106 Biography of a YogiRashid, true to his enthusiasm for promotion, soon encouraged Yogananda
to expand his campaign even further, pushing him to deliver his lectures across
the United States. A car was purchased and in 1924— accompanied by Rashid,
disciple Arthur Cometer, and another driver only known as Ralph— Yogananda
set out on a cross- continental lecture tour. Having traveled across the country,
Yogananda sailed to Alaska before returning to lecture in Seattle and Portland,
and proceeding down the California coast to Los Angeles. It was here that his
sights settled on a particularly attractive house at the top of Mt. Washington.
Yogananda developed a great fondness for Los Angeles, to which he famously
liked to refer as the “Benares of America,” and more generally claimed that “you
can practice yoga better in California than anywhere else on earth. The climate is
more conducive.”^37 The purchasing of the house on Mt. Washington was funded
by several separate contributions, some of which seemed to have magically mate-
rialized at the very last imaginable moment. After a bit of financial and legal
wrangling, Yogananda established the headquarters of his Yogoda Satsanga at
the Mt. Washington estate, which was officially inaugurated on October 25,
- After a brief sojourn at the newly established center, Yogananda departed
on another promotional lecture tour. Dhirananda, who had by this time com-
fortably established himself in the intellectual circles of Boston, was called upon
to drop everything to take up management of the establishment.
The “Ire of 200 Husbands” and the “Swami Row”
The first of the above headlines appeared on February 4, 1928, discretely tucked
away on page thirteen of the Los Angeles Times. In Florida, however, Yogananda
was making front- page news. In keeping with a persistent American nervous-
ness regarding the Yogi’s sexuality, Yogananda faced no shortage of accusations
regarding the nature of his teachings. One particularly illustrative— and well-
documented— incident occurred upon one of his returns to the East Coast fol-
lowing the establishment of the Mt. Washington center. Yogananda had been
scheduled to deliver a series of lectures in Miami. However, the first lecture
appears to have had an impact sensational enough to render any further arrange-
ments rather impossible.
Following a number of complaints, Yogananda was accused by the Miami
police of accepting thirty- five dollars each from some 200 women for private les-
sons in the secrets of his “mystic cult.” The newspapers overflowed with stories
of domestic conflict wrought by unruly wives insistent on attending Yogananda’s
lectures. A distressed son found his mother, who was subsequently hospitalized,
trying to walk on the Miami River because “Yogananda told her she could do
it.”^38 Impoverished women were allegedly borrowing thirty- five dollars just to