“How can you meet the world crisis that is coming? The best way is to adopt plain living and high thinking…
Choose a dwelling place that is adequate, but not larger than you really need, and if possible in an area where taxes and other living expenses are reasonable. Make your own clothes; can your own food. Grow your own vegetable garden, and if feasible, keep a few chickens to produce eggs. Work the garden yourself, or you will lose money in paying wages to a gardener. Keep life simple and enjoy what God has provided, without seeking false or expensive pleasures.
There is much in God’s hidden nature to fascinate the mind of man. Use your free time to read worthwhile books, meditate, and enjoy an uncomplicated life. Isn’t this better — simple living, fewer worries, and the time to seek God — than to have a huge house, two cars, and time payments and a mortgage you cannot meet?
Man has to go back to the land; it will come to pass eventually. If you think this isn’t so, you will find you are mistaken. But regardless of where your home and work are, cut out luxuries, buy less expensive clothes, supply yourself with things you really need, grow your own food, and put money aside regularly for greater security.”
-Paramahansa Yogananda, World Crisis (From SRF Website)
Vision
Our community vision is to develop a world brotherhood colony, a sanctuary for God and Guru’s devotees. A place where everything is together, business, social, spiritual, physical, and family, promoting a spiritually balanced and materially efficient life. We seek to build a colony that includes a large permanent chapel, multiple residential and retreatant districts, hiking trails, grow and store our own food, and fully sustainable energy. An ideal model of civilization.
“…little-group models of ideal civilizations must be started in every community for happy and peaceful living, with much meditation and much chivalry shown. These groups should be well balanced, financially secure, and they should exist always in high thinking and plain living.” (Yogananda, 1932)
Mission
To exemplify Master’s ideal of plain living and higher thinking.
To create affordable housing for devotees through the construction of cabins and other dwellings.
To cultivate an environment permeated with God’s Presence, in activity and in stillness.
To restore the land and re-establish the harmony between Man and Nature, exemplifying “Spirit and Nature dancing together”
Current Board Members
Michael Somers
President of LCC
Michael’s mother met Yogananda, the “Swami”, as a little girl when family friends would bake bread and take it to Mt. Washington. He studied at Southwestern Law School for one year where he was introduced to the Autobiography of a Yogi and began attending the Pasadena Temple. He applied to become a SRF monk and worked in the Garden Dept. at Mt. Washington. From 1980-1981 he was a postulant under Brother Premamoy. He later joined the SRF San Francisco Meditation Group in 2010, where he served on the Managing Council and as Coordinator.
Mashida Shabazz
Treasurer of LCC President of Cultivators of Light
Mashida found the path of SRF in the beginning of 2018 after a year of spiritual seeking through different paths. He began his discipleship through an inquisitive visit to Hidden Valley Ashram in February of 2018. It was there at HVA that Mashidas began to grow as a devotee taking Kriya Initiation in May of 2019. During Mashida’s two year stay at Hidden Valley Ashram he served in the Farm and Garden Dept. as the vegetable gardener and in his second year he became supervisor of the department.
Joshua Smith-Lunger
Secretary of LCC Vice-President of Cultivators of Light
Joshua grew up in an SRF family and attended SRF youth camps. Joshua lived in the Hidden Valley Ashram for a year and worked in the Kitchen department, becoming chef towards the end of his stay.