No knowledge is worth your freedom!
I still have my SK tape, gathering dust somewhere. Since leaving the organization I have not used it nor have had any urge to use it.
Some of the other ex-teachers I know have destroyed their tapes, one by jumping up and down on it, another one by flushing it down the toilet and another one by burning it and another one by simply putting it in rubbish bin and so on. I am happy to report that they are all well and happy and have not experienced any misfortune as a result. As far as I am concerned that tape was their property and most had paid in excess of few thousand dollars to get that tape (not to mention few years of slavery to SriSri) and most have earned SriSri hundreds of thousands of dollars/rupees from that tape!! There are now thousands of AOL teachers who have left the organization, but SriSri has never dared to ask for their tapes back. He, of all people, should know what a useless thing that tape is!
For me, my SK tape, is a symbol, a reminder of my enslavement to SriSri. After all, it was due to my SK experience and wanting to get that tape that I became an AOL teacher. I enquired about buying one at the end of my first course, but I was told it was only for AOL teachers and for the group practise. Now I know why!!
I loved my SK experience and it led me to my enslavement to SriSri, the path of enslavement all cleverly designed by SriSri (read my earlier post on “original Sin in AOL”). I became a teacher so that I can share SK with others. It was the solution to every ill in this world as I was brainwashed by SriSri/AOL!! So what a contrast with my feelings about that tape now. I hate it, I hate SriSri’s voice and I wouldn’t want to taint my being, my breath with SriSri or his voice. Now that I truly know him, he disgusts me no end. Anyone who uses spirituality to ensnare people to a cult to make himself rich and famous and powerful is the lowest of low, he doesn’t know any values or spirituality and has nothing to teach me. A thief who steals money donated for charity to buy more real estate for himself and his family has got nothing to offer to me or to anyone.
I can see through his fakeness. I wouldn’t want anything from this guy, even if he did have anything to offer, which he doesn’t! As it turned out, it was all lies, about SK coming to him after 10 days of silence, same with hollow empty process of the advanced course. Absolutely everything he taught us, for exorbitant fees, he has stolen from somewhere, repackaged it and claimed it had come through him.
No shame, no integrity. Even the “So, Hum” he uses in SK tape, has been used , and still is being used, in many spiritual paths in India for a long long time ( for example Kriya yoga path now led by Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati). “So” being the sound of inhalation, ”Hum” the sound of exhalation. Only a shameless thief like SriSri would try to copyright it and claim it was his gift to humanity. Many spiritual paths in India, have breathing or meditative processes including SO-HUM and variation of Hollow and Empty processes. Except that the ones I know, they teach these processes to the seekers and encourage them to use it as often as they wish.
Only SriSri, driven by greed, puts these on a tape, creates an illusion about it and traps people. The hollow & empty one is only used at adv courses, for which each individual has to pay few hundred dollars for each course and students are encouraged to repeat adv courses at least 4 times a year! The Sudarshan Kriya tape is used twice during the basic/part1 course and thereafter students are forced to go to weekly follow up sessions. What a masterpiece of cunningness to keep people trapped, so they can be sold more AOL courses and products and keep them trapped.
I do remember asking SriSri why not giving each part1 course participant a SK tape at the end of the course, so they keep practicing it on their own, as most were not able to come to follow up sessions or didn’t wish to. His reply was that if we did give it to them after a while they wouldn’t use it, so it is better if they come to follow up sessions so they stay in touch! Now I know the real reason, keeping people trapped to milk them again and again!
So it is with some sadness when I see in some comments in this blog some people so desperately want to get their hands on SK tape, not to mention those who will spend thousand of dollars to go to TTC to get that tape.
I want to tell these people that no knowledge, no practice, no path is worth your freedom, your dignity, your integrity, especially a fake, fraudulent one like AOL. I want to tell them that SK and AOL will only bring them misery and no spiritual growth, that sooner or later they will all realize that the whole thing is a scam. I want to tell them to follow other genuine spiritual paths that do not involve their enslavement.
But I do realize that for some people they have become addicted to SK, and as a result of continuous brainwashing by SriSri/AOL, they think they “need” it for their health or spiritual growth. Even though some have woken up to the fact that SriSri is a fraud, but they still crave for SK tape.
Having been there myself, I do understand their dilemma and I pray for their freedom from these false notions. I cannot give my SK tape to anyone, not because I am worried about the legal threats (AOL would have a very hard time to prove SK is original, nor it is the kind of publicity they seek!), but because I do not wish anyone ever get involved or trapped or even tainted by this evil, false guru and his fraud organization.
So I did some research to help those trapped speedy freedom from SriSri/AOL jaws. I came across this website, http://eiriu-eolas.org/about/ that has a complete yoga, breathing practice complete with Pranayamas and connected breathing which is far superior to AOL. It has 2 videos that explain everything. For those already familiar with Pranayama and connected breathing they can learn it straightaway. Then they can listen to the guided meditation tape (connected breathing) which has no hyperventilation and is quite safe.
The owner has all of this free on her website and encourages people to share it with others. If, having practiced the audio tape on the website, you would like to order your own personal DVDs and CD, you can get a complete package for 40 Euros. And then you can play your own CD as often as you wish. There is no pre-requisite, no dogma and no attempt to bind you to any person or any organization. You don’t have to go anywhere to do it, nor you have to sell your soul for some spiritual practise.
So by all means free yourself from AOL clutches. You are nothing but permanent cash cows to SriSri. Free yourself and free others. To all AOL teachers out there who are still helping SriSri to deceive people I would say: “If you have genuinely been teaching AOL courses to help people, believing in the power of breath, here is a breathing practice free of dogma, which doesn’t entail spiritual enslavement to a false guru. Stop teaching AOL courses. Even those knowledge points don’t belong to SriSri and are stolen from elsewhere. If you still want to teach, teach independently. You can teach for free or you can charge. You can keep the money or you can give to a genuine charity. Free yourself from AOL/SriSri and stop entangling others to this evil man and evil organization.”
Trackbacks
Comments are closed.
Beyond The Art of Living 
aolwhistleblower gives a convincing reasons to free yourselves out of RS/AOL clutches, especially this can help push people over the fence.
“The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage – Thucydides”
Unless you have courage to free yourself, there is no one can do it for you.
aolwhistleblower – unlike your previous posts, this post is ridiculous really. i think you must be truly traumatized and intellectually impaired to endorse and promote Eiriu Eolas now. Is the plump curly haired red headed plagerizing bimbo (Laura Knight-Jadczyk) your new guru and idol now? You are insulting people who left AOL because of the way the orgaization was being run by pointing them to a program that is itself a poor and shameful plagiarism of the AOL course, which in all honesty, most of us really loved and enjoyed for its substance and the experiences. You say “So I did some research to help those trapped speedy freedom from SriSri/AOL jaws. I came across this website, http://eiriu-eolas.org/about/ that has a complete yoga, breathing practice complete with Pranayamas and connected breathing which is far superior to AOL.” That is simply dumb! How can a B-grade, unimaginative imitation of AOL techniques(by a dishonest fat red-headed lady)be superior to AOL techniques? How can a dishonest and lame imitation ever be superior to that which it imitates? While the power resides in the breath itself, why are you espousing and promoting in this post/blog Eiriu Eolas which is nothing but a few select components lifted straight from the AOL course and cloaked in a faux “Gaelic” aura? Even the sequence of the warm up yoga exercises is the same! The fat lady is stealing ancient India’s patrimony and calling it “Gaelic” now! Pathetic. The least she can do is say that its based on the AOL course because that’s what it is!!! – An undisguised appropriation of the AOL techniques, including the format and sequence. Only the OM is missing. I’m sure the fat lady must be an ex-AOL teacher or devotee who split off and packaged the AOL yoga techniques using a different nomenclature and made it “Gaelic”. She is entitled to be a businesswoman and has the freedom to repackage and sell whatever she fancies, but I object to cultural theft of national patrimony. This blog should not be promoting that. What pisses me is not that the fat lady is so brazen as to so systematically plagiarize the AOL course contents in such a dumb and uncreative manner but that she then calls it Gaelic, insulting the Irish people well as Indians. These are Indian/Hindu practices, whether you call it ujjai or pipe breath or whether you call Soham BAA HAA or BOO HOO. It is especially disappointing that you are espousing and promoting the very same kind of dishonesty that you blame AOL for. I am pissed with how AOL has been run for the past few years and by AOL’s insatiable thirst for money. But how can one wrong be made right by supporting another wrong. Promoting the rehashed “Gaelic” yoga package by the thieving fat ex-AOL red-head as an alternative is not okay. Please make sure you do not get carried away in your anger and reserve this blog for its real purpose – spicy, unprejudiced and meaningful whistleblowing.
Princess,
I have to agree with you on some of this: It does seem that some people in the west have some aversion to anything that has come from India, once they’ve been beaten up by a false Indian guru like SSRS. It sours them. Whistleblower’s extreme hatred statements show just how much damage SSRS did to him/her. It’s really a shame. But you are right that AOL and SSRS being bogus and money grubbing scams doesn’t mean that all of Indian tradition/yoga/meditation/pranayama should be bastardized and turned into a new age-ie mess like the link that’s posted here for Gaelic whatever breathing. There is a deep science in Sanskrit. When it’s translated into any other language, the power of the sound is actually gone. Sanskrit is not owned by India. It happens to be found mostly in India. Yoga happens to have come out of India. It is not owned by India. Why can’t western people honor the origins of these things, and simply take them as their own without trying to change them into something they are not? (Irish, American, etc.) Have you ever seen an Indian person trying desparately to look, sound, act like a Western person? It can be very funny, even ridiculous. But when the same person simply adopts what they find useful from the West, whether it should be dress or technology, and take it as their own, it stops being imitation. They say “I’ll wear western dress today” They don’t say “this was invented in India”… There is no reason, in my opinion, that even a severely damaged ex-AOL person can not eventually, with some help, rise above the hatred that can arise from their negative experience, and again see the science and wonder of what has been given from India. It’s sad that Ravi Shankar has spoiled so many innocent minds and made them so angry this way that they are now closed to very beautiful, helpful things. I pray that Whistleblower and all like him/her will recover fully from the shabby treatment received at the hands of Ravi Shankar, et al, and move into a lovely higher sphere that doesn’t need to negate the basis of the teachings. Hatred is not productive. It harms everyone, even the one doing the hating. It’s necessary, I think, to expose all the wrongdoings of Art of Living. Sometimes it feels pointless, but someone on this site said if even one person is saved from it…. So maybe it’s not a waste of time to post.
Anonymous–thank you. Here’s my view: It’s not about Indian versus Western, or about cultural aversions or affinities. Yoga is a Hindu religious practice, although the wisdom it contains is of universal value. It will remain so even if the entire world adops/adapts it, even if it becomes universal. Similarly, Sanskrit is not “owned” by India, but it is India’s cultural patrimony, even if present day “secular” India does not value it enough. America invented the automobile, and today all countries make their own cars. That is adaptation. They do not claim that they invented the automobile. If however a country (China has done it in the past with aircraft for example) steals the technology for a particular model and makes an identical car, and then claims it to be their invention, it would be akin to plagiarism, not adaptation. That is all I’m trying to say. In Hindi there’s a saying: “Nakal ke liye bhi akal chahiye hoti hai” (One needs brains even to be a good copy-cat, a good imitator). I’m all for adaptation but I’m against plagiarism. Nothing is ever “owned” by anyone, but plagiarism is still plagiarism. Everybody is free to take, to gain understanding from, and to use whatever is available, but it should not turn into plagiarism, into open theft. The “Gaelic” woman has simply lifted the material straight from the AOL course (of all places), and she’s calling it Gaelic ancestral breathing. Such a joke. And to endorse her school of plagiarism while vilifying the AOL techniques is an even bigger joke. It makes me wonder if whistleblower has any brains left at all at the end of the day. I can understand if he/she wants to damage AOL’s credibility (the corrupt organization does deserve a big kick in the ass) but attacking the breathing practices per se makes no sense. In my view, despite the corruption, greed and the tons of aggressive, brainwashed, shallow, unpleasant, and fake people in AOL, these ancient techniques and the knowledge should not be vilified. Let’s keep the two separate. And let those who believe that this knowledge and these techniques are ancient yoga and universal teach them to everyone without charging an arm and a leg, and equally importantly without distorting them into impoverished “Gaelic” forms or whatever else, instead of saying the techniques are bad.
@Pissed Princess: May be you are right that Laura Knight-Jadczyk’s techniques are inferior to SK. So, it is fine if you criticize it on merits. However, criticizing her techniques because Laura is ‘fat’ – is in poor taste. Please read your post again. You seem to be more pissed about Laura being plump and fat and red haired etc. etc. than any substantive reasons. Why can’t you accept people as they are?
Oops… I meant petite actually, not fat. It should read: Laura is petite.
(Hope that makes you feel better, Shastry)
Have any of you recently participated in a long kriya session with the new tape.
I did last year and was surprised by the changes made. Suddenly the Guru’s voice was no where to be heard. No clear guidelines such as “ don’t force the breath, relax the body, or keep going, don’t fall a sleep”.
Is the guru’s guidance not important anymore, is his grace which is transmitted through the tape not needed to guide the devotees safely to the door of infinity and back. Hmm to the door of infinity can someone explain that one.
The rhythms also changed substantially. I forget weren’t the rhythms so important, that only the Guru knew them and new the exact rhythms (combinations) to guide the devotees.
Of course I asked a senior teacher this question, the answer I got was since times have changed the rhythms on the new tape have changed as well it is a dynamic wholeness. When I pressed harder I was told I could not comprehend totality, thus would not be able to understand it. You keep doing your practice I was told.
What a great way to blow people off and make them feel stupid. Lets get real.
The holy enlightened master cognized the Sudrashan Kriya after coming out of silence (a mere 10 days). This is the propaganda used. This so called master is said to know both the past and the future and everything in between.
How come that suddenly in remaking the tape the rhythms all changed, should he not be able to make a near perfect retake, being that HE is so elevated and enlightened.
Again answer is obvious, the master is a charlatan (is a person practising quakery or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money) in disguise.
The little giant has a waken.
Did they trade mark (copy right or whatever) the new SK as improvement over the last one? You might see AOL ad soon for “New and improved SK”.
I totally agree with Ronin, as I also had a chance to experience new SK once. It is very different from the previous version. It’s structure is not clear, while the first version was based on the alternation of three cycles with definite number of counts. I also asked the same questions about these changes and the answers were very much: “We cannot understand enlightened. Just do it.” Third version is, probably, coming soon. Movie and guru businesses are very similar now-a-days.
@ Pissed Princess
Your messages express so much indignation and unconcealed contempt towards the “dishonest Gaelic woman, who “has simply lifted the material straight from the AOL course”. Why don’t you feel the same anger towards RS, who also lifted his practices from other places? Having been trained in both Sahaj Samadhi and TM, I can confirm that the former is direct lift from the latter. Is it OK for an Indian disciple to steal from his guru? Is his being Indian makes his theft approved of? How about a big group of Indian gurus selling their national spiritual heritage for fame and money? I am asking these questions, because there is so much Indian spiritual superiority and arrogance in your message. Let me open something for you: Spirit has no nationality, and uneducated farmer from Africa can be much more spiritual than Indian swami.
I learned the Sudarshan Kriya with Ravi Shankar standing in the room saying “so ham” and clapping his hands. There was no tape. The tape came a little later, and was actually a tape of one of those live sessions. They were all a bit different from each other (who knows why or how). And that first tape was different from what was given later, and now, it seems that has changed too. I never really put too much weight on any of it as he also taught me to lead the SK, if electricity went off and the tape couldn’t work if batteries were gone, by chanting the number of circles “so ham” and clapping, just as he did. So who knows? I really don’t think it matters. The breathing technique itself, if done properly, is very good. But the emphasis on rigidity that has crept into AOL over time, with all this mysterious what-not is ridiculous. He was never absolutely precise in any of it in the past. Why all this precision now?
Svetana–Your own indignation and projections are very telling… Are you a fat, dishonest “Gaelic” frump yourself, or are you just a sympathiser?
In my two year association with AOL, I have noticed that Long Kriya tapes are different in some cases. I have observed two versions in 7-8 teachers. I don’t about any New version because I have not participated since a year.
aolwhistleblower,
I like the guru-free scientific stress-release breathing technique that you are proposing. The DVDs and other learning materials seem pretty costly to me. Would it be possible for you to upload this videos in some online website and allow us to download the same.
This new organization is not after money and is not in business of conducting classes and exploiting people. So they would not mind people making copies of the DVD and distributing them.
Eindran — It’s a typical ploy used by every new enterprise. FREE in the beginning to get people hooked, and then they will jack up the price and add more products to sell. Disgruntled or former Aolites are a choice target demographic for the backers of the chubby “Gaelic” laydee, that’s why it’s being promoted here, so innocently…
“The lady who has made these videos and the audio available is sharing something she used to practice herself way before AOL and she is now sharing it for free with others” — how touching!!!
Hi Eindran,
The two videos which explain everything and demonstrate the practices are on the same webpage, accessible to everyone and FREE. Similarly the audio meditation (connected breathing) is on the same page, you can click on it & do it for free on line as many times as you wish and share it with others too. The lady who has made these videos and the audio available is sharing something she used to practice herself way before AOL and she is now sharing it for free with others.
Only if you want your own DVD (2) and the audio CD then you need to order them and the cost is around 40 Euros. Not even a fraction of the cost of the basic course in Europe! And it is your own tape and you can listen to it as many times as you want or lend it to your friends.
You are not required to go to weekly cult meetings to be brainwashed to cult ways and teachings.
Any experience you have from these practices are yours and no one will use your experience to enslave you and make it that you owe your life to SriSri.
The fact of the matter is that our breath is ours and we can practice anything we wish and the experiences are ours too. Breath has amazing powers and this was known to ancient Christian mystics, to Sufis and other Islamic mystics, to many spiritual paths in India and many other countries and different religions. In recent times, many Psychological schools have been using breath in treating patients suffering from anxiety and a range of other health issues. And well before AOL, westerners have been aware of the power of breath through rebirthing and many Christian based spiritual paths and also many non-religious paths. Many health care givers have taught their patients to use breath for pain management and dealing with a host of health issues.
The power of breath has been known to common man of any nationality and is evident in expressions such as “calm down, take a deep breath.”
AOL and any other organization that use people’s experiences, from any technique, to enslave them and brainwash them to worship a false guru and fleece them continually, need to be avoided like a plague. In case of AOL there is no original teachings either, every bit is stolen from somewhere. SriSri is a deceitful man who tried to claim these techniques was revealed to him personally and came up with a perfect cult setting to make himself powerful. Well truth is out, none of his teachings is his and he is a dangeous conman.
“The lady who has made these videos and the audio available is sharing something she used to practice herself way before AOL and she is now sharing it for free with others.”
What exactly do you mean by “before AOL?” Do you mean to say she was breathing this way before she found the Art of Living? Or do you mean she was doing this even before AoL came into existence? If it’s the second one, the fat “Gaelic” lady’s waited a darned long time before sharing her pseudo-pranayams ‘n kriya with other suckers. Maybe she was waiting till the time whistleblower would be born and discover her method?
Can you post the details of the Hollow and Empty meditations. Let’s bust this mystique as well.
Yogeshwari,
In the first hollow and empty courses, years back, a “danda” or stick was issued by “Sri Sri” to each participant, who went, knelt in front of him in the class, and he would give them the “appropriate” danda with a mark on it that corresponded to a particular chakra. For example, if the mark was at the level of your solar plexus, that determined how you were to practice “hollow and empty” while he was speaking the instructions to the group. The participants were also told that the danda was holy, and should not be taken into the bathroom, but that we should sleep with it by our sides in the bed at the retreat. During the sessions, SSRS would have the participants following the breath back and forth, according to the point on their danda (for example, from the naval to the crown of the head if your stick was marked at the naval). The assignment of the mark was done by your birthday, btw, your month and day of birth without the year. During several of the sessions, he would say “worship the danda!” with great passion and force in his voice. He made it quite clear that he was inside the danda — inside of each stick, and we should worship him/the stick. That “secret practice” was abandoned fairly quickly. When distributing the dandas, he would touch each stick to his forhead, as if transmitting energy to it. In the practice, one was supposed to project their energy out to the stick, follow it up and down the stick as prescribed, then bring the attention back to the body, bringing the attention back into the body. A few people claimed they could not understand how to do this. After a short period of time, hollow and empty was always done without a stick (unless ‘danda’ practice was revived in later years, who knows?)
That’s all I know about hollow and empty
Dear Yogeshwari,
In order to get continuous revenues from adv/part2 course participants SriSri had his hollow and empty technique(again not his own and another stolen practice) recorded on different tapes to be played only during adv courses. The members were then encouraged to do as many adv courses as possible so that they can listen to these tapes. They were told there is no need for them to do hollow and empty outside the adv course! This whole thing was to create dependency on a tape with SriSri’ voice and ensure regular income for him. It was not geared toward the individual’s spiritual growth.
Hollow and empty is just a variation of paying attention to different Chakras. I recommend “kriya Yoga” (Swami Niranjanananda, Bihar School of Yoga, Munger, India) for genuine teachings in this regard.
Not only they teach you how to do the different variation of this technique (one includes SO-HUM too) on your own, without the tape, they actually encourage you to practice them daily. They have detailed instructions in their books too.
What a contrast to AOL, covering everything in a shroud of secrecy (SriSri says this is necessary to keep it Juicy!!), creating dependency on a tape/course/guru and using it to fleece the unsuspecting spiritual seekers.
I am sure apart from Bihar school of Yoga, which has branches in most countries, there are other spiritual paths, who teach similar practices. Perhaps our readers can offer more suggestions in this regard.
Yeah have recently learned Kriya Yoga its a lot like doing Hollow and Empty, actually Hollow and Empty is like doing Kriya Yoga.
One can learn kriya yoga on this site for free http://www.kriyayoga.com