Liberation (138 page)

In his unpublished memoir “The Making of a Devotee,” Vidyatmananda tells that he became estranged from Prabhavananda while living at the Belur Math in India, where he discovered that the family model of religious life adopted by Swami Prabhavananda for the Hollywood Vedanta Society was not approved by the Ramakrishna Order, which advocated a strict monastic model with the sexes separated—officially only men could join the order. Swami had initiated many women and allowed them to live alongside the men because there were not enough devotees in southern California to populate two separate orders; Vidyatmananda began lobbying to have the nuns turned out of the Hollywood Vedanta Society. He also expressed surprise over his discovery in India that despite being a Westerner, he might still hope to rise through the hierarchy of the order, and even be permitted to transfer away from the Hollywood center. He remained in India for nearly a year, hoping to live there permanently, but he failed to find useful work, and returned to Hollywood after falling severely ill with paratyphoid. Swami Prabhavananda felt Prema's discussions with the elders of the Belur Math were disloyal, and when in 1966 Prema was invited to transfer to the Centre Védantique Ramakrichna, east of Paris in Gretz, France, Swami wrote saying he wanted nothing more to do with him. They met again, however, in 1973, and Prabhavananda gave Vidyatmananda his blessing.

Vidyatmananda remained in Gretz for the rest of his life. When he arrived, the center was in decline; the first generation of devotees had died or left following the death of the founding Swami, Siddheswarananda, and only a few new devotees had appeared. Vidyatmananda, as manager, saw to reorganizing, rebuilding and modernizing the property; he learned how to speak French and how to farm. The center was run as an ashram, and eventually thrived on the physical labor of young spiritual trainees who generally returned to secular life after a period of retreat there.

Premananda, Swami (1861–1918).
A direct monastic disciple of Ramakrishna, from a pious Bengali family; born Baburam Ghosh. As a young man, he was taken to meet Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar by his Calcutta classmate, Rakhal Chandra Ghosh (Brahmananda). Premananda's sister was married to one of Ramakrishna's most prominent devotees, Balaram Bose, and his mother also came to Dakshineswar as a devotee. Ramakrishna regarded him as especially pure and sweet-natured and recognized him as an Ishvarakoti (a perfect, free soul born for mankind's benefit) like Brahmananda and Vivekananda. During the last decades of his life, Premananda was manager of the Belur Math.

Price, Kenneth (Ken) (b. 1935).
American printmaker and ceramic artist, born in Los Angeles, trained at Chouinard, USC, the Art Institute of California, and the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. His first solo show was at the Ferus Gallery in 1960; later he showed at the Kasmin Gallery in London, the Whitney in New York, Nicholas Wilder, James Corcoran, Gemini GEL, and the Los Angeles County Museum, among others. Many major museums hold his work. He moved to Taos in 1970, then to Massachusetts in 1982, and later back to Los Angeles where he joined the faculty at USC. His wife is called Happy.

Price, Vincent (1911–1993) and Coral Browne (1913–1991).
American actor, raised in St. Louis and Australian-born actress, his third wife. Price grew up in privileged circumstances and toured Europe on his high-school graduation. He studied art history at Yale and again at the Courtauld in London, where he made his stage debut in 1935. By 1938, he had a contract with Universal Studios and during the 1950s began to develop his often comic flair for villains and horror movies. His many films include
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
(1939),
The Song of Bernadette
(1943),
Laura
(1944),
Leave Her to Heaven
(1945),
The Three Musketeers
(1948),
House of Wax
(1953),
The Fly
(1958),
The House of Usher
(1960),
The Pit and the Pendulum
(1961),
The Masque of the Red Death
(1964), and
Edward Scissorhands
(1990). He appeared on T.V. in the “Batman” series, on “Hollywood Squares” in the 1960s and 1970s, and hosted the PBS series “Mystery” during the 1980s. From July 1977, he toured world-wide as Oscar Wilde in a one-man stage play,
Diversions and Delights
, written by John Gay. He was an art collector and a gourmet, and he published a number of art history books and cookbooks. He married Coral Browne in 1974 after they worked together in
Theater of Blood
(1973). She began her stage career in Australia, emigrated to England during World War II and played classic stage roles, including Shakespeare, as well as appearing in Joe Orton's
What the Butler Saw
(1969). Her films include
Auntie Mame
(1958),
The Killing of Sister George
(1968),
The Ruling Class
(1972), and
Dreamchild
(1985).

Prince, Hal (b. 1928).
American theatrical producer and director; born in New York, educated at the University of Pennsylvania; winner of more than twenty Tony Awards for his many Broadway hits. He expressed an interest in 1959 in an Auden-Isherwood-Kallman musical based on
Goodbye to Berlin
, but the project didn't progress. In 1966, he produced and directed the spectacularly successful version which he commissioned from Joe Masteroff (book), Fred Ebb (lyrics), and John Kander (music). In his diary entry for December 27, 1972, Isherwood mentions his “offended feelings about
Cabaret
”; he was offended that Prince never consulted him or made contact with him about it. Isherwood did not approve of the stage musical, but he was grateful for the income it brought him.

Procktor, Patrick (1936–2003).
Dublin-born painter, especially of watercolors. He studied at the Slade from 1958 to 1962, had his first exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in 1963, travelled widely, taught at the Camberwell School of Art and the Royal College of Art, and designed for the stage, including two productions at The Royal Court in the late 1960s. He was a close friend of David Hockney, with whom he visited Los Angeles for the first time in 1965, and Hockney, early in his career, drew and painted him. Bachardy met Procktor in 1961 while studying at the Slade, and Procktor also sat for Bachardy once. They slept together when Procktor arrived in Los Angeles, but Bachardy never genuinely returned Procktor's interest. Procktor married Kirsten Andersen Benson (1939–1984), Danish-born widow of James Benson, in 1973; she had a son and daughter from her first marriage, and they had another son, Nicholas (b. 1974), and then divorced. Procktor's friend, Ole Glaesner, whom Isherwood mentions, was evidently a sexual partner but not a longterm companion. Procktor lived and painted in a flat in Manchester Street which had previously belonged to one of his teachers, William Coldstream. He became an alcoholic, and, late in his career, the flat burned down, destroying much of his work and many of his possessions.

Prosser, Lee (1944–2011).
American author, painter, musician, Vedanta devotee, student of ancient religions, shamanism, witchcraft, and Wicca. He composed “The Ramakrishna Waltz” and wrote a memoir,
Isherwood, Bowles, Vedanta, Wicca, and Me
(2001). He married three times: first to Mary, from whom he was divorced in 1970, then to Grace, with whom he had two daughters, and, much later, to Debra. He appears in
D.2.

Prouting, Norman (1924–1983).
Isherwood's London landlord during the spring of 1970. Prouting lived in Moore Street, north of the King's Road in Chelsea, and let Isherwood a small flat in his house. Bill Harris was a friend of Prouting and also lodged in the house when he was in London. Prouting was a real estate expert, methodically researching neighborhoods he bought into. He was also a train buff and worked on several commercial film shorts about British transport.

puja.
Hindu ceremony of worship, a watch or vigil; usually offerings—flowers, incense, food—are made to the object of devotion, and other ritual, symbolic acts are carried out depending upon the occasion.

Quinn, Joan.
Arts journalist and curator. She was West Coast Correspondent for
Interview
magazine from 1978 to 1989, contributed to many other publications, and later had an arts interview show on private access cable T.V.

Rabb, Ellis (1930–1998).
American actor, director, and producer, from Memphis, Tennessee. He appeared in and directed Shakespeare, Chekhov, Shaw, Pirandello, and contemporary drama, including Tennessee Williams. In 1959, he founded a group called the Association of Producing Artists (APA) of which he was Artistic Director. The APA worked in affiliation with the Phoenix Repertory Company, and many of their productions had Broadway runs in the 1960s, usually as a group of plays in repertory, including
You Can't Take It With You
,
Right You Are If You Think You Are
,
The Wild Duck
,
War and Peace
,
The Show Off
,
The Cherry Orchard
,
Pantagleize
,
The Cocktail Party
,
The Misanthrope
, and
Private Lives
. Rabb starred in some of the productions. His wife from 1960 to 1967, actress Rosemary Harris, was also in the company. The APA-Phoenix lasted until 1969. Rabb continued to act and direct, and he won a Tony Award for his 1975 production of
The Royal Family
. He appears in
D.2.

rajas.
See guna.

Ramakrishna (1836–1886).
The Hindu holy man whose life and teachings were central to the modern renaissance of Vedanta. He was widely regarded as an incarna tion of God. Ramakrishna, originally named Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya, was born in a Bengali village sixty miles from Calcutta. He was a devout Hindu from boyhood, practised spiritual disciplines such as meditation, and served as a priest. He was a mystic and teacher, and in 1861 he was declared an avatar: a divine incarnation sent to reestablish the truths of religion and to show by his example how to ascend towards Brahman. Ramakrishna was also initiated into Islam, and he had a vision of Christ. His behavior was sometimes highly unconventional, in keeping with his beliefs and with the extreme spiritual practices which he undertook. For instance, in youth, he put his tongue to the flesh of a rotting corpse as part of his Tantric discipline, and in order to emulate the gopis, he undertook
madhura bhava
, identifying himself as a female devotee of Krishna, assuming a feminine attitude, and actually dressing in women's clothes. He several times danced with drunkards because their reeling reminded him of his own when he was in religious ecstasy. His followers gathered around him at Dakshineswar and later at Cossipore. His closest disciples, trained by him, later formed the nucleus of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, now the largest monastic order in India. Ramakrishna was worshipped as God in his lifetime; he was conscious of his mission, and he was able to transmit divine knowledge by a touch, look, or wish. Isherwood's biography,
Ramakrishna and His Disciples
(1964), was written with the help and encouragement of Swamis Prabhavananda and Madhavananda.

Ram Nam.
A sung service of ancient Hindu prayers which invoke the divinities Rama, his wife Sita, and the leader of Rama's army, the monkey god, Hanuman. In Ramakrishna practice, Ram Nam is sung on Ekadashi, the eleventh day after the new or full moon, generally observed with worship, meditation, and fasting.

Rampling, Charlotte (b. 1945).
British actress, educated in Paris and at English boarding school. Her father, an Olympic swimming gold medallist, was an army officer serving with NATO; her mother was a painter. Her only sister committed suicide as a young woman. Her films include
Georgy Girl
(1966),
The Damned
(1969),
Zardoz
(1974),
Farewell, My Lovely
(1975),
Foxtrot / The Other Side of Paradise
(1976),
Stardust Memories
(1980),
The Verdict
(1982),
Max, Mon Amour
(1986),
The Wings of the Dove
(1997),
The Swimming Pool
(2003), and
Never Let Me Go
(2010). When Isherwood met her in 1976, she was married to Bryan Southcombe, an aspiring actor and writer from New Zealand with whom she had one son, Barnaby (b. 1972). She left Southcombe that year for the French composer Jean-Michel Jarre whom she married two years later, and with whom she had another son, David. She divorced Jarre in 1997.

Rappaport, Michelle.
American movie producer. Her films include
Old Boyfriends
(1979) with Talia Shire,
White Men Can't Jump
(1992) with Woody Harrelson, and, for T.V., “Something about Amelia” (1984) and “Paper Dolls” (1984).

Rassine, Alexis (1919–1992).
Ballet dancer; his real name was Alec Raysman. He was born in Lithuania of Russian parents and from about ten years old was brought up in South Africa. He studied ballet there and in Paris, joined the Ballet Rambert in 1938, and danced with several other companies before, in 1942, joining the Sadler's Wells Ballet, where he became a principal and a star. He shared John Lehmann's house for many years, living in his own self-contained flat. He appears in
D.1
and in
Lost Years.

Rauch, Doug.
A high-school friend of Jim Gates; he graduated from Continuation School after being expelled with him. Later, he became president of Trader Joe's, the specialty grocery chain. He married an ex-Catholic nun, Mikele, and they had three children; Mikele became a psychoanalyst.

Rauschenberg, Robert (1925–2008).
American artist; born in Texas, trained at the Kansas City Art Institute, the Académie Julian in Paris, Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and the Art Students League in New York. Some of his early work was conceptual, and he became famous in the 1950s for his Combines, in which he attached found objects and collage to his canvases. In the 1960s, he turned to silkscreen and photography, and, in 1964, he was the first American to win the Grand Prize at the Venice Biennale. Later, he experimented with performance art, and he collaborated on set design, choreography, and projects bridging between art and engineering. He worked in Florida from 1970 onward.