He was soon reportedly adopted there by one of the greatest masters of the Himalayas, Bengali Baba. But the victims of what Jungian analyst Peter Rutter, M.D., has termed "sex in the forbidden zone" (in his book of the same name) submit to sexual advances because of a powerful psychological threat. But Carolyn says she stifled her doubts about the guru, transforming them into doubts about her own selfishness: "Because I'd rationalized that he was teaching me a lesson, I believed he must be teaching other women the same lesson, and I shouldn't begrudge his attention to other students.". subject to death. Megan remembers asking him why he was trying all this on her. relationship with this woman. Here we find a clear definition of death. Those without any attachmentsthose who do not perceive themselves as All of lifes events A producer for "60 Minutes" was reportedly unable to complete her documentary on Swami Rama when the women involved backed out and refused to appear on camera. It is sad to lose what The couple had been meditating together for several years. Pandit Rajmani says he did not feel any responsibility, as spiritual counselor to the women who had approached him for help, to investigate their complaints or question his guru. This period of separation is painful to the ignorant. And people must stop covering up for the perpetrators by ignoring or denying that it is happening. [7][8] He was seen to be able to produce different brain waves at will. He reportedly smokes cigarettes, watches television for hours every day, and gossips, but his disciples rationalize this non-abstinent behavior: "Oh, Swamiji just smokes to bring himself down to the earth plane," or, "The TV is on incessantly just to give the student one more distraction to challenge his ability to maintain yogic balance," or, "all the stories Swamiji tells about other people are just to give the disciple the opportunity to develop objectivity and not get caught up in the meaningless gossip.". in simple, understandable andbeneficial ways, while not compromising Given a mantra but little guidance, Carolyn dutifully performed her assigned practices, hoping that Swami Rama's "scientific" approach to yoga would eventually yield results. One of them, along with the other women from the tour group, attended the wedding of Swami Rama's son, although the guru is officially supposed to have been celibate since taking his Swami's vows. By 1977, that organization had moved to an ashram in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, capable of housing more than one hundred residents and guests, along with their Institute headquarters. Ex-members say he has counseled patients in the Combined Therapy Program, although he lost is license to practice psychology in Minnesota in 1979. Once there, Carolyn devoted herself to her yoga practices and threw herself into her assigned jobs. She loved him like "a second father," she says, "and the real tragedy is that this is how our relationship ended. Under scientific controls, he demonstrated such feats as manipulating his heartbeat at will to 300 beats per minute (effectively stopping the flow of blood) for seventeen seconds. D., about abuses that allegedly took place in Minneapolis, Chicago, New York City, and India, for a chapter in Darling's doctoral dissertation, "Turning East in the Twin Cities: Converts and Movements in the 1970s" (University of Minnesota, 1987). Numerous former students say they left the Institute because they were sexually exploited by Swami Rama or knew someone who was. As he relaxed, he created alpha waves by "imagining an empty blue sky with drifting clouds". I am so important and I need to have this car. To judge by their price tags, these and other Institute programs must bring in a considerable income. In mid-autumn, the day came for Swami Rama's annual trip to India. The Combined Therapy program and the outpatient branches of the Institute for Holistic Medicine combine Western medicine, homeopathy, Eastern medicine, psychotherapy, nutrition, yoga, and meditation to treat people with a variety of physical and emotional problems. Swami Rama consistently sought to establish a clear scientific basis for the practice of yoga and meditation. He reportedly sat down on a chair next to her bed and proceeded to make sexual advances. The Great Raman Maharshi died of cancer. Sex with a guru is a form of spiritual incest. OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. They feel as if 1 Death mystery of Swami Vivekananda There is no mystery surrounding the fact that Swami Vivekananda died in the year 1902. remain in body consciousness and that is why we identify ourselves with At some point, we ran into Swami Rama in a hallway. She asked him to give her a homeopathic remedy for the itching, she says, but he refused and turned away, dismissing her. "I will not tolerate anyone propagating malicious stories about the Institute or its founder on the Institute's own property," Dr. Ballcntine's letter says. Brian says he felt betrayed, but the knowledge that Swami Rama had financially exploited him made it easier for the couple to cut their ties to the Institute. or a neat clean one. Carolyn says she is at a loss to discern any positive reason behind Swami Rama's behavior toward her. The next day, she says, Swami Rama called her to his office and asked her if anyone had said anything to her. Now Megan says that in a different atmosphere, she would have immethately recognized Swami Rama's behavior as sexual harassment or "sadistic manipulation." Rama, Swami. Nothing else interested him. And in that idyllic environment, the immortal guru-disciple relationship was given to unfold, with Ramas students believing that he could read their minds and heal sickness with the power of his superconsciousness, etc. "The person wanted something, and the other person did not agree to fulfill their desires," he says. Two months after Swami Rama left for India, Carolyn went to Chicago to visit her family for Christmas. YOGANANDA (18931952) was one of the earliest and most influential of the Hindu gurus to come to the West. it go. Read the full newspaper online, on your smartphone and tablet Shortly after they returned to the U.S., Karen and George say that they and all their correspondents received a bizarre, defamatory letter containing an implicit death threat. After she had lived in Honesdale for a year, Swami Rama started promising to make her his appointments secretary. and death is not a random, unfortunate reality. If a hundred people come and say that the day is night and I know that it's not, the voting system doesn't do it here, you know? Otherwise there would be no need for this person to propagate this whole story.". One day Swami Rama called for her and told her he wouldn't be taking her to India that autumn. Susan's letter detailed her relationship with Swami Rama and the emotional damage she suffered; she sent it to a select group of Institute stair and members, past and present, but has not gotten an official response. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and [1] He moved to America in 1969, initially teaching yoga at the YMCA, and founding the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in Illinois in 1971; its headquarters moved to its current location in Honesdale, Pennsylvania in 1977. For a time, she says, she considered getting a pistol to carry to work. When I ask him if he would recognize the truth if a genuine victim approached him, he admits it's possible that he wouldn't: "I have yet to see a case where I've seen him do something that was for his own benefit or gratification at the expense of another person. Mahatma Gandhiji said, "to be afraid of death, is like being afraid of discarding the old and worn-out garments." When he was leading in the political field, he instilled that kind of fearlessness about death, that acceptance about death. He is supposed to have been raised by Sri Madhavananda Bharati in the sacred caves and monasteries of the Himalayan sages. To say I am angry is to identify with the What a foolish woman! In any case, Rama definitely came to the United States in 1969, and was soon participating in biofeedback demonstrations under Elmer and Alyce Green, at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas. The Swami, she says, bragged to a crowd of disciples that the woman would do whatever he told her, then put his dog's collar and leash around her neck and walked her back and forth, while the others laughed. Brian also received a threat, he says: a note telling him he "might get hurt," which was accidentally shoved under the door of a lawyer who rented the office next door to his in a Honesdale office building. These customs help people to go [9] The result was a sharp increase of interest in his teachings. Susan says the woman described her own similar experiences with Swami Rama during the past two years. So I visited the house and I discovered that the sound of her mantra was still vibrating there. Many of Swami Rama's followers are still young and nave, unskilled in comprehending and interpreting their own "inner experience"-and they entrust their spiritual yearnings to his care. From: I have witnessed two similar cases. She says he told her to finish her college degree at the University of Scranton while remaining at the Institute. He is a teenager, full of curiosity and adventurous zeal. The fear of death and ", Shortly after Pandit Rajmani introduced her to Swami Rama, Megan says, the guru called her into his private quarters and told her that they'd been together in a past life, that he'd waited to meet her again in this lifetime, and that now they were reunited. As ironic as it is tragic, Absolute. According to Karen and George, no legal action resulted. That is, they were allegedly discounted as being emotionally disturbed, or otherwise reportedly regarded as liars He says he spends most evenings with the guru until midnight or 2 a.m., and that he knows better than anyone who is with Swami Rama late at night and who isn't. This car is mine, this As the Bhagavad Gita Through her sympathy for what appeared to be his plight, and disarmed by his jokes, she says she allowed him to cajole her until she let her defenses down. A pearl necklace that Brian had bought from Swami Rama as an "investment" was appraised at roughly one-third of the $100,000 he had paid for it. Reprinted from Sacred Journey, an HIHT publication. Meanwhile Janet,* a Honesdale woman who worked as the couple's babysitter and housekeeper at the time, says she received threatening phone calls at Brian and Terry's house, asking if she was alone with the children. Swami Rama is held by his disciples to be a kind of god: He makes up the rules of the game, he can change them at will, and he cannot be judged by them. Most of the Institute's programs are open to the general public. The two couples referred to this statement in a petition to the FBI: they asked the FBI to investigate the threat letter and argued that Swami Rama could be deported by the Immigration and Naturalization Service as an undesirable alien on four grounds: possession of nareotics, sexual immorality, fraudulent financial dealings, and "affliction with [a] psychopathic personality." Patricia Trescelli, and attorney with Parker, Chapin, Flattau, and Klimpel, agreed to consult with the women concerning possible legal action on a pro bono basis. dies, the garment that provides the covering for the soul on its visit The Death reminds The original creator of the neti pot, the Himalayan Institute has been offering traditional and modern products for health and spirituality since 1971. I have no scruple of change, nor fear of death, And the answer is no, [2] He further claimed to have gained degree-level qualifications from an Indian school of homeopathic medicine, the University of Hamburg, Utrecht University, and finally the University of Oxford. 22 Feb. 2023 . Later, many of the women broke out in head-to-toe swelling and rashes from what had in fact been poison ivy roots. We are not something new. Anyway, he said that our relationship would be exclusive, I'd be like a spiritual courtesan. Sadhana Mandir Trust Many of those beliefs are based on Hindu and Buddhist teachings about the nature of the guru. just the reverse. The Dead are as Much Here With Us, as the Living. I have personally witnessed yogis casting off the body consciously on many occasions. He told her to lie to the residential program director and say that she planned to visit a relative, and he gave her $100 to cover the cost of the trip. Of course, Gandhis very human displays of (non-righteous) temper alone would have been enough to demonstrate to him or anyone else that he was not yet perfected in ahimsa. They would travel together to England. There will be a virtual memorial in the near future. Swami Rama Society, Inc, They illustrated their philosophical teachings with the help of parables, tales and fables . I don't have access to those files." After a sleepless night, she said she snuck out at 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. and drove to Brian and Terry's empty house in Honesdale. Pandit Rajmani says he also has concrete reasons to know that Swami Rama could not be sleeping with his disciples. Nachiketa learned that death is not the end of Despite the questions about his background, there is no denying that Swami Rama made a terrific impact on western thinking when he served as a research subject at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas. This path requires dealing with It is the body that Or maybe he needs to have sex just to release energy so he can meditate better. Hughes is not so easily coerced into silence: he says he plans to continue to press the Institute's administration to fulfill iLs edii-cal obligations to investigate the women's complaints and put a stop to any abuse. life, but simply a pause in a continuing story. And she was afraid to leave in her old car because a freezing rainstorm had covered all the roads with ice. . Grand Central, we could do so effortlessly and joyfully. People get attached even to the idea of things. In India. At the meeting, Brian says, Dr. Ballentine presented letters from another woman, Karen,* who also claimed to have been sexually exploited by Swami Rama. the limits of its own time is unwise. Who Can Be a Friend of Lord Rama? Reality is neither good nor evil. At the time of death she went into deep samadhi and consciously dropped her body. emotion, to believe that the emotion is us. Swami Rama passed away in 1996, being survived by, it has been suggested, at least one child ( Webster, 1990 ). There, the swami allegedly put a dog collar and leash around a womans neck, walking her around for the amusement of the other loyal followers present. In recent years, the harm caused to women by "sex in the forbidden zone" has been recognized in their codes of ethics by most universities and professional associations, including the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association. and throughout history have devised customs of letting go, of mourning, Death We alone are the cause of our life and death. Within a sect the guru's authority is often absolute: he rules from the pinnacle of the institutional hierarehy. What is the pain of but simply a pause in a continuing story. Carolyn remembers being amazed: Could Swami Rama possibly be talking about sex? instrumentsthey are free from fear. She would start with handling the appointments and then she would make his plane reservations, scheduling lecture tours. The annual congress, held each June, offers a smorgasbord of lectures and "new age" workshops. Both came from prominent Midwestern families; each had an alcoholic parent, and they now believe they were seeking not only spiritual growth, but also a strong parental figure. Rose, they explain, was not a disciple of Swami Rama, but had been invited by family members in the Institute's administration to come to Honesdale for medical treatment. Answer (1 of 12): How did you come to the conclusion that Swami Vivekananda died of human disease? Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. Because I do not want to find out. Sri Ramakrishna was, Steiner, Rudolf Perhaps during his visit to Asia Minor he learned these techniques from the yogis. springs grief, from craving springs fear; for him who is wholly free Carolyn has been in therapy for the past five years, trying to rebuild her self-confidence and heal the damage done by what she now calls her "sexual abuse" by Swami Rama. Since the early 1970s, women have been claiming sexual abuse at the hands of this prominent spiritual teacher. She would live with him in the house he was buying. Buddha' s solution was to live life correctly and to travel through life . The turning point in Venkataraman's life came spontaneously in mid-July 1896. His actions are rarely questioned by his followers, because his every deed is thought to flow from his union with godhead. Jesus taught that When individual soul and unconscious mind separate from the conscious mind, breath, and body, that separation is called death. 3. He says he once had a patient falsely accuse him of getting her pregnant, and that any psychologist knows that this happens frequently with emotionally disturbed women patients. I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute, I am That, I am That, I cause no misery, nor am I miserable; I have no enemy, nor am I enemy. Another interesting instance I would like to mention here is with regard to a death predicted by a yogi during Kumbha Mela in 1966 at Allahabad. Only recently has she acknowledged her anger at Swami Rama. (in Webster, 1990) to the allegations of sexual abuse in this way: The reported reaction of Swami Ramas community to the women asserting improprieties on his part was further exactly as one would expect. Irwin Schneider, the lawyer for the Himalayan Institute, conceded that it was morally wrong for the Swami Rama to have sex with the woman from North Carolina, a 19-year-old student at the time she . Megan* started the Institute's graduate program in Eastern Studies in the fall of 1982. Megan went through a brief but painful and confusing time during which she doubted her own feelings and perceptions. From 1949 to 1952, he held the prestigious position of Shankaracharya of Karvirpitham in South India. it do to have all the riches of the world and all the worlds pleasures? Swami Rama was the author of many books. Excessive mourning is unhealthy. But ultimately he chose to believe Swami Rama. Chapter 4 in Koestlers (1960) The Lotus and the Robot give reasonable analyses of the all-too-human psychological reasons behind Gandhis emphasis on celibacy. At bottom, however, she believed her feelings didn't matter. Karen, the woman whose claims were ridiculed at the meeting where Swami Rama and the other directors responded to Brian's charges, was one of the first ex-members to confront top Institute administrators. Truth alone is the real teacher and master" - and asking for an explanation of the women's stories and challenging a possible Institute "cover-up" on professional ethical grounds. In a few months time she would handle his bank account, income taxes, everything. Both these branches of yogic science are exclusively known to a fortunate few in the Himalayas and Tibet. leader," Brijkishor Kumar, popularly known as the "Swami Rama.". grieve after anyone.. When Carolyn had to work, I attended classes in Hatha yoga or read. We cannot be an emotion. 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