C. Set amidst landscaped grounds,
the stately church stands in a section of the city aptly called
"Friendship Heights." The Washington leader is Swami Premananda,
educated at the Ranchi school and Calcutta University. I had summoned
him in 1928 to assume leadership of the Washington Self-Realization
Fellowship center.
"Premananda," I told him during a visit to his new temple, "this
Eastern headquarters is a memorial in stone to your tireless
devotion. Here in the nation's capital you have held aloft the
light of Lahiri Mahasaya's ideals."
Premananda accompanied me from Washington for a brief visit to
the Self-Realization Fellowship center in Boston. What joy to see
again the KRIYA YOGA band who had remained steadfast since 1920!
The Boston leader, Dr. M. W. Lewis, lodged my companion and myself
in a modern, artistically decorated suite.
"Sir," Dr. Lewis said to me, smiling, "during your early years in
America you stayed in this city in a single room, without bath. I
wanted you to know that Boston possesses some luxurious apartments!"
The shadows of approaching carnage were lengthening over the world;
already the acute ear might hear the frightful drums of war. During
interviews with thousands in California, and through a world-wide
correspondence, I found that men and women were deeply searching
their hearts; the tragic outer insecurity had emphasized need for
the Eternal Anchorage.
"We have indeed learned the value of meditation," the leader of the
London Self-Realization Fellowship center wrote me in 1941, "and
know that nothing can disturb our inner peace.
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