In his original post WhistleBlower defines “Original Sin” in Art of Living as follows:

What is this Original Sin? Simply put, it is attributing the student’s healing, spiritual experience or insight, gained through some spiritual practice or knowledge, to the guru, in this case Ravi Shankar. This happens in AOL, right from the word go & continues throughout & it gets hammered into conscious & subconscious of the students by so many subtle & not-so-subtle ways & means.

As an interesting sidenote, if you re-read the article you will note that WhistleBlower predicted “By the end of this year [2010] Sri Sri has to think of more effective damage control measures than his two current counter-blogs or sending threatening legal letters to those whom he suspects are the authors of artoflivingfree blog”. Lo and behold, barely had the New Year started when Google and Automattic (owners of WordPress) were served with subpoena’s demanding that they reveal the identities of a number of key contributors to these blogs.

Another interesting thing mentioned in WhistleBlower’s post is that those who unwittingly fall victim to Guruji’s Grace become completely blind to all the wrong-doings in the organization and will in fact exonerate the guru from these happenings. Since that post was written, we have seen so many Art of Living devotees on this blog who even though they have admitted they are aware of some of the wrong-doings going on in Art of Living, find it almost impossible to believe that SSRS is responsible for them. So intense is the power of this mechanism for enslaving people.

In this post, I’d like to cite a number of examples which I feel go a long way towards debunking “Guruji’s Grace” and verifying what WhistleBlower wrote about it previously. In a future post I will go into detail into some of the psychological techniques which Art of Living employs to make people believe in Guruji’s Grace.

Long Kriya
Anyone who attends a Basic Course and asks if they can take the tape or a copy home with them is inevitably told that the tape won’t work for them, that it will just be silent or contain static, or some variation of what we now know is a complete lie told to participants who want to take the tape away. This lie is part of bigger lie surrounding the Kriya tape, and that is that the tape will only work when a teacher is present to conduct the session.

We know this is a lie because many of us have tried listening to the Kriya tape with no teacher present and can verify that the effects are exactly the same. But Art of Living followers are led to believe that those who undergo TTC become channels for “Guruji’s Grace” to flow through, and that it is Guruji’s Grace which is responsible for any positive effects received during Kriya. As a sidenote, shouldn’t Guruji’s Grace also be responsible for any negative effects received during Kriya???

So, if no teacher is present, how can the Kriya tape possibly produce the same effects as if a teacher was present? How does “Guruji’s Grace” make its way to the participant? Furthermore, what about the short kriya? This is done in the privacy of one’s own home, usually by oneself. Again, how does Guruji’s Grace come to the home practitioner? If they happen to live with a teacher then I can understand it, but for the majority who don’t, there doesn’t seem to be any way.

From this we can conclude that the effects of practicing Kriya, both positive and negative, have nothing whatsoever to do with Guruji’s Grace, but are entirely due to the technique. The lies told are simply to enslave people to the tape, the organization and ultimately to SSRS.

Reviving the dead, but unable to prevent accidents?
There have been various rumours that SSRS had once brought back someone from the dead. The following was posted on esatsang last year and provides a good example of this:

Date: 7 February 2011 22:03
Subject: Guruji’s Grace

When we are all in bliss still trying to come out of 30th Jan 11. I wish to share the news as how Guruji’s grace has flown and we have seen a Miracle during Naadhavaibhavam. While I am writing this I am getting goose pimple all thru my body.

One of our Pillars of Nanganallur Centre, Mr K M Subramanian, (Facilitator-Nanganallur) affectionately called as KMS mama was brought back from the jaws of death. We all have been working in the Musicians Volunteers team for nearly 1 month at his residence. He works like an 18 year old boy with full of enthusiasm.He has been an inspiring figure for all of us.

on 16th Jan Sunday KMS had some pain in his Left shoulder and left hand. But he ignored it considering the work load. More over he had similar muscular pain few months back. He got treated and came out of that. Probably that has made him to think that it may be due to physical strain. He used some balm and other methods to reduce the pain,

The next day (17th) morning as usual he was on Nadhavaibhavam duty though the pain did not subside. He went to handover the donor pass to one of the devotees place .Came back and  did his regular Pooja at home and after having Brunch he went to the nearby Sri Chakra Hospital for check up. He took his wife Smt Gomathy along with him in his own Scooter. Smt Meenakshi another Seva warrior of Nanganallur Centre helped him to get the emergency  appointment with the doctor. ECG was taken and doctor did  not see anything unusual . But within a few minutes, in the hospital itself KMS mama collapsed.He had a massive Heart attack. Immediately he was taken to the ICU and started the treatment. Few minutes later the Doctor (Dr.Satyanarayana) called up Mrs Meenakshi  to tell her that Mr Subramaniam is no more. But she said a person who  does Guruji’s work tirelessly cannot leave and requested the doctor to do everything possible to bring  him back .The doctors have put in their best efforts to revive his heart pumping again. This is when Guruji’s grace was seen by everybody. The doctors have started giving us a ray of hope. Every hour passed by he has started responding to medicines.Though his heart started functioning,the doctors had put him on Ventilator and termed his condition as critical . Only after 24 hours anything can be decided they said. By this time the news reached all the volunteers and we all surrendered to Guruji and prayed for his speedy recovery. Guruji answered our prayers. Guruji says YOU DO MY WORK AND I DO YOURS. Even today the doctor says its a Miracle that he survived. Thank You Guruji Its all because of you.

It was a set back but with KMS Mama’s Inspiration and Guruji’s Grace ,Tambaram Zone had done fairly a good Job during Naadhavaibhavam.

The Cruel fact is that KMS Mama lost his both the sons few years back. We the Volunteers in Nanganallur are all his sons and daughters.  When we say that our eyes become wet. Its true we are one world Family. Dear KMS Mama and Gomathy Mami. You are not alone we are there with you.

JAI GURU DEV.
N.MANIKANDAN

The following story, taken from artoflivinglifestories website also bears mentioning here:

Sanja Kordić, Croatia
International Art Of Living Teacher, Croatia

I am an international full time teacher from Croatia. In April last year, I had a terrible car accident in Bulgaria. I was injured very much. Art of Living people from Bulgaria found the best hospital for me, came every day to see me in numbers that was problem for the staff in the hospital, bringing me everything what I needed.

From the very beginning of this story, from the accident, I had a very strong awareness of Guruji’s presence all around me. He phoned me twice in the hospital and helped me so much. Also at least more than 10 young Art of Living Bulgarians gave their blood for my operation. A girl from Art of Living Macedonia, came daily from Macedonia to take care of me, and after 15 days came Snježana. Art of Living full time volunteer from Croatia and continued to take daily care until the end of my stay there. I’ve got so many cards, SMSes, from satsang groups all over Europe.

Love Beyond Anything I Knew
After coming home, I was completely immobile and I live alone. So, Art of Living Croatians had a list where they put their names to cover me 24 hours a day. I had full care from them and it wasn’t just bringing me a tea, remember, I was immobile, I couldn’t do anything for myself, even toilet or washing. Still I wonder how they could do this. It was love beyond anything I knew. They gave me so much love, care, attention, service, that for all doctors, my recovering was a miracle. After one year, I started to walk. Ayurvedic doctor recommended 28 massages, 14 Marmas and 14 Abhyangas, you know how expensive that is. Then one couple, both Art of Living teachers from Slovenia took me to their house and during 3 weeks they gave me massages and special Ayurvedic treatments just for seva. After that, I could walk without crutches.

The security and feeling of being protected
I was twice in Art of Living International Center Bangalore to see Guruji. Every time I’ve got the best accommodation and nobody ever asked me for any money. Now, everybody treats me as a miracle. I’m walking, I still have some problems with my body, but Art of Living family saved my soul. From the very beginning of this story,from the accident, I had a very strong awareness of Guruji’s presence all around me. He phoned me twice in the hospital, but I don’t mean just that. It was just a feeling of being protected and security that I’ll have place in his life whatever happened. However this ends, he will give me the meaning of life, include me in spreading of the knowledge. My body was suffering, I was in pain, but my soul was very relaxed. This is the secret of my recovering.

For a year and a half, I was not able to work, but they, the Art of Living Foundation pays me regularly. God bless them all, my gratefulness is unlimited.

I fell so very grateful to Guruji. It is just a feeling of being protected and the security that I’ll have place in his life whatever happens.

One thing that pains me when reading Sanja’s account is that although she acknowledges that so many people gave of their time to look after her and to be with her when she needed it the most, she is strongly hinting that it is because they are Art of Living people, and she gives the impression that ultimately it is all because of SSRS and his purported grace that these people helped her. Otherwise why would this story even have appeared on the Art of Living Life Stories blog? This again is just another example of how the mechanism of Guruji’s Grace is employed to make people feel indebtedness to SSRS by attributing all the good things in their life to him.

Now, going back to the first story above, those who were present clearly believed that Guruji’s Grace was responsible for bringing back the gentleman mentioned from the dead. Likewise, so too did those who saw fit to publish the account in esatsang. And this is what they would rather believe than any other explanation, for instance that it was the doctor’s which brought him back to life or that they might have been wrong in the first place. No, they would much rather believe what they have been conditioned to believe from their time in Art of Living, that those who work hard for Guruji are somehow protected by his grace, and that nothing short of a miracle took place.

Ok, but let’s look at the second account.

Sanja tells us that she was in a terrible road accident, that she couldn’t walk at all, and that “From the very beginning […] I had a very strong awareness of Guruji’s presence all around me. ” Indeed she also tells us “It was just a feeling of being protected and security that I’ll have place in his life whatever happened. ”

Although she doesn’t refer to it by the same name, Sanja here is beyond any doubt talkiing about what we are referring to as Guruji’s Grace here. So the first question is, when she says “From the very beginning [...]“, when exactly does “the beginning” refer to? This is absolutely crucial here. At what point did Sanja begin to feel Guruji’s Grace? If she has been with Art of Living for over 10 years and has obviously worked tirelessly given that she is a full time teacher, then surely she must have felt this grace ongoing throughout her experience? And so, surely then, she would have felt the grace prior to the accident happening? If this is indeed the case and that Guruji’s Grace is so omnipresent and powerful, how on earth was it that Sanja wasn’t protected by Guruji’s Grace when she had the accident? In other words, why was Sanja involved in a car accident at all?

On the one hand, we have a story of Guruji’s Grace being able to revive someone from the clutches of death, whereas on the other hand this same grace was not able to save poor Sanja from being involved in a terrible car accident.

If Guruji’s Grace were real, then surely Sanja would have been saved from this terrible accident which left her incapacitated for over a year? But it didn’t. Which begs the question, outside of devotees’ heads, is there really such a thing as Guruji’s Grace?

You decide.

Harshal,

AOLite needs to ask following questions to themselves.

1. When all of us are decalring him as our strong Guru in public (Including Social Networking Sites), Why Guruji is not declaring the name of his guru once in a public ?
2. If my Guru is God, Do we really need to pay anything to learn from him in advance ?
3. If all the teachers are pure and working for Humanity why do they not organizing the course even though the targets are not met.
4. Why they are always ready for the fund raising events or marketing propoganda and why not for doing course with few participants.
5. Do we really need to pay anything for doing Volunteering work ?
6. We are the only one who are responsible for seva having new no. of courses to attract the people ?
7. Do we really need to ask foreigners to pay more money for all this courses e.g. TTC for Indian is 10,000 and for Foreigners 5000 US $ – Is it spirituality ? Do we seriously working for Humanity.
8. Do you really think all other courses except basic one is really needs to be so costly ?
9. If we are on a path on Moksha and Purity , dont you think so we should be transparent in all financial aspects of organization with all employees and teachers and volunteers ?
10. Why do we need to start the project which are only for fund raising ? Sumeru Reality and Sri Sri university ?

Its enough for now i think. Wake up guys. Don’t allow them to control your mind in any matter. If you think you donate or doing seva for the Courses and have magic then your mind becomes more and more weak and you start loosing your confidence.

This practices are only useful when Human Mind is unhappy or in stress.

Do you allow someone to earn from your unhappiness or stress ?

Wake Up Sid.

JGd

Since two days I have been reading the messages on this blog and I figured out who the sad swami being referred to is (by cross-referencing the other blogs). I found this blog after I realised I have been a victim of some kind of “mind control” in AOL. As instructed by AOL teachers, I have been regularly doing kriya for past 3 years and since 1 year I have noticed I am spending money from my wallet freely for AOL courses, publications, trips for events in different countries as if I am a controlled robot…

Doc and others on this blog, with your vast exp, could you please let me know how my mind can be freely controlled like this by AOL? Is it pre-planned and executed? I can clearly see that every 6 months my mind wakes up and again it goes into zombie state…how can I break this cycle? I don’t mind if I get nasty replies from the likes of Harshals’, I don’t care as they are doing their job…allocated to them. God bless them.

Recently my brain suddenly woke up again when I met a senior teacher who is also a board member in my country who pushed himself into my house (on pretext of volunteer meeting), and later forced my family to go for a unplanned dinner with him (fortunately he paid his share) and started speaking as if he is controlling my life…and saying things like Ravi is the present day Lord Sri Krishna and we are all Radhas (of Krishna) so we are attracted to him…blah blah blah…thank God he spoke to me like that so I know his true colours now (or maybe he is a controlled robot by now, and he doesn’t know that). Suddenly it flashed me that I was pulled into it for “stress free life by a simple breathing technique” and now I am listening to all this crap of present day Sri Krishna etc. I am sure if it were a different faith teacher, he would have said “present day Allah”, “present day Jesus” etc. I wonder if they teach their teachers to say these things but fortunately I didn’t fall in that trap.

You are doing a great service to humanity by exposing the true face of AOL. Please continue to do so. I will closely follow the posts and will be glad to help if and when required.

Hello Everybody..

I never thought I wud be writing on this site but finally I am writing.

I am not that much associated with AOL but recently I attended Part II with Rishi NP in Dec 2011. Earlier I did Part I in 2009 and DSN in 2010. But I never got carried away by any teachers. But Rishi NP being a very charming person, very good Satsung Singer, I got carried away by him. I had decided that I will remain unmarried, leave my career, go to Ashram and do Seva full time (in just 4 days of the course time).

After the course I went through various sites just to get additional info about RS, Rishi NP & AOL. Then I came across this site. Earlier I cudnt believe it that AOL is like this and decided not to go thru this site. After around one week I went thru some of the blogs from this site and KLIM’s site out of curiosity. Then I felt that something must be wrong in AOL.

All I can say is that because of my GOD’s grace (not Guru’s grace) I was not that involved the way some were involved for 5-10 years. I am lucky that I was involved just for 3-4 weeks and not for long time. But I am feeling the same pain as when one is being cheated. I believed that Rishi NP was very Good and I had lots of respect for him. He had changed me a lot in the course. Also during the course I felt great. During his Satsung I felt a different kind of energy in me. I had even planned for a big amount for Donation to Ashram. But Thank God!! I am saved because of this site.

I dont know what to do now…I am totally confused. I cant believe that Rishi NP is fraud. He is such a devotional singer I still listen to his Bhajans and feel good. However I dont enjoy doing Padma Sadhana, Kriya, Sahaj Samadhi anymore as I keep thinking of AOL (as Fraud) all the time…

I had told my family members great things about AOL and now I cant say these bad things to them. Also I know some of the acquaintances who want to join AOL for seva. I want to tell them about such happenings. Should I tell them?? or Should I wait for them to realise??

I am totally confused. Please help me out to forget this RS, AOL and Rishi NP.

Dear all,

I am an Indian citizen, having involved in few Humanitarian/spiritual/volunteer based organizations in India, my kind request to fellow brothers and sisters from different part of the world as below.

Keep an eye on organizations or the so called spiritual masters, Guru’s …etc from India, their organizations are basically called NGO, Volunteer based, Humanitarian, Spiritual, Foundations, charity..etc and also has association in Europe, US and most of other countries .

More than 80% of the people in the world are emotionally week, such organizations are targeting these kind of people.

You may take all that good things they show and teach, well that is what we should do, yet without allowing them to take control of you or your life.

Culture and values are good as long as it promotes human values, having freedom to care and serve others without any indentation behind it.

Below are business approach characters of these organizations to evaluate before you decide to involve or spend time, money and energy.

1. Is the organization promoted by showing the strength of the organization, we have xx billion members..xxx service..etc – Pure hypocrisy
2. Is there a culture which is forcing everyone to follow – Be aware of sugar coated poison
3. Is this in the hand of one or two person who rules, say Guru, Master, Yogi, founder, President.- Easy to say it is masters wish to get the job done.
4. Are there enough proof declares that good amount of money collected has been spend for service/charity – Please ensure to see a valid third party audited report available.
5. Are they collecting money in the name of charity, in that case are they clearly mentioning the projects the money is going to be or spend for- make sure before you pay.
6. Are there many products they have so that they can slowly force you to buy or promote- They start with Basic or the first part of it, then the list grows.
7. Is there a transparency of money been collected and spend – Hide and seek is general policy of cult organizations
8. Does this organization has more assets, like collage, Institutes, Agriculture..etc- These are the holistic ways to spend the collected money to develop the business
9. Do they have more focus on celebrities, politicians and business people of the society – To get more Media and marketing support to sell the product rather than serve the product
10. Are they boosting the ego of volunteering to get the things done (Divide and rule) – Political approach to get the things done from members
11. Are they giving the members enough freedom to express their views – Bureaucracy
12. Are they respecting the members/volunteers or forcing to serve the organization by interested people – Making members to work like donkeys in the name of service/humanity.
13. Is this organization directly or indirectly involved in politics in the name of conflict resolution….etc – Getting Political power to support
14. Does freedom to serve society /humanity exist to members or been asked to do only on behalf of this organization or Guru..etc.- Don’t want others to grow
15. Are these organizations focusing on adding more members – Basically called getting more Milking cow to generate regular income by selling their products
16. Does this organization in any manner claim that their founder/Guru/Master is rebirth of Jesus, Krishna..etc – an emotional blackmailing
17. Is these organization spending more money on Marketing, say Media, Big events..etc – To boost the profile

Master our Mind and learn the organization of our life, let us not give our Mind to Masters to organize their life!

My intention of writing this post is to educate people who are interested in investing with Sumeru Realty, to think before their hard earned money is invested in this venture.(though I wouldn’t recommend it at all)

The Realty Company launched by RS is purely to build flats for the benefits of his devotees, but their prices were so exclusive (High) that only his NRI devotees could be fooled with those rates, a commoner would never buy the flats knowing the rates. The rates on Kanakapura Road, (15kms inside) were nowhere near 3000/sft , but it was Sumeru realty who were the first to price so high.

However, after all the large amounts of money collected by them, they have not even delivered the project in time.

I booked a flat with them in the year 2008 and have paid almost 80% of the money, now the building is still to be completed. The promised dates have all been continuously skipped, and not a single schedule has been maintained so far, and now they say they ‘ll be handing it over by July 2012, which also does not seem to be happening form the information I get and the way in which the work is in progress. It would be a miracle if the project finishes by 2013 Navaratri!! Now I can’t even take back my money and book else where as I would lose large sums of money (thanks to the strange contract they fooled us in to signing as, we customers have no benefit and all the benefits go only to them) . MAKE US PAY, DELAY WORK, AND USE RS’S NAME TO GET AWAY!!. Wonderful scheme to loot people!

The next best thing is that, Sumeru Realty claims that the building is vastu compliant, but the land has the poorest vastu I have ever seen, and several of the apartments have nothing called vastu at all in it. The vastu story is all but a pack of lies and a selling gimmick used by Digvijay (CEO) who himself dosen’t know the difference between plastering and painting. He is all talk and No Work. And RS keeps on encouraging people to invest in such projects.

On digging deeper, I got to know recently that this Project is a “LEARN AS YOU BUILD PROJECT” handled by inexperienced people like Digvijay and his PS Ruchika and a few other Ashramites who aren’t professionals at all. People like us who are investing our hard earned money, for their learning are the only major losers. Delay the project and play double money with our money. BRILLIANT SCHEME!!.

They terminated their contract with Aluwalia Contractors, who were working in the project, and then for months the site was dead. On questioning about this, there is no clear reply from Sumeru. After months of repeated mails and follow-ups, the Sumeru marketing gives us the next finishing date, which is also not met. The people who are handling this project are totally incompetent and are unable to answer any of our queries. I even hear that all the staff of Sumeru has left them due to unethical practices. Starting form irregularities in sanctions and delays in decisions to improper handling of project and funds, to extreme irregularities, the project is yet to see the light of the day.

He also briefly mentioned an alternative to SK for those who continue to leave comments on the blog asking for a copy of the Kriya MP3. To this day, we still receive many such comments, so it would seem that a great many people still want to practice the technique though without having to attend the group sessions.

For some time, I’ve been meaning to look into this alternative technique but I never really got round to it. As it happens, a good friend of mine who left Art of Living not long after I did recently got in touch with me and told me they had discovered the very same technique and encouraged me to check it out. So I did, and here’s what I discovered.

The technique, which is known as Eiriu Eolas (herein abbreviated to EE), can be found an the site http://eiriu-eolas.org/about/. I discovered that there are an amazing number of similarities between EE and SK, and also some key differences.

Like SK, EE also involves a 3-stage preparatory breathing exercise which is almost identical to SK’s 3-stage pranayamas with one key difference: instead of ujjayi breathing, it utilizes what is known as pipe breathing. After this, there is something known as Warrior’s Breath, which is their version of bhastrika. And finally comes the breathing exercise and meditation which they call beatha (pronounced “ba-hah”), or bio-energetic, breathing. Yes, the similarities between EE and SK are indeed striking!

In the title of this post I have asserted that EE is both better and safer than SK, so I think it is only reasonable that I take the time to justify these.

Better
There are a number of immediately obvious advantages that EE has over SK.

Firstly, the technique is completely FREE to try out, with everything you need to do it available on the above website (the online version can actually be found at http://eiriu-eolas.org/online-version/) There are two videos, one which contains an overview of the technique, including purported benefits as well as a scientific explanation as to how the technique works. For those who want to get straight to the technique, I would at the very least recommend you watch the Pipe Breathing segment of this video and the Practice segment which follows. The second video contains an audio commentary for the whole exercise, which includes the 3-stage breathing, Warrior’s Breath and beatha breathing and mediation. The whole thing lasts a little over an hour.

Since the technique is available online, this means that it is accessible to anyone and everyone who wants to try it, without needing to pay any money to the organization behind it. If you do find the technique useful, you can optionally donate some money to the organization, or buy a DVD/CD set for 40 Euros so you can have your own copy. Remember, the donation is optional and not a “compulsary donation” as it is with AoL.

It also means that anyone who wishes to practice the technique can do so in the comfort of their own homes without having to travel to and from a local center in order to do so. For many who practice SK this will usually involve a money as well as time saving.

It also means that no one need continue their association with the organization who is making this technique available, and in fact no association is required at all. On the video the presenter makes absolutely no attempt to try to entice people into her organization using the technique.

Another advantage is that the overall time taken to practice EE is shorter than SK, 1 hour compared to 1.5 hours for the latter. There is no need to practice it daily every morning (which is another huge time saving) as it is recommended to do it only twice a week.

But most interestingly of all, the technique works without anything which vaguely resembles the “magical thinking” which surrounds SK. It is presented as a “revival of an ancient breathing technique”, and not something which was revealed to the person who developed it from “the divine”. Although I understand that one can become a teacher of the technique, there is no mention or belief that they somehow become channels, “instruments of the Divine”, or any of the other BS which revolves around SK and SSRS. The effects the technique produces are completely independent of who is present.

This is actually one of the biggest advantages that EE has over SK. The organization behind EE are not trying to enslave people in the same way as AoL is clearly doing through SK. They haven’t even tried to patent or copyright any aspect of the technique. And in fact, the fact that EE works in the way it does without any magical mumbo jumbo is further evidence that there is nothing magical about SK, that any effects which participants feel as a result of practising SK are purely down to the breathing alone and nothing else.

Safer
To assert that one breathing technique is safer than another may seem to be a purely subjective statement to make, however it is not one I have made without good reason.

Possibily the most common criticism against SK which is made across these blogs is that the fast breathing cycle is little more than hyperventilation. This is supported by the fact that many of the symptoms of SK do indeed match those produced by hyperventilation. What makes EE any different then?

Well, if any of you take the time to watch the overview of the technique on the first video explaining the physiology of EE, you will note that the presenter actually mentions hyperventilation and specifically states that the faster of the three breathing cycles which are part of the bio-energetic breathing is not hyperventilation, although it is faster than normal breathing.

However, the presenter goes on to mention that if you feel any discomfort whatsoever during the fast breathing cycle then you can simply skip it and just do the other cycles. This is another key aspect of EE which makes it safer that SK, since AoL teachers do not teach this in the courses at all.

It is difficult to determine just from listening to the recording whether the fast cycle does actually classify as hyperventilation or not, however what we can do is to compare the breathing cycles of EE against those of SK and try to objectively determine how the two compare against each other.

The SK tape lasts for 60 minutes, the first 30 minutes being the SK breathing itself, the last 30 minutes being mostly silence followed by SSRS’s voice giving instructions to come out of SK. As everyone who is familiar with SK already knows, the breathing portion of the kriya tape consists of a number of successive rounds of long, medium and short breath cycles. The duration of each of these is detailed in the following table, together with the actual breaths/minute for each cycle:

() – numbers in brackets indicate an estimated breath count when the instruction is to breath at your own rhythm, based on the current rhythm at the time of the instruction
*1 – own rhythm halfway through, but if you listen to the tape you will clearly hear a person hyperventilating in the foreground
*2 – own rhythm from 20:47-21:29
*3 – including “MMM” sound
*4 – own rhythm from 29:16-29:35

UPDATE (19/12/2011): certain values which were original posted have been redacted as a precautionary measure.

The EE recording also lasts 60 minutes, however only 17 minutes of that is dedicated to the bio-energetic or beatha breathing (which is equivalent to SK). It too consists of long, medium and short breathing cycles, and the durations of each of these together with the corresponding breaths/minute are detailed in the following table:

Remaining 26 minutes until end of recording:
- one deep breath
- lie down, a few rounds of pipe breathing
- meditation on “Prayer of the Soul” seed.

By comparing these two tables, a number of things are immediately obvious. Firstly, that the short cycles of EE are are at much lower respiratory rates (breaths/minute) than SK. In actual fact, they are about equivalent to the medium cycles in SK.

Secondly, EE is repeated for only 3 rounds, and lasts for 17 minutes, whereas SK takes 8 rounds and lasts for 30 minutes.

Over the 8 rounds of SK, the short cycle varies between 63 and 132 breaths/minute, each cycle lasting between 30 seconds and a little over a minute. For EE it lasts 49 seconds each round and only 36.7 breaths/minute, a little over half that of SK.

We know that breathing faster than normal causes CO2 to be expelled from the body at a higher rate than during normal breathing. And we also know that if too much CO2 is expelled from the body without anything in place to re-address this imbalance, then this increases the chances of experiencing the various symptoms of hyperventilation (e.g. claw hands / pins and needles, light-headedness).

Now, since the body can re-balance this loss of CO2 during the long cycles, a quick glance at our two tables shows us that with SK the long cycles last on average 30 seconds – 1 minute, whereas with EE they each last 3:27, though the rates are at least comparable. This tells us that during EE the body has more time to rebalance any CO2 levels which were expelled during the short cycle than during SK.

So with EE, we have shorter short cycles at much lower respiratory rates and much longer long cycles at slightly lower rates to SK. And EE lasts a little over half as long as SK. This is sufficient to conclude that EE is a considerably safer technique than SK.

It is also interesting to note that the breath counts for EE remain constant at 30 for each cycle and across each round, whereas during SK they vary greatly. It almost makes you wonder if with SK they are just made up by SSRS each time without any real consideration as to what he is doing.

And it can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that the short cycles in SK reach alarmingly high breathing rates which are clearly hyperventilation. And looking at these figures it now seems obvious why Art of Living have done everything in their power to keep the tape a closely guarded secret: because if it were ever made public, it would only be a matter of time before someone examined the tape in the same manner as I have done above and come to the same conclusions.

I cannot say for sure if EE is 100% safe, and although the majority of the criticisms made in these blogs against kriya do not apply to EE, the same precautions we have advised over and over again should still be considered if you decide to practise EE.

I have a strong feeling that Harshal is actually Bawa. Same arrogance, same stupidity, same nonsense. Even if not, they both are ‘enlightened’ idiots and brainwashed people who have nothing better to do in life than loot peoples money along with their gang leader.

BTW Harshal / Bawa – a few days back I received a text msg from one of your types to come for “Nadi Pariksha” organised at the devotees home. I never responded. He then called me up and I politely told him that I will not be able to make it. The next day he called me again and I told him clearly that I will not be able to make it. He then asked me to call up my friends to see if they can make it as quite a few slots were vacant !!

Why don’t you guys stand on the road with a begging bowl in hand. Alternatively, as we were told by your enlightened zombie teachers during the basic and advanced courses that Guruji calls the person for the course when the timing is right. So why not use the Guru power to call people for all the great courses that AOL has to offer rather than harassing people by calling them up and sending unwanted text messages. Afterall he has so much power – he can stop rains, he can send text messages to devotees in remote places where there is no signal, he provides battery power to mobiles in case of emergencies, he has sent people to Iraq for charity work without VISA and the devotees have reached there successfully…….the list of miracles performed by Guruji goes on and on. I bow to his highness but I still do not believe in this idiot as I do not want salvation after this life. I love this world and want to be reincarnated again and again till I have learnt my lessons on my own. Why trouble the fake Guru to take away my bad Karma knowing fully well that he will not take away my Karma but only my money.

In fact sometimes I wonder why AOL had to file a case against the owners of this website. HHSSRS would definitely know who the criminals are considering the clout that he enjoys with the heavens. But then realization dawned on me. All those who write against AOL over here were at one time associated with AOL and thus the GURU is protecting them. So all the AOL haters / criminals bow down to this great fake master. So what if he wants to make money. He is protecting all of us and all that he is asking for is protection money.

Editor’s note: This was left as a comment some time ago now, but I felt it deserved its own post because it highlights a key issue which Art of Living has been heavily criticized for and one which really brings out the cult-like nature of the organization.

According to the Vedas, those who follow the teachings are specifically encouraged NOT to try to preach and convert others into followers, but rather to follow the wisdom and work on their own lives, and in so doing they will help to make the world a better place. This is what Gandhi meant when he said “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

This begs the question, why are AoL followers encouraged to do the opposite of what the Vedas say? If Sri Sri really was a true Hindu as he claims to be, shouldn’t he actually follow these simplest of teachings, encouraging his followers to actually work on themselves spiritually rather than instructing them to go out and essentially force his teachings on others by trying to recruit them into his organization? Especially if, as is mentioned in the post, SSRS himself will call the student when the timing is right? Isn’t this further evidence that the whole thing is a complete sham?

Sadly I have a feeling that these will become rhetorical questions, because I am fairly convinced that no one in AoL will come forward and even attempt to answer them. But it is something which definitely needs to be highlighted as another way in which the tenets of Hinduism are abused (in this case completely opposed) to forward SSRS’ agenda.

I have always wondered how so many existing AOL devotees come to this site…and still do nothing about their lives.

So, for those of you reading this article….here below is some reasoning as to why you may be just staying put and not able to take any corrective action.

Read on

The reason you haven’t helped yourself, regardless of how many different ways you may phrase it in your own mind, is simply because you’ve been ‘conditioned’ not to….and this ‘conditioning’ has a name…Its called Coercive Persuasion.

A Coercive Persuasion programme is a behavioral change process applied to cause the ‘learning’ and ‘adoption’ of a set of behaviors or an ‘ideology’ under certain conditions.

The essential conditions necessary for a Coercive Persuasion programme to succeed is ‘immorality,’ ‘fear’ and ‘control.’The purpose of a Coercive Persuasion programme is to control a society by making it believe that the needs of the state, or society at large, outweigh the needs of the individual.

The spreading of a Coercive Persuasion programme throughout a society is based on utilizing the education system (read AOL courses, follow ups, tapes, books and so on). A Coercive Persuasion programme is specifically designed to destroy individuality in order to supplant it with the ‘mind set’ of the state…whoever its ruler may be.

Just revisit history — The occupied British Colonies all over the world lived under a Coercive Persuasion programme which saw their socities ‘controlled’ by a monarch and this system was beset upon by an ‘immoral’ set of laws designed to strip indigenous people from the every ounce of human dignity, and lived in constant ‘fear’ should they dare go against the brutal forces set to fall upon them at the slightest sign of discontent.

AOL only feels like a peaceful ashram. But look at the pressures of performance that your favourite AOL teacher is under. Is this not similar to the British raj collecting taxes. Wake up guys and smell it !!!!

The first recognized formal uprising against Coercive Persuasion ended On July 4, 1776. The American colonists became the first people in modern history to strike out against Coercive Persuasion programmes and in their Declaration of Independence simply, and eloquently, stated: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The power of these words were such that within 50 years the power of the European monarchies were all but destroyed, and within 100 years our human race was propelled to heights of advancement never before experienced in thousands of years….and all because of one powerful idea…”the individual mattered more than the state (for AOL-ites read real estate ?…pun intended)”.

It’s a different matter that the past 100 years, however, have showed the reemergence of these ‘state powers,’ all across the world, and made even worse by the fact the United States FORGOT its original founding Principle and has been leading the charge to, once again, destroy individuality for the ‘benefit’ of society at large.

In order to accomplish their destruction of individuality through the use of Coercive Persuasion they will destroy their mortal enemy…Critical Thinking. Critical Thinking includes a complex combination of skills. Among the main characteristics are the following:

Rationality- We are thinking critically when we rely on reason rather than emotion, require evidence, ignore no known evidence, and follow evidence where it leads, and are concerned more with finding the best explanation than being right analyzing apparent confusion and asking questions.

Self-awareness- We are thinking critically when we weigh the influences of motives and bias, and recognize our own assumptions, prejudices, biases, or point of view.

Honesty- We are thinking critically when we recognize emotional impulses, selfish motives, nefarious purposes, or other modes of self-deception.

Open-mindedness- We are thinking critically when we evaluate all reasonable inferences, consider a variety of possible viewpoints, or perspectives, remain open to alternative interpretations, accept a new explanation, model, or paradigm because it explains the evidence better, is simpler, or has fewer inconsistencies or covers more data, accept new priorities in response to a reevaluation of the evidence or reassessment of our real interests, and do not reject unpopular views out of hand.

Discipline – We are thinking critically when we are precise, meticulous, comprehensive, and exhaustive, resist manipulation and irrational appeals, and avoid snap judgments.

Judgment – We are thinking critically when we recognize the relevance and/or merit of alternative assumptions and perspectives recognize the extent and weight of evidence.

In sum,
Critical thinkers are by nature skeptical. They approach texts with the same skepticism and suspicion as they approach spoken remarks. Critical thinkers are active, not passive. They ask questions and analyze. They consciously apply tactics and strategies to uncover meaning or assure their understanding. Critical thinkers do not take an egotistical view of the world.

They are open to new ideas and perspectives. They are willing to challenge their beliefs and investigate competing evidence.

Critical thinking enables us to recognize a wide range of subjective analyses of otherwise objective data, and to evaluate how well each analysis might meet our needs. Facts may be facts, but how we interpret them may vary.

By contrast,

Passive, non-critical thinkers take a simplistic view of the world. They see things in black and white, as either-or, rather than recognizing a variety of possible understanding. They see questions as yes or no with no subtleties.

They fail to see linkages and complexities.

They fail to recognize related elements.

Non-critical thinkers take an egotistical view of the world. They take their facts as the only relevant ones.

They take their own perspective as the only sensible one. They take their goal as the only valid one.

Do you really think that collective needs be met when individual needs are sacrificed ? Devising a system when both are addressed is creative.

How does it work when AOL teachers get poorer and the AOL organization gets richer ? How does it work when AOL teacher’s pay tax and the AOL organization does not ?
How does it work when most of the day your are thinking AOL and he thinks about you only when you are physically next to him (that’s 2 minutes a year during an advance course which you paid for).

Common guys take a call….its your LIFE

What you have to decide right now is what kind of world you want to live, or have your children and grandchildren grow up in…one controlled by Coercive Persuasion, or one where Critical Thinking determines the fate of mankind.

If you believe that you aren’t part of this battle then you are indeed very disconnected from what is happening to you. On the other hand….if this message has hit some resonance within you. You can start right now…..just disengage. It is that easy.

Forget the ethics, principles and values. You are the whole and soul and master of a large business. You made friends in high places that helped you acquire prime government real estate at throw away prices / terms to run your so called educational trusts. In the process many documents and deeds had to be signed. These are hidden and secret at the present time but then nothing can also be undone about some of these. Fortunately or unfortunately, when the government is not very well computerised, the documents are lying all over the place in different places (Village records, sub-urban development offices, Land registrar, lawyer’s office, volunteer’s homes, and so on). There could be clear trails (or lack there of)…both of which are damaging if and when they come out.

Thieves in arms. Is Yeddy is innocent of any corruption…..no one has a doubt on this. Now when Yeddy visits SriSri as below

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_hurt-bs-yeddyurappa-seeks-sri-sri-ravishankars-healing-touch_1573231

What do you think issued as a conversation. Were they alone or were all the hang outs also there ? Do you think their discussion was around the following

a.  The present moment is inevitable ?

b.  Accept situations and people as they are ?

c.  Don’t be a football….

d.  Forget politics Yeddy, look at me, its enlightenment that is important, remember ?

Now the man takes the movement in his own direction. Another link to substantiate the above book launch bit.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/IAC-founder-Sri-Sri-says-asked-for-BJP-s-help-on-Jan-Lokpal/857582/

You are not in a position to allow your dear fellow brother in crime to suffer. Because then he may talk. He may be sued in a criminal court. He may then cough up and expose everything that has happened before.

SriSri tactics will follow some basic guidelines. They are

1. Create uncertainty and doubt (this he does with everybody……). The Master is unpredictable.

2. Go where some more publicity can be had (read free advertising)

3. Create masterful diversions so the real issue is lost in a spaghetti island. He is now telling all AOL BW devotees not to support the Anna Hazare movement because too many right wing elements have been let in. Ha Ha….who let them in ?

4. Vindictive, it is my guess that Arvind, Anna and co figured out the devious man. They all used each other at launch time. Over the course of the next 6 months up to the time of the recentDelhievents it became clear who and what SriSri is. Afterall Anna and Co are not wet behind the ears. So they masterfully eased SriSri out. The indication was clear when SriSri was the only one to appear for a team Anna meeting. Arvind and Bhushan abstained from the meeting proclaiming that there was too much media presence. Then later on the same day, on TV SriSri himself proclaimed to the media that team Anna will be represented by Arvind and Co, and that his job as mediator is over and he is heading back. (Read to lick his wounds). Who gave him that job description ?. Who authorized him to represent team Anna. These are all self proclaimed statements of  a devious mind. He has access to media and he gets a statement out first. He will even furnishes data that cannot be validated and his BW devotees will get creative about spinning the stories to justify the Master’s statement. You need to exercise your thinking a little….if you can that is. Here are some egs

1.  We had 2.5 Million people come for Silver Jubilee (http://srisriravishankar.org/cultural-events). Pl go to google earth. Check out Jakkur airfield’s dimensions. The perimeter at its maximum best will be 2.65 km. The usable area needs to be calculated after minus-ing  parking, stalls, toilets, stage, perimeter fencing, any other vacant unused areas. So length available for SJ function would have AT BEST been 650 m x  350 m. Area is 227,500 Sq m. Assuming it was packed FULLY with only people. 1 Sq m per person (thats seriously cramping it) on an average.That’s 2.3 Lakhs people (Max). It was the same set of people that came on all 3 days. So SriSri simply multiplied this by a factor of 10 and claimed 2.5 Million people.

2.  May 2010 – The Assassin tried to kill me. I know it was an attempt on my life. Oh!!, it was a farmer who was shooting at dogs. Which version do you believe ?…when there so many interesting ones ? (http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/one-question-im-dying-to-ask-sri-sri-ravishankar/ ). Common Dear Godman since when did Dogmen start hitting on you ?

3.  AOL has adopted 25,000 villages (http://www.lifepositive.com/Spirit/Compassion/Havens_of_Engaged_Spirituality102005.asp ). Anybody seen at least 250 fully adopted village or even 25, or even 1 ? Any idea what it would cost to adopt a village. Lets say 1 Rupee per person per day for a 1000 people village (thats the Indian average). Thats 30 million rupees every day now since the year 200x ?.

4. We love the environment. We will plant a billion trees. (http://www.missiongreenearthpune.org/ ). If each tree costs at least Rs 10 (20 US Cents say at that time) that is a cool US$ 200 million and then the costs of planting each tree will be at least another Rs 10 (actually much more since its a very dis-organised distributed volunteer setup and not at all mechanized). Thats 400 MillionUS$.  The cost of maintaining these trees over their life time. Each of the Billion trees will need at least US$ 1 worth of water every month ? No ? Thats a recurring US$ 12 Billion every year from the AOL treasury. WOW !!!! Whatever happened to this stuff.

And there are tons of such examples.

The poor average AOL devotee is fed stories after stories after stories and they still do not see it coming ???.

When a man can fib about all this. What else could he be lying about ? Anyone within the AOL camp knows that these numbers originate from him and him alone. When he can lie about trivial things….and furnish such BS numbers……what else is he BS-ing about.

There is only one clear conclusion that one can arrive after all this….in he AOL parlance, becoming a good zombie is an important step towards becoming enlightened.

Hmmmm…..When-lightened of your wealth, your family and friends, your self esteem, and your brains……. there would be just one thing left…you become an honorary member of the un-enlightenned club. But you will need to reserve your seats in advance…..we already have a waiting list of a 30,000 villages (About 30 million people), 2.5 million people from 2006. So even if  we take a 1000 members every working  day that is going to take us the NEXT 100 years to do. We hope you got the cue….otherwise its going to be a one long queue…..