This fire is a community problem. When a group of people goes out from Ananda and works together to make money, let’s put it in the kitty and call it “Ananda money.” Then we can build house after house right now. In a crisis situation, if people work together and really pitch in, they’ll generate more energy than if they’re each thinking only of their own house. But we’ll have less of the consciousness of pitching in together if we worry too much about how much we’ll raise, whether it will be enough to meet our individual needs, etc.

 One of the things that touched me so much was to see the real dynamic, joyous determination to build again and not to say, “What a wonderful world it might have been if only this hadn’t happened.” Instead, the attitude is “Well, a year from now we’d feel fine about it. Why not enjoy it right now—not take it lightly, but face the facts and do what we can to improve the situation. We’re going to get in there and build better than ever!”

Asha Praver cleaning up after the 1976 fire.