Debate Rises Over Plans for Religious Leader’s Shrine

Forty-seven years after his unusual death, the founder of a Los Angeles-based spiritual group may be coming home.

The question is, will Paramahansa Yogananda bring a crowd along with him if his remains are re-entombed in an elegant new marble sarcophagus atop Mt. Washington?

Those living in the neighborhood of single-family hilltop homes north of downtown are being advised by leaders of the Self-Realization Fellowship that they intend to place Yogananda’s remains in a shrine at the group’s Mt. Washington headquarters.

Construction of the shrine is planned as part of a controversial $40-million expansion of the religious sect’s San Rafael Avenue base.

A converted hotel atop the hill has served as headquarters for the nondenominational church, which teaches a blend of Eastern and Western philosophies, since Yogananda acquired it in 1925.

The expansion proposal has divided Mt. Washington residents. Some homeowners have organized a protest group to fight the project. They are opposed to earthmoving that the construction would require and to traffic problems they say would follow.

Residents complained last year that the group secretly planned to move Yogananda’s body to Mt. Washington, a move they said would draw visitors from around the world to the hilltop site.

Until now, however, fellowship officials had denied that any decision had been made about their founder’s remains.

Yogananda collapsed and died of a heart attack in 1952 while giving a speech at the Biltmore Hotel. At the time he was introducing India Ambassador Binay R. Sen, who was to receive an award from the fellowship.

Afterward, Yogananda was entombed in a mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.

Before the funeral, however, Forest Lawn manager Harry T. Rowe raised eyebrows by issuing a notarized letter to the fellowship that asserted that Yogananda’s body had not begun decomposing, even 20 days after his death.

“This state of perfect preservation of a body is, so far as we know from mortuary annals, an unparalleled one. . . . Yogananda’s body was apparently in a phenomenal state of immutability,” wrote Rowe, apparently at the request of the fellowship. “No odor of decay emanated from his body at any time.”

Fellowship leaders said Monday that they view that letter as evidence of Yogananda’s great soul.

They also denied that the re-entombment--tentatively scheduled for 2005 or 2006--will lead to more traffic congestion on Mt. Washington’s narrow residential streets.

A tally of visitors to Yogananda’s crypt at Forest Lawn suggests that five to eight cars a day travel there to pay homage to him, said Miles Hyde, a fellowship spokesman.

Hyde said the fellowship decided to announce the relocation plan now so it can be included in an environmental impact report being prepared as part of a review of the construction project by Los Angeles city officials. City leaders will be asked in early 2000 to issue a conditional use permit for the development, he said.

But Daniel Wright, president of the protest group, said opponents are skeptical of claims that Yogananda’s new tomb will not become a tourist attraction drawing thousands to the hilltop.

Charlie Rausch, a city planner who will be involved in reviewing the project, said officials intend to closely examine the traffic projections for Mt. Washington. Officials will also have to approve a cemetery designation for the site before the body can be moved there.

“Yes, this will be a very interesting case,” Rausch said.