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an Francisco has always been America’s hinge to the East, serving as both a pri- Amary port of embarkation to what we once called the mysterious Orient and as the entry point for immigrants, from the Chinese laborers who helped build the transcontinental railroad to the Indian engineers who helped

create Silicon Valley. But far more impor- C tant than the muscle and the brain power we M imported, or the cuisines and the art forms, has been the spiritual wisdom. It was largely Y

through the digestive tract of the Bay Area that CM the great teachings that derive from ancient MY India have been absorbed, assimilated, and disseminated into the nation’s bloodstream. CY

Swami Vivekananda, the fi rst Asian emis- CMY

sary to break through a religious landscape K dominated by Protestants, visited the Bay Area in 1900. ! is was seven years after he famously stole the show at the World’s Par- liament of Religions in Chicago, a time when mi Sivananda and . Rite Auditorium. His topics were “Supercon- most Americans hadn’t even met a Catholic , one of the early proponents of sciousness,” “Scientifi c Healing,” and “! e or a Jew. He spent three months here, lectur- hatha for physical health, created an in- Scientifi c Techniques of Concentration and ing to thousands about the universal spiritual stitute in San Francisco, spending 1919 to 1924 .” He returned several times dur- science of and establishing a chapter teaching and conducting research in the U.S. ing the 1930s and 1940s, lecturing at the Ma- of his Vedanta Society. Six years later, the so- ! e remarkable career of America’s fi rst sonic Auditorium and elsewhere. He was also ciety moved into a large Victorian on Web- “om-grown” yoga teacher, , also a delegate to the meetings at which the United ster and Filbert, which was long referred to began in San Francisco. A Midwesterner by Nations charter was developed in 1945. ! e fa- by tour guides as “the oldest Hindu temple in birth, his real name was either Perry Baker or mous photo of Yogananda on the cover of his America.” For decades, the center was one of Peter Coon, and he set up his “Tantrik Yoga” iconic memoir, Autobiography of a Yogi, was the prime disseminators of the Vedic legacy in shop in the fi rst decade of the 20th century. He taken at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel. America, and it continues its work in new fa- taught here for several years before being ar- In the 1950s, while much of the country cilities on Vallejo Street. rested on morals charges and moving to New was living the Ozzie and Harriet life, the Bay In the early years of the 20th century, several York, where he thrived—despite continual Area caught fi re with the art, poetry, and cut- Indian teachers made brief appearances in the controversy—as a teacher to the hoi polloi. ting-edge ideas that gave rise to the so-called Bay Area, attracting small numbers of follow- One of the most important spiritual teach- San Francisco Renaissance. Eastern philoso- ers before returning to their homeland. ers to reach American shores made the fi rst of phy played a major role. Among the key play- Rama Tirtha, for example, was here between several appearances in the Bay Area in 1924. ers were the founding parents of San Francisco 1902 and 1904. A mathematics professor- Paramahansa Yogananda, having already tri- yoga, Walt and Magaña Baptiste. ! e couple— turned-monk who called his message “practi- umphed in other cities across the nation, lec- he a champion bodybuilder, she a well-known cal Vedanta” and “a religion without a name,” tured fi rst at Berkeley’s Shattuck Hotel, then dancer, both eager students of Indian spirituali- his writings inspired future notables like Swa- crossed the bay for three talks at the Scottish ty—opened the city’s fi rst yoga studio. ! is may

" ;/G  sound hard to believe when there are yoga classes on virtually ANUSARA STUDIO & SPA every block, but for a long time the Baptistes’ WAH! IN CONCERT center was the only !"#$%&%%'(%)$*+$,$- game in town. ! ey not only trained fu- ture yoga leaders such as Rama Jyoti Vernon, but also hosted a num- ber of masters on their initial visits to the U.S. Some of their guests— Maharishi Mahesh HEART OF DEVOTION WORKSHOP Yogi, eight years before ;OUOƒOZSTbO\REOZb`WUVb0O^bWabS]^S\SRAO\4`O\QWaQ]¸a ./01%(*/21#3%432 the Beatles made him ¿`abg]UOabcRW]W\ '##aV]e\VS`SeWbV3RAcZZWdO\ !"#$%56%%7/*20%8#/03*/3#%8#/9$*23,/20% famous, and Swami :1"*;1<%=3#%7*3#;/2;> Vishnu-Devananda, founder of the Sivananda functioning Cultural Integration Fellowship Yoga-Vedanta centers—went on to have a tre- across the street from Golden Gate Park on mendous impact. ! e Baptistes’ children carry Fulton. Dr. Chaudhuri was sent by Sri Aurob- on the family legacy to this day, with daughter indo himself to join the startup faculty of the Sherri in Marin County playing a leading role in American Academy of Asian Studies (AAAS). the local yoga explosion. Another member of that faculty was the leg- One of the most important fi gures in the endary , the witty, provocative development of Bay Area was a philosopher who became synonymous with giant of India who never set foot in America cool East-West erudition. Watts was prob- THE WAY OF LOVE: WORKSHOP and died in 1950. , whose blend ably the main reason AAAS drew crowds of ./01%=/3##3%=1$*?3#%3#@%)/,,%A31>#- of Vedantic philosophy and modern scien- Bay Area hipsters, such as the Beat poets, to tifi c insights remains a marvel of intellectual its events. ! e Beats, of course, infused their !"#$%56%B%55% prowess, has impacted millions who never poetry with Eastern perspectives, in particu- %'(%=3#%7*3#;/2;>%B%)$*+$,$-% heard his name. In a sense, that includes any- lar a Zen sensibility garnered from Watts and one who has ever taken a workshop at Esalen. Shunryu Suzuki, who arrived here in 1959 and ! at’s because Esalen cofounder Michael gave us the San Francisco Zen Center, along Murphy was inspired by his reading of Sri with Green Gulch and Tassajara (not to men- Aurobindo and his sojourn at the Aurobindo tion the classic Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind). in South India to create an institute Watts, of course, went on to become a leading that combines the best of East and West to interpreter of Asian spirituality, and his books, explore the higher reaches of human poten- lectures, and recordings continue to illuminate ANUSARA TEACHER TRAINING tial. Esalen has been doing that for nearly 60 long after his passing. years now, and some of its earliest presenters In fact, all the Eastern streams and tributar- ./01%(30;1/$%C#3#@3 were progressive thinkers who advanced our ies that fl owed forth from the postwar Bay Area )$D/#2%!"#$%5E%%'(%=3#%7*3#;/2;> understanding of human development: Hus- continue to irrigate the American soul today. ton Smith, Joseph Campbell, , and ! ey also led directly to the maelstrom known importantly, Abraham Maslow and other pio- as ! e Sixties. ! at epoch, as anyone who lived neers of psychology who made the Bay Area it will recall, was suff used with India, from the the fulcrum of the revolution that gave us hu- colorful fabrics that adorned beds and bodies, manistic and transpersonal psychologies. ! e to the sitar sounds that infused rock concerts gauntlet was thrown down at Grace Cathe- and albums, to the fertile ideas about con- dral on January 6, 1966, when Maslow gave sciousness, self, and cosmos that reverberated a lecture titled “Toward a Psychology of Re- from campuses to happenings to crash pads ’s Premier Anusara Yoga Studios ligious Awareness.” It is no coincidence that and beyond. Come 1967, it all exploded: at the the institutions most responsible for integrat- “-Rock Dance” at the Avalon Ballroom; YK San Francisco YK Berkeley ing psychology and spirituality are in the Bay in Golden Gate Park at the legendary Human F6F63%5G01%=0*$$0 5K66%=1300";+%C9$I Area: JFK University, Saybrook, the Institute Be-in; at the Monterey Pop Festival, when Ravi &5HIJF&I6666 H56I&EGI6LG& of Transpersonal Psychology, and the Califor- Shankar (the sitar virtuoso, not the currently 2008 BEST YOGA STUDIO nia Institute of Integral Studies. popular ) entered the ferment of super- - SF WEEKLY CIIS, it should be noted, was founded (un- stars with a mind-boggling denouement; and www.YogaKula.com der an earlier name) by the philosopher Hari- throughout the Summer of Love, when the das Chaudhuri, who also established the still- Mahamantra was part of the sound-

$ ;/G  track. ! at August, when the Beatles took up Transcendental Meditation, words like mantra and guru entered the vocabulary, and the TM center in Berkeley had lines around the block. As meditation, yoga, and Eastern spirituality in general moved inexorably from the counter- culture into the mainstream, the Bay Area con- tinued to be a focal point of its dissemination. © Steve Uzzell 2009, All rights reserved Virtually every important guru and lineage had a presence here, from Swami Satchidananda’s Institute on Dolores, to the Si- Conscious Living Workshops vananda yoga center, to Swami Mutkananda’s Come with an Open Mind. Leave with an Open Heart. ashram in Oakland, to the Inter- national Society for Krishna Consciousness, to Just Write: An Early Horses, Somatics, and lesser-known locals such as Eknath Easwaran in Summer Writer’s Retreat Spirit: An Equine-Guided Berkeley and Haridas Baba at Mount Madonna. June 3—5, 2011 Program in Conscious Living ! e famous and infamous of the ’70s—Rajneesh, Cathy Coleman, PhD August 19—21, 2011 , Guru Maharaj ji (the “13-year- Beverley Kane, MD old perfect master”), and others—all left their Eating with Reverence: & Ariana Strozzi, MSC marks on the area, as did the inno- Food for the Soul vators B.K.S. Iyengar and Pathabi Jois and vari- Vision Quest: Journey to ous Americans who became Vedic transmitters July 8—10, 2011 Self Through Connection in their own right, from Stephen Gaskin of the Shannon Kring Buset with Nature famous Monday Night Classes at the Family August 26—28, 2011 Dog; to the guru who was born Franklin Jones, Cells and the Sacred: became Bubba Free John, and died as Adi Da Molecules and Meaning Nancy Feehan Samraj; to the most famous native-born teacher July 8—10, 2011 Getting the Love You of all, Ram Dass, whose seminal Be Here Now Sondra Barrett, PhD Want: A Spiritual Path for probably enjoyed more readership per capita Couples between Sonoma and Carmel than anywhere Instructor Training for December 9—11, 2011 else on the planet. ! e transmission continues the Foundations of Harville Hendrix, PhD to this day, of course, with yoga centers more Worldview Literacy plentiful than Peet’s cafes, live kirtan easier to & Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD fi nd than live jazz, the U.S. headquarters of the August 3—7, 2011 renowned South Indian spiritual leader and hu- Marilyn Schlitz, PhD Create a World That Works: manitarian Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma) Katia Petersen, PhD Becoming a Presence That down the road in San Ramon, and Spirit Rock Ken Homer & Transforms up the road in Marin. Cassandra Vieten, PhD January 20—22, 2012 For centuries, Californians stood on the Alan Seale, PCC, MSC Golden Gate bluff s and dreamed of Asia. As far back as Walt Whitman and Mark Twain, our literary masters imagined India as the birth- place of spiritual genius. “Land of religions, cradle of human race, birthplace of human speech, grandmother of legend, great-grand- mother of tradition,” Twain called it. In time, the shrinking of the globe brought the Eastern sages to us, transforming the way Americans understand ourselves and our place in the uni- verse. We are bigger than we once were, and we reach higher and deeper than we once did, thanks in large part to the Bay Area’s role in that great East-to-West transmission. EarthRise Retreat Center is located on 194 Philip Goldberg is a spiritual counselor acres of scenic rolling hills 25 miles north of and the author of many books, including San Francisco. his latest, American Veda: From Emerson Continuing Education Credits available for and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, most workshops. How Indian Spirituality Changed the West. Institute of Noetic Sciences AmericanVeda.com 101 San Antonio Road, Petaluma, CA 94952 EarthRiseIONS.org

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