Judith Tyberg
She was the founder and guiding spirit of the East-West Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California, an institution through which many Indian yogis and spiritual teachers of various Eastern and mystical traditions were first introduced to America and the West.
[2] Tyberg recalled how, as young children, they were instructed in the works of the world's great religious and spiritual traditions and were inspired to seek "Truth, Justice, Wisdom ... more knowledge, more light".
[3] Tyberg grew up, studied, lived, and taught at Point Loma until its closing in 1942, and it was in this context that she knew orientalist Walter Evans-Wentz[4] and Paul Brunton.
She held the post of Assistant Principal of the Raja Yoga School from 1932 to 1935, became head of its Sanskrit and Oriental Division in 1940, and served as Dean of Studies as well as Trustee of the Theosophical University from 1935 to 1945.
[11] In 1934, Tyberg joined the team set up by de Purucker to create an encyclopedia of spiritual vocabulary used in theosophy, drawing from Greek, Chinese, Kabbalist, Zoroastrian, Hindu, and Buddhist texts.
This was a groundbreaking work by virtue of its content and its innovative printing technology, as it was the first time anywhere, including India, that the ancient form of Sanskrit was linotyped.
[12] Tyberg's view of Sanskrit's importance was quoted by the Los Angeles Times: "Not only are the languages used on the European and American continents deficient in words dealing with spirit, but many of the English words that do have spiritual connotations are so weighty with false and dogmatic beliefs that it is difficult to convey an exact meaning to all ... while Sanskrit expresses the inner mysteries of the soul and spirit, the many after-death states, the origin and destiny of worlds and men and human psychology.
Explaining the "small means" earned from her teaching and lecturing, and her "simple way of living", she also expressed her belief that "when one dares and goes ahead with an unselfish heart and is convinced that the work is for the progress of humanity, help does come."
The response was a three-year scholarship at the Oriental Division of Benares Hindu University, and Tyberg was made an honorary member of the All India Arya Dharma Seva Sangha.
After a twenty-five-year study of humanity's sacred scriptures and seventeen years of Sanskrit, she was convinced that a deep but undiscovered spiritual secret was encrypted in the Vedas' archaic, complex language and that Western explanations of the texts were "nonsense".
He followed a crestfallen Tyberg into the corridor, quietly told her that there was someone who could help her[19] and then gave her an as-yet unpublished manuscript of The Secret of the Veda[21] by Sri Aurobindo, the revolutionary who, after a series of mystical experiences, renounced politics and founded an ashram in Pondicherry.
[23] Back in Benares, Tyberg continued her studies in Sanskrit, Hindi, Pali, the Gita, the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras, the Vedantic systems of philosophy and modern Indian thought, leading to an M.A.
examinations and had made a record for the university.... For the question 'State clearly and briefly the philosophical and religious views of Sri Aurobindo', I answered fully and enjoyed pouring out my soul in it.
"[23] Many eminent Indians, political leaders and yoga masters alike, were impressed with Tyberg's scholarship and her feeling for Indian culture: Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Azad, V. K. Gokak, B. L. Atreya, Anandamayi Ma, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Ramdas, and Krishna Prem,[24] and at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram: Kapali Shastri, Indra Sen, Sisir Mitra, Prithvi Singh, and former freedom fighters-turned-yogis Nolini Kanta Gupta and A.B.
"[27] After a final reverence to Sri Aurobindo on February 21, 1950, Tyberg recorded her impressions: "Vast deep calm with a mighty wisdom ... his consciousness seemed infinite ... such currents!
[28] Tyberg held the professorship of Sanskrit alongside an international group of colleagues that included Alan Watts, Haridas Chaudhuri, and Dilipkumar Roy.
Chaudhuri and Roy were fellow "ardent Aurobindonians" as was director of studies, Frederic Spiegelberg, who held Sri Aurobindo to be "the prophet of our age".
"[32] Tyberg intended the EWCC to be a "broad and non-sectarian"[31] forum for building cultural reciprocity between East and West as well as presenting a variety of aspects of spiritual life.
She single-handedly conducted classes in Sanskrit, Hindi, Pali, and Greek, studies in comparative religion and sacred scriptures, and the yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
[29] The East-West Cultural Center became known as the focal point for Southern California's spiritual activity and its auditorium on Sunday afternoons was the first US launching pad for yogis who went on to have "a huge impact on modern Yoga":[34] Swamis Muktananda, Satchidananda, Chidananda, Ramdas and Mother Mirabai,[35] Sikh, Sufi, and Buddhist masters from Sri Lanka, Japan, and Cambodia, as well as Indian cultural and political leaders.
Tyberg invited noted Western mystics, occultists and astrologers such as Dane Rudhyar and Marie de Vrahnes from Lourdes as well as early health food proponents such as Bernard Jensen.
Famed dancers Ruth St. Denis and Indira Devi performed on the EWCC's stage in those early years of America's spiritual flowering.
"[29] For Tyberg, the high point of the week was her Thursday evening spiritual satsangs where the focus was the in-depth teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, in her words "the highest path offered".
Atreya praised the unique combination of Sanskrit and Hinduism,[46] while Gokak lauded Tyberg's "ceaseless search for Truth" and her "burning desire to communicate to other aspirants what vision of Reality she herself attained through her study" of the mystical and philosophical terms which "help us to map out precisely the realms of the superconscient in man".
"[48] In Mother India, Sanat K. Banerji admired Tyberg's "boldness and originality" and particularly commended three major innovations: "within a reasonable compass, practically all the important terms that a students of (India's) most valuable works is likely to come across", the relating of "technical terms to the verbal roots from which they are derived" and the "signal service" that he felt must be emphasized: "Vedic interpretation has long suffered at the hands of scholars wholly ignorant of the spiritual endeavours the Vedas were meant to enshrine.
[39] Despite the constant arthritic pain that afflicted her body, Tyberg kept "cheerfully going on" as she often said, managing the EWCC's rich diversity of activities while continuing to provide spiritual teaching and personal counselling, always for free.
[39] One academic reference attested "Tyberg's lectures were distinguished by wide reading and research; and even more than this, she imparted to her students and hearers the spiritual aroma and inspiration of the great philosophical schools of the East.
