A short series on the specific details of the North County coast.
The golden lotus towers are visible from the highway. Three of them, rising above the white wall on South Coast Highway 101 just above Swamis Beach, designed and dedicated by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1948. Most people who drive past them every day have never been through the gate.
Self-Realization Fellowship from the Cardiff Rail Trail
The place
The Self-Realization Fellowship Meditation Gardens sit on a clifftop above the Pacific in Leucadia, at 215 K Street — a short walk from the Swamis Beach parking lot, directly above the break. The gardens are open to the public, free of charge, Tuesday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. Closed Mondays.
Stairway entrance to the gardens
What you find inside: koi ponds connected by waterfalls, meditation nooks, an ocean overlook that takes in the full sweep of the Encinitas coastline, and 17 acres of plants tended by the monks of the hermitage. The gardens are meticulously maintained — bromeliads, proteas, cyclamen, staghorn and foxtail ferns, cycads with red cones, windmill palms, agave, barrel cactus, golden barrel cactus, aeonium, elephant ears, and mandevilla vines bursting from carved planters. A California pepper tree shelters a circle of benches. A patch of cacti overlooks the Swami’s lineup below.
Spectacular views from the gardens above Swamis Beach, Encinitas California
Garden paths
Pincushion protea
The empty pool
In the southern section of the gardens, near the original hermitage, you’ll find a small swimming pool that no longer holds water. It was used by Paramahansa Yogananda himself during his years at the Encinitas hermitage. The pool sits empty now — drained, the structure intact — a small, unexpected detail that makes the history of the place feel present rather than distant. Look for the plaque nearby that describes the history of the property.
The philosophy — in brief
The Self-Realization Fellowship was founded by Yogananda in 1920 with a straightforward idea at its center: that the practices of yoga and meditation are not exclusively religious or Eastern in nature, but are universal tools for personal experience of whatever one calls the divine. As one guide here put it: “Yoga means union with — or binding with — the divine. That’s what yoga teaches in a nutshell, and it’s what every major spiritual tradition has been teaching in a nutshell.” When Yogananda dedicated the hermitage in 1937 he called it a world brotherhood center, open to people of all backgrounds and beliefs. The gardens reflect that intention — you can come and sit beside a koi pond and look at the ocean for an hour and leave exactly as you arrived, if that’s all you want from the visit.
Palm trees and garden path covered by low growing pines
The history
Paramahansa Yogananda established the Encinitas hermitage in 1937 — the property given to him as a surprise gift by his disciple Rajarsi Janakananda. During his years at the hermitage, Yogananda worked in the study overlooking the Pacific, writing the book that would become his most enduring contribution. Autobiography of a Yogi has since been translated into more than 50 languages.
In 1938, Yogananda dedicated the Golden Lotus Temple near the edge of the bluff — a four-story glass observation tower with immense windows overlooking the Pacific and a low altar with the ocean directly behind it. For four years, thousands attended services here. In 1942, coastal erosion made the temple unstable and it had to be removed. The steps visible in the southern gardens are all that remain of it. The gardens where visitors walk today occupy that same clifftop. The current golden lotus towers along the highway were dedicated by Yogananda in 1948.
Koi ponds
Who came here
Ravi Shankar — the sitar maestro who would later introduce Indian classical music to the Western world — had met Yogananda in the 1930s and gave his first US concert at the Encinitas retreat in 1957. A decade later, Shankar’s friendship with George Harrison changed the course of popular music. Harrison encountered Autobiography of a Yogi before his first trip to India in 1966, and the book traveled with him from that point forward. He later described Yogananda as one of the essential spiritual influences of his life. During visits to California, Harrison spent time at the Encinitas estate — three miles from Ravi Shankar’s home — drawn to the organization’s discretion as much as its teachings. He eventually arranged for proceeds from the 2002 reissue of his 1970 song My Sweet Lord to support the fellowship. His funeral was held at the SRF Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades.
Ravi Shankar and George Harrison
The hermitage
The hermitage itself — the house where Yogananda lived and wrote — is also open to visitors by reservation, with visits limited to 10-15 minutes inside. The rooms used by Yogananda are preserved as a shrine. Check the calendar at encinitastemple.org for available dates. Closed during rainy weather and on Mondays and holidays.
How to visit
The garden entrance is at 215 K Street, Encinitas — between 2nd and 3rd Streets, a short walk west of the South Coast Highway 101. Street parking on K Street and the surrounding blocks. No admission fee. Donations are welcome but not required.
Go early on weekends. No food or beverages inside. No large bags or backpacks. Children are welcome under adult supervision.
The SRF Books & Gifts store is at 1150 South Coast Highway 101, open Wednesday through Sunday 10:30am to 5pm — a well-stocked shop with SRF publications and distinctive arts from India.
After the gardens, the stairs to Swamis Beach are a five-minute walk south. The two places together — the stillness above and the surf below — make for a good morning on the Encinitas coast.
More from the Leucadia Mercantile Journal · A weekend in Encinitas · Coastal walks in North County
