After we moved to Queens, Guru said that I should have a yoga centre in Manhattan also. That was not easy. Rents were high and the one nice place that I found refused to rent to a yoga group!
I finally found a loft on 30th St. which had two large rooms for classes and a room for someone to live in. It would have been perfect except that the building was not open all the time and the hours did not always fit the class schedule we would have liked. Pam, who was in charge of the new Centre, had a key, so she could get in whenever she needed to, but it was not always convenient for the students. It was also a long trip back to Queens for me, after teaching an evening class.
We had one truly memorable event there, however. On July 13, 1977, Guru inaugurated the studio as a Divine Enterprise, naming it Yoga-Life Perfection of New York. Guru meditated with us and gave a few talks which have since been published in his book Everest-Aspiration.
The inauguration evening is still remembered by many New Yorkers as the night the lights went out throughout the city. What better place to be with no lights than a yoga centre, with Guru and lots of candles!
We meditated some more, sang and listened to more stories while waiting for the lights to come on again, but they didn’t. After a few more hours we decided to make our way home. Fortunately there were enough cars to take us back to Queens, because the subways were not running. Of course there were also no street lights or traffic lights working, so good Samaritans stood in the crossings to help control traffic. Happy news was that everyone got home safely.
Reminiscences of that evening:
Pulak: Sarama was inspired to open a branch of Yoga-Life Perfection in Manhattan in 1976, and for some time thereafter focused her attention on that goal, which, of course, involved me in all aspects of the renovation of the space. She found a loft on 30th Street near Broadway in early 1977, and although I was working for the United Nations Development Programme at that time, I used to go to her future yoga studio after work and on weekends, along with a few other disciples, to clean, construct walls, and do other necessary tasks. I was particularly in charge of designing the circuitry and rewiring the studio. Sarama was personally in charge of coordinating all construction activities.
Finally the work was complete in July 1977, and it was just at this period that Guru was composing and delivering the talks which were later printed in Everest-Aspiration, which he considered to be one of his most significant books. Guru set July 13th as the inauguration date for the studio, and everything was made perfect in time for Guru’s arrival at around 9 PM.
Sarama showed Guru through the studio and then about 60-70 disciples went to the back meditation room. Guru began the meditation, and called Sarama to come to the front of the room, where he blessed her. Then he began delivering several of the Everest-Aspiration talks: You and Your Perfection, Yoga and Oneness, Hatha Yoga, Intuition, Perfection and If You Have, Then Come to Me. Remarkably, most of these talks were inspired by Sarama or her enterprises, as ‘Sarama’ means intuition, and her two enterprises were Yoga-Life Perfection and Intuition-Perfection.
In the middle of one of the talks, suddenly the lights went out and there was complete darkness. I was shocked into action and went to check the fuse-box, but I could not find any problem there. Then I went to the front window and saw that all the lights were out in every direction. Others confirmed my discovery. I later learned that there was a black-out across the entire north-eastern U.S.
Guru calmly asked Sarama if she had any candles, and Sarama brought out a bunch of candles and lit them, mainly around Guru, as he continued delivering his talks in an even more deeply spiritually charged atmosphere. After finishing the talks, Guru stayed for a while speaking casually and joking with Sarama and others, creating a warm, family feeling at the end of the evening.
Arpan: Guru inaugurated Yoga-Life Perfection on July 13th, 1977, during his Everest-Aspiration talk series.
Pulak had done the wiring in the studio, and suddenly the lights and air conditioner went out during the talks. At that time Pulak got scared because he thought it was his fault! He went to the breaker box, and all the fuses were good. Then, when we opened up all the windows because it was hot, we saw that all of Manhattan had gone out. Actually, half the East Coast had gone out in the biggest blackout we had had up to that time.
Guru had a battery-powered pen with a flashlight on one end and a fan on the other end. As soon as the lights went out, he turned on the flashlight and the fan. It was as if Guru knew it was going to happen. Then Adhiratha and I and a few others took some food trays and started fanning Guru with them.
