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Deposition of Donald Walters Preview You may download the entire deposition here
....exctract 1 MR. FLYNN: Holly, would you swear in Mr. Walters, 2 please? 3 (The oath was administered.) 4 MR. FLYNN: Q. Would you state your name for the 5 record please, sir? 6 A. Donald Walters. 7 Q. How old are you, Mr. Walters? 8 A. I am 69. 9 Q. And I understand you're known by other names? 10 A. Yes. Kriyananda. 11 Q. Where did you get that name? 12 A. I got that name in 1955. 13 Q. Who gave it to you? 14 A. Daya Mata, the president of Self-Realization 15 Fellowship. 16 Q. What is Self-Realization Fellowship? 17 A. Self-Realization Fellowship is an organization 18 started by Paramhansa Yogananda in nineteen -- I guess it 19 was incorporated in 1935. He came to this country in 1920. 20 Q. And apparently, you were part of this 21 organization, Self-Realization Fellowship? 22 A. Yes. Yes. 23 Q. Can you explain a little bit about how you became 24 affiliated with that organization? 25 A. I became affiliated. I was there for 14 years. 1 Q. When? 2 A. I came to him in 1948. 3 Q. How old were you at that time? 4 A. 22. 5 Q. What was your occupation? 6 A. I had no occupation. 7 Q. Had you gone to college? 8 A. Pardon? 9 Q. Had you gone to college? 10 A. Yes. 11 Q. Where did you go to college? 12 A. I went to Haverford, and then Brown. 13 Q. Haverford College, where was that, sir? 14 A. That's outside Philadelphia. And Brown, of 15 course, you know, being from Boston. That's in Rhode 16 Island. 17 Q. Did you graduate from Haverford? 18 A. No. I left there after 2 years. I left Brown 19 after a year and a half, and went down to the Dock Street 20 Theater to study playwrighting. And I was there for a year; 21 realized what I wanted was God. 22 And so from then on, I've dedicated my life to 23 seeking God. 24 Q. How have you dedicated your life to seeking God? 25 A. By meditation, by service, by helping to share 1 what I believe with other people, and by prayer. 2 Q. Have you been seeking God in the form of some 3 traditional religious organization? 4 A. Yogananda came to show the unity between the 5 original teachings of Krishna and the original teachings of 6 Jesus. 7 So the tradition I follow is not a blend of those 8 two so much as a recognition of the unity in the teachings 9 of those two great teachers. And what I teach is a 10 traditional teaching. 11 Q. Traditional teaching of who? 12 A. Both. Through the interpretation and -- 13 explanation, I should say, of Yogananda. 14 Q. Now, Yogananda, can you tell us who he is, or 15 was? Is he still alive? 16 A. No. He passed away in 1952. 17 Yogananda was sent here to this country by his 18 teacher to disseminate the teachings of yoga -- which is to 19 say of meditation, not the yoga postures -- and to help 20 people to find themselves and their relationship with God 21 through quietening of the mind. 22 You see, the difference between prayer and 23 meditation is that prayer talks to God; meditation listens 24 for his answer. 25 So he taught both. 1 Q. This fellow Yogananda did? 2 A. This saint Yogananda did. 3 Q. Right. And when did he die? 4 A. '52. 5 Q. And you became known as Kriyananda 3 years after 6 his death? 7 A. Yes. 8 Q. And you mentioned someone named Daya Mata? 9 A. Daya Mata is presently still the president. She 10 is the third president of Self-Realization Fellowship. 11 Q. And you said she was the one who gave you this 12 name? 13 A. Yes. 14 Q. And in what context did she give you the name? 15 A. It was as a monastic vow. I joined the monastic 16 order, and this was final vows that I took in 1955. 17 Nor can I say with entire justice that she gave me 18 the name, because the name came to me in medication. I 19 proposed that as the name I wanted, so she granted that to 20 me. 21 Q. By what authority did she grant that to you? 22 A. She granted it to me as a representative of 23 Yogananda. 24 Q. Was she the head of his organization at that time? 25 A. Yes -- yes, at that time she was. 1 Q. And you mentioned final vows. What were those 2 final vows that you took? 3 A. The final vows were of poverty, chastity and 4 obedience and loyalty. Those four. 5 Q. Poverty, chastity, loyalty and obedience? 6 A. Yes. 7 Q. And what does "final" mean? 8 A. Final means that you take that vow for the rest of 9 your life. 10 I did not remain in the order; therefore, those 11 vows did not bind me after leaving the order except to the 12 extent that I chose to let them. 13 Q. Oh, who says that? 14 A. Pardon? 15 Q. Who said that the vows no longer bound you after 16 you left this order? 17 A. Well, as a matter of fact, in 1985, I got her to 18 dispense me from those vows. 19 Q. Can you explain how that happened? 20 A. Yes. I went to see her, and she prayed to God and 21 to our line of gurus and removed that restriction on me, 22 whatever you want to call it. 23 Q. Why did you ask for that restriction to be removed? 24 A. Because I was going to be married. 25 Q. In 1985, did you say? 1 A. Yes. 2 Q. Now, who did you marry then? 3 A. I married Rosanna Golia, from Naples, Italy. 4 Q. Had you ever been married before that? 5 A. Not legally. 6 Q. What do you mean by not legally? 7 A. Not legally means that it was a marriage before 8 God, but not before the law. 9 Q. So you married someone before you dispensed with 10 your vows? 11 A. Yes. 12 Q. Even though the vows were final? 13 A. My dear sir, my vows are between me and God, not 14 between me and the courts. How final they are and how I 15 treat them is my business. 16 Q. Well, why did you take them? 17 A. Why did I take them? 18 Q. Why did you make them final? 19 A. That was the system, and I accepted it. And I 20 have done the best throughout my life to live by them even 21 in marriage. 22 Q. Well, I'm a little confused. 23 Apparently, on your own, you married someone in 24 conflict with your vows. And then several years later -- 25 A. No. 1 Q. -- you married someone else? 2 A. No. I made the announcement then that I was not 3 following that way. 4 I gave this announcement, made this announcement 5 public. I was -- I even put an article in the Yoga Journal 6 to help make it clear that I was taking this step 7 deliberately, and I was taking it because I felt that this 8 was the need of our community and of our times. 9 Q. I thought you said the vows were between you and 10 God. 11 A. Well, that's true. 12 Q. Why did you put it in the Yoga Journal? 13 A. The breaking of them was already the business of 14 the public. 15 Q. Who told you that? 16 A. I said that. 17 Q. Now, you mentioned that the vows are part of a 18 monastic order? 19 A. Yes. 20 Q. What monastic order was that? 21 A. This was the Self-Realization order. 22 Q. Is that the formal name of the order? 23 A. I guess so. It's Self-Realization Fellowship, so 24 -- see, when you've got a new organization, you don't have 25 categories as clearly defined. So you could say 1 Self-Realization Fellowship order, order of Self-Realization 2 Fellowship Church. 3 It's all the same thing. It was of that 4 organization founded by Yogananda. 5 In 1962, I ceased to be a part of that 6 organization. From then on, I had to follow my own inner 7 guidance. 8 Q. Well, I'm a little confused. Let me ask you 9 this: 10 Did -- is Yogananda the person who founded that 11 order? 12 A. No. It's a very ancient order. He represented 13 that order, and that order is a Swamy order. 14 Q. Wait. Let's talk about that for a minute. A 15 swamy order? 16 A. Yes. 17 Q. Is that what Yogananda belonged to? 18 A. Yes. 19 Q. And where does the swamy order derive from? 20 A. It's -- it was reorganized -- nobody knows how 21 ancient it is, but it was reorganized by Swamy 22 Chankaracharya probably 2000 years ago, but it's uncertain 23 when he was -- when he lived. 24 Q. And so Yogananda was a part of the Swamy order? 25 A. Yes. 1 Q. And he took vows as part of the Swamy Order? 2 A. Yes. 3 Q. And you took the same vows as part of the Swamy 4 order? 5 A. Yes. ...to be continued in the 1th day of Walters deposition
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