For additional information

Paramahansa Yogananda

"Look only for the good in everything, that you absorb the quality of beauty."
~ Paramahansa Yogananda

If you would like to know more about Paramahansa Yogananda and SRF, visit the website for Mother Center in Los Angeles California.

The Autobiography of a Yogi is a spiritual classic written by Paramahansa Yogananda more than 60 years ago. It has been a best seller, translated into 26 languages worldwide.

Swami Yogananda in Colorado

Editor’s Note: Local devotees of Paramahansa Yogananda are blessed that the great Premavatar visited Colorado several times. During his first visit in 1924 he stayed here for several weeks lecturing and spreading the message of kriya yoga and composed his poem Pikes Peak. He returned again to vacation as well as to give lectures and classes in 1926, 1927, 1929, and finally in 1931 when he dedicated the new “Yogoda Temple” in Denver.

As the quote below from Journey to Self-Realization by our Guru implies, as well as the following quote from Sri Mrinalini Mata, local devotees who are attuned may feel his holy presence and receive the blessings of the Guru when we are in locations where he stayed. It is in this spirit that we present this web site documentary of Swami Yogananda in Colorado.

 

From Journey to Self-Realization, by Paramahansa Yogananda, p. 252

“There is also great value in visiting places where saints have lived. …such places are forever permeated with the vibrations left there by the divine souls who walked those grounds. Their vibrations will remain until this earth is dissolved. Where souls have communed with God, there you will find greater communion and response from God. Often such pilgrimages completely change one’s life for the better.”

From Look Always to the Light, by Sri Mrinalini Mata

“Know that where ever a divine saint, one who knows God, one who is one with God, where ever they have lived, where ever they have walked, where ever they have communed, that blessing, that spiritual power of their life, remains there always. That is the ideal of pilgrimage.”  

 

SWAMI YOGANANDA IN COLORADO

 

 

From Pictorial History of SRF, p. 14-15

When I confided to a deeply devoted student what God had revealed to me, she said she would arrange a farewell dinner in my honor. My plan was to leave for California the morning after the dinner, taking with me a secretary (Mr. M. Rashid), a good-hearted but unpredictable fellow, and two young men who were students in my classes (Arthur Frey and Ralph Lubliner). We had at that time a little money from classes I had given, and we bought a Maxwell car. (There was only enough money left to last until we reached Denver). [Below is a picture of Master next to his tent and Maxwell car on his trip from New York to Denver in 1924].

 

The night before our departure, our hostess drew me aside after dinner and said: "I cannot do very much t I saw the hand of God. I was so overcome, tears of gratitude flowed, and I predicted to her: "You will see a large institution in Los Angeles as a result of this check."

We started on our way next morning, equipped for camping so that we could travel as economically as possible. All of us were happy and singing all the way.* over and over I chanted: "Engrossed is the bee of my mind on the blue lotus feet of my Divine Mother."

We stopped in Denver, where I gave lectures and classes.† They were well received. Heading north, we visited Alaska. All doors of hospitality were opened to me.

*Editor’s Note: On another occasion Paramahansa Yogananda remarked that by traveling leisurely and camping along the way, visiting many of the natural scenic wonders, including Pike's Peak, and Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parts –he was able to see and study America and Americans. His love grew daily for his adopted country and her people.

Three thousand persons filled the Denver City Auditorium for the public lectures.

**From the November 1925 issue of East-West Magazine regarding Master’s trip to Denver: He started out to cross the continent in a Maxwell automobile, accompanied by three students who alternated at driving the car. The little party of four was very harmonious, and the three boys did all in their power to make Swami comfortable throughout the long transcontinental journey. By leisurely traveling and camping, Swami managed to see and study America and Americans very closely and enjoyed each minute of the trip. Finally, Denver was reached and the good Maxwell took Swami up the famous Pike's Peak road and Swami wrote his poem about the ride. Swami was welcomed by the Mayor and spoke to a cultured audience of 3,000 people in the Denver City Auditorium, where the city organist played "The Song of India" when Swami entered for the lecture. A large class of Yogoda students was formed. The city of Denver vibrated to Swami the love for Nature and health-giving life. Swami then proceeded to beautiful Colorado Springs. 

 

Editors Note Relating to 

Swami Yogananda’s 1924 Visit to Pikes Peak

Prior to lecturing in Denver during his 1924 visit, Master visited Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs (pictured below). It was on his drive up the mountain that he composed his poem Pikes Peak beginning “Ne’er did I expect to roam, On wheels four, Where thousand clouds do soar.”

Nervousness is the disease of civilization

From Journey to Self-Realization, by Paramahansa Yogananda,

pages 84-85

Nervousness is the disease of civilization. I remember when some of us were driving up Pikes Peak in Colorado. Other cars were speeding past us on the steep, winding grade. I thought they were hurrying to get to the mountaintop in time to see the sunrise. To my great amazement, when we arrived we were the only ones outside to enjoy the view. All the others were in the restaurant drinking coffee and eating doughnuts. Imagine! They rushed to the top and then rushed back, just for the thrill of being able to say when they got home that they had been there, and had coffee and doughnuts on Pikes Peak. That is what nervousness does. [Pictured below is Swami Yogananda and his entourage in his Maxwell car on their way down the iconic mountain in 1924]. 

 

Editors Notes Relating to

Swami Yogananda’s 1924 Visit to Denver

Swami Yogananda arrived from Colorado Springs on July 26, 1924 to begin his lecture tour in Denver. While lecturing in Denver during his 1924 visit, Master stayed at the Irvington Hotel, visible on the left in this 1930s-era photograph (below).

Master very likely met Mayor Stapleton in the old Denver City Hall (pictured below) on August 2, 1924. The hall was built in 1883 and was located on the northwest corner of Larimer Street and 14th Street. The building was razed in 1936.

 

August 2, 1924 Rocky Mountain News Article

India Educator Visits Denver on Tour of Country

Swami Yogananda to Give Two Lectures Before Leaving City.

Swami Yogananda, noted Indian educator, lecturer and traveler, paid a special visit to Mayor Stapleton yesterday morning, bedecked in a dazzling orange turban and golden gown.

“Your mayor impresses me as a very able man,” he explained in an interview later. “I told him of the beautiful country and city you have. In some respects it is more beautiful than India; in other respects India is more enchanting.”

Swami is traveling with his secretary across the country by automobile, being the first East Indian of high station to do this, he explained. Saturday morning he arrived from Colorado Springs on his way to San Francisco, having started from New York two months ago. Being the owner of two large schools in India he is studying intimately educational conditions and schools in America.

He expects to give three lectures in Denver, the first of which has been tentatively scheduled for August 14th in the city auditorium. His subject will be “The Art of Living.”

 

August 7, 1924 Rocky Mountain News Article

Swami Yogananda to Lecture in Denver

Prince Swami Yogananda, India school owner and educator, has arranged to give a lecture in Denver at the city Auditorium on the evening of August 14th. His subject will be “Concentration.” Prince Swami is traveling with his secretary across the continent from New York to San Francisco by automobile, making an intensive study of the American school system. While in Denver he is staying at the Irvington Hotel.

 

(Editors Note: The Metropole Hotel, where Master gave this talk, was located at 1756 Broadway in downtown Denver (pictured below circa 1980). It was built in 1891 and was a “significant luxury hotel”, billed as one of the first “fireproof” hotels in the country. It had an ornate “vaudeville showhouse”, whose interior was decorated in East Indian themes. The Metropole was recognized as one of the three grand hotels in Denver at the turn of the century along with the Brown Palace and Savoy. The hotel was demolished in 1984)


August 8, 1924 Rocky Mountain News Article

Music and Address by East Indian Features Unusual Meeting of Optimists

Swami Giri Yogananda Reads Unique Poem Composed on Auto Trip Up Pikes Peak.

Music by a widely known violinist and a short address by an East Indian educator whose aim is international education were the two main features of the program at the Optimist luncheon in the Metropole Hotel yesterday.

Isai A. Feldsman, who recently came to Denver from Constantinople where he was a professor at the Conservatory, played Schubert’s Serenade, the Legend by Wensivsky, and the Fall Song by Tchaikovsky. Madeline Blickensderfer, well known young Denver musician, accompanied him.

Following the musicians, Swami Giri Yogananda, Indian educator who is touring the United States in an automobile, and who has started schools in New York and Boston, gave an inspiring talk on “International Welfare”.

Wrong psychology and human hatred are the causes for warfare, the Swami told his hearers. If there were not war machines, men would fight with their hands. It is only by individual good will towards international welfare that individual welfare receives its greatest benefits, he said.

Following his talk, Swami read a poem which he had composed on the road to Pikes Peak. Following are excerpts of it:

“Through some troubles of punctured tires,

In joy-mixed sadness,

Afraid of approaching darkness,

We entered the land of scenes and springs,

Which stood protesting ‘gainst the darksome night.

After the midnight hour was fall,

Towards the Pikes Peak road we rolled

In our convalescent car

On roads dusted with tar.

With winding, tricky curves which climbed

And in secret glided,

Fourteen thousand feet above the sea

In the home of dark clouds

I loved the breathless subtle air

So pure and clear,

That chokes the gross,

But burns the dross

Of those that love

To worship in a breathless state.” 

 

Swami Yogananda’s 1924 Lectures in Denver

(Editors Note: This information is based on Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News advertisements.)

Swami Yogananda gave at least 3 free public lectures in 1924: two at Barnes College Auditorium (14th and Glenarm) and one at the City Auditorium (13th and Champa). Following are a couple of the quotes that Master included in the newspaper advertisements:

Renowned Lecturer, Educator and Psychologist From India

All Welcome

Following are the titles of Master’s 1924 lectures:

Mastering the Subconscious Mind                                                  Monday August 11, 1924

Magnetic Healing                                                                      Wednesday August 13, 1924

Concentration and Life Force                                                       Thursday August 14, 1924
 

Master gave his August 14, 1924 lecture in the Denver City Auditorium (pictured below), which was located at 920 14th Street. It was built in 1908 and originally had a capacity of 12,500. The brick building had Neoclassical features including terra-cotta trim, domes, pediments, quoins, dentiled cornice and corner towers. Flagpoles extend from the domes and an awning is on the facade. Originally, the building was a multi-purpose structure: it accommodated concerts, operas, theatrical shows, conventions, basketball, auto shows and even circuses. The auditorium has gone through numerous renovations over the years. Most recently, the historic shell of the old Auditorium Theatre was rebuilt and named the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, honoring "Denver's First Lady of Opera”, who helped make the opera house possible. It opened as Opera Colorado’s new home on September 10, 2005.

Denver Civic Auditorium in 1929

Swami Yogananda giving his lecture on “Concentration and Life Force” to an audience of 3,000 people in the Denver Civic Auditorium on Thursday August 14, 1924

One of the advertisements placed by Swami Yogananda in the Denver Post Newspaper, August 14, 1924

 

Master standing in front of the Denver Civic Auditorium next to a poster advertising his August 14, 1924 lecture.

 

September 25, 1924 Letter from Swami Yogananda to Doctor and Mrs. Lewis from Seattle, Washington

From Treasures Against Time, by Brenda Lewis Rosser, p. 81

(Borrego Publications, P.O. Box 31, Borrego Springs California 92004, 243 p.)

“Over 5000 miles we traveled went over Pike’s Peak in our car. Wish you both saw this wonderful place and were here.“

 

 

October 14, 1924 Letter from Swami Yogananda to Doctor and Mrs. Lewis from Seattle, Washington

From Treasures Against Time, by Brenda Lewis Rosser, p. 82

(Borrego Publications, P.O. Box 31, Borrego Springs California 92004, 243 p.)

“I lectured at Denver to 2,500 people in city auditorium and had a large class. A Denver Sat-Sanga is established.“

 

November 1925 East-West Magazine article, p. 9

(Editors Note: In early 1924 Master gave lectures in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. He left Merchantville, New Jersey on July 14, 1924 to begin his first cross-country trip to California. His first lecture stop was Denver, Colorado)

About this time Swami felt an inner call to further extend the work, and saw in his mind’s eye the West of America and especially Los Angeles, swept by his teachings. Accordingly, he started out to cross the continent in a Maxwell automobile, accompanied by Mr. Rashid and two students, Arthur and Ralph, who alternated at driving the car. The little party of four was very harmonious, and the three boys did all in their power to make Swami comfortable through-out the long transcontinental journey. By leisurely traveling and camping, Swami managed to see and study America and Americans very closely, and enjoyed each minute of the trip.

Finally, Denver was reached and the good Maxwell took Swami up the famous Pike’s Peak road, and Swami wrote his poem about the ride, beginning “Ne’er did I expect to roam, On wheels four, Where thousand clouds do soar.” Swami spoke to a cultured audience of 3,000 people in the Denver City Auditorium, where the city organist played “The Song of India” when Swami entered for the lecture.

A large class of Yogoda students was formed with the helpful cooperation of Mrs. F. Simmons, Mrs. Tedrow and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The city of Denver vibrated to Swami the love for Nature, health-giving life, and the great personality of Judge Ben Lindsey. Swami met Judge and Mrs. Lindsey and they became good friends and studied Swami’s Yogoda System. Swami was highly delighted to find in Judge Lindsey one of the greatest practical educators, whose knowledge has been derived from the pages of human life, as well as a deep and original thinker offering excellent solutions to many social problems.

Swami then proceeded to beautiful Colorado Springs, and thence to Yellowstone Park, which he considers “the greatest nature-made, man-protected Park in the world.” From Yellowstone, Swami went to the Coast and boarded a ship for Alaska, about whose beauty he had often heard.

 

August 19, 1926 Letter from Swami Yogananda to Doctor and Mrs. Lewis from Denver, Colorado

From Treasures Against Time, by Brenda Lewis Rosser, p. 98

(Borrego Publications, P.O. Box 31, Borrego Springs California 92004, 243 p.)

“I talked in Denver in the City Auditorium (bigger than Symphony Hall, Boston).“


 

August 1927 Letter from Swami Yogananda to Doctor Lewis from Colorado Springs, Colorado

From Treasures Against Time, by Brenda Lewis Rosser, p. 105

(Borrego Publications, P.O. Box 31, Borrego Springs California 92004, 243 p.)

“Have been extremely busy.“

 

 

January – February 1929 East-West Magazine article

Judge Lindsay’s (of Denver) Viewpoint on “The Crime Wave in America

Such men as Judge Ben Lindsay do not take that viewpoint. Judge Lindsay says, "Normal, moral, restrained conduct cannot be had from adolescents suffering from malnutrition, acidosis and auto-intoxication. The first thing I have to look into and correct in the cases of the most incorrigible is their health. In many cases, wrong eating is back of the bad health; bad teeth, bad eye-sight, nervousness, tonsils, anemia and every other evidence of faulty metabolism." Judge Lindsay’s many years in the Juvenile Court of Denver should make him an authority on this subject and anyone who wishes may secure and read his opinion on it.

One of the best eye-openers which has ever been given to the American people was written by Jack Cunard. The following is his view in, "To Curb the Crime you must Cure the Criminal".

"Daylight holdups of banks and jewelry stores, and crime of every imaginable sort have increased tremendously during the past three years. The murder rate has taken a terrible jump. Our prisons are jammed to the limit; we have to build new ones. Our reform schools are loaded with juveniles between the ages of twelve and twenty. Our jails are loaded with underworld ramblers waiting for trial. The course can’t keep up with the procession which passes thru the doors, of the boobs of the country. Our death houses are well populated with murderers who will soon take their last flash at life from the seat of the flame chair or thru the noose of the hangman. Here is an utterly deplorable condition. It has been growing worse year by year for the past ten years or more. The cost to the taxpayers of the country is staggering almost beyond belief. Today your crime bill is around $10,000,000,000. Every time you arrest, try, convict and send a crook to prison, it costs around $3,500.00 and when you consider that some crooks go to prison three, four and five times within the course of their underworld careers, you get some idea of what a tremendous expensive thing your old, unscientific and almost broken down penal system is."

In "Physical Culture", in the September, 1927, issue, is "The Sick Criminal". "Here is the true story of a pathetic little figure of the underworld who gravitated to a life of crime because of the under-nourished and unhealthy physical condition in which he was permitted to grow up. In the future installments you will learn much of what is behind the scenes in the making of a criminal."

Too much cannot be said of the efforts of "Physical Culture" to show the necessity for right living, clean minds and bodies as well as right food. These, together with the right education, will put an end to America’s Ten Billion Dollar Crime Bill.

We have had many years to stop Crime by Punishment; what has it brought us? Only the chance to build more prisons and buy more rope. Clarence Darrow says, "It brutalizes those who inflict it and those who receive it. There is only one motive for it, and that is revenge, in which there can be no justice for it is based on hatred, which is degrading. If scientists were no wiser than legislators we would still be punishing the insane, the idiots, the sick. We have abandoned such magical treatment and some day we shall treat the criminal with as much understanding." 

 

Kamala Silva in Memoriam (1906-1997)

From Self-Realization Fellowship Magazine

Spring 1998

Kamala Silva, a longtime disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda, passed away on November 29, 1997. Brother Bhumananda of Self-Realization Fellowship International Headquarters conducted a memorial service for her at the SRF Temple in Richmond, California.

Born Mary Buchanan, she adopted the Sanskrit name Kamala, which Paramahansaji customarily called her; it means “lotus.” Among the thousands who attended Paramahansaji’s first series of lectures in Los Angeles in 1925, Kamala and her mother formed an early association with the great Guru; and after he established atop Mt. Washington the international headquarters of his society later that year, he invited them both to live there for a time and serve his growing spiritual work.

Kamala and her husband, Edward Silva (who passed away earlier in 1997), started a Self-Realization Fellowship Center in Oakland in the late 1940s, and thereafter conducted services and assisted SRF activities in the San Francisco Bay area – including plans that resulted in the establishment of the current temple in Richmond. For many years she joined the monastics at the International Headquarters for annual Christmas celebrations, until age would no longer permit her to travel.

Kamala Silva

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born in Colorado on June 21, 1906, Mary Isabelle Buchanan was first called by the name Kamala by the renowned Indian yogi, Swami Yogananda, at their very first meeting in 1925, when she was only 19 years old. From that moment until her passing on November 29, 1997 at the age of 91, Kamala was a devoted and much loved disciple of the great yoga master and his yoga meditation teachings.  

Kamala's early childhood years had been spent in Colorado. Her parents, Dr. Frances Grant Buchanan and William James Buchanan, were separated when Kamala was 12 years old, but remained close friends and steadfast caregivers throughout Kamala's youth. When Dr. Buchanan moved with Kamala to Southern California in 1918, Mr. Buchanan soon followed. Both parents were exceptional for their times, with open minds and thoughtful demeanors that must have greatly influenced Kamala's own exceptional talents and abilities.

Kamala, her mother, Master and her father in a boat, circa 1930.

Kamala was ordained as an SRF Minister by Swami Yogananda in 1934.

 

Denver Union Depot railway station where he first arrived in 1931

 

Swami Yogananda’s 1931 Lectures in Denver

(Editors Note: This information is based primarily on Rocky Mountain News advertisements.)

Swami Yogananda gave at least 9 free public lectures at the Albany Hotel in Denver, Colorado beginning July 9, 1931. Master wrote to Dr. Lewis from this hotel on July 11, 1924 telling that he planned on staying there until August 12th (Brenda Lewis Rosser, 1991, Treasures Against Time, Borrego Publications, Borrego Springs, CA, 243 p.). On August 15, 1924 Master went on an outing to Pikes Peak with Karla Schramm, Durga Ma, and her brother.

The Albany Hotel (pictured below circa 1920) was built in 1885 and was located on the NE corner of 17th Street and Stout Street in the Central Business District of Denver. It was demolished in 1976.

Master’s 1931 Denver lectures were given in the ballroom of the hotel at 8 PM each evening. There was a “Special Inspiring Musical Program” preceding each lecture. Following are some of the quotes that Master included in the newspaper advertisements:

4 New Soul-Stirring Free Lectures

Hundreds Have Asked for Them!

Be Sure to Hear Them—Given by Special Request

Hear Every One of These Revealing Lectures

One of the World’s Greatest Teachers

Famous Philosopher, Poet and Educator From India

 Educator—Yogi—Metaphysician

 By the Great Teacher, Who Has Thrilled Thousands With His Dynamic, Soul-Stirring Message

The Great Teacher brings you a Vital Message that will stir you in the depths of your very soul!

The Great Teacher from India brings you a new vital message that will stir you with its revealing Power!

Following the lecture there will be a unique, new and amazing demonstration of mind-power over the body.”

Don’t Fail to hear the last remaining soul-stirring messages

Under the Auspices of the Christian Yogoda-Sat-Sanga Society

Denver Demanded to Hear More of This Distinguished Hindu Master

 Great Lecture

A Most Unique Exposition

Unrivaled Explanation

 Unique Demonstration of Mind Power Follows Lecture

Don’t fail to hear these last two lectures. Come early as seating capacity has been taxed in the previous lectures.”

In his final message that will bring you a better realization of what life may have in store for you.”

All Welcome

Following are the titles of Master’s 1931 lectures in Denver:

How to Develop Personal Magnetism                                                Thursday July 9, 1931

            Unrivaled Explanation

Developing Dynamics of Divine Love and Real Human Love            Friday July, 10, 1931

Mahatma Gandhi and India: Its Highest Methods of Spiritualizing the World    Saturday July 11, 1931

Super-Science and Art of Concentration for Real Success                  Sunday July 12, 1931

How to Live Several Years-Ahead of Your Time, by Advance Methods     Sunday July 19, 1931

Great Method of Overcoming Nervousness                                      Thursday July 30, 1931

            Intensely Beneficial 

How Oriental Methods Help Occidental Business                                Friday July 31, 1931

Very helpful in succeeding by occult law

How to Make your Religion Work                                                   Saturday August 1, 1931

            This applies to all faiths and nationalities. Ministers of all creeds particularly invited. Swami’s greatest lecture.

Using Subconsciousness, Consciousness and Superconsciousness for Real Success    Sunday August 2, 1931

One of the advertisements placed by Swami Yogananda in the Denver Post Newspaper, July 9, 1931

 

 

Swami Yogananda’s 1931 Lectures in Colorado Springs

(Editors Note: This information is based primarily on Colorado Springs Gazette newspaper advertisements.)

Following his lectures in Denver, Swami Yogananda traveled to Colorado Springs on August 12, 1931 and gave 3 free public lectures at the Colorado Springs Municipal Auditorium on August 13, 14, and 15, 1931. This auditorium was located at at 231 East Kiowa Street and was built in 1923. Swami Yogananda gave lectures in the “Little Theatre” located at the left (south) side of the auditorium. This smaller theater is more intimate than the rather cavernous main auditorium and thus was an ideal location to hear an inspiring lecture by Guruji.

Currently, the Little Theater is often used for plays and is called the Lon Chaney Theater, named after the famous actor who was born in Colorado Springs in 1883. Lon Chaney worked at the Colorado Springs Opera House for many years before moving to California in 1912 to act in films such as “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”

 Recent picture of the Colorado Springs Municipal Auditorium where Swami Yogananda gave 3 public lectures in August 1931

 

Master’s lectures in Colorado Springs were given at 8 PM each evening. There was an “Inspired Musical Musical Program” each night. Following are some of the quotes that Master included in the newspaper advertisements:

The Man Who is Thrilling America with His Mighty Messages

By the man who has thrilled thousands with his soul-stirring messages

Direct from Denver, where thousands heard this famed Hindu Master

Under the Auspices of the Christian Yogoda Sat Sanga Society

Famous Philosopher, Poet and Educator from India

Coming direct from a 2 months engagement in Denver

Hear this Distinguished Hindu Master

Dynamic Free Lectures

The Lecture Treat of the Year

Unique demonstration follows this lecture

All Welcome              No Collection              No Admission Charge

Following are the titles of Master’s 1931 lectures in Colorado Springs:

Everlasting Youth                                                                         Thursday August 13, 1931

            Unrivaled New Interpretation

Greatest Science of Healing                                                              Friday August 14, 1931

Union of mental and medical science. Unrivalled exposition. Doctors and mental healers especially invited.

Super Science and Art of Concentration for Real Success            Saturday August 15, 1931

One of the advertisements placed by Swami Yogananda in the Colorado Springs Gazette Newspaper, August 14, 1931

 

Following his free lectures in Colorado Springs, Master traveled back to Denver where he dedicated the new “Yogoda Temple” at 939 Grant Street on August 23, 1931.

 

 

April 1932 East-West Magazine article,

New Centers, p. 28

Yogoda is in progress in America attracting much attention and meeting with enthusiasm and co-operation. In this great movement Yogoda has a new temple in Denver, which was dedicated by Swami Yogananda in August of last year.

It is one of the most beautiful places in Denver, and is ideally located at 939 Grant Street just three blocks south of the State House.

The entrance to the Temple is very impressive with its wide stone steps denoting progress of Yogoda and huge columns that remind one of the everlasting strength of Yogoda.

This home was made possible by Mary I. Dillon whose love for Yogoda prompted not only the gift, but the dedication of her life to God through Yogoda.

Swami Yogananda with Denver Yogoda students at 939 Grant Street Temple in Denver, August 23, 1931

Picture of Swami Yogananda taken in Denver on August 23, 1931

 

 

Devotee Testimonial from March 1937

Inner Culture Magazine

"I want you to know that the Lessons have been a great help to me in getting a better understanding of life and the Truth. I am enjoying the review of the Lessons. There is always something new and interesting in them no matter how many times one has gone over them. Wouldn’t want to do without them for I prize them as the highest thing I have. I have never had so much joy and happiness in my life as I have had the last year.”—A. B., Denver, Colo.

 

Pikes Peak

Composed by Paramahansa Yogananda

During his first trip to Colorado, August 1924

(in Songs of the Soul by Paramahansa Yogananda, pg. 114)

Ne’er did I expect to roam

On wheels four

Where thousand clouds do soar—

The dangerous, darksome path

With tricky winding “W” curves that climbed

And glided secretly

Full fourteen thousand feet above the sea—

The home of dark-hued clouds, so gamesome free,

That watched with heavy binding vapor-shroud

To cast ‘round stranger’s steps

That dared to tread in stealth

Their realm of scenic wealth.

And I did swoon

To spy, by light of miser moon,

The deep, deep hollow hall of space below—

Dimly adorned with weirdsome light, aglow

On pictures of twinkling, sleeping cities;

Shadowy trees, leaves inert in resting breeze;

And tall soldier-stones, and valleys,

Bright in silhouette.

The moonlight dim

Did slowly, strangely change to light of dawn.

There stood the temple-observatory,

Vacant and solitary.

Alas, O Royal Phoebus!

Where were thy swarming lovers,

As blushing red thou didst burn

In earliest hour of dawn?

The test of biting chill

Drove all the votaries away,

And all was still;

I alone was left

With thee upon the hill.

Thou wert aflame,

Yet calmer art thou now,

With silvery brow, spreading o’er all sleeping things

Thy wakening glow.

They did awake:

The trees breathed deep;

The streamlets opened twinkling, crystal eyes—

All creation rose from sleep.

O Sun, redeemer of darkness! Now I know:

All things, all wakened creatures

Are looking in wonder

Not at thee, but at the Unseen Wonder

That through thy glow

Mutely thou wantst to show.

Where went the cold?

Rebuked, it fled, that troublesome chill of old.

I loved the breathless subtle air,

So pure and clear,

That chokes the gross

And burns the dross

Of those that love

To worship Thee in breathless state, oh, far above

The roar and din of tipsy senses.

There on Pikes Peak

I met all minds;

I asked the winds,

Pursued the rainbow,

Begged the pure white clouds

(Which sailed unknown so proud)

To tell me if they saw

Him whom I’d just spied—

Whose One Face to see I’d tried

Midst bewitching, bewildering, diverse crowds

Of scenic faces.

And in joy I cried aloud,

“See Him hide

Beneath the beauty tide!”

 

Scenes Within

Paramahansaji wrote these verses while riding in a car through the countryside near Denver, Colorado.

(in Songs of the Soul by Paramahansa Yogananda, pg. 56)

Many a wondrous scenic face

Denver's horizon grand doth grace.

Yet when I think of the rarer beauties

That lie in human souls,

Rapture calls.

Eagerly I look;

Delving deep in valleys of human minds –

In all their sacred nooks.

Colossal mounts of nobility

I find, adorned with every goodly quality.

Marigolds, roses, pure white flowers

Of budding thoughts, their perfume wafting,

Attract me to their bowers.

The blue expanse of amity

Ripples with thrills of endless beauty.

From compassion's mountain-bosom,

Perpetual soul freshness, constant kind looks,

Flow down like brooks.

Founts of matchless love

Bubble forth in the heart

Of this soul-garden, and start

Endless sparkling fancies.

Yet in the land of souls

Blow various breezes;

One warms me, and another freezes.

Pure souls, vital souls,

Breathe living air in me –

To them my doors are open wide and free.

I open my eyes on passing mountain scenes,

Then close my lids

And race in mental aerial plane

To view again the unseen world of souls:

Cities loom, with passions all;

Liquid mazes of desires,

Deceiving mires;

Ego's dark, titanic chasms,

Where faith has never shone.

What lands pass I?

Whose kingdom see?

There, in the land of minds,

And there alone, I find

The real America, the living India;

The beauties and the barren tracts

Of nations all, of souls all.

Yet diverse though this kingdom be,

There lives here but One Reality.

Three thousand miles of land I traveled not,

But through three thousand miles of minds was brought.

I find writ

And well knit

In outer scenes –

Fields, gardens, cities, shops –

The thought vibrations of those myriad minds.

How oft men pass, unheeding, all the beauties

Of familiar paths, and sheltering trees;

In blindness they roam

In the garden of hearts.

In them I long to start

A vision new:

Of Beauty, eternal and true.