Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine |
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Main Temple of the Lake Shrine
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| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Self-Realization Fellowship |
| Status | Temple and Retreat Center |
| Location | |
| Location |
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| Architecture | |
| Architectural style | Combination of Eastern and Western |
| Founder | Paramahansa Yogananda |
| Completed | 1996 |
| Specifications | |
| Capacity | 400 (sanctuary seating) |
| Height (max) | 58 feet (18 m) |
| Site area | 4,000 square feet (370 m2) |
| Materials | concrete, stained glass, wood, and ceramic tile |
| Website | |
| lakeshrine.org | |
The Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine is a beautiful and peaceful place in Pacific Palisades, California. It's just a short distance from the Pacific Ocean. Paramahansa Yogananda started and opened it on August 20, 1950. The Self-Realization Fellowship owns this special spot.
The site is about 10-acre (40,000 m2) big. It has lovely gardens and a large lake fed by natural springs. The lake is surrounded by hillsides and is home to many plants and animals. You can see swans, ducks, koi fish, turtles, and beautiful lotus flowers here. It's a natural outdoor theater, and thousands of people visit every year.
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What Can You See at Lake Shrine?
The visitor center has lots of information about the Lake Shrine. As you explore, you'll find pretty waterfalls, fountains, and colorful flower beds. White swans glide across the lake, and there are shady fern grottos and lily ponds.
There's also a unique Dutch windmill that serves as a chapel. The Court of Religions honors five major world religions. It shows their symbols: a cross for Christianity, a Star of David for Judaism, a Wheel of Law for Buddhism, a crescent moon and star for Islam, and the Om symbol for Hinduism. Yogananda believed that all faiths share a common truth that brings people together. You'll also see statues of Krishna and other Hindu gods. There's a life-size statue of Jesus Christ above a waterfall, plus statues of Francis of Assisi and the Madonna and Child.
A tall, white arch with blue tiles and gold lotus flowers is called the golden lotus archway. You can see it from almost anywhere on the grounds. This archway frames the Mahatma Gandhi World Peace Memorial. This outdoor shrine holds a part of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes inside a 1,000-year-old Chinese stone box.
The gardens have small brick paths and short stairways. These lead from the main trail to quiet spots where you can meditate or just sit and enjoy the view. There's a gift shop next to a museum about Paramahansa Yogananda. The gift shop sells arts and crafts from India. You can also find a houseboat, a bookstore, and a temple that looks out over the lake.
History of the Lake Shrine
The land where the Lake Shrine now sits was once part of a large 460-acre (1.9 km2) property called Bison Ranch. This was in the Santa Ynez Canyon. In 1912, a silent film producer named Thomas H. Ince bought the land to build his movie studio. It was first known as the Miller 101 Bison Ranch studio, then Inceville, and later Triangle Ranch.
After Ince moved his studio in 1915, director William S. Hart took over the site. It was renamed Hartville. Fires often broke out at the studio, destroying many of the wooden buildings. In 1920, Hart sold the property. Filming continued there until a big fire in 1922 destroyed almost all the remaining buildings. Only an old stone church was left.
For a while, the property was used as a sand and gravel quarry. Later, a real estate leader from Los Angeles, Alphonzo Bell Sr., bought it. In 1927, they tried to level the canyon for building. But the project was never finished. This left a large basin that filled with water from four natural springs. This 2.5-acre water body (10,000 m2) became known as Lake Santa Ynez. It is the only natural spring-fed lake in Los Angeles.
The property remained empty for over ten years. The lake became a local swimming spot, hidden by tall cattails and reeds. Many people thought the land was just a useless swamp. But in 1940, H. Everett "Big Mac" McElroy bought it. He was an assistant superintendent at 20th Century Studio. He saw the potential for a beautiful place.
There is no doubt that we were labeled as crazy. But looking up at the bowl surrounding my mudhole, I could see terraces of trees - all kinds of trees, maybe five-hundred tropical and otherwise. I could see banks of flowers and shrubs and a path meandering around the lake, with cutaways into the bank for tree ferns and hanging baskets of fuchsias and begonias and mossy green rock plants. I was itching to build rockeries and put in rustic wooden bridges and a giant waterwheel that would act in conjunction with a pump as irrigation through a pipe-laid water system over the entire project.
McElroy cleaned out the lake and removed the weeds. He and his wife lived in different homes on the property. First, they lived in a two-story Mississippi-style houseboat called Adeline. Then, McElroy built a mill house, which is now the gift shop and museum. It had a large 15 ft (4.6 m) water wheel for irrigation. He also built a replica of a 16th-century Dutch windmill, which became the first chapel of the Lake Shrine. The windmill worked, but it was never used.
In 1948, the McElroys sold the property to Rene Williams and Joseph M. Gross. Mr. Gross and his wife moved into the windmill. They planned to turn the site into a resort with a large hotel. However, Mr. Gross had a dream three times. In his dream, there was a platform in the middle of the lake. Ministers from "churches of all religions" spoke to thousands of people there.
When Mr. Gross woke up, he looked up "Church of All Religions" in the phone book. He found the Self-Realization Fellowship Church of All Religions in Hollywood. He wrote a letter describing his dream and offering to sell his property. The next day, he called the church. Paramahansa Yogananda answered and seemed to know why he was calling. Yogananda visited the site and immediately planned to create an open-air shrine for all religions. With help from others, he bought the property in 1949. He then built a temple, a meditation garden, and the Mahatma Gandhi peace memorial.
During the improvements, Yogananda often traveled from his hermitage to oversee the project. He wanted to create a peaceful and beautiful place that showed all aspects of God. He also blessed all future visitors to the Lake Shrine. The Lake Shrine officially opened to the public on August 20, 1950. Many important people attended, and ten thousand people visited in the first eight months.
Yogananda said the location reminded him of Kashmir. In his book, Autobiography of a Yogi, he described the plants and features:
Guadalupe palms and Chinese rice-paper trees adorn the lake shores and other parts of the grounds, as well as mango, papaya, guava, cherimoya, fig, pepino, banana, and rose-apple trees. Much of the landscaping, the rockwork, and the plantings of trees, shrubs, and flowers are the loving handiwork of SRF residential disciples. Pilgrims to the SRF Lake Shrine walk over small bridges, under archways of tropical trees, and through paths bordered by exquisite exotic flowers. . . A quaint three-story brick structure on the grounds is a replica of a Dutch windmill house. Its courtyard garden is the site of an SRF Cafe. A fragrant area of ginger plants, bamboos, and cacti leads to a sumac-shaded meditation-seat, a natural formation of coral stone from the Salton Sea.
On March 6, 1952, the day before he passed away, Paramahansa Yogananda had a special "Last Supper" with a group of monks. He chanted "Light the Lamp of Thy Love" for over an hour while playing the organ.
Over the years, many improvements have been made. A main temple was built overlooking the lake in 1996. An ashram (monastery) for monks was built in 1997. The adjoining property was purchased in 1998. A steel structure and copper roof were added to the Gandhi peace memorial in 2002. The Court of Religions and entrance gate were renovated in 2003, and the houseboat in 2007. The Windmill Chapel was restored in 2015.
Special Features
Mahatma Gandhi World Peace Memorial
The Lake Shrine is home to the Mahatma Gandhi World Peace Memorial. Paramahansa Yogananda designed it as a "wall-less temple." It honors Mahatma Gandhi, who led India to freedom using nonviolent methods.
Along the southern shore of the lake, there's a golden lotus archway. It has a large golden top shaped like an oval, with two big lotus flowers. The main part of the memorial is a 1,000-year-old stone box from China. Inside this box, a part of Gandhi's ashes is kept in a brass and silver container. Two statues of Guanyin stand next to the stone box.
Gandhi's ashes were sent to Yogananda by a friend, Dr. V.M. Nawle, from Pune, India. Dr. Nawle wrote:
Regarding Gandhi ashes, I may say that they are scattered and thrown in almost all the important rivers and seas, and nothing is given outside India except the remains which I have sent to you after a great ordeal ... You are the only one in the whole world who received Gandhi ashes outside India.
Windmill Chapel
The previous owners, the McElroys, built a real-looking copy of a 16th-century Dutch windmill. Even though the mill was never used for grinding, its sails can turn in the wind. Yogananda turned this windmill into a chapel. Meditations and services were held here. Until the new temple was built in 1996, the windmill chapel was the main place for all services at the Lake Shrine. It was made bigger twice to fit more people.
The chapel had to close in 2013 because of weather damage, termites, and the 1994 Northridge earthquake. During repairs, workers found that the windmill tower was not strongly connected to the lower part. This made it unsafe in earthquakes. So, the restoration became a big engineering project. For almost two years, the inside and outside of the building were carefully kept looking like the original. SRF monks with building skills helped with the project, which was paid for by donations.
To make it stronger, two 18 ft (5.5 m) long steel beams were put in. These beams connect the tower to the outer walls, spreading the weight. About six years before the windmill repair, SRF staff bought some rare old growth redwood beams. This wood was used to build the 20 ft (6.1 m) long windmill sails, the fascia, and other outside parts. This wood is very strong against weather and termites. It is expected to last for hundreds of years.
Other improvements included fixing or replacing all the roofs. Hidden steel supports were added to prevent earthquake damage. The original windmill sails, window frames, and skylight were carefully remade. The tiles on the windmill tower were removed, numbered, and put back in the same order after repairs. The furnace, gas lines, and access for people with disabilities were also updated. The surrounding gardens, electrical, security, audio, and fire alarm systems were improved too. The chapel reopened on July 27, 2015, with a special ceremony.
Lake, Waterfalls, and Animals
Lake Santa Ynez is about 15 feet (4.6 m) deep on average. It is fed by two waterfalls. One waterfall drops about 25 feet (7.6 m), and another series of waterfalls drops about 10 feet (3.0 m).
Yogananda, whose title Paramahansa means supreme or highest swan, encouraged swans to live at the Lake Shrine. You can see their large nests there. Brother Anandamoy once said that when he was a minister at the Lake Shrine, they had three pairs of swans: one white, one black, and one white with a black neck. Even though the lake was big enough, the swans fought. They had to be separated by dividing the lake into three sections. Anandamoy explained that swans are like people. If one group wants everything, there will be conflict. If people follow God's laws, overcome selfishness, and care for everyone, we will eventually have peace.
See also
In Spanish: Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine para niños
- Encinitas Gardens of Self Realization Fellowship Hermitage
