By-laws of Self Realization Fellowship Church

Amended and Revised By-laws of Self Realization Fellowship Church

For governing the organization, the incorporators submitted By-laws to the authorities. We found thirteen pages of Amended By-laws, out of which we are going to reproduce only two pages, page No. 1 and 11.

Notes - One can make many observations about these documents; but we are going to restrict ourselves to just one. The Amended and Revised By-laws, Article X is extremely important for the reason of “legality.”

No. 1. Most important is that Article X of the Amended and Revised by-laws deals with “Branch Centers outside United States.”

The way that Section I is written gives the impression to the determining authorities (the Secretary of State of California and the Franchise Tax Board) that the Self Realization Fellowship Church started or owns these branches.

The fact of the matter is that Karar Asram at Puri was founded in 1903 by Priyanath Karar (later, Swami Sriyukteswar Giri). He also started his organization, Sadhu Sova. So Puri asram was the official headquarters of Sriyukteswar’s organization, Sadhu Sova.

In 1936, Yogananda founded his organization, Yogoda Sat Sanga Society of India and registered it under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860 of Indian laws in spite of Sriyukteswar’s objection.

One wonders how these two organizations registered under laws of India (Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860) would come under Self Realization Fellowship Church by virtue of filing documents in an American institution, with the California Secretary of State and the California Franchise Tax Board, in Sacramento, California?

Article X did not mention these organizations and their registrations under Indian laws, giving the impression that these were started or owned by the Self Realization Fellowship by virtue of affiliation.

Section 2 of Article X deals with having the power and authority to control Yogoda Sat Sanga and Yogoda Asram at Puri by the board of Directors of Self Realization Fellowship Church to establish the first governing body of all branch centers or churches and to remove or change any officer or member of the governing body of any such affiliates.

The power and authority derived from this section by the board of Directors of Self Realization Fellowship Church by filing papers in an American institution over the independently registered organizations under Indian laws can raise serious questions of legality and a constitutional question as well.

Section 3 of Article X says, “The Self Realization Fellowship Church operating in India shall be known as the Yogoda Sat Sanga Society.”

The Indian Kriyanwits, the practitioners of Kriya, would be surprised to learn that by this filing of Article X of Amended and Revised by-laws of Self Realization Fellowship in America, SRF considers itself to be the source of power over independently registered organizations Sadhu Sova (Karar Asram or Yogoda Asram at Puri) and Yogoda Sat Sanga Society of India under Indian laws; the Societies’ Registration Act XXI of 1860.