence, tactile hysteria, some kind of Pychotic episode that included burning sensations and lawn rolling and apparently blackmail, as the brother demanded $500.00 dollars from Yogananda and got it. The book isn't clear about what was behind it all except "Satan". The brother was ill before the whole event and may have suffered an illness induced pychotic episode.

Years later (in 1938) she was allowed to visit her brother. Yoganada sent her to the "best hotel" in Detroit with the "best of clothes" to show the brother that the life she had chosen was better than the one he chose. Her brother offered her a home with him but she said her home was with Master. The clothes part is interesting because there are several stories about clothes and Durga in the book.

What Durga did at the Ashram


Cook, clean, do laundry, housework, wait on Rajasi and Yogananda hand and foot, beg for funds, just to name a few. She lived in a room with crates for furnature. it was very cold, so cold she had to soak herself in a hot bath everyday to get enough mobility to work like an animal for them all day. According to her story there was some kind of hole in the wall that let drafts in. There are several stories interesting enough for their own separate telling and I want to include some of the information in the future with an entry about Rajasi. For the sake of this entry it is enough to say she was basically the House elf.

A Dress
Durga was paid a dollar a week for what amounted to slave labor. More on that later. The story I want to tell here is about her getting a $20.00 gift and buying a dress with the money. Durga was often sent by Yogananda to ask Rajasi for money. Rajasi gave each of the other disciples $5.00 a year for Christmas. Yogananda would not let him give them more though Yogananda often wanted lots more himself.
Durga helped a young SRF couple when they were sick and they gave her $20.00. She bought a dress with the money. When Yogananda saw the dress he said "I would have preferred you come see me in rags rather than accept money for services you rendered while you are in the service of God". She never wore the dress again nor did she ever accept any money from anyone save the dollar a week she earned as a nun.



(to be continued...)

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:35 PM

    monks and nuns walk away all the time. She chose not to, it's her choice. And a dollar a week sounds about right for those days. I think they even get less now a days.

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  2. Well, I suppose she COULD have walked away, except Divine Mother had already removed her entire family and all of her resources. ..and , of course Yogananda was a Great Christ! Hard to walk away from that...

    I had trouble leaving this cult and I have an education, a job, a nice home, a close family and a good bank account...

    How much more difficult would it have been for poor brainwashed Durga. handmaiden to the Yogi-Christ.

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  3. Thanks for all of your postings Katie. I was actually online hoping to find out that SRF was a little better than the other religious groups. I encourage people with bipolar disorder to adopt a spiritual practice of meditation and was hoping SRF could be an organization I could recommend. I've actually visited their Headquarters in L.A. once. Philisophically, I agree with much of what they say. But in the end, it seems, a religion is a religion is a religion. They all say one thing, but do another.

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  4. Hi Sean,
    Thanks for stopping by to read and for taking the time to post.

    I would not recommend that anyone join SRF.

    I agree that meditation and inner spiritual practices can be very beneficial and my life is enriched by these practices. I do not have personal knowledge of pros and cons for those with bipolar disorder.
    SRF is a very fundamental and dogmatic religion with emphasis on telling it's members what "Truth" to believe and venerating Paramahansa Yogananda. He is considered a "Christ" and every written or spoken word associated with him is considered Gospel.

    For those that want to meditate I strongly suggest going to a non-religion based meditation class or renting a 'how to' video at the library. If someone goes to SRF meditations to "just meditate" they will be sucked into SRF dogma, as it is impossible to screen the information being fed to you while in a meditation induced, self hypnotic state. In my opinion, it is best to pursue meditation without having to try to filter this SRF misinformation from reality.

    Wishing you well on your journey,
    Peace and best wishes,
    Katie

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  5. Sean Blackwell8:24 PM

    Thanks Katie, as an aside, I did a 10 day vipassanna meditation retreat a year ago. It was excellent and approached meditation in a very logical manner, insisting that it was open to all religions. Then at the end of each meditation day, we all had to bend and say, "Sadhu...Sadhu...Sadhu..." WTF? I had no idea what that was! Still, I would go back and do another.

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  6. Hi Sean,
    10 days sounds like a good amount of time. Short and sweet.

    I didn't know anything about vipassanna meditation so I had to look it up.
    http://www.dhamma.org/en/

    I like that they do not have a religion or church associated with the meditation technique. This seems like a very common sense approach. The "Sadhu..Sadhu.." thing may be a bit of a red flag though.

    Are Mr. Goenka and Sayagyi U Ba Khin just considered meditation teachers or are they venerated as enlightened gurus?

    The reason I ask is that it seems like any group that thinks the leader is 'advanced" or "enlightened" somehow always degrade into personality worship. When that happens, the whole thing becomes all about the teacher instead of all about you.

    Your spiritual growth is about you and your soul/spirit. It is not about how great the teacher is. This is why I am wary of any group or organization that wants to teach you something about "the truth according to this guy or that guy".

    Do you find the meditation technique useful?

    Peace and Best wishes,

    Katie

    ReplyDelete

Thank you.

Katie

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