My post on Ammachi Free speech Yahoo group - enjoy. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ravi Chivukula <chivukula.r...@gmail.com> Date: Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 11:43 PM Subject: Hankering Humanitarian, Taking the World for a Ride To: ammachi_free_speech_z...@yahoogroups.com
Well I'm stunned that erudite scholars, intelligent, sensitive, sophisticated persons on this list trying to frame the recent issues involving Amma as some medieval spiritual technique, forgetting basic American values of freedom, justice, liberty, human rights and values and would try to justify 19th, 20th century spiritual methods to a 21st century, materially advanced nation, which has again landed a spacecraft on Mars. What we need is a deep, thoughtful look at the applicability of these Gurus to the 21st century information age, this assembly line of materially impoverished, life-abnegating, sexually repressed, sexually perverted Gurus from India, under the deceptive garb of celibacy, renunciation, humility ensnaring, enchanting the sweet, sensitive, sophisticated, intelligent liberals, make them feel guilty of sex, money, material pleasures and project themselves as divine mothers and fathers, hankering for their riches, their resources - have you seen any Indian devotees of hers sacrificing their million dollar homes, million dollar homes and/or million dollar portfolios? Perhaps we should call these Gurus Hankering Humanitarians rather than Hugging Saints. I have remained silent for a long time but I guess it's finally the time to take a stand http://youtu.be/j5-yKhDd64s The Satnam Sigh affair has been sickening, disgusting to read - not because the ashram is legally accountable. But it is definitely - *morally accountable* especially when a woman who projects herself as the Divine Mother decides to turn a blind eye to this supposedly Brahmin, bipolar, secular man chanting sacred Arabic verses. If an innocent, bipolar man meets this fate at the hands of a Divine Mother - then there is really something wrong with this whole picture, *this whole enterprise, this humanitarian lean, mean ruthless machine that will tramp over people to help people. *This is just insane - where is the compassion here? And then the Gail aka Gayatri letters and interviews -* they are damning and thoroughly convincing*. I have been a lurker on the Ex-Amma for many months other than one or two most of them expose their own fears, insecurities and anxieties. Even the moderator Bronte - who comes across as utterly biased at her best and paranoid at her worst with her Judeo-Christian, Hindu hating, 16th century, voodoo, black magic references. However I feel for Bronte, she clearly has suffered in a similar cult albeit TM in her case, so it's OK for someone to react in such a fashion. But unless someone is able to be totally objective, free of self deception, it would be very hard to effectively rail, rally against someone. Here's where Gail certainly got my attention. I read through her recent message on Ex-Amma and *I can't detect any self-deception, any fear, insecurity or anxiety that stands out in Gail's post. In fact her message is totally devoid of any bitterness, malice - it seems very plainly, simply stated*. My objections to Gurus so far had been based on entirely different reasons, at least I still have love for Amma, how could I not, when I have spent 16 years around her. But I have always stood aside, I only got involved with this cult because of a person I was in relationship with. I never ever depended on her for any spiritual advice nor did I fantasize her as divine mother. But till 2009 I was always immature, not yet ready to articulate myself, ready to stand up, but always was true to my core inner values. I always ignored outrageous, illogical, absurd things - what is her autobiography but 16th century hocus-pocus, even at the age of 24 it perplexed me - anyway I ignored all this outrageous garbage as harmless, innocent, necessary deception and never lost my love my Amma, I certainly haven't now. This is a sense of obligation, humility, gratitude I feel for a place that has caused my own spiritual evolution. As Gail so simply and plainly stated, the statement that I totally agree with - is that any love you feel for her is merely a projection of your own love. Certainly there is the atmosphere, the vibe, the group energy that spontaneously causes this love to appear, but who is responsible for this love I feel compassion for her, that *she chooses to deceive herself as divine mother and not ready to admit that she is a created, vulnerable being like each one of us*. She has to face the mystery, the vulnerability of death. She could have just claimed herself as enlightened and this message would have never been sent. I definitely feel she was enlightened or could still be but she is seriously deluded. A few years back I read the statement on how she said that the sole purpose of spirituality is to help others - now this is just blatantly false. I had never heard her utter this lie in such a dramatic fashion or perhaps this was selling point of Embracing the world, but it would seem more appropriate for an enterprise named - *"Taking the world for a ride"*. This just seemed to be a statement to attract naive, gullible westerns to be unpaid labor for her enterprise, considering in light of Gail damning evidence of funds being routed to her own family. Of course - one hand I have justified to myself in the past that she was indulging in harmless deception, so she could get devotees to be more committed to spirituality in-spite of the fact that serving the people would have nothing necessarily to do with the inner journey. I remember an incident when I was staying at Amritapuri. I was invited on false pretenses in 2006 or 2007, that Amma was thankful for our service and she invites us to a private music practice - ostensibly to make us feel special. What I heard inside shocked me - I was not invited for any special acknowledgement, Amma's words were translated - she needed money, a loan for Amrita TV. That they needed to fight the Christian influence in Kerala - to say it shocked me would be an understatement. Needless to say - I didn't bite the bullet. Why would a spiritual organization have anything to do religion, buying media to fight religious battles - it was an anathema to my secular beliefs. *In fact it was an insult to Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma - let me not even use these words since they have been so thoroughly maligned by these Gurus, Hindu nationalists. For me the religion of India is about the celebration of the individual, the honoring of the individual.* *She is a disgrace to Indian spirituality and my inherited American values*- have you read any Indian scripture where humans were worshiped as Divine Mothers? Hinduism is very metaphorical and apt to be abused for gullible audiences. And I have always disliked Devi Bhavas - it is just a time for mass hysteria - though I have always loved the music and still do. This is not to say that there aren't intelligent people around Amma, they probably strive to avoid dissonance. Anyway I would like to end here since I realize this could be too long for many and if there are further discussions I can help articulate myself better in short, concise posts. Love, Ravi.
