Living Dharma Series

Each of the eight resident yogis has a different reason for moving to the rundown farmstead in the mountains. In its seemingly tranquil setting, they study and practice together under a charismatic swami who's a holy terror on occasion and warm fuzzy on others. There are many reasons to refer to him as Elvis or Big Pumpkin as well as Sri Swami Subramunya. Their home at the edge of forests is better known as an ashram, though it's gaining a maverick reputation. As their guru insists, they're the worst hatha yoga outfit in the nation. Instead, they emphasize other aspects of yoga — meditation and selfless service, especially. Swami's methods and style are definitely unconventional, but they work, at least for those who submit. Aspiring to holiness includes cracking egos and discovering just how all-too-human they really are. Humility is one of the essential lessons. And, oh yes, the physical exercises aren't lost in the process. There's at least one class every day, and some less strenuous than others, depending on who's teaching. As a rural retreat with overnight accommodations, the ashram welcomes guests who arrive for the weekend or intense week-long workshops. If they're expecting room service, they're in for a big surprise. Mixing tons of cement, shoveling manure, cleaning toilets and showers, and scrubbing floors and pots and pans are part of their training. And nobody sleeps late. If this is spirituality, it's also vitally down-to-earth, as well as back-to-the-land. Pay attention. These mystics are humorous rather than glum solemn. Well, all but one, but he's coming around. Inevitably, some call the place a yoga boot camp, an intense immersion like the military training where recruits acquire essential survival skills and build teamwork. The ashram works to open each student to a more peaceful, harmonious world through self-discipline. Is it any wonder many keep coming back? As far as they're concerned, there's no other place on earth quite like it.

Jaya was a fast-rising star in Manhattan's world of financing for nonprofit enterprises when she left it all to live on a yoga ashram in the mountains. Returning to her career two years later, she finds the job market's changed. The best she can do is take a promising position in Prairie Depot and teach yoga in her free time. Not in her plan is the hot teen working part-time in the corner restaurant she frequents. He's unlike anyone in her past, and she's soon smitten by his relentless pursuit. Josh — or Schuwa, as she's soon calling him — turns more than her head. He changes her direction. Rather than returning to the Big Apple or the ashram, they dream of moving to the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. When they eventually make that happen, though, instead of rain forests and waterfronts, they're surrounded by desert, a land of irrigated ribbons of apple orchards and wild asparagus. It's an alien landscape of tawny foothills that rise over their backyard. In the distance is a long wall of Cascade mountains, with a snow-capped head towering over all, and an Indian reservation in between. While Jaya is engulfed in running social service ventures that serve migrant workers and low-income families, Schuwa lurches about in search of his own identity. They're not exactly alone. She's become the wise woman for two other couples her husband's age. Together they participate in a spiritual circle of kindred souls and, in various combinations as time permits, explore the steep mountains and exotic destinations beyond. She's the one figure linking them all. She even expands the sexual repertoire of more than just Schuwa. It's a lot for her to carry. Jaya finds comfort in the natural world around her, especially as the vivid geography and its arid climate take shape as a breathing personality embracing them. Still, no matter how peaceful things may look, watch out. Their new world can be cruel. Under it all, each partner in the three young marriages has reasons for dissatisfaction. While Jaya and two other spouses work grueling hours, there's no job security. Meanwhile, Schuwa and the remaining spouses grow restless in their own limbo. Something unnamed remains missing, even as they settle into their astonishing landscape. Beneath one pristine summit just over the horizon, pressure keeps mounting. As for their own lives? They're soon all in a race for survival. At last, far from their roots, the volcano explodes. In the tragedy that follows, they must pick up the pieces as best they can. The central figure, of course, remains Jaya. Where would they go without her?

Embracing three distinct novellas, The Secret Side of Jaya tells of her paranormal encounters in each of the three places she inhabits after leaving the ashram. In the first, Bible translator John Wycliffe (born 1384) meets up with surrealist painter Hieronymous Bosch (born 1450) in the railroad-siding town where she's living on the Great Plains. Who knows what will erupt, especially when modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan (born 1877) joins the action? Who says great genius doesn't continue, even in the most out-of-the-way places? Jaya plays along with their subversive operation out of an old warehouse owned by Virgil and Homer. It's my wildest prose to date — a work that has already bitterly split one competition jury that awarded publication to another author. So be warned, you'll either hate or love it. The second novella focuses on a woman miller who makes flour and cornmeal the old way — with waterpower and granite stones. With each visit into the spring-fed ravine, Jaya finds there's more in these Ozark mountain backwoods than she's imagined. Even the wildlife's magical, or at least the critters she comes to understand. The third novella introduces the legendary hunchbacked Native piper Kokopelli, who soon has Jaya fiddling beside him as he takes flight through the desert interior of the Pacific Northwest. You're invited to dance along.