Amid the devastation of January’s wildfires, there were a couple of small victories. While the fire was spreading through Pacific Palisades, the Getty Villa and, less than a five-minute drive away, the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine were able to protect their perimeters and come out largely intact. Still, the Villa remained closed for 5 ½ months of cleanup efforts, and even when it reopened, the Lake Shrine remained closed. Until now, that is. Around 7 ½ months after the Palisades Fire broke out, the property’s peaceful meditation gardens have finally reopened, offering a beacon of hope and peace the city could certainly use right now.
I first visited the Lake Shrine a couple of years ago and had a lovely, memorable afternoon. Recently I made my way back to check out the newly reopened gardens and speak with minister-in-charge Brother Satyananda. The drive down Sunset Boulevard through the Palisades is a sobering experience—once you pass Chautauqua Boulevard, the destruction takes your breath away—but after parking at the Lake Shrine lot on the top of the hill and descending the steps into the meditation gardens, I couldn’t help but smile. They looked pretty much exactly like I remembered—a little lush paradise in the midst of so much damage. And there is indeed a lake: Lake Santa Ynez, which is the only spring-fed lake in the city of Los Angeles.
Run by the Self-Realization Fellowship—a non-denominational religious organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda (author of the famed Autobiography of a Yogi) and now led by a monastic order—the land the Lake Shrine sits on has had former lives as a quarry and a silent-movie studio, but now it’s a spiritual destination open to all. The SRF community is about 650 members strong, but all are welcome to visit the Lake Shrine. “[Yogananda] wanted to create this peaceful space that everyone—whether you pray, meditate, no matter what your belief system is—you can just come and feel.”
When the fire broke out—you may have seen this on local news at the time—one of the Self-Realization Fellowship community members, who luckily was a volunteer firefighter, was allowed access to the property even amid evacuation orders. He used a barge on the lake along with a pump and water cannon to protect the gardens from a ring of fire around the perimeter, which destroyed homes in the neighborhoods directly overlooking the Lake Shrine. “We were defending the property with water from our own lake, which is, you know, a wonderful blessing,” says Brother Satyananda.
The Lake Shrine did suffer some losses, though. Many trees burned down, and one of the residential buildings—where Brother Satyananda himself resided for 15 years—completely burned down. He’s currently having to commute to the Palisades from Downtown L.A. until new on-site housing is planned. And the graceful swans you see gliding around the lake thankfully were all right, but their white plumage turned black from the smoke, and they had to be scrubbed clean.
All of the structures on the property (besides the visitor center, which houses a small gift shop) are still in the process of remediation—cleaning ash, making repairs and needed renovations. The temple and retreat center at the top of the hill, as well as the Windmill Chapel, museum and larger gift shop on the lake level, all remain closed at the moment. The walkway to the dreamy Sunken Gardens is also blocked off for now. But after much cleaning and clearing out, the lake and meditation gardens and the quarter-mile trail that surrounds them are all once again accessible to the public. Some of the trees believed to have been lost have even started to regrow.
So what can you expect from a visit? When you enter the Lake Shrine, you’ll find the Court of Religions, with representations of all five major religions—Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism. The SRF honors the origins of all these faiths because, as Brother Satyananda points out, the prophets of each are essentially “saying the same thing.” “Yogananda founded Lake Shrine with a vision of bringing a universality of faith to Los Angeles because he felt that Los Angeles was a very open-minded place,” he says. Behind the court, you’re greeted by the floral rainbow of the World Peace Rose Garden—one of 10 in the world. Then you’ll just follow the trail for a peaceful walk with lots of picturesque spots where you can pause for reflection, enjoy a moment of quiet or—as I saw many couples doing during my visit—take cute pictures, especially in the lakeside dock by the houseboat or in front of the rushing Krishna Waterfall, which you walk over a bridge to cross.
The most striking feature of the gardens, though, is the Golden Lotus Archway, which was envisioned by Yogananda as a church without walls, open to all hearts. The outdoor space sometimes hosts events like devotional chanting and tabla drum performances. Behind the archway, there’s the Gandhi World Peace Memorial, centered around a thousand-year-old stone sarcophagus that actually contains a portion of Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes—the two influential figures were friends during their lifetimes.
Take a seat on one of the benches facing the water, look out at the lake and try to quiet your thoughts. “There’s a tradition all throughout the East of meditating before a calm body of water,” explains Brother Satyananda, emphasizing the importance of what he calls “contemplative activity.” “Our daily life doesn’t allow for that, and we get so burdened with, you know, all kinds of unfinished business and expectations of others. So we tell people, Just walk quietly around the lake, choose a favorite bench, and just let yourself relax and feel. Because there are wonderful feelings that come in a peaceful space. And if we just allow them to manifest, they have a renewing effect.”
To be honest, I felt inspired and renewed just being on the property. I’m always in search of peace and quiet, which can be hard to find in a big city, and visiting the Lake Shrine gives you the perfect excuse to just sit still and quiet your mind. At the end of my visit, a slider turtle and then one of the lake’s swans swam across the lake right up to me. Sure, they were probably hoping I had some food to give them, but it still felt meaningful and made my afternoon.
Despite being open for 75 years—the Lake Shrine was dedicated in 1950, just two years before Yogananda’s death—there are still scores of Angelenos who’ve never visited the property. “There are a lot of people who drive by regularly. And they don’t even know what this place is.… I like to think that, you know, the people that discover us are the ones meant to come,” says Brother Satyananda. But even if you don’t think of yourself as a spiritual person, it’s worth making the drive to the Palisades to find some peace and quiet in a beautiful space.
Another amazing thing about the Lake Shrine? There’s no admission fee. You just need to plan ahead a bit to book a reservation online. The gardens are open from Wednesday through Sunday, and you can pick a time slot either from 10 to 11:30am or after lunch from 1 to 3pm. Only around 125 visitors are currently allowed each day, which makes for a more tranquil experience.
Looking forward, Brother Satyananda hopes the buildings will reopen in the coming months and that weekend temple services and group meditations will resume by the end of the year. While 2025 didn’t turn out to be the year of anniversary celebrations he had envisioned, he says that once the temple opens, they’ll have a big party. In the meantime, all can find some peace and quiet in the gardens. Free guided walking tours will also be on offer soon. And he hopes that the site can be a source of support and inspiration for the Palisades community. “I think we have always had a lot to offer, and now we can make more available at a very important time.”