Dear Devotees and Friends of Glendale Temple:
I hope you all had the opportunity to participate in our 2020 Virtual Convocation, which was such a remarkable historic event for our Guru’s family of SRF devotees and friends worldwide, bringing his soul-liberating teachings to thousands like never before. In the last few weeks we have received an unprecedented outpouring of emails and letters from appreciative devotees. We are including at the end of this newsletter a beautiful testimonial from a devoted couple who attends Glendale Temple, that I thought you might enjoy reading. And as many of you are probably aware, the Convocation classes, kirtans, and pilgrimage tours will be permanently available for viewing on our SRF website, to enable you to catch up on anything you missed or see some of the events again.
Let us take this opportunity to again express our heartfelt gratitude for your ongoing financial support, which is enabling us to cover essential expenses during this challenging time when the Temple is closed. One area where your donations have made a difference—originally we planned to defer the pruning of some of the beautiful trees at our Temple because of the financial uncertainties. However, this strategy creates some risk; if the limbs of trees become too heavy, there is always the possibility of a major limb breaking, and we naturally want to do whatever we can to preserve the structure and beauty of the wonderful specimens we have at the Temple, especially the large California Oaks and Sycamores. We are happy to let you know that with the support you have given in recent months, we have been able to move forward with the essential tree pruning and maintenance.
Brother Bhumananda
Minister in Charge, Glendale Temple
Within the next few days we will also be starting the installation of hands-free faucets in the Temple restrooms. And we are well into the roofing replacement project that we reported on in our previous newsletter (please see photos below). As can happen with these types of projects, when the old roofing was removed, we discovered that the plywood sheathing (covering) underneath was rotting and in much worse condition that we expected. To address this and maximize the life of the new roof, we have replaced all of the plywood, which added an additional $10,000 that was not in our budget to the cost of the project. Thankfully, the end result will be a good, durable roof that will protect the Temple’s structure for years to come.
If you would like to donate to help us with the roof project or other operating costs during this time of closure, please visit the Glendale Temple donations page and choose from the options provide. We are so grateful for your support.
Like many of you, I very much look forward to that time when it is safe for us to resume having in-person services and activities at our Temple. But please know that in the meantime, I keenly feel the divine friendship and united blessing that we all share as we seek God together, striving each day through these sacred teachings to anchor our hearts, minds, and souls in the Divine Beloved. Through your sincere spiritual efforts, your prayers, your financial support, you are making a very real and tangible contribution to helping the world.
In divine friendship,
Brother Bhumananda
Minister
SRF Glendale Temple
P.S. September 19th marks the exact date, 100 years ago, that our beloved guru, Paramahansa Yogananda landed in Boston to begin the dissemination of the Kriya Yoga teachings in the West and throughout the world. We hope you received notification about the special virtual events that are planned. We look forward to having you join us. Please visit https://yogananda.org/srfcentennial for details.
Photos of the Temple’s stone pine tree are shown above — with your help, the fallen limb was removed and the tree was pruned and thinned to strengthen its structure and prevent future breakages.
The part of the roof marked in red in the photo above shows the area of roofing that will be removed and replaced.
Here is a portion of the leaky rock roof that is scheduled for replacement. A new roof will provide our building with protection against the rain for many years.
The following testimonial was received from a devoted couple who have been faithful members of Glendale Temple for many years:
The first virtual Convocation on this Centennial Year was the best Convocation ever in our experience….
The entire Convocation was such a blessed experience. We did not miss a single program. The virtual pilgrimages brought tears to our eyes. They are so beautifully done with so much love, devotion and Master’s blessings. We were thinking of the devotees around the world, who never had a chance to visit those sacred places. How touched and grateful they must be.
Like Brother Chidananda said, we feel transformed this week and we will carry on forward with our renewed understanding of the techniques and spiritual rigor in our daily Sadhana and Bhakti towards God and Gurudev!
P.S. Yes, we feel truly blessed by our Gurus during these uncertain times. It is truly a blessing for all SRF devotees around the world to have access to review the convocation programs even after the convocation. We plan to re-watch the programs including Kirtan/meditation sessions from time to time to help us go deeper in our spiritual Sadhana.
