Ashrams For Devotees --Purpose & Suggestions
Written by Ken Drummond on August 15, 2005

The purpose of Ashrams for Devotees (AFD)is to provide a place for devotees to live while practicing a lifestyle based on the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda.
We strive to support and serve SRF.
The guiding principles of AFD are Love & Service, as exemplified by Master’s teachings. These principles are at the core of any community guidelines.
I try to serve others physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Service
Rather than coerce others into certain actions, my attitude is to serve them if it will help them, perhaps encouraging them likewise to serve others to the best of their ability, since I know that it will help them to serve as it is helping me. It will make them feel good about themselves. Even when we are not feeling well, it can help us to serve others. My attitude is only one of trying to be helpful if this advice can be received as such. Otherwise I merely serve each one in ways that might help them.

Getting Along
Master spoke of the community in Encinitas saying if there was any disharmony there he would be the first to leave. This is my approach to getting along, not to try to relocate others but to relocate myself. This works toward achieving my personal environmental objectives, while not adding extra difficulty to others. I think it might also give a message of caring. I can then visit the locations I have left from time-to-time, but don’t need to feel trapped in a place that is uncomfortable for me.

Lifestyle
We strive for plain living and high thinking. My feeling is to accept anyone who comes, quite possibly applying the above principle for getting along. My focus and ideal is to live with sincere devotees, so I will always be jockeying my location to try to achieve that. But I also want to include community outreach as part of my service, though I want my main service to be connected to helping the spread and practice of the teachings. I prefer to utilize simple and quite basic dwellings-until the time comes where everyone we are in contact with is adequately housed. Then we can improve the dwellings of everyone if it is deemed necessary. But this is my own idea, how I intend to proceed in this experiment. Each person will have their own needs and their own wants.

Financial Matters
My ideal is to live with no monetary exchange whatsoever, to do everything based on Love & Service. Until we get there, I want money to be freely given and received. If money is what one wants to give in the way of service that is fine. Any service is appreciated from anyone. There is no coercion or expectation here.

Education
I want to help facilitate the learning and practice of Master’s teachings wherever I go. Let us offer and receive knowledge and experience freely, not hounding or boring people, but exchanging lovingly, patiently, humbly, enthusiastically. I envision what might be called an SRF University, but with free and simple learning and research, not artificially structured.