A Fight for Religious Freedom

A Lawyer's Personal Account of Copyrights, Karma and Dharmic Litigation

Jon R. Parsons

• Publisher: Crystal Clarity Publishers
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781565895102
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Religions asiatiques

The compelling story of a groundbreaking, 12-year legal battle launched against the smaller Ananda Church by the established and wealthy Self-Realization Fellowship—both followers of spiritual master, Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the classic Autobiography of a Yogi. SRF's intent was, as the judge observed, "to put Ananda out of business." Includes rare vignettes that offer a timeline glimpse into the challenges of Yogananda's own mission to the West.

Chapter 4

Ananda Responds

November 1990

With new energy and greater numbers, we rebounded quickly from the initial setback. Sheila was now on board, with a keen mind and indefatigable energy that would make all the difference. And a group had galvanized around us. I have always been impressed with the caliber of intelligent and hard-working people that Ananda attracts. The community operates by consensus, made clear to me in the way the community handled the lawsuit. The “legal team” now expanded into three tiers. There was a small group of close disciples who, together with Kriyananda, reviewed all events, discussed game plans, and made the decisions, usually following consultation with Sheila and myself. There was also a core group of workers, including Sheila, Cathy, Keshava, and I, who did the heavy legal lifting: preparing and responding to the motions, drafting and reviewing discovery, and otherwise pushing the juggernaut of federal litigation. We were assisted as need arose by a seemingly endless throng of members and supporters who contributed endless hours of time, often late into the night, copying, compiling, and delivering materials. Every one played an important role.

Ananda Village | 1990

Back in the 1960s Kriyananda had joined with poets Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder to purchase 72 acres of land located in the northern reaches of the Sierra Nevada gold country. For Kriyananda it was a bold first step to establish a spiritual community, a World Brotherhood Community, based on Yogananda’s teachings. But once he bought the land, the mortgage had to be paid, and Kriyananda had to continue traveling on the road, to attract students and raise funds.

Swami Yogananda left Boston in November 1923 and headed west from Philadelphia that next July. A month later found him lecturing in Denver. By early September he was giving classes in Seattle. After a three-week cruise to Alaska he started down the coast, and by January 1925 had settled in Los Angeles. He soon found the ideal property for an international headquarters; the old Mt. Washington Hotel sitting 980 feet above Los Angeles and offering breathtaking views from the mountains to the sea. The hotel was only fifteen years old, but had fallen on hard times. Yogananda put together the right team, and within months dedicated the hotel and some surrounding parcels as the Mount Washington Educational Estates.

The property was heavily mortgaged. To pay for the purchase and the operation of the ashram, Yogananda immediately set off on the first of many lecture “campaigns” to attract students and raise funds. This non-stop circuit from city to city kept Yogananda so busy back East that he did not spend a Christmas at Mt. Washington until 1929. During those years the membership would receive a series of pleas for assistance as each loan payment came due. Many times the loan verged on default and foreclosure, but Yogananda always managed to make things happen.

Kriyananda could make things happen. By virtue of his personal energy, lectures, and fundraising, Ananda was able to put down roots and grow. Before setting eyes on Ananda Village, I had read about it. The Ananda Community consists largely of individuals, couples, and small families who live a simple life of “plain living and high thinking.” At first the community members lived in tents, tepees, and yurts. These gave way to geodesic domes, and then to more conventional, but still owner-built, lathe and plaster construction. During these years, Ananda came to be recognized as an exemplar of “intentional communities.” It was the subject of both scholarly and popular books, perhaps the most famous being Ananda: Where Yoga Lives by John Ball, the award-winning author of In the Heat of the Night. A disastrous forest fire in 1976 destroyed most of the residences and other buildings that had been constructed with such loving sweat. This catastrophe weeded out the less committed, and the community that remained grew back stronger and more vibrant. It was one of the first crises that helped define what Ananda was to become. Although negligence by a Nevada County employee using county equipment caused the fire, and several other landowners had obtained settlements to cover their damages, Ananda decided on principle not to take the county’s money. Something different was happening here.

From the beginning Ananda was a protean idea, changing with the times and with Kriyananda’s evolving understanding of his mission. From 1967–69 the property consisted of only seventy-five undeveloped acres, now called the Meditation Retreat. In those days the hills around Ananda attracted a wide variety of people seeking alternative lifestyles. Most were more tolerant than religious, and Kriyananda himself attracted both the curious and the committed. A few described the connections they felt with him in terms of past lives. Some looked for a teacher, a life’s guide, or a source of insight for their own journey. In the beginning this commune community was nothing like the Village I saw in 1990. And Kriyananda was often on the road in those early years, making the dream happen.

His lectures brought in more than money. Attending one of Kriyananda’s first series of classes in San Francisco in 1967, John (“Jyotish”) Novak learned how to meditate. He soon approached Kriyananda and offered to be his personal assistant. Jyotish and his wife, Devi, now head Ananda Sangha Worldwide, the international teaching ministry of Ananda. The story of Ananda in those early days is the collective experience of the individuals who lived it. It changed as they did. And each person related to Kriyananda as suited them at that time. There were no house rules to follow, no regimented roles with a resulting set of duties and expectations. Kriyananda himself changed over the years as more came to be needed and expected of him, and by 1990 he was the pillar of the Ananda community. Something different was happening all the time. Now that included the lawsuit.

Discovery | 1990–2002

“Discovery” is a word that packs a lot of meaning. It refers to the exchange of information by which the parties find out what evidence the other side has, prepare their case for trial, and evaluate the pros and cons of settlement. It includes written questions to the other side (“interrogatories”), requests for copies of documents or the right to examine them (“requests for documents”), requests that the other side agree that certain facts are true (“requests for admissions”), and the opportunity to ask witnesses questions under oath, in a live session across a table (“depositions”). Each form of discovery has its use, but depositions provide a unique opportunity to get answers from a witness’ mouth, while watching how the witness responds. Before we went to trial in 2002, each of the parties would take hundreds of hours of testimony in depositions north and south, coast to coast.

Discovery has become the tail wagging the litigation dog. Many lawyers who fancy themselves trial lawyers never actually go to trial, but earn princely sums conducting discovery. It is the bread-and-butter of large firms. Even cases that settle long before trial can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars gathering information that is never used. For discovery is not limited to the issues actually involved in the lawsuit. It includes information that might lead to the discovery of admissible evidence, or that might shine light on claims not yet made, but which could be made in the case. Some believe that only by getting more information than you can possibly use will you be sure to get everything you need.

Not surprisingly, discovery often exhausts the parties mentally and financially. Sometimes a wealthy litigant uses discovery to drain the limited resources of its soon-to-be penurious opponent, forcing them by economic imperative into settlement. SRF had a lot of money and a lot of lawyers. By the end of the case, SRF was on its fifth law firm.

Ananda and SRF each produced thousands of documents during the lawsuit. Hundreds of pages of original typescripts were made available in Los Angeles for review only by Ananda’s counsel, and hundreds more provided at SRF’s Richmond Temple for review by the litigation team just before trial. Scores of potential witnesses were interviewed, and more than a hundred ended up being used either for live testimony or by means of written declarations. Most of the leading religious experts in the field were retained by one side or the other for testimony or advice. Kriyananda and Daya Mata gave days of depositions, as did Ananda Mata, Mrinalini Mata, Uma Mata, several SRF monks, the Ananda legal team, and numerous SRF and Ananda members.

Although Kriyananda had been with Yogananda for years, served as head of the monks, and was an officer and director of SRF, much was hidden from him. In the mid-1950s, after Yogananda’s passing, SRF grew increasingly secretive about him, his history, his personality, and his relationship with the organization he founded. We were able to piece together through discovery, however, the fuller picture of how Yogananda handled his copyrights and other property ownership. Yogananda paid close attention to his legal rights in the early years, but later let the details slip into the hands of others. After Yogananda returned from India in 1936 various staff members handled the copyright paperwork, and Yogananda left the mechanics of the magazine to its editors. Yogananda’s inattention to some of these subtleties, combined with SRF’s possession of his tangible property, provided the backbone of SRF’s claims in the lawsuit.

Most of SRF’s claims in the lawsuit can be summed up in SRF’s assert...