Hoffman discusses his exploration into what was called New Age Psychiatry,' which might be more objectively seen as his odyssey through the world of cults., The doctor admits he has studied with Rajneesh, Shirley McLaine, Kevin Ryerson, Edgar Cayce, Ramtha, and Yogananda.. Was I in good health? The same was true of my rare encounters with Daya Mata. A fewagain, as expectedbecame the communitys most vocal critics. One of SRFs own European center leaders, Renata Arlini, once scolded a visiting SRF monk: You people are trying to create another Catholic church, with Daya Mata as its pope. The monastic, not at all aware of the irony in her voice, replied excitedly, Oh, yes! We delivered tens of thousands of pagesevery book, pamphlet, brochure, poster, and letter that Ananda had ever printed. Trying to reconcile the two sides of SRF that I had experiencedthe profound spiritual blessings, and the incredible narrowness among its highest leadersI could only wonder in awe at the superhuman measure of Gods patient love. What have I gained personally from Ananda? But such statements only raise more questions. Week after week, I attended services at the SRF churches in a mood of ferocious longing for God, and my pressing questions would invariably be answered in the sermon. Over the years, I noticed that those who fell into unrepentant criticism of others tended to leave Anandapossibly because they found it difficult to bear the company of positive, cheerful people, or possibly because the Divine Mother simply removed them. Winners will be announced July 22nd at the foundations 21st annual awards dinner in San Francisco. Im 59 years old now. Far more likely, he would endorse Jesus statement: He that is not against us, is for us. (Luke 9:50). When Brother Anandamoy violently criticized Swami Kriyananda to a group of Ananda members, for example, Swami Kriyananda wrote him a letter in which he said (I am paraphrasing): I thank you for your criticisms, because they impel me to bless you even more than ever. As for mocking the SRF organization, the truth is, SRFs own statements and behavior made invention superfluous, even if we had been so inclined. (He now serves with his wife, Maria, as the spiritual director of the Ananda community in Sacramento, California.) Addendum: Letter from Swami Kriyananda to Mrinalini Mata. A spiritual dynamo, Ananta was eventually ordained as a minister and authorized by Swami Kriyananda to give initiation in Kriya Yoga. American showman P.T. The upstate New York journalist then essentially dismisses virtually every allegation against the Twelve Tribes offering readers instead their version of events. Explore the path of Self Realization and learn Paramhansa Yoganandas effective techniques for expanding your sense of self, such as meditation, Kriya Yoga, spiritual Hatha Yoga, and divine friendship. Nearly always, the pictures showed him in far-flung lands, usually India or Southeast Asia. For a lunch, visitors will find delicious vegetarian fare at the Expanding Light Retreat or at Master's Market in downtown Ananda Village. Include one or two funny stories; people are more receptive when they can enjoy a good laugh., (The Pathcontains over 300 stories of Paramhansa Yogananda. Did this style somehow awaken criminal energy? I have seen hundreds of children being educated in living wisdom, discovering that life has a deep meaning and a joyful purpose, and that positive values are the surest path to happiness. According to one psychiatrist in California dreams do have meaning. But what does he mean? Gather together, those of you who share high ideals. Follow the link to this page. Ananda Communities could be described as modern "ashrams" that include individuals, couples, and families from all walks of life and from around the world. In 1946, his guru, Yogananda, in his epic "Autobiography of a Yogi," had expressed his desire to create a Yoga Institute: "I plan to open a Yoga Institute here. Why, then, was I required to wait for months to learn the most basic technique, Hong-Sau? In addition, you will hear the deeply inspiring personal stories of people who dedicated themselves to living by sincere self-offering to God and Guru in prayer and meditation and humble service to Their cause, and how, as a result, they found profound success and happiness. While Ananda has been forced to defend itself against SRFs lawsuit, I have sensed an underlying respect at Ananda for SRFs leaders as fellow disciples of our Guru. Those of us who lived at Ananda found it incredible that SRF would stick to the same old, patently absurd claimsthat Swami Kriyananda touted himself as a guru, that Ananda was trying to pass itself off as part of SRF, etc.when we all knew them to be untrue. The SRF lessons, too, seemed like over-boiled potatoes, offering basic nourishment but stripped of certain essential vitamins, compared with the fiery spiritual sustenance of Yoganandas unedited words. The Twelve Tribes has a horrific history of child abuse, terrible custody battles, kidnappings and harsh exploitation, which rivals some of the worst cults in America. Nor was it the actual teachings that needed revising: It was their presentation. It includes a retreat center, multiple temples, a well-known garden, market, school, dairy, goat dairy, and vegetable farm. Amazingly, they were divided into factions that were so opposed in their beliefs that they were incapable of uniting in mutual aid against the terrible threat that confronted them from the Roman government. And its important to understand just who you are becoming suggestible to and within what type of environment. Learn to relax and enjoy the spiritual path, he wrote, responding to my overly desperate style of prayer. Imagine a Christian devotee, living in the former communist USSR and unable to communicate with church leaders. A flurry of increasingly urgent letters from the Mother Center only exhorted me to keep up my tithes. How an SRF monastic had criticized Kriyananda scathingly to a group of visiting Ananda members at SRFs guest retreat in Encinitas. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. One sees it everywhere today. All three of these groups have less than laudable histories and they have also often been called cults.. But who it depicts and the time during which it was erected here has ignited new firestorms of emotion. The organization vaunted itself on keeping things SRF clean. For my money, it was a bit too clean. Reflecting on the case, I can imagine that Paramhansa Yogananda intended it to be so. Does America need a crack down? Judge Edward Garcia, the federal district judge in charge of SRFs lawsuit against Ananda, observed during a hearing, It sounds like you [SRF] want to put them [Ananda] out of business. In one of his rulings, Judge Garcia expressed concern for the First Amendment issues that were involvedin the case, namely, the freedom of small groups to practice their religion without fear of legal and financial harassment by larger organizations. I ask the reader, therefore, to hold this image of SRF steadfastly in mind as I describe how my understanding of the organization and its leaders gradually evolved. The next journalist to offer up what amounts to cult apologies works in Ithaca, New York. But I find little joy in the thought of going backward in time, toward authoritarian religious institutionalism. I also occasionally attended services at the Richmond and Los Gatos SRF centers. I have never broken that pledge. Reading another book, Stealing JesusHow Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity, I discovered that there have been two main currents in the history of religiona religion of law and a religion of love. Author Bruce Bawer documents the history of these two streams of thought, going back to the gnostics of ancient Rome and their fundamentalist brethren. Elsewhere, I have told two storiesof my own inspiring encounters with her. Authorities in Calcutta are warning residents to beware of the gurus and swamis who say they have supernatural powers and can effect mystical or magical cures. Their motto appears to be; Make nice, be happy and ignore reality. According to her attorney Mike Flynn, Bertolucci, then 28, was one of the church's most enthusiastic devotees. SRFs policies, if carried to their logical and ridiculous extreme, would dictate that disciples of Paramhansa Yogananda who were forced to live under similar circumstances could never be recognized as disciples, since they would be unable to receive his teachings from SRF. No more lawsuits! Daya Mata exclaimed at a meeting between the leaders of SRF and Ananda, after Ananda had won virtually every issue in the lawsuit. Is a yoga website promoting cult groups? Working to serve God and Guru, I never felt the frustrating sense of meaninglessness that can accompany work in companies that are run strictly for profit. To place reliance upon prophetic utterances may strike some people as superstitious. In the apartment complex where I live, no one ever complains when someone organizes a rousing kirtan in the beautiful central courtyard on a balmy summer evening. Mary Lynn Tucker, Co-chair of the Outreach Committee, studied yoga with Swami Satchidananda and lives near the ashram the guru created named Yogaville.. I took Kriya Yoga initiation in 1969 at the SRF headquarters in Los Angeles, and until 1970, I attended services and meditations at the SRF churches in Fullerton, Redondo Beach, and Hollywood. Tears were streaming down my face, out of my nose and mouth, he said. The early Christians were forced to practice their religion secretly, in fear for their lives. Ananda has given me many blessings. Regardless of SRFs official attitudes, I was deeply conscious of the priceless benefits I had gained from its teachers, and I was determined to correct any misunderstandings about the organization, as I knew it, that I might encounter among my new friends at Ananda. Your experience matches my intuitive feelings about the individuals behind the organizations, and I am grateful to you. 10Tay 10Dik: (Bihar) (Gram panchayat)) (awas yojna) ! . Ive been on the path for 35 years. God Bless Beloved Paramahansa Yogananda Thank you for protecting Ananda Society and giving Swami Kryananda the strength and wisdom to be victorious in his virtues, Bless Srf I send you Love peace and blessings I hope you have changed back to the attitude of good will to absolutely all, I met Kryananda in a dream 2 years ago now on his guru discipleship anniversary it lasted ages he was a divine friend all-sorts happend in this dream miracles meeting angels so much cant tell all but I awoke and felt as though I had been with him for the entire day or at least 5 hours. So where then is the proper place for the practice of New Age psychiatry? In addition to wars there will be a depression the like of which has not been known in a very long time. A 1976 fire burned almost the entire fledgling Ananda community to a crisp. It was not only the form of the letter that had changed, but the contents, which seemed to be cut from a mold, whereas Brother Bhaktanandas letters had been rich with inspiration and individual advice. It existed one hundred percent on the planeof spiritual aspiration. The gurus property holdings alone are worth millions. Nothing, beyond a few petty exhibits which, if viewed from the skewed perspective of organizational bias, might remotely be construed as persuasive. love and symphony of Blessings to all. The astronaut will actually lecture at the Neyyar Dam Sivananda yoga ashram. Satchidananda accumulated prime real estate in Manhattan, which provides space for an Integral Yoga International (IYI) school and a vegetarian grocery store. Ironically, what had once inspired me about SRF was what now inspired me about Ananda: the devotion that I saw in its members, and the way they gave their lives cheerfully to serving God. Have some news reporters become cult apologists or stooges? His words were more than advice; they were prophetic. by | Dec 17, 2021 | termination letter to employee due to business closure | national board for health and wellness coaching | Dec 17, 2021 | termination letter to employee due to business closure | national board for health and wellness coaching I found the book deeply, unexpectedly inspiring. I was intensely curious to know what this former SRF traveling teacher was doing, founding a community. It has helped me as I have family in SRF who question why. "Some of my friends are still with Ananda. "When I learned what other people had gone through, I decided to go forward," she said. Learn more, Ananda Villages main spiritual retreat offers programs year-round on yoga, meditation, holistic health, and spiritual growth. Have a Question about Meditation Retreat Programs? Perhaps even proselytizing for a certain group and/or belief system. Louise Royston couldnt realize what presentation would be the most effective in terms of reaching peoples actual understanding, satisfying their immediate needs, holding their interest, and answering their latent doubts before those doubts even arose. Are you affiliated with them?, Despite twenty years of clear evidence to the contrary, SRF was still trying to prove the old myth that Ananda was trading on its good name. I realized that it would be madness to reject their help, because of any personal peccadilloes that stood between them and final liberation. After all, whats an ashram without its own credit union? She also alleged that J. Donald Walters--known to devotees as Swami Kriyananda--made unwanted sexual advances toward her when she turned to him for help. They also have farmhouse style vases that don't scream . But the background history of some YA board members is rather disturbing. I was wrong. When disciples wrote to Mt. SRFs thinking is: We run the organization that Paramhansa Yogananda founded. "I've had my character absolutely assassinated and that's been very difficult.". Together, let us serve.. Ananda is a worldwide movement to help you realize the joy of your own higher Self. Everybody say his own kyrie eleison, You will learn about SRFs draconian lawsuit against Ananda in which it attempted to gain sole ownership of the Masters name, writings, and likeness, and how, in the judges own words, they attempted unsuccessfully to put that organization out of business by bankrupting it through protracted litigation. Check first, enroll later, might be a good motto. I had noticed Kriyanandas picture in old copies of Self-Realization magazine. Health and diet guru Dr. Dean Ornish says he has found evidence that yoga can help fight cardiovascular disease and this may be true. So it seems that there may be more to the diet doctors regime than meets the eye. But the leader they now call Yoneq lives in luxury, travelling between his homes in France, the United States and South America. Ananda became more and more famous as Walters tirelessly promoted it around the country. This code can be a useful tool in gauging the behavior of yoga teachers, how they treat their pupils and conduct classes. There is also the sprawling ashram he established in Virginia called Yogaville, which includes a $2 million dollar temple and its own airport (the swami liked to fly and had his own plane). Hidden gem of a flower shop. Carol A. Stefanelli, head of the groups Networking Committee, once studied with Swami Muktananda the founder of Siddha. Maybe thats because where there is so much smoke, a fire might be burning? Some yoga students say these common types are simply cults.. On the weekends, I regularly spent the entire day walking in nature and praying to Yogananda while I pursued my hobby of photography. For 39 years, Nayaswami Asha faithfully recorded the life of a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. Bombay is a 1995 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by Mani Ratnam, starring Arvind Swamy and Manisha Koirala.The film tells the story of an inter-religious family in Bombay before and during the Bombay riots, which took place between December 1992 and January 1993 after the demolition of the Babri Masjid led to religious tensions between Hindu and Muslim communities. Yet, when Ananda showed itself unwilling to meekly turn over everything it had won, SRFs loving advances abruptly ceased, as it resumed its ruthless legal campaign, intent as ever on destroying Ananda and regaining sole ownership of Yoganandas work. In fact, this is what thousands of Christians living in the formerly communist countries did. At the time, there was a small new-age bookstore in Palo Alto that was run by a Sufi group. I was afire with eagerness to learn meditationsurely a desire I shared with most other students. Ananda Village is a spiritual community of over 200 residents approximately 25 minutes north of downtown Nevada City. Her reasoning was, as I say, sound. At Yoga Movement.com under choosing a yoga style beginners will find the most common types of yoga listed for their consideration includes Swami Kriyananda, Swami Satchidananda and Yogi Bhajan., Sherry Roberts the editor of the site suggests, Find a teacher that you can relate to and a style that furthers your own personal growth.. However, the facts dont support such an arrogant conclusion. Fiddle with your rosaries Isnt this a bit like the foxes guarding the hen house? And the more common category of largely domestic seekers is examined in The Faith Healers by James Randi. Millions will die., On one occasion he cried: You dont know what a terrible cataclysm is coming!. The spirit of his great book, Autobiography of a Yogi, argues resoundingly against it. S-90-0846 EJG PAN. Ananda was required to deliver every scrap of printed matter that it had ever produced, so that SRF could sift it for proof that we had passed ourselves off as them, or that we had somehow misrepresented our Gurus teachings. Many of his followers left in the 90s. But Ornish himself is a long-time follower of IYI and its recently deceased Swami Satchidananda. I moved to northern California in 1970. (See http://www.livingwisdomschool.org.). Blessings of life in a spiritual community. Swami Satchidananda, a guru and purported cult leader died last year and moved on to his next life, that is for those who believe in reincarnation. Reading some of the unsealed papers in the case, I was amazed by the underhanded tricks to which SRF supporters had resorted. As I gradually lost interest in SRF, no one in the organization thought to inquire about my spiritual welfare. Menu. However, P.R. In an effort to establish meaningful criteria for judging yoga teachers the California Yoga Teachers Association has established a Code of Ethics. One yoga website seems to do little if any meaningful research before recommending classes or styles to potential yoga beginners. Some journalists write hard-hitting news stories about destructive cults, which have often led to further action. The answer came instantly, as an intuitive voice, accompanied by a sense of bustling motherliness: I am not concerned about your faults. More recently a controversy arose regarding an Integral Yoga International (IYI) student in New York City who attended a 30-day retreat at Yogaville, the groups retreat in Virginia. NASA astronaut and scientist Brian OLeary reportedly stopped in at the ashram of Sai Baba, a controversial Indian guru with a history of sex abuse allegations, to learn about peace, reported the Hindustan Times. Far from advertising itself as connected with SRF, Anandas residents made it clear to me that, even if they had wanted to pass themselves off as connected with SRF, they could not possibly have done so, since SRF made a special point of publicly and aggressively attacking Ananda and Kriyananda. This Sydney Morning Herald reporter tells us the story of Hindu boy named Raja who found happiness at the Athena School in Sydney run by Scientologists. In fact, it was Swami Kriyananda who persuaded the SRF leadership to accept Turiyananda, even though he was past the accepted age of 30. One can only speculate about the consequences for SRF, if it persists in its present direction. Swami Ramdas told him that he would find his guru later; and so it proved. Kriyananda is a good monk. For example, the alliance includes on its list of schools the 3HO ashram in Espanola, New Mexico, the Integral Yoga Center of Richmond, Virginia and Ananda Yoga of Nevada City, California. ABP Ananda LIVE. I dont think Divine Mother even notices our faults, is how Seva Wiberg, a senior Ananda member, once put it to me. This behavior is documented in A Place Called Ananda. June 1st to October 1st, 2021, Experience a deeper connection with your Divine Potential through selfless-service in Anandas Karma Yoga Ashram Program. Sister Savitri, Daya Matas secretary for 20 years, reveals the increasingly rigid spirit of intolerance and sectarianism within the SRF leadership. In his talks, Rev. Readers can view the book online at: http://crystalclarity.com/kriyananda/.). But despite such observations Westerners often suppose smugly that they are somehow less susceptible to spiritual hucksters, than say people in Calcutta. She idolized its leaders, he said, which made it all the more difficult when things began to go wrong. The spirit of Paramhansa Yogananda permeated SRF. I discovered from my own, direct experience how absurd it is to claim, as certain SRF members have, that the Guru doesnt need instruments. One of our Ananda members, Shivani Lucki, put it well: Lord, you dont have arms and legs, and I dont have a brain. I decided that they must have been kept too long on the editorial fire. A July 4 celebration of World Brotherhood. This is what SRF would destroy, in the name of sectarian jealousy and doctrinal purity. So far, their efforts have been profoundly unsuccessfulthanks, unquestionably, to the protection of our Guru, but thanks also to the immense hard work of Anandas disciples on his behalf.
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