08/04/2025
Our first rented space for meditation (1959 to 1975)
For reasons not specified, the devotees find meeting in private homes unsatisfactory.They begin looking for premises that might be suitable as a chapel.
A friend of Walter’s, has the management of a two level office in Hay St, opposite Mercedes College.Walter is shown a suite of three rooms in the upper level, just off the wooden landing.He is delighted and takes the rooms for $6 a week.
The relationship with the management is so amiable, that as the rent rises over the years for the other tenants, it stays fixed for The First Hay St Chapel. It is the beginning of a number of Guruji touches on finances.The first room is adapted as a joint reception room, library and bookshop.The largest middle room becomes the Chapel and the third small room, off the Chapel triples as a meeting room, kitchen and party room and preparation space.The suite of rooms is decorated and furnished in the colours of the spiritual eye.
The ceilings are white, the walls are sky blue as well as the drapes hanging behind the altar and the cushions on the chairs are fashioned from a golden hued fabric. The floor coverings are in tones of blue.Walter has an altar and lectern built and lovingly carves candleholders by hand.
The altar is against the eastern wall, so the congregation looks to the east as they meditate.There is seating for about a dozen devotees.The First Hay St Chapel is the centre of Self-Realization Fellowship devotion for about sixteen years, from 1959 to 1975.It is here that the devotees receive the first Mother Centre monastic to visit Perth. In 1966 Brother Mokshananda visits the Group
Text by Murrie Jupp.
