LOS ANGELES — Sri Daya Mata, a Mormon from Utah who became enchanted by a Hindu mystic as a teenager and went on to lead the Los Angeles-based Self-Realization Fellowship for 55 years, has died. She was 96.

The religious leader died Tuesday of natural causes at one of the fellowship’s nuns’ retreats in Los Angeles, where she had been living in seclusion, said spokeswoman Lauren Landress.

Daya Mata, whose name in Sanskrit means Mother of Compassion, was the third president of the Self-Realization Fellowship, a worldwide organization founded in 1920 by Indian yoga master Paramahansa Yogananda.

Dedicated to the harmony of all religions, the fellowship has more than 600 temples and meditation centers around the world, including its sprawling headquarters northeast of downtown LA.

Daya Mata was known as a faithful interpreter of Yogananda’s teachings. “She was trying to promote the image of her teacher, and she did a rather good job,” said J. Gordon Melton, author of the Encyclopedia of American Religions. “She chose to spend her time projecting her teacher rather than herself.”

Melton, who met Daya Mata years ago, said she was one of the first female Hindu leaders and enjoyed unusual longevity in her position as spiritual and administrative head of the sect, which emphasizes yoga and meditation as paths to God. Yogananda preached the unity of Christianity and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, an ancient school of philosophy that emphasizes nonviolence, self-discipline, physical exercise and meditation.

His teachings attracted a number of celebrity followers over the years. One of Daya Mata’s most famous students was singer Elvis Presley, who met her in the 1960s. Presley read her book “Only Love” and kept it in his library, according to Fred Worth and Steve Tamerius in their book “Elvis: His Life from A to Z.”

Born Faye Wright in Salt Lake City on Jan. 31, 1914, she was descended from a prominent Mormon family; her grandfather, Abraham Reister Wright Jr., helped design the historic Mormon Tabernacle in Utah.