Daya Mata

Daya Mata, born Rachel Faye Wright (January 31, 1914 – November 30, 2010), was the third president and religious leader of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (SRF/YSS). She was president of SRF/YSS for over 55 years until her death in 2010.

Biography Faye Wright was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to a family affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Her parents, Clarence Aaron Wright and Rachel Terry Wright, were descended from the original Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley. Her grandfather, Abraham Reister Wright Jr., was an architect of the LDS Church's Salt Lake Tabernacle. She graduated from Franklin High School in 1932. In time, she took her monastic vows with Yogananda and was given the name Daya, becoming one of Yogananda's first monastic disciples. Daya Mata means compassionate mother in Sanskrit.

On a practical level, she assisted Yogananda by using her shorthand to record his speeches. Yogananda created lessons of his teachings that were distributed to his students, and Daya Mata helped by organizing his instructions on meditation techniques to be added to these lessons. Over time, she was asked to take on more administrative responsibilities until the 1940s, when she was given the full responsibility of running the SRF Mount Washington headquarters. She also helped Yogananda prepare the manuscript for his Autobiography of a Yogi, a book that has been translated into more than fifty languages .

After the deaths of Yogananda and his successor Rajarsi Janakananda (James J. Lynn), Daya Mata was elected by the SRF Board of Directors as the third president and spiritual leader of SRF/YSS in 1955. As Yogananda's next successor, she assumed responsibility for the guidance and training of SRF/YSS members and monastic disciples, and she oversaw the organization's spiritual and humanitarian efforts. SRF/YSS members referred to her as the organization's sanghamata (mother of the society).

Daya Mata met Elvis Presley in the 1960s, and she occasionally gave him spiritual advice. Elvis read her book Only Love and kept a copy of it in his collection of books. Her other brother and her mother were also SRF members. Finding the Joy Within You: Personal Counsel for God Centered Living How to Change Others Intuition: Soul-Guidance for Life’s Decisions Only Love: Living the Spiritual Life in a Changing World Overcoming Character Liabilities The Skilled Profession of Child-Rearing