Alex Stanley wrote: > Out of curiosity, I went to last night's event with Mahendra Kumar Trivedi. > He speaks English, but his accent is so thick that it was excruciatingly > fatiguing for me to follow along with what he was saying. So, I pretty much > tuned him out and sat there for two hours, bored out of my mind. > > When it came time to do the blessing, where he does his ooga-booga energy > transmission, we had to sign a release form. It would have been nice if > they'd mentioned that in the flyer, because I would have brought my reading > glasses and a pen. So, on top of boredom, I was now annoyed. I borrowed a pen > and went right up to one of the bright little floor lights and did my best to > read the form and sign it. > > He then tells us to take off our shoes and socks and instructs us to pray to > god, as we understand him/her/it, with our desire while he does his energy > transmission. And, I'm yet again going WTF? All those seeds, plants and > animals you supposedly performed magic on didn't have to pray in order for > your woo-woo to work, so why do we? My upbringing was atheist, and unbounded > ineffable transcendence is the closest I get to having anything resembling an > understanding of god, and it's certainly not something I would pray to. > > So, I sat there and put my attention on my neck, which has been bothering me > for a couple years. This morning, my neck is unchanged. Needless to say, I'm > not the least bit inspired to fork over $300 for an individualized "blessing" > because the only thing that would be blessed is his bank account. At least > part of the $15 I did pay to see him goes to the civic center, which is > struggling financially.
Probably the main reason Maharishi was so successful was because he DID NOT have a thick accent and westerners were able to understand him. I've been telling my tantra teacher for years to go take an accent reduction course. Living in Silicon Valley there are plenty of those offered and for a reasonable price. Since most people taking these courses already know English it is usually about practicing some simple drills and eliminating some of the regional quirks in pronunciation. Some of the drills are even available online. My teacher tends to drop vowels leaving one listening to a string of consonants. Sounds like he is Americans as if they are Indians. Even in Fairfield there would be a tremendous cultural gap. That's another mistake would-be gurus from India frequently make.
