I’m being sued by a religious cult.
I’m being sued by a religious cult.
I’m being sued by a religious cult that I used to be a member of, because they want to stop me and other ex-members from revealing their dirty secrets on this blog.
I, together with a handful of other ex-members, have been blogging about our experiences with being in and leaving The Art of Living, a spiritual organization founded in the 1980s by the Indian guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
On paper, The Art of Living offers courses in yoga, meditation and breathing techniques and performs humanitarian work in the third world. In reality, we believe they are more like a religious cult.
I used to be a teacher in the Art of Living so I know many of the secrets they would prefer to hide. These include:
- The organization says it does humanitarian work, but it’s mostly focused on making money.
- People working for the organization are being paid next to nothing while the guru flies all over the world on business class and stays in the biggest suites in the most expensive hotels.
- They keep claiming that Ravi Shankar has supernatural powers, including healing the sick and seeing the future.
- They claim that the breathing techniques they teach can cure diseases like HIV/AIDS.
- All critical thinking about the AoL is described as a sign of weakness or lack of faith in the guru and is actively discouraged.
Most of the contributors to this blog are ex-members or even former employees in The Art of living. Now that we have left, we think more people should know what is really going on behind the curtains. We write anonymously, and we allow our readers to comment anonymously. We have also made some internal Art of Living documents available here, to help expose the difference between how the organization portrays itself and what it’s really like.
Since the blog started in May 2010, it’s had a stunning quarter million page views. What is even more astounding is the amount of comments: 4000 comments to about 100 posts. That is an average of 40 comments per post!
From the start, we have had a policy of free debate and open speech. We do not just want to put our view forward, we want people to make up their own minds about the Art of Living. That is why we link to pro-AOL sites, as well as con-AOL sites. That is why we publish every comment, even the ones from pro-AOL’ers (and there are lots, believe me) thrashing us for critizicing their guru.
Now they’re trying to sue us, to make us stop. In fact, they have a history of this kind of behavior.
- They previously tried to force Wordpress to stop hosting our blog – but WordPress fortunately turned them down.
- In another case, they circulated a letter viciously defaming people they suspected could be the bloggers. Fortunately, their guesses were wrong. That did not stop the organization from launching a smear campaign, calling several of them mentally ill and revealing details from their personal life and health histories that they had probably disclosed while being members.
In short, The Art of Living doesn’t deal well with dissent and with having their methods exposed. They have thousands of devoted members and almost unlimited funds and resources to hire lawyers – and a strong desire to stop us.
We’ve been using a gmail address to enable people to contact us and now the American chapter of The Art of Living has hired the law firm Kronenberger Burgoyne, LLP in San Francisco to use that to try and find out who we are. They have subpoenaed Google to reveal our identities, in order for them to prosecute us for defamation, copyright breaches and for revealing ”trade secrets”. We have until January 18th to quash this subpoena, otherwise Google will most likely tell them who’s behind the gmail address and our anonymity is lost.
If you sympathize with our cause, we could really use your help. Here’s what you can do:
- Please consider donating whatever amount you can spare to our legal defence fund.
- Pass on this story to more people – help us increase awareness.
- You could write a polite(!) email to The Art of Living, maybe the local chapter closest to you, telling them that they should accept dissent and criticism and respect free speech.
- Send us an email of support if you like what we do.
- Feel free to comment on any of the posts here.
And finally none of us are legal or free-speech experts. If you have any experience in this area or any advice to offer us, we would be most grateful. Send us an email at reklawyksekul@gmail.com.
All the best,
Skywalker
Comments are closed.
Beyond The Art of Living 
I guess the Northern California local media will be interested in knowing any law sue involved Google and the local community. Can somebody draft a press release of this incident and mail it to Kron4 News Tip Line?
Here below is Kron4 news’ tip line and email contact:
http://www.kron4.com/AboutUs/tabid/83/Default.aspx
KRON 4 offers you a number of ways to talk to us. By listening to you, we know we can help make our Bay Area communities even better places to live.
KRON 4
1001 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94109
E-Mail Address 4listens@kron4.com
Breaking News Tip Line (415) 561-8000
Main Switchboard (415) 441-4444
Viewer Questions & Comments Hotline (415) 561-8186
You’re being sued not because of the uncritical, immature vitriol you spew in this blog, but because of your posting of private teaching material. Take the private teaching material off and there is no basis for any lawsuit. Stop your posturing as some sort of a victim of AOL and SSRS. You have done this to yourself.
@Fishmanjoo / @Xiphobia / @tyuop / @Dr. Freud / @bouincepill,
Feel free to use as many aliases as you like but when you come on to this blog taking the stand you do, you represent Art of Living and SSRS. If you wish to be abusive, you are actually confirming much of what has been written in these blogs about AoL and its followers, so well done for helping us get our message out there.
You have shown not a shred of compassion or love in any of your posts, just hatred and abuse. Is this what following Art of Living and practicing Sudarshan Kriya for 25 years does to you? If so, I strongly recommend no one practices otherwise they may end up like you.
You might want to contact the ACLU – they are the great defenders of free speech and I am not sure they have done a cult case before – this could set an important precedent for all the cults that try to silence their detractors.
Got no money,
Then watch what you say honey!
Wanna talk about the injustices done to you,
Grow up and see AOL’s good work too.
But I forgot all you like to do is Boo Hoo Hoo!!
You guys really need a positive hobby. May I suggest pottery and when you’re done maybe painting the pots. You could sell them and get some money for your case and if they crack then you have your replicas…. crackpots!!!
Personally, if I were you, I would remove all the material that they are whining about, sincerely apologize and just move on with my life. I’m definitely not saying they are right.
Remember, you are the one that wanted to be part of a cult. You are the one that signed over all thought process to them because of some void in your life. Take responsibility for the fact
that you let them into your life. If you’ve changed your mind as to their value, so be it. Next time don’t be naive in giving up your personal belief and power to a cult.
They obviously have more money than you.
This is not worth the fight.
Your life is worth the fight.
@Jenna,
All materials they are whining about were removed a long time ago.
What exactly should we be apologizing for?
And not a single person here would have joined Art of Living had we known it was a cult from the outset. We were all reeled in by whatever means worked on us, and by the time we each of us realized that it was a cult, we left. We take full responsibility for everything we did.
What we’re doing here is warning others not to make the same mistakes we did.
“This is not worth the fight.
Your life is worth the fight.”
This blog was instrumental in me getting out of the straglehold of the art of living cult. I know many friends and relatives who have a better insight into AOL because of this blog. Not just AOL but many such con gurus and orgs. They can smell them from a mile now. Believe it or not from the place I come, this blog is quite a hit among the art of living group. They are able to see the con so easily and connect the dots. That’s the reason aol has come down so heavilty on this blog as it hits at their very bottom line by exposing their lies and false propoganda. In a way this blog has done this job and is a success. I even know a very senior aol teacher has changed his attitude, approach and stance on several things used to teach as a result of this blog. It has helped AOL a lot. Even if this blog closes down I am confident the information here will be accessible through several means. I even see this going viral. It has scuttled the aol zeitgeist enough
Instead of whining and being like ostriches, i suggest that AOL should include this blog as part of one of their courses. Basically to understand corruption and exploitation which happens so extensively. That’s the way of reformation and sustenance for AOL.
First they (AOL) ignore you, then they(AOL)ridicule you, then they (AOL) fight you, then you win.
– Mahatma Gandhi.
Exactly. If our life is worth it, isn’t someone else’s? This blog was the tipping point in saving my life and others. I cannot be grateful enough for the people here that have exposed some truth.
Here is an interesting quote I’ll leave you with.
“Praise may not be true, and sometimes criticism may be, but we still long for praise. Accept criticism as gleefully as praise.”
Guess who said this quote?
I love guessing games. 😉
Methinks it’s someone who needs a taste of their own medicine perhaps? Someone who one could argue is perhaps the central character in the complex web of deceit that this blog has been exposing for some time?
🙂
Guess jeans are really quite good! You should get them on sale however as they can be quite expensive! Lets not guess anymore, lets just take it for granted… The more you talk about something, the more it takes over your life! You eat sleep and breath Art of Living and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar… I think more so much so that you are obsessed! Obsession is not good for one’s life and will need to nothing but the incorporation of all the qualities one is constantly thinking of into one’s own life… i.e. you will become this! Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
It grieves me that these arguments are the price that must be paid to make people aware of the issues of AOL today. We all believe that there is brainwashing taking place and there definitely is. We walk a fine line when we choose to engage in meaningless banter all for the sake of getting our contempt across to the other blogger. The thing is, if there really are seva web warriors out there, and I am sure there are, they don’t take into account all the word of mouth going on with these dissenters as well.
You can’t gauge the effectiveness of this blog by the comments being written here. It is just harolds the anti-AOL movement has been started and as people are considering trying the Basic Course, people like the Doctor, or Peace Warrior, and myself are telling everyone we know what our real experiences were. Forget about this blog, no one from AOL is out there policing the comments made by those who have real experiences and we are the ones who are making the greatest impact.
I never realized SK could harm the brain so much. This is a revelation
“Obsession is not good for one’s life and will need to nothing but the incorporation of all the qualities one is constantly thinking of into one’s own life… i.e. you will become this! Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
If that is true, then you will become an ex-AOL person soon because you spend all your time spamming this board.
@ Dayalu – so much insight, so much depth in your words… such compassion! Actually I am just kidding, your moral fibre is probably that of tiny bacterium! Aho you may one day have a revelation of this too and then leave the comments to those with a brain and not those with a void or in your case a vacuum in the head! Suck it up baby!!!
@ Observe – what makes you think I am in AOL???! I just love your insightful observations! You are so observant! Do Sahaj and Kriya to improve this and then you might reach the vicinity of truth and reality! I don’t eat pork and SPAM truly disgusts me! It really shows me the poor level of your eating habits, might I suggest vegetarianism… easy digestion, better health and more moolah in the pockets!
We get it baby. Your words are so revealing. Keep it up. Your space-daddy will be so proud of you.
Obssesion is what happens in the lives of the people whom have suffered psicological abuse: raped people, people suffering any form of discrimination, people suffering forms of totalitarism or orthodoxy, and many many more damages. Cults also cause that kind of damage.
Is not that the people writing in this blog have nothing better to do with their lives: it will take them several years to get rid of the psicological damage they got while being inside aol. The typical victim of this type of organizations are innocent, trusting, easygoing people, people who doesn´t make too much fuzz when they are mistreated. They prefer to leave in silence. Only now some are having the guts to stand up and beware others. If aol is trying to suppress this space of free speach, do not forget that this is not about ventilating private aol stuff, this is a group of victims trying to help each other and warn others. If we are needing to legally defend from aol´s lawyers is because we were too nice and didn´t sue aol at the time of leaving, tired of suffering the abuse we had. During the Silver Jubilee I wanted to call my embassy to come and rescue me… paradoxly, all phones were broken. I was pennyless -had given all of my money to pay for the whole event-, so I was in several ways privated from my freedom. I had no choice but to play along with the whole mascarade and wait for the day marked in my flight ticket to finally leave.
Once back home, and as many of you, instead of placing an statemtent at an International Court going I just prefered to leave the whole traumatic experience behind me. I also tried to erase the trauma by moving on. But you now what? I still can´t, I´ve been under professional assistance to help myself out. For about five years I suffered from panick attacks, agoraphobia, inability to reinsert myself in the world, inability to return to the work that paid for my meals. I felt such a missfit in the world that I even thought of coming back to the organization since I was too “damaged” to reinsert myself in the world. Still today if I runed on some devotee they keep on inviting me back: they know how to manipulate exaolers, and RS knows that the best way to neutralize them is to get them back in the game.
Surely aolers and aol´s lawyers will attack us in the same way they try to weaken a raped woman -for example- by implying that she had it coming. But we didn´t! We were wanting to be part of a non-profit humanitarian, religion- free movement -or so that´s what they sold us-.
RS is moving in a much more clever way that Osho did -actually, he learned from Osho´s experience and set up Ashrams in Canada and Germany but not in the US-, because he knows many of his American devotees would turn him to the justice after suffering some of the abuse he puts everyone through.
@ Anonymous – Your direct honesty is refreshing even in negativity! I wish you the best on your journey to recovery from your traumatic experience! It is truly a weak mind that becomes prey to such circumstances! I know people who have moved on but don’t need to vent in such a way to deal with their emotions and my respect for them is still very much intact! You made a decision to join and the extent of your involvement in AOL was up to you… so why crib when things didn’t go your way???! Just move on and be happy, let others be happy and let the power of positivity drive your life forward. Whatever it is, I still wish you all the luck to come out of your low point and move on… Love can only attract but it is the mind that chooses to become obsessed, choose wisely! Many flaws have been portrayed in many masters from time immemorial but at the end what you take from each one is solely up to you. That which you take from them will multiply ten – fold in your life! So if you choose negativity then thats what you get! Take the positive and move on! Sri Sri Ravi Shankar did help you in many ways, see that bless him and bless yourself and I tell you – You will go very far in your life!! You can get into the grind again and you don’t need this for therapy! Try Yoga instruction if that was what you were good at! I am sure that something will come out of this for you!
@ Dayalu – You compassion justs bring tears to my eyes!! Oh kripalu maharaj! My dad is certainly not in space, but I do hear that Virgin flies people into to space for Rs.1 lakh or so in a nice space ship! And they feed you properly as well! Check online for details! Do let me know if you meet any of your aliens cousins there! E.T. go home!
“That which you take from them will multiply ten – fold in your life! So if you choose negativity then thats what you get! ”
lol, oh the irony….
@ observer 2 – May I suggest the philip steam irons. Great value for money!
so corrector says “”@ observer 2 – May I suggest the philip steam irons. Great value for money!” because observer 2 talks of “iron-y”???? This guy is straight out of cartoon network!!! For him irony equates to philip steam irons!!!??! corrector is underage, so he should be told to stick with Disney channel shows or participate in blogs especially designed for kids!! even a 2 year old will know the difference between irony and iron. No more digs at corrector…he;s a child ( like his guru- who never grew up). I shall let him be.
Oh, he’s a genius !
Lets nominate Corrector along with his Guru SSRS for the Nobel Prize!
He’s a weird one to figure out. One would think he’s just a troll, but then he’s obviously a big fan of AOL, and it’s clear this blog has hurt his feelings. And it’s clear that he’s Harshal or Harshal’s brother, based on similar spammish writing style. His posts are somewhat entertaining, but sadly at the expense of himself.
What’s also weird is that he tells everyone on here to “move on” from AOL, yet he never moves on from this blog. He claims what you put your attention on will grow, yet he constantly puts his attention on this blog. The real mystery is why he hangs around here insulting people with barely coherent sentences. What does he get out of this?
@ Anon – I clearly seem to have hit a nerve with you! The ridiculous and humorous nature of my comments are driven by geniuses like you. Anger is not good for the heart… Shift to Saffola it will help you. But now I won’t get a reply from you as you have Let Me Be… Are you John or Paul… Probably Ringo or his dingo!!!!
@ Bling Bling – Hitler was given the Nobel Peace prize so I think I shall pass on that one! You keep it! You need the trophy to add to your Bling!
@ I get great pleasure from it! And the only thing I would tell you to move on from is this whole Harshal thing!!! Does he really have a brother? Those who can’t laugh at themselves really don’t understand humour. I do have an agenda and its already working!!
@Corrector: You`ve got No Idea of howmany positive things I`ve choosen to harvest from such traumatic experience… I learned to detect when wolves are disguised as sheep, I detected a whole range of phsycotic patologies in their modus operandi, and many of the characters playing roles in order to manipulate the devotee`s emotions, guys like you included – playing outraged, insulting the people`s inteligence and their honest feelings, wishing us the worst, just for having had the nerve not to play “the silence of the lambs” anymore.
Is not negativity but acceptance of what happened what allowed me to move on. Before that I was paralized in shock refusing to see it… it was too hurtful. Now that I accepted it, and I`m out of it, what moves me to write is to manifest my suport the people that went through my same experience. Even by testifiying in court if necessary.
You say I`m whinning now because things didn`t turned as I expected But what I “expected” was a result of the false promises made by the institution and its representing teachers in order to get money out of me. As simple as that. RS and his people offer the opportunity to be part of a humanitarian non-profit/ religion-free organization in exchange of money, भगवान के लिए. Then they commercialize to their own profit several disciplines that belong to humanity for being ancient.
It is my universally legal right to claim for having been victim of a comercial scam, + phisically abduced for 30 days while submitted to psicological and physical abuses. The frost in the cake? People like you mocking. If until now nothing was ventilated was because we did not imagine we were so many, which speaks of your exponential capacity to do more harm in the future. And you mocking and hostilizing people is just fuel to the fire.
If you guys were so sure about “your” truth, why wasting your time battling? “Truth alone triumphs”, right? Relax, my friend! We will see how it goes, ठीक है?. Blessings.
@ anonymous – Boy you seem to be really angry and a bit unstable! I think the comments I made for you were out of compassion, but you really seem like you want to pick a fight. My sincere suggestion is that you grow up and move on! You are really choosing to be the victim and are getting stuck in this! I only post on this blog to add a new flavour, but you seem to be a wild fire heading in the wrong direction. And again why do you think I wanted to insult your feelings before, I am now but wasn’t then, it just shows great immaturity! Move On!!!
I even attended the Silver Jubilee celebrations in Bangalore and was fascinated by the Speech of Our then President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. He has given a nice speech regarding how to form an enlightened Society. Finally AOL guys could not even answer to the suggestions given by the president . They were just giving some silly answers saying that AOL is doing all that. That time itself I was doubtful about this organization and decided that they do not do the things as they preach .
@Doubtful Guy – Where is the president now? Why has he not started an NGO himself? Practicality and Preaching are two different things mate! The Art Of Living is the world’s largest Non – Governmental organization and it has touched more people’s lives than any other NGO. Wake up and see that! If so much work is happening across the world and it isn’t documented does not mean it isn’t happening. Many grateful people. volunteers and teachers have worked wonders on the ground just because they were inspired. If a few spokespeople don’t have the details, does it mean you simply discard all the work? No… Don’t crucify people when you don’t have all the facts. Judas!!!
“Where is the president now? Why has he not started an NGO himself? Practicality and Preaching are two different things mate!”
He may not have started an NGO but at least he has not cheated anyone.
Unlike your dirty water dispensing guru who has siphoned off devotee’s donations to his sister, brother-in-law and nephews.
@ Anon – Can someone not be a fan of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and yet not be his disciple? Is that alien to you all? Compare AOL to any other NGO and you will be shocked at the clarity of accounts here. It takes money t do good work! There is a pattern of work in AOL that may not be orthodox but it is effective. I personally don’t see how you can be so naive in thinking that all the money would be syphoned off to his family! Also about this syphoning thing and dirty water???? Are you an agent for aquaguard? I never really rated their RO systems… Kent always came out tops.. but I guess someone will make a stupid retort about Kent being pro AOL and them putting some brainwashing chemical into their system… cannot expect anything less from you guys! Anyway back to the water thing, judging by your avatar it seems you’re more of a urine therapy expert… don’t like the taste.. can make that out from your face. No asparagus or methi… or else that frown will never turn upside down. Cheers!!
dont forget what u have gained out of it ..both spiritual and health wise…we are sure u had this bitter experience just bcoz u tried tot misuse the knowledge that Guruji has passed on to u..Those who have experienced the benifits of yoga and pranayama exxercises will never turn against the Guru who has passed on this valuable information to them…only right person is blessed to get brahma jnana ,..not anyone who pass by the spiritual path.
You can learn Yoga and Vedanta from teachers who don’t insist on unconditional surrender. You don’t have to take all the extra heavy baggage filled with crap that comes along with the guru worship in your organization.
“we are sure u had this bitter experience just bcoz u tried tot misuse the knowledge that Guruji has passed on to u.”
How do you misuse the knowledge?! I feel most of us here actually walked the talk, before opting out. We are the ones who were misused and abused by the organisation.
we are sure u had this bitter experience just bcoz u tried tot misuse the knowledge that Guruji has passed on to u.
Very typical response. We are holier than thou and infallible, the fault is in your outlook, or that you are not pure enough. All attempts by AOL to shutdown and sue this blog are because of our bad karma. How about your consider the possibility that your guru may not be perfect, infallible omniscient god you think he is.
Those who have experienced the benifits of yoga and pranayama exxercises will never turn against the Guru who has passed on this valuable information to them
If I teach anyone yoga or pranayam or meditation, I don’t expect them to be beholden to me for life. Why does it have to be that way ? Just because someone taught me meditation and spiritual knowledge, they become infallible and above critique ?
only right person is blessed to get brahma jnana..not anyone who pass by the spiritual path
Clearly that person is you only – not being a sycophant of a guru automatically disqualifies us. I wonder what you think of this guy called U.G. Krishnamurti. He vehemently criticized many gurus, but was still a bhramagyani…just gives me some hope.
I wonder what you think of this guy called U.G. Krishnamurti.
Think? I am not supposed to pollute my mind with thoughts. Just seva, satsang and sadna is all i do. someone else does things like thinking, for me,
PW, did you mean UG Krishnamurti or J Krishnamurti?
As i went through the process of leaving AOL, i wasn’t that angry, but now i really am. Its the fact that we have all had a similar experience and have decided to speak up, because there was actually no avenue within AOL to actually speak out and be taken seriously. And here we are creating our own space to speak, to interact, and to decide how we want to move forward (with most seeking to make a change and ideally prevent others from spending unnecessary sums of money, and preventing abuse of any kind) and here we have AOL’ers who in the first instance would not even spend five minutes to listen to someone who was facing these thing, come here in our space and put people down.
Enough is enough!! My experience was horrendous by my terms. And i still feel harassed by AOl’ers who have no respect for my choice to leave and continue to spam me.
I am a seeker, i am not a doormat. I will continue on my path. The knowledge that was handed down to me, is no different from the knowledge that i can find in books. I am not here to hand over my religion and my culture to a organisation that is clearly not a “one world family” for i saw my religion ridiculed within the organisaiton. I am here to find my middle road, that will ensure that i continue to honor my responsibilities in the working world, with my relationships, and with my spiritual world.
I do not wish to be a part of anything that ridicules people and their experiences, dehumanizes people and their feelings, and i actually goddam OBJECT to AOLER’S coming on to this site, which has been created by some very brave, courageous people who have such empathy and understanding of the experiences, and have set up a means for people globally to heal.
I HAVE NOT GONE TO AN AOL SITE TO POST CRAP ABOUT THEIR VIEWS. I HAVE COME TO A SITE THAT CATERS FOR ME TO POST MY VIEWS AND TO INTERACT WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD SIMILAR EXPERIENCES – WHY ????
Because AOL could not spend Five minutes to just hear me. And when i spoke, they ridiculed my experience, they brushed it under the carpet. And they said Guruji will fix it. And i waited. And guruji did not fix it. I know of so many others who went through a similar experience to me. And were told the same thing _ GURUJI knows, Guruji will fix it.
He didn’t.
I do not know with what intention you joined AOLbut I joined to keep fit &healthy,both physically&mentally as well as spritually.I find absoutly no problem there.I joined in 2003 attended basic part 1&2,sahaj&dsn.never ran for punnya.I have seen 1000s of people running for guruji to touch him in airport,in Netaji Indoor Stdium,Kolkata&else where without considering he is a human being.I have seen teachers figting with each other for their own interest.But it is their own problem&they have to find their solution.I seen big business men & celebrities surrounding him because they have the financial strength.I have never felt lost because I had no other intention other than I mentioned above.I strongly feel my purpose has been served.
@Pradip:
If you remain at the fringes, things are generally OK. However don’t assume that if people are running to touch guruji or treating him as super human being, it is their fault. An image of a living deity is carefully orchestrated around SSRS with full support from him. If you haven’t fallen for it, good for you.
Good comment Sir….
congratulation to the chance to show the world the truth. every organisation which pretends religios guidelines and acts untruthful to them should be exposed.