Meeting the quiet enlightened yogi of Lakemont, Georgia
When I say the words “spiritual guru,” you may think of the Buddha, or the Dalai Lama, or Mother Theresa, or another saint that resonates with your culture and your faith. When I tell you that I’ve met a spiritual guru, you may think that I went to an exotic land, to a hidden temple, and met a mystical figure in a robe.
Instead I went to Lakemont, a tranquil village in the rural Georgia mountains, to the Center for Spiritual Awareness, and met Roy Eugene Davis. Roy Eugene Davis is not a household name, because as enlightened yoga masters go, he kept a pretty low profile, and he only wore his robe for special occasions.
This part of the story overlaps with Part 1 (which is about how I got into the physical part of yoga) and kicks off when I was 30 years old, a year home from the Peace Corps and freshly graduated from yoga teacher training. It’s often said that graduations are new beginnings, and that was true for me. Where does my yoga story pick up next? I’m going to take you to Lakemont where I met Roy and got introduced to meditation and Kriya yoga. But first, I’ve got to tell you about the book that changed my life.
Autobiography of a Yogi and Kriya Yoga
As a graduation present, my now-husband-then-boyfriend Monty gave me a book, Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda.
A little bit about this book: It’s been in print since 1946; it’s been translated into 50 or more languages; and it’s sold at least 4 million copies. In it, Yogananda described his childhood, spiritual education/evolution, and global mission to help mankind through Kriya yoga.
Kriya is a Sanskrit word for action, and Kriya yoga is a concentrated action plan for complete spiritual enlightenment. Complete spiritual enlightenment sounds like a big deal, and it is: It means we are always aware of ourselves as spiritual beings, unlimited by the physical body or mental and emotional conditionings. One famous follower of Kriya yoga was Steve Jobs. From his teenage years on, he read Autobiography every year until his death. It was the only book on his iPad. He arranged to give a copy of the book to each person at his funeral.
Monty gave me this book. It was the iconic orange paperback edition. Like Steve Jobs, Monty was introduced to Autobiography as a teenager. Unlike Steve Jobs (as far as I know), Monty had the good fortune to meet Yogananda’s direct disciple Roy Eugene Davis, who lived and taught in the north Georgia mountains. Monty suggested that I read the book and go meet Roy.*
Before I go any further, let me put your mind at ease about the word disciple. If you’ve never been around an enlightened master (as I certainly hadn’t!), it might sound cult-like or otherwise worrisome. You’re probably familiar with the word disciple from the Bible. Disciple comes from the Latin word discipulus meaning “student.” A dedicated disciple of any spiritual path respects the teacher and teachings and puts what is learned into practice. Roy was about the most low-key, introverted guru you could imagine, in that he wasn’t looking for followers or fame, so there was not any ego or cult involved in having disciples/students.
*Many people will only refer to Roy Eugene Davis using his full name, or as Mr. Davis, or Guruji. I intend no disrespect. It’s just that at home, we always call him Roy, as I do in my mind and heart.
Besides finishing up yoga teacher training, I was wrapping up my first and only year teaching high school Spanish. I wasn’t sure what I would do next or how I would support myself, but I had the summer free to work those things out and took advantage of my in-flux-and-flexible life circumstances to follow Monty’s advice.
I didn’t know the book’s claims to fame, anything about Kriya yoga, anything about Roy. As with my entry into hatha yoga, I ended up in the right place at the right time without premeditation, desire, or even an inkling that I needed what I would find. Later I learned that my many instances of unplanned good fortune are the influence of grace.
Reading it for the first time, I remember feeling a combination of incredulousness and amazement. Some of Yogananda’s boyhood stories about enlightened masters with super-powers left me wondering, “Can this be true? Is this real?” The less fantastical parts of the book described practical ways we can free ourselves of suffering. I read examples of regular people who achieved success and spiritual growth. That actionable “self-help” part appealed to me, and after reading the book, I scheduled a week-long retreat at Roy’s place, Center for Spiritual Awareness.
Next Stop: The Center for Spiritual Awareness and Meeting Roy Eugene Davis
CSA is an organization with global outreach that maintains its headquarters and a beautiful, quiet 11-acre retreat center in Lakemont, in Rabun County. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been there; the first time was in August 2005.
Upon arrival, I first got acquainted with CSA’s grounds and routine. The retreat is several miles from the main road and is very quiet. As Rabun County is the rainiest county in Georgia, the CSA grounds are lush and green in spring and summer. There are no TVs, no radios, no wi-fi routers. At the time, to get one bar of cell coverage, you had to walk 10 minutes up a steep hill and stand just so on a pile of gravel. It’s an ideal place to unplug.
I was assigned to sleep in the old blue house (no longer there) next to the meditation temple and dining hall. The cabins and rooms are spartan but comfortable, with everything you need: a bed, sheets, towels, basic body wash, shampoo, and a hair dryer. There are shared kitchens with all the basics, plus complimentary local honey for your tea. I think it is a purposefully neutral environment, with a lot of cream, tan, and brown. They’ve made some updates since then, but my first impression was of a time capsule, with carpet, couches and soft chairs in the shared living areas that reminded me of the 1970s. Given that Roy moved to CSA in 1972, the furnishings may have been from that era! My roommate was Kathleen Rehling, a nurse from Atlanta, who welcomed me and answered some questions, as she had been a long-time disciple already at that point. We were not supposed to change rooms, but the window unit air-conditioner blew right onto my bed, leaving me too cold, so I moved into another room that didn’t have A/C. (This detail is relevant later in the story.)
CSA’s routine at that time was:
7:00 am: 30-minute meditation
7:30 am: Optional hatha yoga
8:30 am: Breakfast
10:00 am: Lecture with Roy about Kriya yoga, meditation, and lifestyle
11:30 am: Lunch
2:00 pm: Class with Roy or another teacher
3:00 pm: Free time
5:00 pm: Dinner
6:00 pm: 30-minute meditation and video
7:00 pm: Dessert
The schedule may sound quite full, but there was still plenty of time to sleep, read, walk the grounds, and just be still and quiet.
The real “meat” of a CSA retreat, though, was not the activities, the education, the serene setting, or the delicious vegetarian meals. People came there from all over the world to be with Roy. People came for darshan, an opportunity to be in the presence of a holy person. There was a small community of people who moved to Lakemont for darshan with Roy. Roommate Kathleen would soon be one of them.
Later, they limited the number of retreat participants to 20, but for my first decade of CSA retreats, there were about 30-40 people staying on the property, plus locals who attended the daily programs.
If you saw Roy in the grocery store, or at his birthday party, you might notice a tall gentleman in his 70s with a great tan and excellent posture, but you wouldn’t say, “He looks real spiritual.”
Roy didn’t put on airs. When I saw him the first time and almost every time after that, he wore what he probably wore most days: jeans and a pressed long-sleeve button-down shirt.
On the outside he looked quite ordinary, but I quickly learned that he was far from it. In 1949, when Roy was a 17-year-old farm boy in Ohio, he read that same life-changing book, Autobiography of a Yogi. He knew that Yogananda was his spiritual teacher and that Kriya yoga was his path. When he turned 18 and graduated high school, he hitchhiked to Los Angeles and asked to become Yogananda’s disciple. Yogananda accepted him and mentored him for the next several years.
During my first week at CSA, Roy described his routine during his early years as a monastic. The word monastic comes from the same root as monk and monastery. A monastic’s lifestyle will depend on the spiritual tradition, but in Roy’s case, the Cambridge Dictionary definition will do: “a monastic way of living is simple with few possessions and no people near you.”
Yogananda sent Roy to Phoenix, Arizona, to assist with the meditation center and work at the affiliated goat dairy. Besides completing his duties, Roy meditated from 3-6 a.m., for an hour at noon, and for 2-3 hours each evening. By the time I met him, he’d been dedicated to an intense schedule of meditation, prayer, holistic lifestyle routines, travel, teaching, and prolific writing for almost 60 years.
At lectures, he taught us how to meditate and how to live a structured, wholesome, balanced life with meaningful purpose. He emphasized that spiritual growth came not only from prayer, devotion, and meditation, but also from “right living.” Roy was serious and direct and didn’t waste any time with unnecessary talking, but he also knew how to put people at ease. My favorite parts were when he told personal stories about his time with Yogananda. He could laugh at himself and often had a funny joke for us, too.
I didn’t fully absorb everything Roy said. Some of it was just over my head. I didn’t have an instant sense of communion with Roy that some disciples describe. That said, I did feel peaceful in his presence, and I knew it was good for me to be there.
In Part 1, I described the annamayakosha – the outermost sheath of the physical body, and how my experiences with hatha yoga helped me understand and work with my body. I realize now that from the beginning, Roy helped me begin the work on my manomayakosha, the mental sheath. Even from the first visit, I was exposed to new ideas that changed my outlook and motivated me to be my best.
That first trip to CSA led to 14 years of visits to see Roy. In the next segment, I’ll share the ups and downs of those years, my first experiences with meditation, and being initiated into Kriya yoga.
For now though, perhaps you’d like to listen to a speech I gave in September 2019, after Roy’s passing at age 88 earlier that year. I was invited to participate in the PechaKucha community festival and talk about anything I wanted for 6 minutes. I took the opportunity to share what I learned from Roy. See below for some related reading, listening, and watching.
Related Reading, Listening, Watching
- About Roy Eugene Davis
- CSA Homepage (watch the cool video!)
- My tribute to Roy from September 2019 PechaKucha Festival
I'd like to hear from you...
What is your reaction to this blog post?
Have you ever met a spiritual teacher in person and how they did impact you?
Have you been to a spiritual reterat center? What were the benefits?
What questions do you have?