Lifestyle
The Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine was surrounded by flames. Then a family came to its rescue
Tales of the miraculous have always encircled the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine.
The story of its 1950 founding goes that the spiritual guru Paramahansa Yogananda purchased the 10-acre Pacific Palisades property from an oil company president, after the oilman had a vivid dream in which his land became a “church of all religions.” Yogananda then established the grounds as a place of peace, solace and sanctuary for people of all faiths.
Swans on the lake at the Self-Realization Fellowship site.
(Self-Realization Fellowship)
The spring-fed lake in the center of the compound is its defining feature. Swans glide across its surface, new mothers push strollers around its perimeter, and people of many faiths and backgrounds meditate quietly along its shores.
The lake also played a key role in the shrine’s unlikely escape from the Palisades fire, as a family of three devotees used its waters to extinguish threatening flames.
Self-Realization Fellowship president and spiritual leader Brother Chidananda, in a livestream address to the group’s international membership, recounted the efforts of Billy Asad and his two adult children, Gabriella and Nicky, who came to the property’s rescue.
The Asads, he said, were “the divine instruments of God and guru who literally saved the Lake Shrine.”
It was the soot-covered swans, so dark they almost looked black, that first struck Gabriella Asad when she arrived at the Lake Shrine on the second day of the fire. Then, the lack of other animal life. No koi fish rose to the surface to greet her. The turtles that usually sun themselves on the scattered rocks were gone.
The Self-Realization Fellowship’s lush Pacific Palisades grounds include a historic houseboat, where guru Paramahansa Yogananda lived and wrote while directing the work around the Lake Shrine.
(Self-Realization Fellowship )
Looking around the smoldering grounds where she was baptized as a baby and now volunteers in the gardening department, Gabriella, 20, resisted the urge to fall to her knees in despair. Instead, she grabbed four fire extinguishers and, through her tears, set to work alongside her father, Billy, 54, and brother Nicky, 19.
As embers the size of golf balls pelted the property, she put out spot fires and hosed down the wood-shingled roofs of the Lake Shrine’s historic buildings.
“Just the way the sky was, all the smoke, the way the swans were covered,” she said with emotion in her voice. “It took everything in me to do the best I could.”
Her father, a former yoga teacher who lives on a houseboat in Marina Del Rey, had been tracking the explosive Palisades fire since soon after it broke out the morning of Jan. 7, when a monk spotted flames in the nearby mountains. As a longtime member of the Self-Realization Fellowship, Billy knew what was at stake: the lush meditation gardens open to all, the historic houseboat where his guru lived and wrote while directing the work around the Lake Shrine, the thousand-year-old Chinese sarcophagus containing some of Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes.
“It’s not just this beautiful garden with a lake,” Billy said. “It’s a vortex of light and love and peace and harmony and healing.”
Billy is not a certified firefighter, but as the founder and owner of WDA Fire Protection, he helps get businesses and homes fire-ready. He’s also a certified Regulation 4 tester under the Los Angeles Fire Department, which allows him to inspect and assess fire doors in L.A., and he’s licensed under the Office of the State Fire Marshal to service and test portable fire extinguishers. His father was a firefighter for 30 years and taught him about fire behavior. Over the years, Billy passed his knowledge on to his kids.
He began visiting the Lake Shrine’s paradisiacal grounds 25 years ago after a friend gave him a copy of Yogananda’s seminal book, “Autobiography of a Yogi.” He still remembers walking onto the property for the first time.
Billy Asad, left, with daughter Gabriella and son Nicky.
(Billy Asad)
“It was that ah-ha moment,” he said. “I knew it was my path.”
His kids were baptized in the Windmill Chapel, which abuts the lake and looks as if it had been magically transported from the Netherlands.
Gabriella and Nicky attended Sunday school at the temple and went on teen retreats with other Self-Realization Fellowship members. As they got older, they became regulars at the hourlong services held on the property each week. Nicky used to work as a chef at the Lake Shrine, cooking for the monks and lay people at the retreat center. Gabriella volunteers with the gardening department.
Billy Asad hoses down the hillside at the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine, where morning services are held every Sunday.
(Billy Asad)
“Ever since I can remember we’ve been going to Lake Shrine,” Nicky said. “It’s our home. It’s everything to us.”
By 10 a.m. on Jan. 8, Billy had tracked the fires long enough to know the Lake Shrine was in danger. Along with Gabriella and Nicky, he loaded his Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro with helmets, gloves, fire coats, eye protection, steel-toed boots, respirators, radios, axes, shovels and about 30 fire extinguishers. Then they headed north to the property.
Flames raged around them as they climbed into Pacific Palisades. Telephone poles crashed to the ground near the truck. There were checkpoints along the way, but Billy showed his fire credentials and was allowed to pass through.
When they arrived, the Lake Shrine had been abandoned, the 14 monks who live on the grounds safely evacuated. There was a firetruck in the parking lot, but the two firefighters there were focused on a three-story apartment building adjacent to the Lake Shrine that was consumed by flames.
Moving quickly and coordinating through their radios, the Asads rushed to extinguish spot fires crackling at the base of trees, in a patch of bamboo and on the many railroad ties that serve as stairs throughout the property.
“That’s exactly how everything starts,” Billy said. “A tree falls and catches another structure on fire.”
To prevent future ignitions, they also set to work wetting the roofs of all the buildings. Because of her volunteer job, Gabriella knew where the garden hoses were located, although a few had already melted. She took care of the visitor center. Nicky was charged with soaking the place of his baptism, the Windmill Chapel.
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Meanwhile, Billy spotted an unexpected tool: a gas-powered water pump on the lake’s small maintenance barge. It was new to him, but that didn’t matter.
“I know fire pumps,” he said. “I know hoses. I know attachments. So within five minutes after seeing it, I had the engine started and we were spraying bamboo on fire from 100 feet away.”
As it happens, a few months earlier, a resident monk of the property, Brother Bodhananda, had purchased the pump in case of future fires. Before being evacuated, he brought the pump out of storage and moved it onto the barge.
“It’s a credit to him and the maintenance manager, Bill Lackner, who works there that they had the temporary fire pump set up,” Billy said. “We jumped on the barge and immediately started using it. I have boating experience and my son does too. It was all part of this amazing divine plan.”
The Asad family worked for seven hours before pausing, including taking a moment to gently rinse some of the soot clinging to the swans’ feathers.
That evening, Nicky and Billy came back and stayed until 4 a.m. the next day, hosing down the property and continuing to extinguish spot fires that were igniting all over, sometimes repeatedly in the same place. It was blindingly exhausting work, and they believe it was the prayers and wishes of devotees across the globe who empowered them to do it.
The Lake Shrine towers were at risk as the Palisades fire raged on the hillside last week.
(Nicky Asad)
For the next three days they kept returning until the fire danger had passed. Even now, as the initial fire threat has ended, they continue to patrol the grounds daily.
On Sunday in his livestream, Chidananda shared the results of the Asads’ work. The Gandhi World Peace Memorial is unharmed even as the vegetation on the hillside behind it is gone. The houseboat is safe, as is the Windmill Chapel, where weddings, christenings and memorials are held.
The Court of Religions, where small monuments to each of the world’s major faiths welcomes visitors to the grounds, is intact. The towering pillars and crossbars of the Golden Lotus Temple were hosed down by the Asads and are once again gleaming white.
There were, however, some structural losses. The visitors’ restroom near the property’s entrance, for one. Even as, just 20 feet away, the Lake Shrine museum and bookshop with artifacts from Yogananda’s life still stands.
The living quarters of the 14 monks who reside on the property also took a hit. An ashram where half of them lived sustained slight damage to one window. The Old Santa Ynez Inn, which housed the other seven monks, burned down, taking with it the office and apartment of the Lake Shrine’s spiritual director, Satyananda.
“I’m an unhoused evacuee, but I’m doing quite well,” Satyananda said. “We adapt and move forward.”
One of the few structures lost on the property was the visitors’ bathroom.
(Self-Realization Fellowship)
Witnessing what took place at the Lake Shrine was a spiritual experience, Chidananda told fellowship members in his address, but he added that he doesn’t plan to talk about it much more.
“You know why,” he said, smiling gently. “Because it’s too easy to become proud or smug, or feel that we are better than others who didn’t fare as well. Our guru would have abhorred any sense of superiority complex based on the fact that we were spared while others suffered. That’s completely opposite to the spirit of his life.”
Instead, he said, the spiritual community’s consciousness should revolve around one question: What can we do to help?
He’s already asked fellowship communities in Southern California to organize food and clothing drives, while monks and nuns at the group’s center in Mount Washington are offering spiritual counseling over the phone.
Thanks to the Asads, the Lake Shrine community will also continue to offer an open, inclusive and beautiful space for anyone seeking a quiet sanctuary for spiritual reflection, renewal or meditation — just as soon as it’s able.
“To me, the survival of this beloved shrine means so much because of what it represents,” Chidananda said. “It represents our faith that spiritual life, a higher consciousness of love and unity and harmony, will be able to endure in this world, despite all contrary forces of maya [illusion], delusion and destruction.”
The property remains closed to the public for now, but Billy said he’s already welcomed a few firefighters and police officers to take their breaks on the Lake Shrine grounds.
“They walk around the lake and take a break from the chaos,” he said. “And you’d just see it in their eyes: ‘What is this place?’ ‘We had no clue this was here.’ ‘We’re coming back.’”
The Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine property remains closed to the public for now.
(Self-Realization Fellowship )
Meanwhile, Gabriella is relieved to see that the swans are back to their snow white color. The turtles have started sunning themselves again.
Kevin Kline plays actor Richard Bean, and Laura Linney is his sister-in-law Kristen, in American Classic.
David Giesbrecht/MGM+
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David Giesbrecht/MGM+
American Classic is a hidden gem, in more ways than one. It’s hidden because it’s on MGM+, a stand-alone streaming service that, let’s face it, most people don’t have. But MGM+ is available without subscription for a seven-day free trial, on its website or through Prime Video and Roku. And you should find and watch American Classic, because it’s an absolutely charming and wonderful TV jewel.
Charming, in the way it brings small towns and ordinary people to life, as in Northern Exposure. Wonderful, in the way it reflects the joys of local theater productions, as in Slings & Arrows, and the American Playhouse production of Kurt Vonnegut’s Who Am I This Time?
The creators of American Classic are Michael Hoffman and Bob Martin. Martin co-wrote and co-created Slings & Arrows, so that comparison comes easily. And back in the early 1980s, Who Am I This Time? was about people who transformed onstage from ordinary citizens into extraordinary performers. It’s a conceit that works only if you have brilliant actors to bring it to life convincingly. That American Playhouse production had two young actors — Christopher Walken and Susan Sarandon — so yes, it worked. And American Classic, with its mix of veteran and young actors, does, too.
American Classic begins with Kevin Kline, as Shakespearean actor Richard Bean, confronting a New York Times drama critic about his negative opening-night review of Richard’s King Lear. The next day, Richard’s agent, played by Tony Shalhoub, calls Richard in to tell him his tantrum was captured by cellphone and went viral, and that he has to lay low for a while.
Richard returns home to the small town of Millersburg, Pa., where his parents ran a local theater. Almost everyone we meet is a treasure. His father, who has bouts of dementia, is played by Len Cariou, who starred on Broadway in Sweeney Todd. Richard’s brother, Jon, is played by Jon Tenney of The Closer, and his wife, Kristen, is played by the great Laura Linney, from Ozark and John Adams.
Things get even more complicated because the old theater is now a dinner theater, filling its schedule with performances by touring regional companies. Its survival is at risk, so Richard decides to save the theater by mounting a new production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, casting the local small-town residents to play … local small-town residents.
Miranda, Richard’s college-bound niece, continues the family theatrical tradition — and Nell Verlaque, the young actress who plays her, has a breakout role here. She’s terrific — funny, touching, totally natural. And when she takes the stage as Emily in Our Town, she’s heart-wrenching. Playwright Wilder is served magnificently here — and so is William Shakespeare, whose works and words Kline tackles in more than one inspirational scene in this series.
I don’t want to reveal too much about the conflicts, and surprises, in American Classic, but please trust me: The more episodes you watch, the better it gets. The characters evolve, and go in unexpected directions and pairings. Kline’s Richard starts out thinking about only himself, but ends up just the opposite. And if, as Shakespeare wrote, the play’s the thing, the thing here is, the plays we see, and the soliloquies we hear, are spellbinding.
And there’s plenty of fun to be had outside the classics in American Classic. The table reads are the most delightful since the ones in Only Murders in the Building. The dinner-table arguments are the most explosive since the ones in The Bear. Some scenes are take-your-breath-away dramatic. Others are infectiously silly, as when Richard works with a cast member forced upon him by the angel of this new Our Town production.
Take the effort to find, and watch, American Classic. It’ll remind you why, when it’s this good, it’s easy to love the theater. And television.
The ritual of meeting up and hanging out at a coffee shop in L.A. is a showcase of style filled with a subtle site-specific tension. Don’t you see it? Comfort battles formality fighting to break free. Hiding out chafes against being perceived. In the end, we make ourselves at home at all costs — and pull a look while doing it.
It’s the morning after a night out. Two friends meet up at Chainsaw in Melrose Hill, the cafe with the flan lattes, crispy arepas and sorbet-colored wall everybody and their mom has been talking about.
Miraculously, the line of people that usually snakes down Melrose yearning for a slice of chef Karla Subero Pittol’s passion lime fruit icebox pie is nonexistent today. Thank God, because the party was sick last night — the DJ mixed Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous” into Peaches’ “F— the Pain Away” and the walls were sweating — so making it to the cafe’s front door alone is like wading through viscous, knee-high water. Senses dull and blunt in that special way where it feels like your brain is wearing a weighted vest. The sun, an oppressor. Caffeine needed via IV drip.
The mood: “Don’t look at me,” as they look around furtively, still waking up. “But wait, do. I’m wearing the new Dries Van Noten from head to toe.”
Daniel, left, wears Dries Van Noten mac, henley, pants, oxford shoes, necklace and socks. Sirena wears Dries Van Noten blouse, micro shorts, sneakers, shell charm necklace, cuff and bag and Los Angeles Apparel socks.
If a fit is fire and no one is around to see it, does it make a sound? A certain kind of L.A. coffee shop is (blessedly) one of the few everyday runways we have, followed up by the Los Feliz post office and the Alvarado Car Wash in Echo Park. We come to a coffee shop like Chainsaw for strawberry matchas the color of emeralds and rubies and crackling papas fritas that come with a tamarind barbecue sauce so good it may as well be categorized as a Schedule 1. But we stay for something else.
There is a game we play at the L.A. coffee shop. We’re all in on it — the deniers especially. It can best be summed up by that mood: “Don’t look at me. But wait, do.” Do. Do. Do. Do. We go to a coffee shop to see each other, to be seen. And we pretend we’re not doing it. How cute. Yes, I’m peering at you from behind my hoodie and my sunglasses but the hoodie is a niche L.A. brand and the glasses are vintage designer. I wore them just for you. One time I was sitting at what is to me amazing and to some an insufferable coffee shop in the Arts District where a regular was wearing a headpiece made entirely of plastic sunglasses that covered every inch of his face — at least a foot long in all directions — jangling with every movement he made. Respect, I thought.
Dries Van Noten’s spring/summer 2026 collection feels so right in a place like this. The women’s show, titled “Wavelength,” is about “balancing hard and soft, stiff and fluid, casual and refined, simple and complex,” writes designer Julian Klausner in the show notes. While for the men’s show, titled “A Perfect Day,” Klausner contextualizes: “A man in love, on a stroll at the beach at dawn, after a party. Shirt unbuttoned, sleeves rolled up, the silhouette takes on a new life. I asked myself: What is formal? What is casual? How do these feel?” What is formal or casual? How do you balance hard and soft? The L.A. coffee shop is a container for this spectrum. A dynamic that works because of the tension. A master class in this beautiful dance. There is no more fitting place to wear the SS26 Dries beige tuxedo jacket with heather gray capri sweats and pink satin boxing boots, no better audience for the floor-length striped sheer gown worn with satin sneakers — because even though no one will bat an eye, you trust that your contribution has been clocked and appreciated.
Daniel wears Dries Van Noten coat, shorts, sneakers and socks. Sirena wears Dries Van Noten jacket, micro shorts and sneakers.
Back at Chainsaw the friends drink their iced lattes, they eat their beautiful chocolate milk tres leches in a coupe. They’re revived — buzzing, even; at the glorious point in the caffeinated beverage where everything is beautiful, nothing hurts and at least one of them feels like a creative genius. The longer they stay, the more their style reveals itself. Before they were flexing in a secret way. Now they’re just flexing. Looking back at you looking at them, the contract understood. Doing it for the show. Wait, when did they change? How long have they been here? It doesn’t matter. They have all day. Time ceases to exist in a place like this.
Daniel wears Dries Van Noten tuxedo coat, pants, scarf, sneakers and necklace and Hanes tank top. Sirena wears Dries Van Noten jacket, micro shorts, sneakers and socks.
Creative direction Julissa James
Photography and video direction Alejandra Washington
Styling Keyla Marquez
Hair and makeup Jaime Diaz
Cinematographer Joshua D. Pankiw
1st AC Ruben Plascencia
Gaffer Luis Angel Herrera
Production Mere Studios
Styling assistant Ronben
Production assistant Benjamin Turner
Models Sirena Warren, Daniel Aguilera
Location Chainsaw
Special thanks Kevin Silva and Miguel Maldonado from Next Management
Lifestyle
Nature needs a little help in the inventive Pixar movie ‘Hoppers’ : Pop Culture Happy Hour
Piper Curda as Mabel in Hoppers.
Disney
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Disney
In Disney and Pixar’s delightful new film Hoppers, a young woman (Piper Curda) learns a beloved glade is under threat from the town’s slimy mayor (Jon Hamm). But luckily, she discovers that her college professor has developed technology that can let her live as one of the critters she loves – by allowing her mind to “hop” into an animatronic beaver. And it just might just allow her to help save the glade from serious risk of destruction.
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