For many years Latika was a financial coordinator for Ananda Sangha, a position that gave her unique insights on how Ananda’s businesses are run. She now works for the Sangha as a fundraiser. (Photo: 1998)
Q: What were the particular interests that led you to your present position?
Latika: Before I came to Ananda I worked for the federal government, in the National Institutes for Health. I acquired a certain financial acumen over my years there, then I had a string of jobs at Ananda, all of which were dealing with finances. I worked for Sharing Nature With Children Foundation, Crystal Clarity Publishers, The Expanding Light, and the Mountain Song women’s clothing and gift store that Ananda formerly owned in Nevada City. My experience with business grew organically – it wasn’t that I came here with any particular expertise, but over the years I was able to gather experience.
Q: Has it been interesting for you to see how business gets done at Ananda?
Latika: Yes, although I really didn’t have anything to compare it with. The federal agency where I worked had some good aspects – many of the lobbyists were interested in what the organization was doing, and I got to see the influence that politics can have on budget decisions and allocations. It was very a different system from Ananda, where decisions tend to be made by consensus rather than through a hierarchy of political processes. Everything here is usually out on the table – “Here are our choices, and this is what we’d like to do.”
Q: I sat in on a meeting that was attended by all of the business planners at Ananda Village. I was amazed to see how smoothly the process worked. There were perhaps twenty major decisions to be made, and they were handled with an efficiency and harmony that would be rare anywhere else.
Latika: We tend to agree on the goals we’re trying to achieve. We’re concerned not just with a particular project, but very much with how we’re working together. We all want to work harmoniously and in a consensual manner, and everybody has that in mind when they walk into a meeting.
They’re looking for how to communicate clearly without pushing people’s buttons and creating tension. Harmony has a high priority for us in our daily lives. It’s a big one, and we work on it as a team. The Ananda manager, Vidura, is particularly skilled at generating that harmonious energy.
We tend to switch jobs a lot, and it creates a sense of sharing, because we’ve all had many of the same experiences, so you don’t find a feeling of competition between the various departments. Everybody’s trying to find a way to meet our shared goals in a way that will work for all of the actors. We have all the usual legal, financial, and resource considerations, but the top item on the agenda is always that we have a common goal.
We’re here to build Yogananda’s work, and our businesses are connected with that mission, in the sense that they provide places where people can work on their spiritual growth while they’re also providing financial support for the church. Our goal is to make the businesses pleasant and successful places for people to work.
What I see that’s unique here is an expansive consciousness. It will sometimes feel like our mandate is to do something incredibly expansive, and it may be completely beyond what we can manage with our present financial resources, yet we may feel it’s the right thing to do. A good example is the Paramhansa Yogananda museum at Crystal Hermitage. Swami Kriyananda had always wanted to build a Yogananda museum because we had lots of artifacts from Yogananda’s life, and it seemed we were being given the message, “You’re receiving all these things, and what are you going to do with them?”
At first we had them in a little room at the hermitage, but it wasn’t big enough so the museum project came to be seen as a mandate. Our finances were somewhat strained at the time, so we started thinking of ways to make it happen regardless, and we started by finding ways to work with the Ananda Builders’ Guild to keep the costs down.
Q: How did it turn out?
Latika: It came out slightly over cost, which is typical for a construction project, because halfway through you’ll get new ideas, “Oh, if we could only do this.” So, for example, we spent a little more on the entrance than we’d planned.
Q: Start building and find the money – is that “superconscious financing?”
Latika: [Laughs.] Yes, we didn’t know where the money would come from, but very soon after we made the decision to go ahead and build we got a donation that was directed toward the museum, plus some money from a member who died and left his estate to the church. And also after we decided to go ahead and build, we started getting even more Yogananda relics.
Q: Would you care to share with your fellow business people a handy ten-step process for how to make that kind of thing happen?
Latika: [Laughs.] I don’t know. I think it has a lot to do with just being spiritually open and expansive. Vidura is a very good example of that. Well, of course Swamiji’s the prime example. There have been so many times when he would decide to do a project, and then the money would come in. He tells many stories in The Path: My Life with Paramhansa Yogananda, of how that would happen. Vidura is a bit more practical-minded. Swami doesn’t worry too much about the details, where Vidura will keep them in mind.
Basically, it’s a consciousness that the universe will provide if it’s the right thing to do. So you put out energy to find out if it’s the right thing, and if you keep getting “Yes…Yes…Yes,” you begin to feel that you can move forward. Then you look for the practical solutions, and it’s like creating a vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum, and when you create a spiritually legitimate need for money, the money flows in.
Q: If it’s a good project and everybody’s energy is right?
Latika: Yes, and it depends on consensus. If we aren’t all in it together, and if everybody isn’t feeling that it’s an appropriate and good thing to do, it can detract from the energy that’s pulling in the money.
Q: Maybe God says “Hmm, looks like there’s a block here. Uh‑oh, might not work.”
Latika: Yes, something like that, or there’s a sense of disharmony that’s creating a tension, or not everybody has a hundred-percent attunement with the idea because there’s some disagreement in the background. I think attunement is real important.
Q: Have you seen a project where there’s been that feeling of disharmony, and the disharmony has been addressed and worked out?
Latika: It’s hard to think of one here at Ananda. Lots of projects where the energy doesn’t feel right will simply get shelved. Rajarsi Park is a good example. [Rajarsi Park is a business complex at Ananda Village, named after Paramhansa Yogananda’schief disciple, Rajarsi Janakananda, who was a successful businessman.]
It got shelved for awhile, because there wasn’t a sense that everybody was clearly feeling that we should proceed. So those who were in favor said, “Let’s hold back until we all feel clear about it.”
Q: The feeling of consensus was sufficiently important that they decided to delay the project?
Latika: Yes. There were some definite financial considerations as well. There didn’t seem to be the opportunity to create the right kind of creative financial vacuum just then. Maybe that’s where the dissension came from, or from a sense of not everybody being in the same boat.
Some people felt that it wasn’t a good time to test the universe, because there were so many other things going on. They felt that we might be more successful if we waited for a future time when those other projects had cleared out to a degree.
There can be so many ideas that people begin to feel overwhelmed. It happens sometimes in this area of the community, where there’s lots to be accomplished, yet we’re limited in the number of people who have the energy to work on all the projects. Sometimes you feel that it’s a great idea, but we’ve got X, Y and Z to do right now, so we’ll have to shelve it until later.
The quality of energy is very important, so that you’re willing to wait until everybody can feel enthusiastic, supportive, and able to cope and be involved and committed.
Q: Various people have said that dealing with you is a harmonious experience because you don’t get flustered when they ask you for money. [Latika laughs.] And that leads into an area of personal attitudes – how do you feel about your job, and how do you deal with the pressures?
Latika: I always try to keep in mind Swami’s guiding principle that people are more important than things. I see my role as a service. I’m not necessarily here to accomplish specific projects, but to make sure people are getting what they need to accomplish their goals. When somebody comes in and asks me for a check, I don’t necessarily think of all the details. I’ll think of how I can get the person the check, and I’ll work out the details later.
It has to do with experience, of course, and knowing that there’s always a way to work it out. Obviously, if the person’s asking for money that isn’t there, it’s a different story, but I think mostly it comes from experience, and staying mindful of why we’re here. I’m not here for my own convenience, or to write checks when I feel like it, I’m here to write checks when they’re needed, as a service and support.
I think that’s what administration is meant to be everywhere. Certainly it was the role I saw in the government agency I worked for. The administration was a relatively small portion, because the agency’s primary mission was scientific research. You obviously need some administrators, because scientists are notoriously bad at that role, but the principal idea was to minimize the bureaucracy so that maximum funds could be put into research. It was good training for coming to Ananda, because we’re totally committed to what we’re doing, and not just to creating a bureaucratic hierarchy and a class of people who are pushing paper.
It’s a liberating way of viewing your work, because you feel that you’re part of the project. Even if you aren’t in the lab doing research, or you’re not a minister going out on the road, you have a direct link to the person who’s on the front lines and you’re constantly supporting them. Even if you’re basically just pushing paper, you can feel that you’re connected to the mission.
Q: Does the feeling of being part of the whole also come from being in an organization where all of you are friends?
Latika: Yes, there’s no up or down, and it also comes from good communication. The federal agency where I worked was exceptional because it had such a clear humanitarian mission – biomedical research helps everybody. Understanding how the body works, how illness works, that’s a positive goal that everybody agrees on. And it’s the same here. We have a common goal, unlike businesses where people may have different agendas.
Q: Do you feel that in the broader picture God is running the show?
Latika: Yes, and that’s another consideration for being able to avoid getting flustered and remain harmonious. There’s a lot less fear than you would find in many businesses, where people are scared to step out and make mistakes because they might get punished or they’ll lose their job, lose face, or whatever.
Here, there isn’t that sense, and people are more willing to take risks and speak out and try new things, individually or as a group, because there’s a sense that we’ll be guided in the right direction, and even if we make a mistake it will turn out all right as long as our intent and our energy are pure.
That’s a big help, because fear is a major motivator or demotivator. Fear drives people in the business world to do or not do lots of things.
Here, there’s not a sense of anybody’s job being more important than another. We really do work as a team. In part, it’s because we have a great group of people who enjoy working together and who embody the spirit of God, an expansive spirit of honoring other people’s needs and working harmoniously together. I feel very fortunate to be here.