Message #43848

[Jitendra Hydonus]

Her mother Rachel Leah Terry (Jun 15, 1887-Aug. 16, 1972) herself became an SRF nun, called Shyama Mata.

Daya Mata’s father, Clarence Aaron Wright (Aug. 21, 1886-Dec. 07, 1967) was a bookkeeper (Daya Mata had administrative skills in her genes!). He was drafted for WWI, when Daya Mata was just a little girl. He lived in Salt Lake City at least until 1930. Later in life his residence was in Los Angeles, at 91343 North Hills, 25 miles from Mt. Washington. He died there, aged 81, and was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park at Glendale, close to Daya Mata and the rest of the family. It seems that at some point he came to live close to them. It could also be that SRF (or his wife, Shyama Mata) took care of “father Wright”, as virtually his entire family had left him to follow Yogananda.

Daya Mata’s older brother Clarence Richard Wright (Dec. 09, 1911- Jan 09, 2002) became famous among Yogananda’s devotees for being described in the Autobiography of a Yogi as Yogananda’s secretary, whose travel diary was in part included in the celebrated book. He joined Yogananda in late 1932 and left in Jan. 1941 (See his story).

Her younger sister Virginia Lucy Wright (Oct. 07, 1915 – Feb. 05, 2005), later called Ananda Mata, or “Mataji”, also became a well-known and prominent nun of the SRF order. She joined Mt. Washington in 1933, two years after Daya Mata. Possibly she waited until she had reached adulthood, because Yogananda might have accepted only adult disciples, for legal reasons. In California, majority was 18 at that time. At any rate, Roy Eugene Davis tells how he, aged 18, met the Master: “His first question to me was, “How old are you?’ And the second was, “Do your parents know you are here?'” (Mrinalini Mata came as a minor, but was with her mother.) That too would indicate that Daya Mata was born in 1913, making her 18 in 1931. However, we stick with her own words: “I was a young girl of 17…”�

Whatever the case, they had a latecomer little brother, Samuel Dale Wright (Apr. 30, 1924-Jan. 13, 1987). He was ten years younger than Daya Mata and came to live at Mt. Washington too, aged eleven, when