Saints of the SRF church of Latter Day Saints

I recently received an e-mail from someone asking about the SRF- mormon connection.

I have written about this a bit already but I can sum up some of the information here.

I would like to write about the main SRF disciples in a series of posts with just a few things about them. I am currently writing a review of Durga Matas book which has lots of information about Durga Mata, Yogananda and James Lynn.

It is easier to write a bit at a time. This organization has already taken almost a third of my life away (based on a life expectancy of 75 years). I don't intend to spend the rest of my life talking about them, however I do think it is important to make this information available to people who are looking for it online.

As far as the Mormons are concerned the ones I know of are Tara Mata who was discussed earlier. She was the grand daughter of Orson Pratt. Adelaide Erskine who photographed Yogananda.
The Wrights (Daya Mata, her brother, her mother and her younger sister) who came from Salt Lake city where Yogananda went to give lectures. Myrna Loy Brown (Mrinalini Ma). There may have been more but these were some of the most influential.

Karla Schramm may have also been, but I do not know about her.
death records


In 1904, ten years before the birth of Daya Mata the Mormon church started excommunicating anyone who engaged in new plural marriages. The church didn't want to break up families. Old plural marriages were allowed to stand but if they took place after 1890  they were considered "Illegal" as far as the United States government was concerned. The practice continued for years and the state government was torn. In 1911 the Mormon church excommunicated a very high ranking member for plural marriage.  The genealogical records were a mess since lots of kids were from plural marriages that were not legal in the United States. Some of the women from the marriages took the controversy raging between the U.S. government, the Mormon church and the fundamental Mormons to mean they could make a break for it and a few successfully did. This is a hard thing to do. There are still problems with this whole thing today with the Jeffs and the Jessops and other FLDS sects. A good book on the subject is Carolyn Jessops book Escaped. Women who left were shunned by the community and often lost their children. Like I say, this is a hard thing to do.

Here is a link to Carolyn story through newspaper articles

http://www.childbrides.org/carolyn.html 

Rulon Jeffs at the age of 90 posing with 2 of his new brides, sisters Edna and Mary.

http://www.childbrides.org/ 

Daya Mata (Faye Wright) was just 17 or 18 years old and her sister was just 14 years old when they broke out of Salt lake city with their mother and brother and landed in the ashram of a rock star Guru in California. All I can say about that is  Good for them! Difficult as this is for women today, it was even harder back in the 1930's. The country was in depression, there was no social or public assistance to help them, no safe houses.   I don't know who her father was or which one of Abraham Wrights wives was his mother, or how many wives he had or what. They don't appear on the Mormon genealogical record that I can find. This whole thing is sad.

The Mormon converts were very influential in the development of SRF and Yoganandas mission and beliefs fit well with the up bringing of Mormon women of that time. These girls were raised on latter day saints, Divine revelations and group living arrangements.

This is about all I know about this subject other than my previous entries.

Peace and Best Wishes,
Katie